in order to strengthen your partner. You presume that he leads from his strong suit, and wants to get the winning cards of it out of his way; you, therefore, do not finesse, but play your highest, remembering that you play the lowest of a sequence.
With ace, queen (and, of course, ace, queen, knave, &c., in sequence) you do finesse, for, in this case, the finesse cannot be left to your partner. In trumps you may finesse ace, knave, if an honour is turned up to your right. Some players finesse knave with king, knave, &c.; but it is contrary to principle to finesse in your partner's strong suit.
If your partner leads a high card originally, you assume it is led from one of the combinations given in the Analysis of Leads (pp.64-71), and your play third hand must be guided by a consideration of the combination led from. With ace, you pass queen led; you are then in much the same position as though a small card were led, and you finessed with ace, queen.
Knave, led originally, is from king, queen, knave, &c. (some players lead knave from knave, ten, nine, &c.) In either case, if you hold ace with one small card, play the ace; with more than one small card, pass (seep.98). If your only honour is the king, youshould pass knave led. For, the second hand having passed, you assume ace to be to your left (p.88). Should the queen be there also, you waste the king by covering; and if queen is to your right, the knave forces the ace.
Ten may be led originally from king, queen, knave, ten, or from king, knave, ten, &c. If you hold ace, you should put it on; but if you hold queen, you should pass. Holding both ace and queen, your play depends on whether you wish to obtain the lead on the first round of the suit.
If your partner opens a suit, late in a hand, with a high card, your play, third hand, will depend on your judgment of the character of the lead. If it is probable that your partner has led from a weak suit, you will often be right to finesse king, knave, &c., or to pass his card altogether, so as not to give up the entire command of the suit. Thus, if ten is led and you hold ace, knave, &c., it is clear that the card led is the highest your partner holds in the suit. You therefore pass, and unless both king and queen are to your left, you remain with the tenace. Similar remarks apply to a forced lead of knave, when you hold ace, ten, &c. If you have considerable strength in a suit in which a strengthening card is led, you must be guided by your strength in trumps. Thus, your partner leads knave from a weak suit, and you hold ace, king, and small ones. You may, as a rule, pass the knave if you are strong in trumps, but not if weak.
In the second round of a suit, if you (third player) hold the best and third best cards, and you have noindication as to the position of the intermediate card, your play should again depend on your strength in trumps. If weak in trumps, secure the trick at once; if strong in trumps, and especially if strong enough to lead a trump (seeManagement of Trumps, pp.120-24), should the finesse succeed, it is generally right to make it. If you hold second and fourth best, you may nearly always finesse; for you conclude that the winning card is over you in the fourth hand, since your partner has not led it, and the second player has not put it on. If the third best lies over you also, you cannot prevent the tenace from making, and your only chance, therefore, is to finesse. Thus, if you lead a small card from queen, ten, and two small ones, your partner wins the first trick with the king, and returns a small one. The ace is certainly to your left; you therefore finesse the ten, for if your left-hand adversary holds ace and knave he must make them both; but, otherwise, your ten forces the ace, and you are left with the best. In trumps, the winning card is often held up by the adversary, but you must submit to this contingency, and generally finesse.
It is of no use to finesse against your right-hand adversary in a suit in which he has shown weakness. For instance, if the second hand has none of the suit led, and does not trump it, you (third hand) should not finesse a major tenace (i.e., the best and third best cards). This often occurs in the second or third round of a suit; also, if your partner (third player) has won a trick very cheaply, and the suit is returned, it is rarely of any use to finesse if you have the winning card.
In some few positions, however, it is necessary to finesse, even if the second player holds nothing. Thus, your partner leads a knave, and the second hand renounces (i.e., does not follow suit); if you (third player) hold king, it is useless to cover, as ace, queen in the fourth hand must make. Again, you have king, and two small trumps; your partner leads a small one; the second hand renounces. If you want one trick to win or save the game, you (third player) play a small trump, when the fourth player will be obliged to lead up to your king guarded.
The state of the game and of the score will often direct as to a finesse late in a hand. Thus, if you hold a winning card, and want one trick to save or win the game, of course you should not run any risk. A finesse against even one card is generally wrong, if, by playing otherwise, you prevent the adversary from scoring three or five. A finesse is almost always bad, if by not finessing you insure the odd trick, as that makes a difference of two to the score. In the opposite case, a finesse is generally right (sometimes even against more than one card), if its success gives you the odd trick, or puts you at the score of three or five.
The considerations as to finessing and the course of play generally, that come in as the hand proceeds, are so complicated, and depend so much on inferences from previous play, and on the state of the score, that one can scarcely do more than to state a few broad rules, and to add some examples. Illustrations of the conduct of the hand at advanced periods will be found in Sections 17 and 18 (pp.134-155), and more in the hands.