With another card, is it now a finesse?

Helen Mirren said: “I prefer the finesse of French humour. English humour is more scathing, more cruel... as illustrated by and

.” Surely the English have not lost their subtle humour. British understatement cannot be a thing of the past, can it? This week, we have been looking at some deals that might at first glance appear to involve a finesse, but have in fact required leading twice toward the hand with the two honours. Is this another example? South is in three no-trump. West leads the spade queen. How should South plan the play? Faites vos jeux. South starts with seven top tricks: two spades, two hearts, one diamond and two clubs. Obviously, he will have to take three diamond tricks to reach nine. And, it must be admitted, on many deals, starting the suit by leading a sneaky jack from hand will not hurt. First, the suit might split 3-2. Second, that play might gain, when West starts with kingdoubleton and fails to cover an honour with an honour. But assuming there is no misdefence, it cannot gain to lead the jack first, and it might cost. Imagine West or East has a singleton king. Or look at today’s layout. This is another case of leading twice toward the hand with the two honours. After taking the first trick, declarer should lead a diamond to dummy’s ace and return a diamond toward his hand. Here, East will probably play low. South wins with his queen, notes West’s discard, returns to dummy with a heart, and leads another diamond through East to get home.