IFAF
I come from Engerdal, a small community in the deep forests of Norway, close to the Swedish border. We’re best known for our wild nature with great possibilities for trout fishing and moose hunting. And for our great skiers, especially Gjermund Eggen, the great Norwegian cross-country skier of the 60s. We meet every Tuesday for bridge in our local club. We’re about 5-6 tables every Tuesday, sometimes 7 and sometimes 4. Like in every other bridge club we’re a fine mixture of people – some of us are teachers, some of us police, others are carpenters, plumbers or farmers.
Some years ago, I introduced a new federation for some of our local heroes, in Norwegian called «Finessaholikernes Landsforening», which in English would be something like: «The Norwegian Federation of Finessaholics». I guess that this federation have some potential members around the world, and maybe the name for this organisation could be something like «The International Finessaholics Federation», or IFAF if you like. And some may suggest the French variation of this term: «Federation International Finesse Aholics». Or FIFA if you like.
Membership in this organization requires that you are a player in need of making finesses whenever you can. Some night you will score for the top prize, other nights you will find yourself at the bottom of the list.
Maybe you meet this play one evening:
Sitting East you find yourself playing 6 of spades, South leading the queen of hearts, and you take the first trick in hand. What next?
Our members of the IFAF will surely take the finesse in spades, then another in clubs. If one of them works well you can take 12 tricks for a satisfying result.
If not, you can always blame bad luck.
But maybe there is a better line?
In the second trick play a diamond to the ace, and next ruff a diamond. Then take your ace of spades (both North and South follow), ace of clubs (in case the queen will drop), ace of hearts, king of diamonds and the last diamond for a ruff in hand.
If the king of spades hasn’t appeared yet you can play another spade. If North is in he now has to play clubs to prevent a ruff and discard. You must now guess for the queen to be with North.
But, if South has the king of spades, the contract is now safe. South either has to play clubs into dummy’s king-jack or he will provide a ruff and a discard.
Some experts may proclaim that the odds for one of two finesses making equals this line, but I’m always satisfied when I’ve found a line that brings you down to o
