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Bridge can be as bad as NASA for confusing acronyms and lingo! Welcome to the Jargon Jungle - a glossary of bridge terms designed to help you hack your way through to a better understanding of the game of bridge. Just click on the first letter of the word you wish to find!  Each letter of the alphabet reloads the page.

Also, if you would like to suggest a term not presently included on the list, or see a correction that needs to be made, please drop us a note.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

False Card: The deceptive play of a card. Playing a different card than the one expected in order to deceive opponents. It can be as simple as playing the 5 from 654 (instead of the 4) or playing the Q from QT (instead of the ten), or ducking the king when you have the opportunity to win with it. This is one of the most fascinating and enjoyable parts of advanced play.

Finesse: Paraphrased from Sheinwold's 5 Weeks to Winning Bridge: An attempt to win a trick with a card that is not the highest in the suit after one defender has already played.

Flannery: A convention that shows a hand with 11-15 HCP, 4 spades and 5 hearts. This is a very difficult hand to bid in Standard American Yellow Card (not enough values to reverse the bidding, and no convenient rebid over a 2 level minor response (i.e. 1H-2C-?). To to fill the gap this convention was invented.

Flight (A/B/C):
Many tournaments are divided by level, so that novices do not need to play against experts. The limits for the lower flights are usually set according to masterpoints. Anyone may play in Flight A (including players eligible for the lower flights), while only players below the limits may play in B and C. The proper flight for a pair is determined by the player with more masterpoints in the pair (or most on the team, generally).

In the ACBL, "flighted" has a more specific meaning. A pair/team who achieves an overall placing in a higher-ranked flight is awarded master-points according to the total number of pairs/teams in that flight AND any lower flights.

Supposedly, a flighted game benefits the experts by assuming they can beat the novices and granting them the points for doing so without requiring them to prove it. (For example, if there are 20 pairs in the open game, 20 in the 0-1000 game, 20 in the 0-300 game, 20 in the 0-100 game and 10 in the 0-20 game, and the first three of these are designated as flights A/B/C but the 0-100 game and 0-20 game are NOT included in the flighting, then the first-place pair in flight A gets masterpoints based on a field size of 60 pairs, not 20 or 90.)

Forcing bids: A bid which, by partnership agreement, requires that partner bid again.

Forcing Defense: A defensive strategy useful when the defenders have enough high cards or a suit they can establish. By repeatedly leading good cards (slang-tapping), they force declarer to ruff and so shorten his own trump length; they can then seize control with their own trumps and cash their remaining good tricks.

FSF (Fourth Suit Force): An artificial bid in an unopposed auction of the only unbid suit after 3 suits have been named in the first 3 bids of the auction. It says nothing about the bid suit, and creates a general game forcing situation.
 

Copyright © 2008 Fifth Chair Foundation, Inc.