Finesse: The Bridge Introduction Anyone Can Play
By Alex J. Coyne © Great Bridge Links.
December 2025
Finesse can mean to do something with overwhelming style, but might also refer to a particular bridge play where a trick is won by leading a ‘lower’ card against a higher honor card. However, Finesse is also the name of a new board game that aims to introduce bridge in its simplest format to whole new players – invented from St. Thomas in Canada by bridge author Carole Coplea, we just had to find out more!
If you love bridge and want to introduce it to your friends or loved ones, Finesse is an excellent way to jump right into playing. The game is great for adults, and suitable for kids. It’s more than just a teaching tool for new bridge players: if you want to play a simple trick-taking board game, Finesse could be the perfect choice.
Here’s more about Finesse, the introduction to bridge anyone can play.
An Introduction to Bridge
There are many ways for people to be introduced to bridge.
Some players find their way to trick-taking games via spades or bid whist; others consider Uno or tarot to be their first trick-taking game. By now you might have guessed that trick-taking games arrive in all shapes, and that bridge isn’t necessarily the first (or only) game that people will get to know!
Minibridge is a stripped-down version of contract bridge that’s often used as a teaching tool or casual game. Instead of conventions, Minibridge is a quicker form of the game that skips bidding and goes straight to winning tricks – or trying to!
Just Declare is another variety of bridge that removes some of the more ‘complex’ rules for an easier and quicker game: in this case, players are always at the Declarer’s seat and have to focus on winning tricks.
There’s also Finesse, which is meant to simplify the traditional contract bridge rules – and the game wants to feel like a board game instead.
What’s Finesse All About?
Finesse was invented by Carole Coplea, a Canadian bridge player and author readers might already know from the thriller Death in Duplicate.
“Anybody can play it.” she said during an interview with CBC.
According to the same interview, the game of Finesse “features five ramps which help to visualize the gameplay, as well as game tokens placed on coloured squares.”
Finesse is played with a special card deck that contains 40-cards, and gives each player’s hand 10 cards instead of the usual thirteen. Instead of high-card points like traditional bridge, Finesse uses Power Points that are printed on the cards.
The scoring system, as Carole explains in The Kibitzer (November 2025), uses tokens moved along a board for players to keep track of their successful tricks.
Finesse doesn’t only simplify bridge, but works well as an independent board game for any age.
Carole writes in The Kibitzer that many people have already purchased their copies of Finesse and jumped right into the new trick-taking game – and that she has seen even traditional poker players enjoy playing!
The first copies of Finesse, recently patented, made it to the Horton Farmers’ Market in St. Thomas – though you may also order copies of the game for your friends, families, households, or clubs at Carole’s personal website.
Want to buy someone the perfect introduction to bridge – or casual board game for the holidays ahead?
Finesse could be exactly what you’re looking for!
Where to Find Finesse: Camping and Cottage Games
If you’re looking for copies, you can order Finesse online via Camping and Cottage Games (www.candcgames.ca)! And while you’re there, you can check out How to Play Finesse. or view their ‘sizzle reel’ here https://youtu.be/0G62I5pmsgQ
They’re also the creators of Spell’em, the game where players have to lay down their cards to see what can be spelled. Rather than trying to explain it, you can go straight to their website for the Rules of Spell’em.
Oh, and there’s one more thing … Carole is the author of the thriller Death in Duplicate (Amazon). We’ll just leave you with the description over here:
“A mysterious illness … two dead bridge players … what’s going on at Kensington College? On the surface Kensington is a typical small college. But when two players collapse and die during a duplicate bridge game at the faculty club, it soon becomes clear that there is more going on at Kensington than meets the eye.”
