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Bridge Lessons - Beginners

NYU Bridge and Spades Club

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Lesson 1

Basics and Opening

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Counting Points

• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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Counting Points QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

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• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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Game Level

• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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I keep hearing about the “game level”. What is it?QuickTime™ and a

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• “Game” is a kind of contract threshold– All contracts BID and MADE at or above this level are given

a bonus score• Game contracts– 3NT and up – requires ~ 26 points to make– 4H/S and up – requires ~ 26 points to make– 5C/S and up – requires ~ 29 points to make (eww)

• NB: all 6-level contracts are slams while 7-level contracts are grand slams

• NB 2: since it takes less points to make major (H/S) or NT games, most bidding conventions are aimed at finding those games

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Scoring

• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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Scoring in Bridge QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

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• 20 points per minor trick (i.e. 1C gives 20 points), 30 points per major trick and 40 points for the first NT trick, 30 thereafter

• Partials (below game level) get a 50 point bonus

• Games get a 300/500 point bonus (non-vul/vul)

• Slams 500/750 + game bonus• Grand slams 1000/1500 + game bonus

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Opening Bids - Basics

• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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Opening Bids - Basics QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

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• Definition of an opening bid:– An opening bid is a bid made by the first bidder

not to pass

• Requirement for opening: 13 points– Why? Because game is 26 points. If you don’t have

at least half of that and partner cannot open either, your partnership didn’t miss a game and probably didn’t lose out on too much

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Opening Bids

• Counting high-card points (HCPs)– Ace = 4 points– King = 3 points– Queen = 2 points– Jack = 1 point

• Some people count distribution points but for our purposes, we won’t yet

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Opening Bids QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

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Do you have 13-21 points?

Yes

No

22+ points: 2CElse, don’t openBalanced?

No Yes 15-17 points: 1NT20-21 points: 2NT

Anything else

5-card major: 1MElse, longer minor

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Why do we open this way?

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Why do we Open this way? QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

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• NT has a narrow range so it can describe our hand well– Preciseness is key in contract bridge

• Minors are our last priority because minor games are harder to play in