Bridge Bidding - Standard American

Yellow Card

Nicolae Sfetcu

Published by Nicolae Sfetcu

Second Edition

Copyright 2014 Nicolae Sfetcu

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Contract Bridge

Game type: trick-taking game

Players: 4

Skills required: Memory, tactics, probability, communication

Cards: 52

Deck: French

Play: Clockwise

Card rank: (highest to lowest) A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Playing time: WBF tournament games = 7.5 minutes per deal

Random chance: Low to moderate depending on variant played

Related games: Whist, Auction bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a

standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships

with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table. For purposes of scoring

and reference, each player is identified by one of the points of the compass and thus

North and South play against East and West. The game consists of several deals each

progressing through four phases: dealing the cards, the auction (also referred to as

bidding), playing the hand, and scoring the results. Dealing the cards and scoring the

results are procedural activities while the auction and playing the hand are the two

actively competitive phases of the game.

Dealing: Partnerships are self-determined or by a cut of the cards, the two highest

cut playing against the two lowest; the first dealer is the player cutting the highest

card. Cards are dealt clockwise, one at a time and face down starting on the

dealer's left so that each player receives thirteen cards. In duplicate bridge the

dealer is predetermined by the board; the board also contains the four hands

which have been dealt and placed in the board prior to commencement of the

game.

Auction or Bidding: The bidding starts with the dealer and rotates around the

table clockwise with each player making a call, the purpose being to determine

which partnership will contract to take more tricks given a particular trump suit or

with notrump, referred to as the strain. The partnership which makes the highest

final bid is known as the declaring side and is said to have 'won' the contract. The

player on the declaring side who, during the auction, first stated the strain

ultimately becoming trumps or notrumps is referred to as the declarer.

Playing: The rules of play are similar to other trick-taking games with the

additional feature that the hand of declarer's partner is displayed face up on the

table after the opening lead has been made by the member of the defending side to

the left of declarer; the displayed hand is referred to as the dummy and is played

by declarer.

Scoring: After all thirteen tricks have been played, the hand's score is determined

by comparing the actual number of tricks taken by the declaring partnership with

that proposed in the contract and awarding points accordingly. The available

scoring points for the declaring side are dependent upon both the level and strain

of the contract and are awarded to them only when the contract is 'made', i.e. at

least the contracted for number of tricks are won by them; failure to do so results

in the defending side receiving points instead and they are said to have 'defeated'

the contract. Individual scores of several hands are accumulated to determine the

overall game score.

While the game involves skill and chance, it has many variants and event types designed

to emphasize skill, vary the method of scoring, set limits on the nature of the bidding

systems which may be used, set the pace and duration of play, define player eligibility,

enable larger team composition, provide country representation in international play, and

to group players of similar interests, skill levels, age, or gender, or combinations thereof.

The most common game variants are rubber bridge and duplicate bridge. In rubber

bridge, two partnerships participate in the game at one table and the objective is to score

the most points in the play of several hands. In duplicate bridge, there are more tables and

partnerships and the hands are dealt and played in such a manner that each partnership

plays the same set of hands as their East-West or North-South counterparts and with the

scoring based upon relative performance. Competitions in duplicate bridge range from

small clubs with a handful of tables, to large tournaments such as the World Bridge

Championships where hundreds of tables play the same hands. The game variant and

associated method of scoring have significant influence on bidding and card play

strategies.

Game play

A session of bridge consists of a number of deals (also called hands or boards). A hand is

dealt (or may have been pre-dealt), the bidding (or auction) proceeds to a conclusion and

then the hand is played. Finally, the hand's result is scored.

The goal of a single deal is to achieve a high score with the cards dealt. The score for the

hand is affected by two principal factors: the contract (number of tricks bid in the auction,

the denomination, and which side has bid it) and the number of tricks taken during play.

It may also be affected by the vulnerability. The contract, a feature which distinguishes

contract bridge from its predecessors, is an undertaking made during the auction by one

partnership that they will take at least the stated number of tricks, either with a specified

suit as trumps, or without trumps (notrumps). The contract has two components: level

and strain (also called denomination).

There are seven levels, numbered 1-7, and the number of tricks required is six plus the

level number, so may be anywhere between 7 and 13. The five strains are ranked, from

lowest to highest, as clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and notrump (NT).

The two lower-ranked suits (♣ and ♦) are called the minor suits (or minors), and the

higher-ranked suits (♥ and ♠) are called majors. Minor suit contracts score less, so are

less frequently chosen.

For instance, the contract "3 hearts" is a promise that the partnership will take nine tricks

(six plus three) with hearts as the trump suit. Thus, there are 7 × 5 = 35 possible basic

contracts; 1♣ being the lowest, followed by 1♦ etc., up to 7NT.

In the bidding stage or auction, the pairs compete to determine who proposes the highest-

ranked contract, and the side that wins the bidding must then strive in the play of the hand

to fulfil that bargain by winning at least the contracted number of tricks if it is to obtain a

score. Broadly speaking, there is an incentive to bid accurately to the optimum contract

and then to play to make the contracted number of tricks (or more if good play or luck

allows). If the side that wins the auction (declaring side) then takes the contracted

number of tricks (or more), it is said to have made the contract and is awarded a score;

otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated or set and points are awarded to the

opponents (defenders).

It can sometimes be advantageous to bid a contract that one does not expect to make and

to be defeated, thus losing some points, rather than allow the opposing side to bid and

make a contract which would score them an even greater number of points. This is known

as a sacrifice, and is quite common if both sides are contesting the final contract. This

aspect is more common in duplicate bridge than in rubber bridge owing to the different

scoring systems in effect.

Dealing

The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. In rubber bridge (or other non-

duplicate games), the cards are shuffled before each deal, and the dealer deals the cards

clockwise one at a time, starting with the left-hand opponent, so that each player receives

a hand of 13 cards. The deal rotates clockwise each hand.

In duplicate bridge, the hands are shuffled and dealt only once, at the beginning of the

session. Players do not throw their cards to the center of the table during the play but

instead play them immediately in front of themselves and turn them face down at the end

of each trick. The direction that each face down card is pointed indicates which side won

each trick, so that at the end of the hand, the number of tricks taken by each side can be

determined. At the end of the hand each player returns his hand, intact, to the correct slot

in the bridge board in which it is transported to other tables so that everyone can play the

same deals. The results for different players playing the same deal are then compared.

This removes much of the element of chance from scores. It also means that in the case of

an irregularity or dispute over a hand before the cards are returned to the board, they can

be reviewed and it can be determined who played which cards in what order.

In some competitions, boards are pre-dealt prior to the competition, especially if the same

hands are to be played at many locations (for example in a large national or international

tournament). Sometimes computerised dealing machines are used for pre-dealing hands

at large tournaments and in many clubs. As the boards arrive for play at each subsequent

table, the four players take their cards from the board and should count them to ensure

that there are 13 cards in their hand before looking at the cards, so that any irregularity

can be corrected before the auction and play commence.

In some countries, the rules require that after the hand is played for the first time, the

players write the hands down on the travelling scoresheet, which can be consulted later if

the cards are accidentally mixed up. Alternatively, if the boards are pre-dealt, "curtain

cards" may be supplied which have each hand printed on them, so that each player can

check at the beginning of the deal that he has the right cards. Pre-dealt hands also have

the advantage that, at the end of the session, diagrams of each deal can be made available

to the players for later analysis.

Auction or bidding

The auction determines the declaring side and the final contract. Only one of the partners

of the declaring side, referred to as declarer, plays the hand, while the other is dummy,

and does not participate actively in the play of the hand. In addition to establishing the

level and denomination, the final contract may be doubled (by the opponents) or

redoubled (by the declaring side after the opponents had already doubled), in which case

the score for the hand is increased, whether the contract is made or defeated.

During the auction, each player makes a call in turn, which must be one of the following:

a Bid (stating a level and a denomination)

Double (when the last call other than pass was a bid by an opponent)

Redouble (when the last call other than pass was a double by an opponent)

Pass (when unwilling to make one of the three preceding calls)

(Note: although both are technically incorrect, the word "bid" is often used informally in

place of "call" and "suit" may occasionally imply inclusion of "notrump")

The auction starts with the dealer and proceeds clockwise with each player, having first

evaluated their hand, making a call in order. The auction ends when three successive

passes occur at some point after the dealer's first call. If all four players pass in the first

round, the deal is not played (in rubber bridge the deal is not scored and the hand is

redealt by the original dealer, while in duplicate the score is recorded as zero for each

pair since re-dealing a hand that has been 'passed out' is prohibited by the rules).

A bid specifies a level and denomination, and ostensibly denotes a willingness to play the

corresponding contract. A player wishing to bid must make a bid that is sufficient; a bid

is sufficient if it specifies any denomination at a higher level than the last bid, or a higher-

ranked denomination at the same level. Thus, after a bid of 3♥, bids of 2♠ or 3♣ are not

allowable, but 3♠ or 4♦ are. A bid that skips one level of bidding is called a (single) jump,

for instance 2♠ over 1♥ is a jump, but 2♥ over 1♠ is not a jump. Similarly, a double jump

is a bid that skips two levels of bidding, for instance 3♠ over 1♥ or 4♥ over 1♠.

A double can be made only after the opponents have made a bid. The natural meaning of

a double is that the player is confident that the opponents cannot fulfil their contract, and

the player is willing to risk increasing the opponents' score if they succeed, in exchange

for receiving a larger penalty if the opponents fail. However, in modern bridge, the

double more often has a conventional (artificial) meaning (especially after a low level

bid, for example 1♠), to ask partner to bid or to pass information to partner. A "redouble"

can be made only after an opponent's double; it further increases the points scored and the

penalty for failure yet further. However a redouble is almost always conventional, and

very few redoubled contracts end up being played. In practice, the double and redouble

are often used systemically for other purposes, though if they are in effect for the final

contract they increase the score regardless of their intended meaning. Double and

redouble remain in effect only until the next bid — any subsequent bid invalidates them.

Once the auction ends, the last bid (together with any double and/or redouble that

followed it) becomes the contract, the level of this bid determines the number of tricks

required to fulfil the contract and its strain determines what suit, if any, will be trumps.

It should be noted that the primary purpose of early bids is to exchange information

rather than to determine the final contract. For most players, many calls (bids, doubles

and redoubles, and sometimes even passes) are not made with the intention that they

become the final contract, but to describe the strength and distribution of the player's

hand, so that the partnership can make an informed guess which is the best contract,

and/or to obstruct the opponents' bidding. The set of agreements used by a partnership

about the meaning of each call is referred to as a bidding system, full details of which

must be made available to the opponents; 'secret' systems are not allowed. An opponent

can ask the bidder's partner to explain the meaning of the call.

The pair that did not win the contract is called the defense. The pair that made the last bid

is divided further: the player who first made a bid in the denomination of the final

contract becomes the declarer and his partner becomes the dummy. For example, suppose

West is the dealer and the bidding was:

Then East and West would be the defenders, South would be the declarer (being the first

to bid spades), North would be the dummy, and spades the trump suit; 10 tricks would be

required by declarer (and dummy). Since East's double of 2♦ was invalidated by the

subsequent South's 3♠ bid, it does not affect the contract. For the purpose of determining

the declarer, bids in the denomination of the final contract by the defense are ignored.

Bidding boxes contain a special card for each possible call. When these are in use,

players make a call by taking the appropriate card from the bidding box and placing it on

the table. This avoids the need for players to bid out loud. This prevents players at nearby

tables overhearing the bidding and also avoids voice inflexions passing information to a

partner. Pre-printed bidding pads, on which the calls can be written, are sometimes used

instead in Australia and New Zealand.

Play of the hand

The play consists of 13 tricks, each trick consisting of one card played from each of the

four hands. Aces are high in bridge, followed by kings, queens, jacks, 10s, 9s ... down to

2s, the lowest card in each suit. The first card played in a trick is called the lead; after the

lead, play proceeds clockwise around the table. Any card may be selected from a hand as

the lead, but the remaining hands must follow suit, meaning they must play a card of the

same suit as the lead, unless the hand in question has no more cards of that suit, in which

case any card may be played. The hand that plays the highest card in the suit of the lead

wins the trick, unless any of the played cards are of the trump suit, in which case the hand

that plays the highest trump card wins the trick. The hand that wins the trick plays the

lead card of the next trick, until all the cards have been played.

The first lead, called the opening lead, is made by the defender to the left of the declarer.

After the opening lead is played, the dummy lays his/her hand face up on the table in four

columns, one for each suit, with the column of the trump suit (if there is one) on the right

as dummy looks at the table. The declarer is responsible for selecting cards to play from

the dummy's hand and from his own hand in turn. The defenders each choose the cards to

play from their own hands. Dummy is allowed to try to prevent declarer from infringing

the rules, but otherwise must not interfere with the play; for example, dummy may

attempt to prevent declarer from leading from the wrong hand (by stating, e.g., "you won

the last trick in dummy") but must not comment on opponents' actions or make

suggestions as to play. In casual bridge games the dummy often does nothing, but in

duplicate bridge dummy must play cards from the dummy hand at declarer's instruction

(e.g., by saying "jack of hearts please, partner", or less frequently by touching or pointing

at the card that declarer wishes to play).

The contract level sets a specific target: in the example above, the declarer must attempt

to win ten tricks (the assumed "book" of six, plus four as bid, with spades as trumps), to

make the contract and get a positive score. Success in this goal is rewarded by points in

the scoring phase for the declarer's side. If the declarer fails to make the contract, the

defenders are said to have set or defeated the contract (declarer has gone down), and are

awarded points for doing so.

If a declarer does not have enough tricks immediately available to make his contract, he

can try to develop additional tricks through a variety of methods. These include:

losing tricks to the defenders' high cards in order to "promote" the remaining

cards of that suit in his hand.

running out long suits after the defenders' cards in that suit are exhausted, to force

defenders to discard useful cards.

the finesse, in which a low card is led toward a high card in the hope of trapping a

high card held by the defender who must play in between.

in trump contracts, the declarer may attempt to cover losers in his hand by

trumping them in dummy, while also taking care to draw out the defenders'

trumps if necessary.

cutting communications between the two defenders, for instance by allowing

them to win early tricks in a suit until they are unable to use the suit as an entry.

more advanced techniques include the "squeeze" in which a defender is forced to

choose which card to discard before declarer has to make his own discard choice.

Scoring

The goal for each pair is to make as high a score as possible. However, if the contract is

made, the level of the contract is the primary factor affecting the scoring, rather than the

number of tricks taken in play: for example, if the declarer takes all 13 tricks without

trumps, there is a huge score difference between the cases of contract being 1NT and

7NT. This premium for contracting to take more tricks ensures competitiveness in the

auction: even if a partnership holds most of the high cards and their opponents have no

interest in bidding, they are still encouraged to bid high in order to achieve the best

possible score, which in turn often results in contracts that are difficult to make.

When the declarer makes the contract, the declarer's side receives points for:

Every trick bid and made (20 for minor suit contracts, 30 for major suit and no-

trump ones, with an additional 10 points for the first trick at no-trump)

Overtricks (tricks taken over the contract level), again with 20 for minor suits, 30

for majors and no-trump

Bonuses for contract level

Other specific bonuses

When the declarer fails to make the contract, the defending pair receives points for

undertricks — the number of tricks by which declarer fell short of the goal.

Because of the structure of bonuses, certain bid levels have special significance. The

most important level is game, which is any contract whose bid trick value is 100 or more

points. Game level varies by suit, since different suits are worth different amounts in

scoring. The game level for no-trump is 3 (9 tricks, 3 x 30 + 10 = 100), the game level for

hearts or spades (major suits) is 4 (10 tricks, 4 x 30 = 120), and the game level for clubs

or diamonds (minor suits) is 5 (11 tricks, 5 x 20 = 100). Because of the value of the game

bonus, much of the bidding revolves around investigating the possibility of making game.

Even higher bonuses are also awarded for bidding and making small slam (level 6, i.e. 12

tricks) and the rather rare grand slam (level 7, i.e. all 13 tricks). The contracts below

game level are called partial contracts or part scores.

The concept of vulnerability affects scoring and introduces a wider range of tactics in

bidding and play. Every partnership is beforehand assigned one of two states: vulnerable

or non-vulnerable. When a pair is vulnerable, game and slam bonuses are higher, as are

penalties for failure to make the contract. Methods for assigning vulnerability differ

between duplicate and rubber bridge.

There are two important variations in bridge scoring: rubber scoring and

duplicate/Chicago scoring. They share most features, but differ in how the total score is

accumulated. In rubber bridge, the declaring partnership counts points for successfully

taken contracted tricks "below the line" on a scoresheet (which can be accumulated to

make a game), while penalties and bonuses are tallied "above the line". The first

partnership to accumulate two games gets a "rubber" bonus. In duplicate bridge, all the

points are accumulated for each hand by itself and present a single score, expressed as a

positive number (sum of trick points and bonus points) for the winning pair, and by

implication, as a negative number for their opponents. (A third form, "Chicago" bridge, is

a form of "friendly" game that uses duplicate scoring, with every deal scored as a single

number, but usually with only one table (i.e., not duplicated elsewhere) and with

vulnerability assigned in a very simple fashion.) Part-scores are not carried forward from

one hand to the next.

In duplicate bridge, the same cards are played unchanged at two or more tables, and the

results are then compared. Scores at each table are recorded on traveling slips that move

with the boards or on pickup slips taken to the director. More recently, wireless electronic

scoring is becoming more common. For this, each table has a purpose-built keypad on

which players enter the score which is then transmitted directly to the scoring computer,

doing away with paper slips.

Depending on the type of tournament, after the different scores on a board are compared,

the relative scores are converted either to match points (MP) or to international match

points (IMP). Regardless of the actual contract, the competitor (pair or team) with the

best performance on each board gets the highest number of MP or IMP for that board,

and vice versa. The competitor with the highest total number of MP or IMP becomes the

winner of the tournament. Thus, even with bad cards, competitors can win the tournament

if they have bid better and/or played better than the other players who played the same set

of cards.

Match points (or (for teams) "Board-a-match") scoring simply awards a team or pair two

match points for every other pair that had a lower score playing the same hands on that

board and one match point for every other pair that had exactly the same score. (In the

USA, the points awarded not 2 and 1, but 1 and ½.)

IMPs convert differences in scores using a sliding scale. 0 IMPS are awarded for a 0-10

point difference. This requires slightly different tactics at the table.

Laws of contract bridge

Laws of duplicate bridge

The Laws constitute the rules of the game. In addition to the basic rules there are a great

many additional rules covering playing conditions and how to deal with various kinds of

irregularity. The players do not need to be familiar with many of these additional rules,

which are rarely referred to and are included mainly for the benefit of tournament

directors. In addition, some details are left to the discretion of the national bridge

organisation (for tournaments under their aegis) and some (for example the choice of

movement) to the sponsoring organisation (e.g. the club).

The worldwide rules are promulgated by the World Bridge Federation (WBF) as the

"International Code of Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2007 (LAW)", available under

www.worldbridge.org/departments/laws. There are 93 laws.

National organisations publish books containing their version of the Laws: for example

the American Contract Bridge League publishes a book, "Laws of Duplicate Bridge". The

ACBL also publishes additional documentation to support bridge directors, including

Director Decisions, Tech Files and Casebook (Appeals) from national bridge

championships. A cross-referenced listing including documentation is available at

www.bridgehands.com/Laws/index.htm. Contract bridge laws, requirements for

convention charts, alerts, and other laws is also available online.

The laws were compiled by Harold S. Vanderbilt in 1925, but there have been many

detailed changes since then in an effort to make the game fairer. Vanderbilt introduced

inter alia the current concept of scoring, the use of boards to hold the cards, and the

Tournament Director. The main responsibilities of the tournament director are to

adjudicate on disputes and irregularities that occur during the tournament and to control

the movement.

Despite or perhaps because of the complexity of the laws, there are sometimes difficulties

in interpreting them to apply to specific situations, and various organisations have

committees to make judgements on the rules and to conduct appeals against decisions by

tournament directors.

Clearly detailed precise rules are important for high level tournaments, but may in part be

less relevant to, and unhelpful for, bridge played in local clubs.

Laws of rubber bridge

"Rubber bridge" is a version of the game played by four players on their own. Each hand

is only played once so there is no comparison of scores. Thus it contrasts with duplicate

bridge. A succession of hands are played and the scores made by each side are

accumulated until one side has won two "games", at which point the overall scores are

totalled and the winner is determined. (As in duplicate, a minimum trick score of 100 is

required for game.)

There are some differences in bridge scoring at rubber compared with duplicate:

"part scores" (trick scores less than 100) are accumulated to count toward game,

but are not carried forward to the following game.

there is no bonus for making a part score.

there is a bonus for "honors": holding in one hand either at least four trump-suit

honors (A, K, Q, J, 10) or all four aces at notrump.

"vulnerability" (which affects the size of penalties and bonuses) is determined by

previous games within the rubber, whereas in duplicate it is predetermined by the

number of the board.

In the rubber bridge game variant known as Chicago, vulnerability is predetermined (in

rounds of four deals) but scoring is otherwise similar to duplicate bridge.

History

Bridge is member of the family of trick-taking games and is a development of Whist,

which had become the dominant such game enjoying a loyal following for centuries.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bridge is the English pronunciation of a

game called Biritch, which was also known as Russian Whist.

The oldest known Biritch rule book dated 1886 is by John Collinson. It and his

subsequent letter to The Saturday Review dated May 28, 1906, document the origin of

Biritch as from the Russian community in Constantinople and having some features in

common with Solo Whist. The game had many significant bridge-like developments:

dealer chose the trump suit, or nominated his partner to do so; there was a call of

notrumps (biritch); dealer's partner's hand became dummy; points were scored above and

below the line; game was 3NT, 4H and 5D (although 8 club odd tricks and 15 spade odd

tricks were needed); the score could be doubled and redoubled; and there were slam

bonuses. This game, and variants of it known as bridge and bridge-whist, became popular

in the United States and the UK in the 1890s despite the long-established dominance of

whist.

In 1904 auction bridge was developed, in which the players bid in a competitive auction

to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as

were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so.

The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of

auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most significant

change was that only the tricks contracted for were scored below the line toward game or

a slam bonus, a change that resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and

interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability, making sacrifices to protect the

lead in a rubber more expensive, and the various scores were adjusted to produce a more

balanced game. Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract

bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with

"contract bridge."

In the USA, most of the bridge played today is duplicate bridge, which is played at clubs,

in tournaments and online. In the UK, rubber bridge is still popular in both homes and

clubs, as is duplicate bridge. It has been noted that the popularity of contract bridge has

waned in recent years for a variety of reasons.

Tournaments

Bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt cards, which makes it also a game of

chance, or more exactly, a tactical game with inbuilt randomness, imperfect knowledge

and restricted communication. The chance element is in the deal of the cards; in

competitions and clubs the chance element is largely eliminated by comparing results of

multiple pairs in identical situations. This is achievable when there are eight or more

players, sitting at two or more tables, and the deals from each table are preserved and

passed to the next table, thereby duplicating them for the next table of participants to

play. At the end of a session, the scores for each deal are compared, and the most points

are awarded to the players doing the best with each particular deal. This measures skill

because each player is being judged only on the ability to bid with, and play, the same

cards as other players. However very often even the most skillful play will only succeed

some of the time, and the skilled player may be unlucky because an alternative, less

expert play achieves a better result. But in the long run the expert player will score better.

This form of the game is referred to as duplicate bridge and is played in clubs and

tournaments, which can gather as many as several hundred players. Duplicate bridge is a

mind sport, and its popularity gradually became comparable to that of chess, with which

it is often compared for its complexity and the mental skills required for high-level

competition. Bridge and chess are the only "mind sports" recognized by the International

Olympic Committee, although they were not found eligible for the main Olympic

program.

The basic premise of duplicate bridge had previously been used for whist matches as

early as 1857. Initially, bridge was not thought to be suitable for duplicate competition; it

wasn't until the 1920s that (auction) bridge tournaments became popular.

In 1925 when contract bridge first evolved, bridge tournaments were becoming popular,

but the rules were somewhat in flux, and several different organizing bodies were

involved in tournament sponsorship: the American Bridge League (formerly the

American Auction Bridge League, which changed its name in 1929), the American Whist

League, and the United States Bridge Association. In 1935, the first officially recognized

world championship was held. By 1937, however, the American Contract Bridge League

had come to power (a union of the ABL and the USBA), and it remains the principal

organizing body for bridge tournaments in North America. In 1958, the World Bridge

Federation was founded to promote bridge world-wide, coordinate periodic revision to

the Laws and conduct world championships.

Bidding boxes and bidding screens

In tournaments, "bidding boxes" are frequently used, as noted above. In top national and

international events, "bidding screens" are used. These are placed diagonally across the

table, preventing partners from seeing each other during the game; often the screen is

removed after the auction is complete.

Game strategy

Bidding

Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of arriving at a good final

contract in the auction. This is a difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must

try to communicate sufficient information about their hands to arrive at a makeable

contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted—information may be passed

only by the calls made and later by the cards played, not by other means; in addition, the

agreed-upon meaning of each call and play must be available to the opponents.

Since a partnership that has freedom to bid gradually at leisure can exchange more

information, and since a partnership that can interfere with the opponents' bidding (as by

raising the bidding level rapidly) can cause difficulties for their opponents, bidding

systems are both informational and strategic. It is this mixture of information exchange

and evaluation, deduction, and tactics that is at the heart of bidding in bridge.

A number of basic rules of thumb in bridge bidding and play are summarized as bridge

maxims.

Bidding systems and conventions

A bidding system is a set of partnership agreements on the meanings of bids. A

partnership's bidding system is usually made up of a core system, modified and

complemented by specific conventions (optional customizations incorporated into the

main system for handling specific bidding situations) which are pre-chosen between the

partners prior to play. The line between a well-known convention and a part of a system

is not always clear-cut: some bidding systems include specified conventions by default.

Bidding systems can be divided into mainly natural systems such as Acol and Standard

American, and mainly artificial systems such as the Precision Club.

Calls are usually considered to be either natural or conventional (artificial). A natural bid

is one in which the suit and level bid is essentially passing the information "I have some

cards in this suit and (usually) some high cards in my hand"; a natural double says in

effect "I don't think the opponents can make their contract, so I want to raise the stakes".

By contrast, a conventional (artificial) call offers and/or asks for information by means of

pre-agreed coded interpretations, in which some calls convey very specific information or

requests that are not part of the natural meaning of the call. Thus in response to 4NT, a

'natural' bid of 5♦ would state a preference towards a diamond suit or a desire to play the

contract in 5 diamonds, whereas if the partners have agreed to use the common

Blackwood convention, a bid of 5♦ in the same situation would say nothing about the

diamond suit, but tell the partner that the hand in question contains exactly one ace.

Conventions are valuable in bridge because of the need to pass information beyond a

simple like or dislike of a particular suit, and because the limited bidding space can be

used more efficiently by taking situations in which a given call will have less utility,

because the information it would convey is not valuable or because the desire to convey

that information would arise only rarely, and giving that call an artificial meaning that

conveys more useful (or more frequently useful) information. There are a very large

number of conventions from which players can choose; many books have been written

detailing bidding conventions. Well-known conventions include Stayman (to ask for the

showing of any 4 card major suit in a 1NT opener's hand), Jacoby transfers (a request by

the weak hand for the stronger partner to bid a particular suit first, and therefore to

become the declarer), and the Blackwood convention (to ask for information on the

number of aces and kings held, used in slam bidding situations).

The term preempt refers to a high level tactical bid by a weak hand, relying upon a long

suit rather than high-value cards for tricks. Preemptive bids serve a double purpose —

they allow players to indicate they are bidding on the basis of a long suit in an otherwise

weak hand, which is important information to share, and they also consume substantial

bidding room before a possibly strong opposing pair can identify whether they have a

good possibility to play the hand, or in what suit or at what level they should do so.

Several systems include the use of opening bids or other early bids with weak hands

including long (usually six to eight card) suits at the 2, 3 or even 4 or 5 levels as

preempts.

Basic natural systems

As a rule, a natural suit bid indicates a holding of at least four (or more, depending on the

situation and the system) cards in that suit as an opening bid, or a lesser number when

supporting partner; a natural NT bid indicates a balanced hand.

Most systems use a count of high card points as the basic evaluation of the strength of a

hand, refining this by reference to shape and distribution if appropriate. In the most

commonly used point count system, aces are counted as 4 points, kings as 3, queens as 2,

and jacks as 1 point; therefore, the deck contains 40 points. In addition, the distribution of

the cards in a hand into suits may also contribute to the strength of a hand and be counted

as distribution points. A better than average hand, containing 12 or 13 points, is usually

considered sufficient to open the bidding, i.e., to make the first bid in the auction. A

combination of two such hands (i.e., 25 or 26 points shared between partners) is often

sufficient for a partnership to bid, and generally to make, game in a major suit or notrump

(more are usually needed for a minor suit game, as the level is higher).

In natural systems, a 1NT opening bid usually reflects a hand that has a relatively

balanced shape (usually between two and four (or less often five) cards in each suit) and a

sharply limited number of high card points, usually somewhere between 12 and 18 — the

most common ranges use a span of exactly three points, (e.g., 12-14, 15-17 or 16-18), but

some systems use a 4 point range, usually 15-18.

Opening bids of 3 or higher are preemptive bids, i.e., bids made with weak hands that

especially favor a particular suit, opened at a high level in order to define the hand's value

quickly and to frustrate the opposition. For example, a hand of ♠ KQJ9872 ♥ 7 ♦ 42 ♣ 763

would be a candidate for an opening bid of 3♠, designed to make it difficult for the

opposing team to bid and find their optimum contract even if they have the bulk of the

points, as it is nearly valueless unless spades are trumps, it contains good enough spades

that the penalty for being set should not be higher than the value of an opponent game,

and the high card weakness makes it more likely that the opponents have enough strength

to make game themselves.

Openings at the 2 level are either unusually strong (2NT, natural, and 2♣, artificial) or

preemptive, depending on the system. Unusually strong bids communicate an especially

high number of points (normally 20 or more) or a high trick-taking potential (normally 8

or more).

Opening bids at the one level are made with hands containing 12–13 points or more and

which are not suitable for one of the preceding bids. Using Standard American with 5-

card majors, opening hearts or spades usually promises a 5-card suit. Partnerships who

agree to play 5-card majors open a minor suit with 4-card majors and then bid their major

suit at the next opportunity. This means that an opening bid of 1♣ or 1♦ will sometimes

be made with only 3 cards in that suit.

Doubles are sometimes given conventional meanings in otherwise mostly natural

systems. A natural, or penalty double, is one used to try to gain extra points when the

defenders are confident of setting (defeating) the contract. The most common example of

a conventional double is the takeout double of a low-level suit bid, implying support for

the unbid suits or the unbid major suits and asking partner to choose one of them.

Variations on the basic themes

Bidding systems depart from these basic ideas in varying degrees. Standard American,

for instance, is a collection of conventions designed to bolster the accuracy and power of

these basic ideas, while Precision Club is a system that uses the 1♣ opening bid for all or

almost all strong hands (but sets the threshold for "strong" rather lower than most other

systems — usually 16 high card points) and may include other artificial calls to handle

other situations (but it may contain natural calls as well). Many experts today use a

system called 2/1 game forcing (pronounced two over one game forcing), which is

similar to but more complicated than Standard American. In the UK, Acol is the most

common system.

There are also a variety of advanced techniques used for hand evaluation. The most basic

is the Milton Work point count, (the 4-3-2-1 system detailed above) but this is sometimes

modified in various ways, or either augmented or replaced by other approaches such as

losing trick count, honor point count, law of total tricks, or Zar Points.

Common conventions and variations within natural systems include:

Point count required for 1 NT opening bid ('mini' 10-12, 'weak' 12-14,

'strong' 15-17 or 16-18)

Whether an opening bid of 1♥ and 1♠ requires a minimum of 4 or 5 cards

in the suit (4 or 5 card majors)

Whether 1♣ (and sometimes 1♦) is 'natural' or 'suspect' (also called

'phoney' or 'short'), signifying an opening hand lacking a notable heart or

spade suit

Whether opening bids at the two level are 'strong' (20+ points) or 'weak'

(i.e., pre-emptive with a 6 card suit). (Note: an opening bid of 2♣ is

usually played in otherwise natural systems as conventional, signifying

any exceptionally strong hand)

Blackwood (either the original version or Roman Key Card)

Stayman (together with Blackwood, described as "the two most famous

conventions in Bridge".)

Whether the partnership will play Jacoby transfers (bids of 2♦ and 2♥ over

1NT or 3♦ and 3♥ over 2NT respectively require the 1NT or 2NT bidder

to rebid 2♥ and 2♠ or 3♥ and 3♠), minor suit transfers (bids of 2♠ and

either 2NT or 3♣ over 1NT respectfully require the 1NT bidder to bid 3♣

and 3♦) and Texas transfers (bids of 4♦ and 4♥ respectively require the

1NT, or 2NT bidder to rebid 4♥ and 4♠)

What types of cue bids (e.g. rebidding the opponent's suit) the partnership

will play, if any.

Whether doubling a contract at the 1, 2 and sometimes higher levels

signifies a belief that the opponents' contract will fail and a desire to raise

the stakes (a penalty double), or an indication of strength but no biddable

suit coupled with a request that partner bid something (a takeout double).

How the partnership's bidding practices will be varied if their opponents

intervene or compete.

Which (if any) bids are forcing and require a response.

Within play, it is also commonly agreed what systems of opening leads, signals and

discards will be played:

Conventions for the opening lead govern how the first card to be played

will be chosen and what it will mean,

Signals indicate how cards played within a suit are chosen — for example,

playing a noticeably high card when this would not be expected can signal

encouragement to continue playing the suit, and a low card can signal

discouragement and a desire for partner to choose some other suit. (Some

partnerships use "reverse" signals, meaning that a noticeably high card

discourages that suit and a noticeably low card encourages that suit, thus

not "wasting" a potentially useful intermediate card in the suit of interest.)

Discards cover the situation when a defender cannot follow suit and

therefore has free choice what card to play or throw away. In such

circumstances the thrown-away card can be used to indicate some aspect

of the hand, or a desire for a specific suit to be played.

Count signals cover the situation when a defender is following suit

(usually to a suit that the declarer has led). In such circumstances the order

in which a defender plays his spot cards will indicate whether an even or

odd number of cards was originally held in that suit. This can help the

other defender count out the entire original distribution of the cards in that

suit. It is sometimes critical to know this when defending.

Advanced bidding techniques

Every call (including "pass", also sometimes called "no bid") serves two purposes. It

confirms or passes some information to a partner, and also denies by implication any

other kind of hand which would have tended to support an alternative call. For example, a

bid of 2NT immediately after partner's 1NT not only shows a balanced hand of a certain

point range, but also would almost always deny possession of a five-card major suit

(otherwise the player would have bid it) or even a four card major suit (in that case, the

player would probably have used the Stayman convention).

Likewise, in some partnerships the bid of 2♥ in the sequence 1NT - 2♣ - 2♦ - 2♥ between

partners (opponents passing throughout) explicitly shows five hearts but also confirms

four cards in spades: the bidder must hold at least five hearts to make it worth looking for

a heart fit after 2♦ denied a four card major, and with at least five hearts, a Stayman bid

must have been justified by having exactly four spades, the other major (since Stayman

(as used by this partnership) is not useful with anything except a four card major suit).

Thus an astute partner can read much more than the surface meaning into the bidding.

Alternatively, many partnerships play this same bidding sequence as "Crawling Stayman"

by which the responder shows a weak hand (less than eight high card points) with

shortness in diamonds but at least four hearts and four spades; the opening bidder may

correct to spades if that appears to be the better contract.

The situations detailed here are extremely simple examples; many instances of advanced

bidding involve specific agreements related to very specific situations and subtle

inferences regarding entire sequences of calls.

............................................

This book present some of the most important bridge bidding systems used in duplicate

bridge tournaments, detailing the most known bridge bidding system, Standard American

Yellow Card, by using a logical sequential order for openings, answers, competitive bids

and defensive play in order to help the players during the games.

Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of arriving at a good final

contract in the auction.

A bidding system in contract bridge is the set of agreements and understandings assigned

to calls and sequences of calls used by a partnership, and includes a full description of the

meaning of each treatment and convention.

Standard American Yellow Card is a specific set of partnership agreements and

conventions, using Standard American as a base. Standard American Yellow Card is a

very specific collection of agreements, which can, of course, be modified and augmented

by partnership agreement. In practical use, the term is often mis-used to refer to Standard

American in general, or it could refer to a system that used SAYC as a base and made

additional augmentations or changes to the base agreements.

For sponsorship opportunities please contact me.

Digital edition (EPUB, Kindle, PDF): http://www.setthings.com/e-books/bridge-bidding-

standard-american-yellow-card/

Print edition: https://www.createspace.com/5189698

Bidding Systems

2/1 game forcing

Acol

Blue Club

Boring Club

Bridge Base Basic

EHAA

Fantunes

Little Major

OK bridge 2/1

Polish Club

Precision Club

Roman Club

Romex System

Saffle Spade

Strong Club System

Standard American

Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC)

Openings

Jump to 5NT

Competitive bidding

Defensive bidding

References

About the author

Nicolae Sfetcu

Experience in the domains of engineering, Quality Assurance, electronics and Internet

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Teleactivities

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Initiator, cofounder and president of Romanian Teleworking Society

Cofounder of the Mehedinti Branch of the General Association of Engineers in Romania

Physicist engineer - Bachelor of Physics, Major Nuclear Physics

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