|
Top
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O
P Q R
S T U
V W X
Y Z
|
| 4 card majors |
Playing 4 card majors
you may open the auction by bidding (say) 1
when you have just four of them.
|
| 5 card majors
|
Playing 5 card majors to open the auction with (say) 1
you must have five hearts.
|
| Acol |
A bidding system favoured in the UK.
See the Acol article.
|
| advancer |
The partner of the overcaller.
|
| alert |
So the opponents know what is going on with your bidding (no secrets) after partner makes
a bid that may not be obvious in meaning (typically a convention) your must show the alert card,
then if asked (and only if asked) explain
the bid.
See announce.
|
| announce |
In the
EBU
some obvious bids are announced, not
alerted.
For these the partner of the bidder directly says what
the bid is. The bids that are announced are: 1NT (partner says 12-14),
transfers (partner says the suit
transferred into),
weak twos (partner says weak) and
Stayman (partner says Stayman).
|
| atttitude |
Your attitude to a suit is how much you like it, whether or not you want your partner to lead it.
|
| auction |
The bidding by all four players that is done before play starts, to determine the
contract.
|
| balance |
If you are in the
pass-out seat
you can safely assume
that the opponents don't have too many
points
(they've stopped bidding) and your partner
has a few more than he has shown. Thus with a weaker hand than normal you may enter the bidding
- this is known as balancing. Also known as protecting.
|
| balanced hand |
A hand that has no
singletons and at most one
doubleton is described as balanced.
The shape is
therefore 5-3-3-2, 4-4-3-2 or 4-3-3-3.
|
| Benji Acol |
A slight variation on Acol which combines strong and weak twos. See Benji Acol convention.
|
| bid |
Calling a suit and level, e.g. 1 .
Not the same as a
call.
|
| Blackwood |
A
convention
to check the partnership has enough aces to bid a slam.
Although I do love conventions
I would say Blackwood is overused, there are other ways to get to a slam.
See Blackwood convention.
|
| Bridge Base |
A popular and free program for playing bridge online.
See the Bridge Base article.
|
| call |
Any action, ie a
bid,
pass,
double or
redouble.
|
| canape |
Canape style is bidding your short suit then your long one. It's part of
some (French?) systems, but
even in Acol you might do it with e.g., opening 1 as
it is a major suit (if you choose to open at all, don't open
2 whatever you do).
2
K Q J 9 8
K J 8 7 6 4
 3
|
| cash |
To cash means to win, and you normally cash winners. For example with AK3 of spades you
might cash the ace and king.
|
| claim |
To claim is to say that you are going to win all the remaining tricks, or some
specified number of tricks. For example if you know you're the only person with trumps left and
are sure you are going to win all the tricks you can claim the rest. You might also for
example claim 5 of the last 6 tricks, perhaps saying "I'll give you the ace of clubs
but the rest are mine."
|
| cold |
A contract is cold if it is bound to make. This is used normally for the particular lie of the cards,
so even if it was madness to bid it needing two finesses you still might say
7 was cold. To add emphasis a contract might be called frigid, ice cold or
just icy. Interestingly the oppopsite of cold is not warm, but 'cold off'.
|
| contract |
The number of tricks a pair must make with a specified trump suit. The last bid of the auction
determines the contract.
See How To Play section.
|
| control |
Having a control in a suit means
being able to stop the opponents winning too many tricks in it before you get in.
Controls are normally checked for slams. First round control means an ace or a void,
second round control a king or a singleton.
See
stopper.
|
| conventions |
Bids with unusual and potentially confusing meanings,
which must be discussed in advance by the partnership.
The opposite of a natural bid.
See
conventions page.
|
| count |
The number of cards you have of a suit.
|
| cue bid |
A confusing term with several overlapping meanings.
Generally a cue bid is a non-natural bid of a suit you
may not have strength in. Specifically a cue bid
can be bidding the opponents suit to show general strength,
bidding a suit to show a control (ace/void or maybe king/singleton) in it,
or some other conventional meaning, e.g.
Michaels Cue Bids.
One thing cue bids have in common is
that they are alertable and
forcing.
|
| deal |
One deal is one round of bridge, bidding auction and scoring. To deal is also obviously
a verb meaning to give everyone 13 cards. The auction always starts with the dealer.
|
| declarer |
The person who plays his own cards and the dummy's. It is he who must make the
contract.
|
| defender |
One of the two players on the team against the declarer and dummy.
His job is to try and stay alert and set
the contract.
|
| discard |
A card thrown away when you can't follow suit (or
ruff).
Dicards can be used to give signals to your
partner.
|
| double |
A call that, if everyone then passes, will
mean the current contract is doubled. This doubles the stakes, so the rewards for the
declarer if he makes or the defenders if the contract is set are increased
(see scoring page).
Most doubles however are conventional in
meaning, with the expectation that partner will bid on and so annul the double.
See
takeout doubles convention.
|
| doubleton |
On the pattern of
singleton, two cards only in a suit
are called a doubleton, e.g.
3 2
10 9 7 2
Q J 6 4 3
J 7
is a hand with two doubletons. Try and avoid the phrase 'trebleton' (or higher).
|
| duck |
To duck is to play a low card when you could win the trick. There are many good reasons for this.
Also known as a hold-up play.
|
| dummy |
The partner of declarer, dummy places his cards face up on the table after the first card is played.
He then makes tea and returns in 10 minutes for the next hand.
|
| EBU |
The English Bridge Union.
|
| endplay |
A defender gets endplayed if he is forced to win a trick and then has to make a lead that helps
declarer.
Suppose W has:
and the declarer South has:
Once South plays a heart W will be forced to win and lead away from his K 2, giving declarer the last
two tricks. he's been endplayed.
|
| entry |
An entry is a winning card in either your hand or dummy, which will allow you to move between the hands.
Suppose your are declarer sitting South with dummy North:
A 4
6 5 4 2
J 8 7
Q 8 7 2
and the declarer South has:
K 5 3 2
A Q J
A 5 4 3
A K .
Dummy has only one entry (the ace of spades) so you can only finesse hearts once. Many times when hands
go disastrously wrong it's because of lack of entries.
|
| favourable vulnerability |
When you have favourable vulnerability the opponents are
vulnerable
and you are not. Now's the time to push the boat out.
|
| finesse |
A golden bridge term. Here is an example finesse: you have ace-queen in a suit, the player
immmediately before you has the king. If a low card is led towards your ace-queen the player
with the king is 'finessed'. If he plays the king you will beat it with your ace, if he does
not play the king you can win cheaply with your queen. For more on finesses see
finesse article.
|
| fit |
A fit can mean two things. Firstly it just means the number of cards of a suit held by a partnership.
For example if North has 5 hearts and South has 3 then they have an 8 card fit.
The second (related) meaning
means how well the hands match. Two hands with a good fit can make more tricks than expected, a bad fit
the opposite. These two hands have a good fit (in NT) and can make 12 tricks.
A J
Q 2
Q J 6 4 3
10 9 7 2
K Q 7 6 4 2
K 2
A K
A 4 2
These two fit badly:
A J
8 6 4 2
K Q J 6 4
2 7
|
| forcing |
If you make a forcing bid your partner is not allowed to pass it
(unless opponent's interfere) so you'll get to bid again anyway.
|
| four hand |
A bridge match for four people, consisting of four hands, with each combination of vulnerability.
At the end of four hands the team with the highest cumulative points wins.
Also known as Chicago scoring.
|
| game |
Making 3 in NT, 4 in a major or 5 in a minor (or more) is considered a game and carries a hefty points
bonus. Notice it is easier (but less glorious) to make a game in the majors.
See scoring section.
|
| Gerber |
Just as a
Blackwood 4NT asks for aces in a suit contract 4
asks for aces in a NT contract. The responses are:
| 4 | 0 or 4 aces
| | 4 | 1 aces
| | 4 | 2 aces
| | 4NT | 3 aces
|
and then 5 asks for kings in an analogous way to Blackwood.
|
| hand |
A hand is a collectin of 13 cards belonging to one player. For example
A 7 6 5 4 3
A Q 7 6
2
K 4
is an excellent hand. Hand can also refer to the complete
deal | high |
A card is high when it is the highest remaining unplayed card of the suit. For example if the ace and king
go on the first trick then the queen is high. Sometimes declarer needs to remember what previous high cards
have been played to know, for example, that his 8 is high.
|
| HCP |
High card points. To evaluate the strength of your hand you can add up the high card points (HCPs). An ace scores 4, a King 3, a queen
2 and a Jack 1. So for example:
A Q J 10 2
K Q J
10 9
A J
would be a strong hand weighing in with 18 HCP.
|
| hook | A hook is a
finesse.
|
| honour |
A high card, Ace King Queen Jack or Ten.
|
| IMP |
An 'International Match Point', an IMP is what all the
points you win get converted into in scoring
a bridge match.
See
scoring section.
|
| initiator* |
The person who starts a convention, e.g. in
Stayman the bidder of 2 is
the initiator.
|
| insult |
If you make a
doubled contract you will receive an extra 50 points, 'for the insult'. A redoubled contract you
get 100, for 'salt in the wound'.
|
| inverted minors |
A
convention which switches the meanings of bids of 2
and 3 when responding to a 1 opening.
The same in diamonds.
See
inverted minors convention.
|
| line |
A method of playing a hand. For one hand there are always several possible lines. For example one
line could be drawing trumps straight away, another line finessing hearts first etc.
|
| limit bid |
Or limit raise. A bid which signifies a specific range of points. For example if partner opens
1 your bid of 1NT would (in Acol)
show 6-9 HCP. A bid of 1 shows 6+ so is not limiting.
|
| loser |
A card in a hand that is expected to lose a trick. This is not always clear and there are different
ways of counting losers. A suit such as
A 4 3 clearly has two losers, but its not always that obvious.
The hand below I would count as 7 losers, a typical opening hand.
A 10 9 8
Q 3 2
9 6 5 3
A K
See Anna's Losing Trick Count article.
|
| makes |
If a contract is made then you have fulfilled it, in this meaning it is the opposite to being
set. For
example if you are playing 3NT and you get 9 tricks then the contract was made.
You can also use 'made' hypothetically, for example say "3NT yes but
5 also makes",
|
| Michaels cue bids |
A convention to show a two suited hand. When the opponents open, an overcall of their suit shows
a 5-5 distribution in the
majors (if the overcalled suit is a
minor) else it shows 5-5 with one minor
and the other major. Together with
unusual 2NT a powerful combination of bids to have.
See Michael's Cue Bid article.
|
| major |
The 'majors' are and . A
game in the majors is
4 or 4.
|
| matchpoints |
An alternative scoring to IMPs where the results are merely ranked across all tables and
the size of differences in points
does not matter.
See IMPs and
matchpoints article and scoring section.
|
| minor |
The 'minors' are and . To make a game in the
minors you must bid all the way to 5 or 5
, so majors or NT are normally preferred.
|
| misfit |
When you and your partner have good suits individually but no combined good suit (no
fit)
you have a misfit. For example if one of you is strong in majors the other in minors:
|
| | K Q 10 7 6 4
| Q 9 8 4 2
| A
| 4
| |
| | -
| A 2
| Q J 9 4 3 2
| A K J 10 5
|
Although both hands look good the hands are a misfit and the hand
will be difficult to play. With a misfit try and keep the bidding low.
|
|
Top
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O
P Q R
S T U
V W X
Y Z
|
| natural |
A natural bid is one which carries the obvious meaning, i.e. you are strong in the suit bid
and if the bid is high you have a good hand.
|
| no trumps |
A contract played in no trumps quite literally has no trumps. So the highest card of the suit led wins the
trick.
|
| open |
To be the first to bid in an
auction. The openers
partner is the
responder.
|
| overcall |
To bid after the opponents have opened the bidding.
Generally the first of the team to overcall the opponents
is known as the overcaller, and his partner the
advancer.
Here E is the opener, W the responder, N the overcaller and S the advancer. These terms are rarely used.
See overcalls article and
responding to overcalls article.
|
| overtrick |
Any trick in excess of those required to make the contract. For example making 12 tricks in
4 is two overtricks.
|
| pairs match |
A bridge match between many competing pairs, some designated E-W and some N-S. Each
hand is played by
many tables so the scores can be compared and at the end the best E-W pair and the best N-S pair
determined.
|
| pass |
To make no
call, this is what you do when you have bad cards.
|
| pass-out seat |
The seat where if you pass the auction ends. E.g. if dealer opens 1 and there
are two passes to you you're in the pass-out seat. It's normal to bid here with a little less than usual
(see balancing).
|
| part score |
The points awardedfor a contract made below the level of a game,
for example 3.
Making a part score earns a 50 point bonus, so 3 would score
110 in total.
See scoring page.
|
| partner |
Bridge is a team game played by two pairs. The person who sits opposite you is your
partner.
|
| penalty double |
A
natural
double, with the intention for partner to pass and you to set the contract.
|
| points |
This has two meanings.
Firstly the amount of points a hand has is equal to the number of
HCP plus (or minus) rewards for the
shape of the hand. This is a bit subjective.
In no trumps it is mostly just HCP are important,
but in suit contracts the shape of the hands is very
important and it is points that determine what to bid.
A 10 9 8
Q 3 2
K J 5
8 5 2
A Q 10 9 8
2
K J 8 5 3 2
2
Although they both have 10 HCP the firt hand is mediocre, the second monster.
Secondly points are awarded after each hand depending on whether the contract
makes or
sets.
See
scoring page.
|
| pre-emptive bid |
This is bridge's equivalent of the 'bluff' in poker (to some extent, perhaps a poor analogy).
A pre-emptive bid is a high bid made with a hand that is not very good. But the hand is strong
in the suit bid. The hope is that the opposition, who presumably have most of the HCP, will
now struggle to find the best contract due to your meddling.
10 9 8
10 2
K J 10 9 5 3 2
2
With favourable vulnerability this hand might be worth a bold
3 opening bid. Even if you go down (maybe doubled) this may
be better than letting them play and make 4 or
4.
See weak twos article.
|
| principle of restricted choice |
This is a rule that affects the probabilities of which opponent has missing honours.
See the principle article.
|
| psyche |
A deliberate misbid. The hope is that opponent's will suffer more than partner and you will
get a good result. Psyche's are legal (as long as partner is as much in the dark as the
opponent's) but are sometimes frowned on.
|
| punt |
A speculative bid of a contract which could be wrong. I find most punts are bids of 5.
|
| puppet Stayman |
An alternative to
Stayman, which has the dual advantages of helping you find a 5-3 fit and being
more complicated. After 2 the repsonses for opener are:
| 2 no 5 card major
| | 2 5 hearts
| | 2 5 hearts
|
Then after a negative 2 response responder bids:
| 2 4 hearts
| | 2 4 spades
| | 2NT 4 hearts & 4 spades
|
See puppet Stayman convention.
|
| quack* |
Queen and Jack. E.g. "I had ace quack in diamonds, just missing the king".
|
| redouble |
Made after a
double, this further ups the stakes.
Like with doubles, most redoubles are for
takeout.
|
| relay |
A bid that means nothing, and is just done so that partner can bid again and further
describe his hand. Usually a
relay bid is the lowest possible bid.
A common example is after the strong 2
opening the responder will give a relay bid of 2.
|
| responder |
The partner of the opener.
|
| reverse |
A reverse bid is when opener rebids a new suit at the two level that is higher than the
suit he opened with. This forces the bidding high, so is only done on good (16-19) opening
hands.
Here West's second bid of 2 is a reverse bid, as if East wants
to go back to the first suit he must do it at the three level. Something like
(West-East bidding only) 1-1-2 is not
a reverse as East can go back to the first suit a the two level. As you always start bidding your
longest suit (picking the lowest in a tie) a reverse shows (at least) 5 cards in the first suit
and (at least) four in the second. A typical hand for the reverse in the first auction above is
J
A 8 5 4
A K J 10 9
K Q 4
Here with 18 HCP you open 1 then plan to reverse with
2. Note with a weak (12-15) opening hand you cannot reverse.
This can cause problems! When you open the bidding, plan what you intend to bid next.
|
| RKCB |
>Roman key card Blackwood.
A more sophisticated version of Blackwood which counts the king of trumps as a fifth ace. This alters the responses
to be (in the version known as 3014):
| 5 | 0 or 3 aces
| | 5 | 1 or 4 aces
| | 5 | 2 aces
| | 5 | 2 aces + queen of trump
|
5NT also has a souped up meaning asking for
specific kings or more about the queen of trumps (different versions).
See RKCB convention.
|
| rubber bridge |
A bridge match for four people. The points are scored as in my scoring section with a few archaic
bonuses. As each hand is only played by one set of people who ever gets the best cards tends
to win.
|
| ruff |
To ruff a trick is to trump it. Ruff as a noun is an instance of ruffing. Although it appears at first 'ruff'
is just a strange word for 'trump' it is useful, as 'trump'
also refers to the cards themselves whereas 'ruff' does not.
|
| sacrifice |
A bid that is expected to go down (probably doubled) but it is hoped the penalty for this is better than the
opponents making their contract.
|
| SAYC |
Standard American Yellow Card, an alternative bidding system to Acol.
See the Acol article for a comparison,
|
| semi-balanced hand |
Something imbetween balanced and unblanced (obviously), e.g. 5-4-2-2, 4-4-4-1 or 6-3-2-2. A cavalier
player will open in NT with a semi-balanced hand.
|
| set |
A contract that is set fails. For example if you only make 5 tricks playing 1NT
then you have been set (and are down two). A set contract also goes down, bombs etc.
|
| shape |
You can describe a hand by the distribution of the suits, e.g.
Q 10 8
K 3 2
9 6 5 3
J 7 3
is a hand with four diamonds and three spades hearts and clubs. Generally this hand would be
described as being 4-3-3-3 (listing longest suit first) though sometimes if the length in
specific suits was important it would be called 3-3-4-3 (spades first is standard).
This distribution of
cards is called the shape.
|
| sign off |
A 'sign off' bid is a bid that is expected to be the last, and is made with the hope that
partner will not bid again.
A typical sign off bid might be a jump to game. Depending on how you play in the auction
| W | N | E | S
|
|---|
| - | 1
| - | 4
| | - | -
| - |
|
the bid of 4 may be seen as a sign off.
|
| signal |
A signal is a card played by one defender to give a message to his partner. Signalling is also called
carding. There are basically three kinds: count - showing the number of cards of a suit you have;
attitude; showing how much you like a suit; suit preference - showing which suit you like.
See the defensive signals article.
|
| singleton |
Just having one card in a suit makes it a singleton, e.g.
2
10 9 7 2
K Q J 4 3
J 7 3
is a hand singleton in spades.
|
| slam |
A bid at the six level is known as a small slam, and a bid at the 7 level (the highest level) is a grand slam.
Making either of these carries a monster points bonus.
|
| splinter |
A fairly common convention.
After partner opens a double jump in a new suit shows trump support and an opening hand, with a void or singleton
in the suit you bid.
See splinter convention.
|
| spot card |
A low card, from the 2 to the 9. The 10 is counted as an honour.
|
| Stayman |
A very common convention. After partner opens 1NT a bid of 2 from you
asks him to bid a 4 card major, if he has one.
See stayman convention.
|
| stop |
This card in the bidding box is rarely used. It should be used after you make a jump bid (e.g. bidding
3 when 2 was available, to allow the next opponent
a bit more thinking time.
|
| stopper |
A stopper means cards that will stop the opponents winning the first three or four tricks in that suit. Kx or Qxx say.
Stoppers are useful especially for NT games.
|
| strong NT |
Playing strong NT you would only open 1NT with a balanced hand with 15-17 (sometimes 16-18) HCP.
|
| strong two |
Playing strong twos an opening bid at the two level shows a strong hand, strong in that suit.
|
| strong two clubs |
This is a convention played very commonly. The meaning of an opening bid of 2
is the strongest possible opening, showing an excellent hand. It need not be a hand that is strong in clubs.
Some people reserve a 2 opening for hands with 23+ HCP, others include
distributional hands and will also use 2 for a hand with (say) 4 or less losers.
I would say any of the three hands below are suitable:
A K 5
K Q 8
A Q J 3
K Q J
K Q
A Q J
A K J 9 5 3
A 2
A K Q 2
A Q J 10 9 7 5
A 10
-
See strong two clubs convention.
|
| suit |
Clubs (), diamonds
(), hearts (),
spades ().
For the auction 'no trump' can be considered the fifth suit.
|
| suit contract |
A contract not played in no trumps.
|
| support |
When partner bids a suit you are also strong in it's normally best to support him, by bidding
that suit too. An eight card or better fit is best so if he has shown 4+ hearts say, with 4
herats in your hand you can support him. Don't get a reputation for never supporting your partner
by stubbornly bidding your own suit over and over.
|
| switch |
To switch (when in defence) means to give up playing one suit and try another.
It's common for the defence to continue with
the suit they started with, but sometimes a clever switch is needed to beat the contract.
|
| takeout |
A bid made with the intention that partner will take it out and bid someting else.
|
| takeout double |
A double, usually of a low contract, which is intended for partner to take out, ie remove by bidding.
Compare with penalty double.
See takeout double convention.
|
| teams match |
A match between two or more teams of four. Within each team the E-W pair plays other
N-S pairs and vice versa. Normally the match is between two teams on two tables.
On each table the same hand is played, with each team
providing the E-W pair on one table and the N-S team on the other.
|
| tenace |
A classic bridge word. In practice this means two non-conscutive high cards, typically
an ace-queen. If your hand has many tenaces you'd like to be fourth to play, so you know
which card to play when it comes to your turn.
|
| transfer |
A transfer is a bid that asks partner to bid the suit directly above. For example after a bid of
2 partner would be expected to bid 2.
Although they seem needlessly confusing these bids are very useful, especially after a 1NT opening.
See transfer convention.
|
| trick |
A set of four cards, one from each player. The highest card in each trick wins that trick and plays
first to the next trick.
|
| unbalanced hand |
A hand that has an unusual shape, e.g. one 6-4-2-1 or 5-5-3-0. An unbalanced hand can provide ruffs
and compensate for lack of HCP.
|
| unusual 2NT |
A similar convention to a
Michaels cue bid. After opponents open a major an overcall of 2NT shows 5-5
distribution in the unusual 2NT convention.
|
| void |
To be void in a suit is to have no card in it. The hand below is very powerful as it has two voids (you will
never get such a hand).
J 10 8 7 5 4
-
-
A J 10 5 4 3 2
|
| vulnerable |
For each hand each partnership is either vulnerable (red) or non-vulnerable (green).
If you are vulnerable then should you make a game the points you are awarded are greater, however
should your contract be set the penalties are also greater. Thus if you are vulnerable it is common
to stretch to make a game (for the big game bonus) but also be wary of overbidding
and being doubled. The vulnerability
normally just cycles round the four combinations.
favourable vulnerability, and scoring page.
|
| weak NT |
Playing weak <no trump an opening bid of 1NT is made with a balanced hand of 12-14 HCP.
|
|
Top
A B C
D E F
G H I
J K L
M N O
P Q R
S T U
V W X
Y Z
|
