Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game for four players who form two partnerships, or "sides". The partners on each side sit opposite one another. Game play is in two phases: bidding and playing.

Bidding systems and conventions

A pair is allowed to try to pass information about their hands, but this is restricted in two ways:

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• Information may only be passed by the calls made and later by the cards played, and not by any other means.
• All information passed must be available to the opponents. At a minimum, a player must fully explain a call or play made by her partner upon being asked by an opponent. In club and tournament play, this is usually done through partnership convention cards and the alert procedure.

Thus, one may have all kinds of meanings for bids, as long as they are told to the opponents. However, the meanings that one can have for various bids are sometimes restricted at tournaments.

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The meaning of the various bids in a partnership are called that partnership's bidding system. A number of different bidding systems exist, such as Goren, Acol, Standard American, and Precision Club. Many experts today use a system called Two Over One (2/1 Game Forcing).

Related Topics:
Goren - Acol - Standard American - Precision Club - 2/1 Game Forcing

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Bids, Doubles, Redoubles, and even Passes can be either natural or conventional. A natural bid is a proposal to reach a contract in the named suit. A conventional bid is an attempt to communicate, offering and/or asking for information about the partnerships' hands.

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A natural suit bid is one that implies some length in the suit bid. For example, an opening bid of one spade, showing at least 5 cards in spades (and nothing about any other suit lengths), would be natural.

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A conventional suit bid provides information unrelated to the suit named. For example, an opening bid of one club, showing 16 or more points, but saying nothing about how many clubs are held, would be conventional.

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A natural notrump bid is one that implies a balanced distribution of cards among all suits (generally distributions of 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, and 5-3-3-2 cards, although some players will treat other hand patterns as "balanced") and a certain number of points as agreed upon by the partnership.

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A conventional notrump bid says none of these things. The most common examples of conventional notrump bids are the Unusual notrump (showing length in 2 unbid suits) and the Blackwood convention.

Related Topics:
Unusual notrump - Blackwood convention

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A natural double (also called penalty) is one that implies an intent to defend and defeat the current contract.

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A conventional double is one that conveys some other meaning. The most common example of a conventional double is the Takeout double of a low-level bid, implying support for the unbid suits and asking partner to choose one of them.

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A forcing bid is one that, by agreement, requires partner to give the bidder another chance to bid. Unless the bidder's left-hand opponent bids, the partner promises to make a bid. A common example of such a treatment is the Forcing notrump, as well as all the conventions listed below.

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There are many conventions. Some of the most famous are Stayman, Jacoby transfers and Blackwood.

Related Topics:
Stayman - Jacoby transfers - Blackwood

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The decision as to how high and what suit to bid is fundamental to the game, but broadly it will depend on how highly one values one's hand. There are a number of techniques used for this. The most basic is the Milton Work point count. This can be augmented by other guidelines such as losing trick count, law of total tricks or Zar Points.

Related Topics:
The Milton Work point count - Losing trick count - Law of total tricks

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