Yahoo! Games

BRIDGE RULES

Bridge Home

History
Basics
Game Play
Scoring
Expert Play
Glossary

Go To: More About Bidding - More About Playing

More About Bidding

Good bridge bidding is not simply guesswork. Much effort has been spent by players and theorists to develop bidding systems that allow players, within the limited framework of the legal bids that are available, to describe their hands to their partners in considerable detail. Countless bridge books have been written just on bidding. In the hands of an expert, bidding can be a scientific language designed to find the ideal contract a high percentage of the time. Especially when both partnerships are bidding in a hand, however, players must do a certain amount of educated guesswork.

Point-count bidding, introduced by Bryant McCampbell in the pre-contract bridge days of 1915, is the basic method used today to evaluate hands for bidding purposes. Players count their high-card points as follows: 4 points for each ace, 3 for each king, 2 for each queen, and 1 for each jack. In a typical bidding system, a player who opens--that is, is the first to say something other than pass--by bidding one of a suit is promising to have a minimum of around 13 high card points and at least four cards in the bid suit. (With few exceptions, it's perfectly legal to make a bid with a hand that doesn't meet the promised requirements--but misleading one's partner will too often lead to a bad result.) Hands with as few as six points may be opened--usually at the level of two or three--if they contain long, reasonably strong suits of six cards or more. It may seem strange to bid at a higher level with fewer points, but if a hand's strength is based on a particular suit being trump, it's a good tactic to start high to make it riskier for the opponents--who are likely to hold more than half the high-card points in the deck--to enter the bidding.

Back to Top

An opening bid of one no trump is normally reserved for a balanced hand--meaning no voids (suits with no cards) or singletons (suits with just one card), and at most one doubleton (a suit with just two cards in it), and a narrow point range, frequently 16-18 (a "strong no trump") or 13-15 (a "weak no trump").

In responding to a partner's bid, a player usually passes with a very weak hand (fewer than 6 points), raises a level with support for partner's suit (three or more cards in that suit) and 6-10 points, and jumps in partner's suit with support and a stronger hand. It's also common to bid a new suit or bid no trump.

Some bids are "conventional"--that is, they have special, preagreed meanings that have nothing to do with what they sound like. For example, a jump to four no trump is usually a conventional bid known as Blackwood, asking one's partner to indicate how many aces he or she holds. (A response of five clubs in most systems would indicate 0 or 4 aces; five diamonds would mean 1 ace; five hearts, two aces; and five spades, three aces.) When partner opens one no trump, a response of two clubs is usually the Stayman Convention, asking partner to bid a four-card major suit (hearts or spades) if possible, or to deny having such a suit by bidding two diamonds. Such conventions must be understood by everyone at the table. It is important to understand that secret understandings are illegal, and are a form of cheating; opponents are always entitled to ask what bids mean, and players have an ethical duty to alert opponents to unusual systems they may be using. Of course, it's also illegal to convey information by any method other than bidding--so, for example, if a player hesitates and then passes, the player's partner may not make an inference from it and must bid as though there had been no hesitation (in tournaments, committees are sometimes formed to judge whether a hesitation may have affected a bid). It's also improper for a defender to try to fool the declarer by hesitating during the play even though he or she has no meaningful choice about what card to play; declarer, on the other hand, is fully entitled to take advantage of opponents' hesitations and apparent worry. One advantage of playing bridge at Yahoo! is that many of the ethical problems of face-to-face play, from facial expressions to tone of voice, are eliminated. Similarly, many of the complicated penalties for violating the rules of play (see "penalty card" and "revoke" in the glossary) cannot come up.

Back to Top

One of the basic goals of bidding is to identify the best trump suit for a partnership--usually one in which the partnership holds at least eight cards between them. The other main goal is to identify the right level for the contract--how high to bid. The way bridge scoring works, a small number of points is earned for each trick bid and made, but there are large point bonuses for bidding and making a game or a slam. As explained above, a game is a bid of at least three no trump, four of a major suit (spades or hearts), or five of a minor suit (diamonds or clubs). A small slam is a bid of six of any suit, and a grand slam is a bid of seven in any suit (contracting to take all 13 tricks). Whether to risk bidding a slam when one can safely make a game is the kind of difficult but interesting decision players often face.

As a rough guide, a partnership can expect to make a game in no trump or a major suit with about 26 points between them, in a minor suit with about 29 points, a small slam with about 33 points, and a grand slam with 37 points. Long suits can reduce the point requirement somewhat, and players who have support for their partner's suit can add bonus points for distributional features: 1 point for a doubleton, 3 points for a singleton, and 5 points for a void. Players bidding a slam also need to be sure they can control every suit: It's possible to hold 33 of the 40 high-card points in a deck and still lose the first two tricks to the ace and king of a suit.

Back to Top

Next: More About Playing

More About Bidding
	Good bridge bidding is not simply guesswork. Much effort has been spent by players and theorists to develop bidding systems that allow players, within the limited framework of the legal bids that are available, to describe their hands to their partners in considerable detail. Countless bridge books have been written just on bidding. In the hands of an expert, bidding can be a scientific language designed to find the ideal contract a high percentage of the time. Especially when both partnerships are bidding in a hand, however, players must do a certain amount of educated guesswork. Point-count bidding, introduced by Bryant McCampbell in the pre-contract bridge days of 1915, is the basic method used today to evaluate hands for bidding purposes. Players count their high-card points as follows: 4 points for each ace, 3 for each king, 2 for each queen, and 1 for each jack. In a typical bidding system, a player who opens--that is, is the first to say something other than pass--by bidding one of a suit is promising to have a minimum of around 13 high card points and at least four cards in the bid suit. (With few exceptions, it's perfectly legal to make a bid with a hand that doesn't meet the promised requirements--but misleading one's partner will too often lead to a bad result.) Hands with as few as six points may be opened--usually at the level of two or three--if they contain long, reasonably strong suits of six cards or more. It may seem strange to bid at a higher level with fewer points, but if a hand's strength is based on a particular suit being trump, it's a good tactic to start high to make it riskier for the opponents--who are likely to hold more than half the high-card points in the deck--to enter the bidding. Back to Top An opening bid of one no trump is normally reserved for a balanced hand--meaning no voids (suits with no cards) or singletons (suits with just one card), and at most one doubleton (a suit with just two cards in it), and a narrow point range, frequently 16-18 (a "strong no trump") or 13-15 (a "weak no trump"). In responding to a partner's bid, a player usually passes with a very weak hand (fewer than 6 points), raises a level with support for partner's suit (three or more cards in that suit) and 6-10 points, and jumps in partner's suit with support and a stronger hand. It's also common to bid a new suit or bid no trump. Some bids are "conventional"--that is, they have special, preagreed meanings that have nothing to do with what they sound like. For example, a jump to four no trump is usually a conventional bid known as Blackwood, asking one's partner to indicate how many aces he or she holds. (A response of five clubs in most systems would indicate 0 or 4 aces; five diamonds would mean 1 ace; five hearts, two aces; and five spades, three aces.) When partner opens one no trump, a response of two clubs is usually the Stayman Convention, asking partner to bid a four-card major suit (hearts or spades) if possible, or to deny having such a suit by bidding two diamonds. Such conventions must be understood by everyone at the table. It is important to understand that secret understandings are illegal, and are a form of cheating; opponents are always entitled to ask what bids mean, and players have an ethical duty to alert opponents to unusual systems they may be using. Of course, it's also illegal to convey information by any method other than bidding--so, for example, if a player hesitates and then passes, the player's partner may not make an inference from it and must bid as though there had been no hesitation (in tournaments, committees are sometimes formed to judge whether a hesitation may have affected a bid). It's also improper for a defender to try to fool the declarer by hesitating during the play even though he or she has no meaningful choice about what card to play; declarer, on the other hand, is fully entitled to take advantage of opponents' hesitations and apparent worry. One advantage of playing bridge at Yahoo! is that many of the ethical problems of face-to-face play, from facial expressions to tone of voice, are eliminated. Similarly, many of the complicated penalties for violating the rules of play (see "penalty card" and "revoke" in the glossary) cannot come up. Back to Top One of the basic goals of bidding is to identify the best trump suit for a partnership--usually one in which the partnership holds at least eight cards between them. The other main goal is to identify the right level for the contract--how high to bid. The way bridge scoring works, a small number of points is earned for each trick bid and made, but there are large point bonuses for bidding and making a game or a slam. As explained above, a game is a bid of at least three no trump, four of a major suit (spades or hearts), or five of a minor suit (diamonds or clubs). A small slam is a bid of six of any suit, and a grand slam is a bid of seven in any suit (contracting to take all 13 tricks). Whether to risk bidding a slam when one can safely make a game is the kind of difficult but interesting decision players often face. As a rough guide, a partnership can expect to make a game in no trump or a major suit with about 26 points between them, in a minor suit with about 29 points, a small slam with about 33 points, and a grand slam with 37 points. Long suits can reduce the point requirement somewhat, and players who have support for their partner's suit can add bonus points for distributional features: 1 point for a doubleton, 3 points for a singleton, and 5 points for a void. Players bidding a slam also need to be sure they can control every suit: It's possible to hold 33 of the 40 high-card points in a deck and still lose the first two tricks to the ace and king of a suit. Back to Top Next: More About Playing