Bridge for the Dummy
(and other positions at the table)
many of these are on other pages, so follow the link.
Biddable suit = 4 cards long with 4 points or 5 cards or more
is a card game to be played by four players, our game "Bridge for the Dummy" Version 1 will play three of these players for you, Version 2 due out in the Fall of 1997 will include multi play features. It is a trick based game with an auction to determine what if any suit will be trump and how many tricks the offense will need to take in order to get any points, the defense will get points if the offense sets (takes fewer than the contract tricks), there are no negative points in bridge.
is a method of play where the offense attemps to make small trump good by leading a suit that the partner can trump. It works very well when the offense has a void or singelton in each hand and can take back and forth with trump.
is what we call the first player who bid the winning suit in the bidding auction. His partner will be the dummy.
is what we call the partner of the Declarer. The Dummy after the first lead will put his cards down on the table for all to see and his partner (the declarer) will play the dummys cards.
is making a card lower in rank than the opponents hold by playing that card after the player with the higher rank card has had his turn to play on the trick. The most common finesse is leading a low card to our partner who holds the Ace and Queen through a player who has the King. If he plays the King we play the Ace capturing the King. If he does not we play the Queen taking the Ace later. There are other types of finesses.
making a game is our secondary goal. It is won by the first team to get 100 or more points below the line. It takes 2 games to win a rubber.
is a bid of 5 of a minor suit, 4 of a major suit, or 3 No Trump.
is a term used for the cards a player is holding or one deal of the cards.
is bidding one level above the lowest posible level in the same suit as our previous bid. This conveys less points then a jump shift. It sets our minimum points at 16 and our maximum points as 18.
is bidding one level above the lowest posible level in the a different suit. This conveys more points then a jump bid. It sets our minimum points at 19 and our maximum points as 24.
is a term used when a team has a partail score toward a game.
is a plan for play where the first priority is to establish our long suit so that we can discard losers from the other hand on leads in that suit. Trump and transportation managment are paramount to the success of this approach to making a contract. It is in general very important to get rid of the defenders trump.
Hearts or Spades.
Clubs or Diamonds.
is a bid for a contract where there is no trump. If you have unprotected short suits that your partner has not bid this is not the place to be.
is the first player to make a bid other then pass. This usually takes, 13 or more points and a biddable suit, or a very good suit.
are only slightly different than the normal point count in that we add 1 point if we have all the Aces and subtract 1 point if we have no Aces. Other then that it is the normal point count.
is the first opponent of the opener that makes a bid other then pass. An overcall of double is a takeout double and announces opening points equal or greater than the opener. A suit overcall annouces a good suit and few quick tricks.
is a double to increase the reward for setting the contract. It generally should be at game or better or following a preempt.
The marks in the corners of the card indacating the rank and suit of the card.
are counted as follows
The order of the cards from high to low is
The highest card in the suit lead will take the trick, unless trump has been played in which case the highest trump will take the trick.
Rebiddable suit = 5 cards long with 4 points or 6 cards or more
Immediately following a takeout double shows a minimum of 13 points. Note that the redoubling of one of a major if let stand will produce a very cheap game for our side.
Following the double of a game contract redoubling is often is used to force our partner to pick one of two obvoius alternate suits as trump because the current contract is a disaster (like we are void in trump and have reason to believe our partner does not have 7 of his own). If we arrived at the contract in an orderly manner and feel very confident of making the contract this bid can increase our score somewhat.
Rerebiddable suit = 7 cards long
is a bid that quadruples the score and penalties with out changing the contract. This is only bid by the team that is winning the contract and only after the opposition has doubled.
is the partner of the OverCaller even if he passed.
Responder to the Takeout Doubler
is the partner of the takeout doubler even if he passed.
winning a rubber is the first goal of contract bridge. It is won by the first team to win two games.
says that when we believe that the first lead in the hand was "Fourth card down from the longest and strongest suit" ,a common opening lead, subtracting the rank of the card lead from 11 yields the number of cards above that card the other three hands contain.
On the offense that means that if the first lead is a 5 then the other 3 hand have 6 cards above the 5. Since we can see two of the other three hands we can deduce the probable holding of the leaders partner in this suit.
On the defense that means that if the first lead is a 5 then the other 3 hand have 6 cards above the 5. Since we can see two of the other three hands we can deduce the probable holding of the declarer in this suit, if our partner lead.
is the term used when the offense does not make the contract.
means we only have one. The usual context is before the first card is played, although this term is used sometimes later in play.
is bidding a 6 or a 7 contract. Bidding 6 is a small slam and 7 is a grand slam.
| slam
size |
Not Vulnerable points |
Vulnerable
points |
| small |
500 |
1000 |
| large |
750 |
1500 |
is a suit that consists at the top of a continuous sequence. QJ109x is solid, while KJ97x is more points but broken and subject to losing many trump tricks.
means we have no singeltons or voids and almost always have no five card suits.
4-3-3-3 or 4-4-3-2 are the most common
5-4-2-2 and 5-3-3-2 are possible but if any suit are biddible we would usally not call these square.
with a hand that does not contain a convenient rebid or to facilitate a jump shift to our suit we will open with 1 club even though the club suit does not meet the standard criterion for a biddable suit. In keeping with this the partner of a 1 club opener will not count on a biddable club suit until it is rebid.
is a play when a player can not play the same suit as the leader and can not or does not want to play trump.
There are four.
and for bidding purposes there is
shows a solid suit with less than 14 points and less than 2 quick tricks.
is a possible first bid by the defense. It is saying I have as many points as the opener name your best suit partner.
is when each player has played one card. Each player must play the same suit as the leader. If he can not follow suit he may trump if he has any, which will beat any non trump card or he may sluff in which case he can not take the trick.
is a super suit. Any trump played on a trick will win that trick unless a higher trump is placed on that trick.
means we have none. The usual context is before the first card is played, although this term is used sometimes later in play.
is a term used when a team has won one a game. Both teams may be vulnerable if they have both won a game tword the rubber. The effect of being vulnerable is slam bonuses are doubled as well as all penalties.
Weak 2 bids - all 2 bids except 2 clubs show a solid suit with less than 14 points and less than 2 quick tricks.