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COMPUTER CONTRACT BRIDGE I (Novice Version) SOME HISTORY OF THE GAME Bridge is a relatively old card game with roots dating back to the seventeenth century. It was originally called Whist, but was preceeded by games with names like Triumph, Trump, Ruff and Honors, Whisk and Swabbers, and Whisk. Bridge, or Bridge Whist, was first played at the Portland Club in London in 1894, introduced by Lord Brougham. It was played for about ten years when it was replaced by a newer version known as Auction Bridge. Contract Bridge was a spin-off of the French game known as Planfond. A group of American players who frequented the Travelers' Club in Paris combined Whist and Planfond and came up with the basics of the game played today. American Yachtsman and card enthusiast Harold S. Vanderbilt, in the mid-nineteen-twenties brought out his own set of rules for play which were subsequently endorsed as the official rules for Bridge wherever it was played. Ely Culbertson, a world-class Bridge player of the thirties, wrote books on the subject and was a participant in one of the longest-running Bridge games in history consisting of one-hundred-fifty rubbers. The game concluded in 1932. Eventually Bridge became so popular that teams of players traveled the world to play. The greatest Bridge competition was the World Bridge Olympic, involving thousands of contestants. Ely Culbertson's rules on bidding held up for decades but one man, Charles H. Goren, developed a bidding system which incorporated more sophisticated theories. Goren since has become the ruling authority on Bridge and his system has become a standard by which the world plays. Modifications to the Goren system have become accepted by Bridge players and include the Blackwood and Gerber Conventions, usually agreed upon as a means of special bidding signals between partners. All of the rules of Bridge are quite difficult to come by in one publication, but books on the subject abound. A good bookstore may have as many as fifty different titles on Bridge and more become available on a regular basis. Of all of the forms of cards, Bridge ranks tops as a continuing challenge to its players because most must agree, before starting play, which rules and conventions they will invoke during bidding. page 2 BRIDGE RULES THE BASICS OF COMPUTER PLAY This version of Computer Contract Bridge is played by two teams - the WE team and the THEY team. The WE team consists of the North and the South. North is played by the computer, South by the player. The THEY team consists of the East and the West, both played by the computer. The computer assumes control of each position in turn. It does not remember from one position to another what it played last, but calculates much as a human does in playing its hand. It even makes mistakes as humans do. If the North wins the bidding, the player will be required to sit out since his hand will be played by the computer as the DUMMY hand - thus the computer will be playing all four of the positions. Conversely, if the South wins the bidding, the player will play the North's DUMMY hand. BIDDING The excitement of Bridge is not so much the playing of the tricks, but rather the BIDDING to start play. It is expected that just about any team can take six of thirteen tricks whether a trump suit is used or not, so in Bridge play the first six tricks don't count for anything. In bidding, the first six tricks are also ingnored. A bid of ONE HEART means that the bidder expects that he and his partner will be able to take at least the minimum six tricks PLUS one extra trick for a total of seven tricks. By bidding ONE HEART, the bidder is making Hearts the trump suit. A trump card may be thrown any time a player cannot follow suit in trick play. The highest trump card played always wins the trick, no matter what suit leads the trick. Of course, a player must always follow suit if possible. A bid of THREE NO TRUMP means that the bidder expects that his team will be able to take a total of nine tricks (six plus three) and that no suit will be used as trump. A SMALL SLAM bid would be SIX of anything and a GRAND SLAM bid would be SEVEN of anything. A grand slam is when one team takes all thirteen tricks (six plus seven). page 3 The SUIT bid is important because certain suits are worth more points than others. Every trick taken by a team (after the first six) when Spades or Hearts are trump, is worth thirty points. When Diamonds or Clubs are called as trump, tricks over six are only worth twenty points. If No Trump is called, the seventh trick won by a team is worth fourty points and subsequent tricks are worth thirty points. In any instance, the first six tricks won by a team count for nothing. When partners are bidding they cannot look at each other's cards, but each can give the other a good idea of his hand's contents by the way he bids. And THIS is what makes Bridge such an exciting game! Each player is trying to figure out what every other player has in his hand by the way the bidding goes. In the Computer Novice Version of Bridge, the first bid by North, East or West is always the best suit with lowest trick count expectation. The second bid is always the next best suit and best trick count expectation. If your partner (the North) bids TWO SPADES, you know that his best suit is Spades and that he feels that between the two of you the team can expect to take at least eight tricks. If he bids again, he'll be telling you his second best suit - if he hasn't been forced out of the bidding by someone else's bid too large to answer safely. And THAT is where the fun comes in! If you open the bidding with two Hearts and your partner bids three Diamonds, will it be safe for you to bid three Spades (your second best suit) hoping the other guys will be trapped into bidding too high... or should you pass and see what your partner can do with the bidding? Is somebody bluffing? Is everybody REALLY bidding their hands or are there other signals being passed back and forth that you are missing? Is the other team trying to push you into bidding past your ability to take tricks? How far can you go without ending up on the short end of the stick? EVALUATING YOUR HAND FOR BIDDING PURPOSES The deck contains a total of 40 high-card points and the average hand will contain ten points. Use the following table to determine your hand's point-count: Each Ace.............4 Points Each King............3 Points Each Queen...........2 Points Each Jack............1 Point page 4 If you have only two cards in a suit (a doubleton) add 1 point. One card in a suit (a singleton) is worth an additional 2 points. No cards in a suit (a void) is worth an additional 3 points. However, take one point away from your total for each singleton Jack, Queen or King. If your total is 14 points or better, you may not pass on the first round of bidding; you must open. If you have 13 points, you may elect to bid or pass on the first round. If you have a 12 point hand, you may open but you must be able to bid again in the second round and you must be able to take two quick tricks with cards in your hand. To determine the number of quick tricks in your hand use the following table: Ace-King in a suit.........2 tricks Ace-Queen..............1 1/2 tricks Ace only...................1 trick King-Queen.................1 trick King only................1/2 trick To determine which suit to bid first remember that Spades rank the highest, then Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs. Open with the suit with the greatest length. If two suits are of equal length, bid the highest ranking suit. As a general policy, it is wise to consider a suit biddable if it consists of at least four cards, two of which are face cards. Re-biddable suits consist of at least five cards, with two adjacent face cards. Strong rebiddable suits consist of at least six cards, with three being face cards. If your partner opens rather than passes on the first round you can bid if you have at least six points in your hand. Use the following table to determine how strongly you can bid: 6 to 10 points......minimum hand good for one round 10 to 13 points......good hand worth two rounds of bids 14 to 16 points......great hand to bid 2 in a new suit 16 to 19 points......power hand to bid 3 No Trump or better 19 points and up.....SLAM hand jump bid to 5 in new suit Remember that each bid must be better than the last. The order of strength is Clubs, then Diamonds, then Hearts, Spades and No Trump. The weakest is Clubs, the strongest is No Trump. Two No Trump can only be bettered by three something, but two Clubs can be bettered by two Hearts. If you fail to better the bid the computer will let you know. page 5 DOUBLING and REDOUBLING are means of penalizing your opponents for what you feel may be over-bidding. These may also be a means of getting extra points if you are feeling confident in your own bidding. You may not call a double in the bidding until someone else has opened. And you may not redouble until the bidding has been doubled. Doubling means that trick points will be doubled - redoubling means that trick points will be quadrupled. In addition, if a team fails to make their bid, each trick less than their bid (undertrick) is worth at least a 50 point penalty - and the total penalty could go as high as 3400 points if redoubled! THE COMPUTER'S BIDDING CONVENTIONS The computer always evaluates its hands. On its first bid if a slam is possible the computer will open with THREE CLUBS. If its hand contains between five and seven of a suit it will open with TWO of that suit. After these conventions are exhausted the computer will bid based on length of a suit and the total bidding points in its hand, bidding its best suit first. Before bidding, however, the computer will test for NO TRUMP. A balanced hand with a suit distribution of 5, 3, 3, and 2 or of 4, 4, 3, and 2 spread will result in a No Trump bid. Distribution of 4,3,3 and 3 will result in a THREE NO TRUMP opening bid. Once three players in a row PASS, the bidding is ended and play can begin with the last player who bid playing the first (or lead) card. There is no further opportunity to call trump - it is the last suit bid. VULNERABLE VS. NOT VULNERABLE Bridge moves in steps and may continue for as long as everyone wants to keep playing. A GAME is made when one team scores a total 100 trick points or more in as many HANDS as it takes to do so. A RUBBER is made when a team makes two GAMES. Each time a GAME is made, the trick point-count is re-set to zero; but the grandtotal of points is increased with the end of each hand. A team is considered VULNERABLE when it can make a RUBBER by winning the next GAME - a team with one game to its credit is VULNERABLE. A team with no game to its credit is NOT VULNERABLE. This is important in the scoring of points and penalties. A vulnerable team may be subject to as many as 2800 bonus points or as much as 3400 penalty points. page 6 HONORS POINTS Among the bonus points a team may claim are the Honors. In this version of Bridge Honors are always asked for after bidding is finished. Each player in turn has the opportunity to claim Honors points. Honors points do not go towards game points. They are added to the grandtotal of points instead. If you fail to claim Honors due your team, the computer will tell you about it but you will not get a second chance to claim them. If you make a mistake in the total Honors you claim, however, you will be prompted to try again. Although the computer will display a table of points for Honors, you may use the following to calculate Honors points: HONORS POINTS Any four in Trump Suit........100 points AKQJ AKQ10 AKJ10 KQJ10 All five in Trump Suit........150 points AKQJ10 All four Aces in No Trump.....150 points CALCULATIONS OF POINTS AND SCORES In this version of Bridge the computer automatically takes care of the calculations of points and keeps score. Game points are reset whenever a Game is made. Bonuses, Honors and Penalties are reset after each hand. Total score is updated after each hand. For reasons relating to clarity and available screen space, under- and over-the-line scoring is condensed. (In regular Bridge two sets of figures are kept: one set for tracking Game points and a second for total points, kept over and under a line drawn on the score pad.) Part score, another option used in regular bridge, is also omitted for similar reasons as above. The following tables are used to calculate points: SUIT VALUES PER TRICK Undoubled Doubled Redoubled Clubs or Diamonds 20 40 80 Hearts or Spades 30 60 120 1st No Trump Trick 40 80 160 Subsequent No Trump Tricks 30 60 120 POINTS NEEDED FOR GAME 100 page 7 HONORS (Scored by side holding them) Suit Bid - Four in one hand 100 Suit Bid - Five in one hand 150 Four No Trump Aces in one hand 150 RUBBER BONUS - First side winning two Games wins a Rubber Two Game Rubber 700 Three Game Rubber 500 SLAM BONUS for Slams bid and won Not Vulnerable Vulnerable Small Slam - Bid of SIX 500 750 Grand Slam - Bid of SEVEN 1000 1500 PREMIUM BONUS - Making Doubled or Redoubled Contract 50 OVERTRICKS - Each trick over Bid Not Vulnerable Vulnerable Not Doubled -0- -0- Doubled 100 200 Redoubled 200 400 UNDERTRICK PENALTIES - Points awarded to opponents when side fails to make number of tricks bid. NOT VULNERABLE Undoubled Doubled Redoubled One under 50 100 200 Two under 100 300 600 Three under 150 500 1000 Four under 200 700 1400 Five under 250 900 1800 Six under 300 1100 2200 VULNERABLE Undoubled Doubled Redoubled One under 100 200 400 Two under 200 500 1000 Three under 300 800 1600 Four under 400 1100 2200 Five under 500 1400 2800 Six under 600 1700 3400 COMMUNICATING WITH THE COMPUTER All communications with the computer are done through the keyboard. Generally, a prompt will appear on the screen to tell you what to do next. If you pay attention to the prompts appearing on the screen and follow their lead, you will have no trouble playing the game. If you make a serious mistake, a message will appear - telling what it was. If you enter a wrong character, the computer will either beep or ignore your entry. page 8 If, when entering a card code, you get the first char- acter wrong, don't try to erase it...enter a second wrong character...your error will be detected and the computer will show a message and allow you to retry your entry. Most of the time you will only need to press one or two characters to communicate; but when entering Honors you must press the carriage return key to complete your entry. When bidding, press the number representing your bid followed by the character representing the suit. (1H equals One Heart, 4N equals Four No Trump, P equals Pass, D equals Double, and R equals Redouble.) When playing trick cards, wait for the computer to beep; then press the two keys representing the card you wish to play. (2C equals the Two of Clubs, JH equals equals the Jack of Hearts, 1S equals the Ten of Spades, AD equals the Ace of Diamonds and so forth. NOTE: the number TEN is represented by pressing the 1 only - a zero will be ignored.) When play is ended and the scores displayed, you will be given the option to continue playing or to quit. Press P to continue play or press Q to quit. Any time it is your turn to communicate with the computer you may press ESC to terminate the game sequence...you will be given the choice at that point to play a new game or to quit. Remember that this is the NOVICE version of Bridge... while this is an Expert System, the computer is programmed to make errors just as you. (Only it is not given the chance to correct them!) You may print this text on your computer's printer from SYSTEM level by the command COPY BRIDGE.TXT LPT1: You start the game by the command BRIDGE and the command HELP puts this text on your monitor. Do NOT use this disc to play the game! Format a new disc with the Operating System on it and COPY the contents of this disc to your new one. Keep this disc for use as a MASTER. Put it in a safe place just in case the copy goes bad from overuse. Small Business Software, Inc. is always interested in ways to improve our products. Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Send them to Small Business Software, Product Development, 5253 East Lee Street, Tucson, Arizona 85712. Send them to Small Business Software, Product Development, 5253 East Lee Street, Tucson, Arizona 85712