Contract bridge
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| Bridge | |
|---|---|
Bridge declarer play | |
| Players | 4
<tr><th>Age range</th><td>recommended for 12 and up</td></tr> |
| Setup time | < 2 minutes |
| Playing time | WBF tournament games = 7.5 minutes per deal |
| Rules complexity | Medium |
| Strategy depth | High |
| Random chance | Low - high depending on variant played |
| Skills required | Memory, Tactics |
The bidding ends with a contract, which is a declaration by one partnership that their side shall take at least a stated number of tricks, with specified suit as trump or without trumps. The rules of play are similar to other trick-taking games with the addition of the fact that one player's hand is displayed face up on the table as the "dummy".
Much of bridge's popularity owes to the possibility that it can be played in tournaments of theoretically unlimited number of players; this form is referred to as duplicate bridge. Competitions in duplicate bridge range from everyday ones in numerous small clubs to World Championships and Olympiads.
Contents |
[edit] Game play
Two partnerships of two players each are needed to play bridge. The four players sit around a table with partners opposite one another. The compass directions are often used to refer to the four players, aligned with their seating pattern. Thus, South and North form one partnership and East and West form the other.
A session of bridge consists of several deals (also called hands or boards). A hand is dealt, the bidding (or auction) proceeds to a conclusion and then the hand is played. Finally the hand's result is scored.
The goal of a single deal is to achieve the highest score with given cards. The score is affected by two principal factors: the number of tricks bid in the auction, and the number of tricks taken during play. Broadly speaking, there is an incentive to accurately bid to the optimum contract and then to play to make the contracted number of tricks (or more if good play or luck allows). Thus, in the bidding stage, the pairs compete to see who proposes the highest number of tricks, and the side which wins the bidding must then fulfill that bargain by taking at least the contracted quantity of tricks in play to obtain a score. The number of tricks bid and the trump suit (or lack thereof) are referred to as a contract. The trump suit, or its absence (no trumps) is referred to as denomination or strain. If the side which wins the auction then takes the contracted number of tricks (or more), it is said to have fulfilled the contract and is awarded a score; otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated and points are awarded to the defenders.
In finding an optimum contract, it can sometimes pay to bid slightly too high (or bluff), and lose a small number of points, rather than allow the opposing side to bid and make a larger score. This is known as a sacrifice, and is quite common if both sides are contesting the final contract. This aspect is more common in duplicate bridge (as played in competitions and many clubs) where the goal is to get a better score than any other partnership facing the same hands, by however small a margin and in whatever way possible.
[edit] Dealing
The game is played with a deck of 52 cards. On each game, one player is the dealer, who distributes the cards and also bids first. The dealer changes on each game, usually going clockwise around the table.
In rubber bridge (or other non-duplicate games), the cards are shuffled before every game, and the dealer distributes all the cards clockwise one at a time, starting with his left-hand opponent and ending with himself, so each player receives a hand of thirteen cards. At the same time, for convenience, the dealer's partner usually shuffles a second deck, to be ready for use on the following deal. The dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next. Each hand in rubber bridge is therefore random and unrelated to other hands played, and a lot of the time the score depends on the cards as well as the skill of play.
In duplicate bridge, the hands are shuffled only once, at the beginning of the session, and dealt into the same four hands of 13 cards, and these deals are preserved for the entirety of the tournament. In this way, each time they are played, the results for different players will be comparable and any element of chance due to some players having better cards is eliminated. Cards in duplicate are passed around from table to table in bridge boards, plastic containers which clearly mark the hands, identifies who holds which cards, and also contains a folded slip of paper to record each teams' scores after the game. In some competitions, boards are pre-dealt prior to the competition, especially if the same hands are to be played at multiple locations (for example in a large national or international tournament). There are also special machines for pre-dealing on large tournaments. At each subsequent table, the four players pull their cards from the board and count them to ensure that there are 13 cards in their hand.
Unlike rubber bridge, in duplicate games players do not put their cards in the middle of the table as usual; instead played cards are placed immediately in front of each player and turned face down once each trick has been completed. This is to allow each player to return his hand, intact, to the board after he has finished it, so subsequent tables can play the same deal, unaltered. It also means that in case of a query or other irregularity during a competition, it is clear exactly who played which cards, and the order in which they were played.
[edit] The auction
The auction determines the declaring side and the final contract, which consists of the denomination and level (number of tricks). Only one of partners of the declaring side, referred to as declarer, will play the hand, while the other will become the dummy (i.e. doing nothing). In addition, if the final contract is doubled (by the opponents) or redoubled (by the contracting partnership) the scoring of the hand is increased, whether the contract is made or defeated.
During the auction, each player makes a call at his turn, which must be one of the following:
- Bid (stating a level and a denomination)
- Double (when the last call other than pass was a bid by an opponent)
- Redouble (when the last call other than pass was a double by an opponent)
- Pass (when unwilling to make one of the three preceding calls, i.e. "abstain")
(Note: although technically incorrect, the word "bid" is also often used informally in place of "call")
The auction starts with the dealer and proceeds clockwise with each player, having first evaluated their hands, making a call in order. The auction ends when 3 successive passes occur after a bid, double or redouble (or if all 4 players pass in the first round).
A bid specifies how many tricks the bidder believes that the partnership can take using both their hands, and with which strain as trump. Any bid starts with the assumption that the bidder can make at least six tricks, called book, plus the stated number of additional tricks. So the bid includes a level (from one to seven, representing how many tricks beyond six the bidder proposes to make) and a denomination (also called strain), which is either a suit or "no trump". For instance, "3 hearts" asserts that his partnership can take nine tricks (book plus three) with hearts as the trump suit. There are 35 possible bids, which include all combinations of 5 denominations and 7 levels (7-13 tricks). Thus to bid, a player is effectively stating they expect their partnership to win at least 50% of the available tricks in the pack (50% x 13 tricks = 6.5 tricks) if allowed to play the named contract.
A player wishing to bid must make a bid that is higher than the preceding bid. A bid is higher if it specifies any denomination on a higher level, or a higher-ranked denomination on the same level. The denominations are ranked, from lowest to highest, as clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and no trump (NT). Thus, after a bid of 3♥, bids of 2♠ or 3♣ are not allowable, but 3♠ or 4♦ are. Thus, 1♣ is the lowest possible bid, followed by 1♦ etc, while 7NT is the highest possible bid. It should be noted that the primary purpose of the early bids is to communicate between partners rather than to determine the final contract.
A double can be made only after the opponents have made a bid. At its simplest, this states that the player is so confident that the opponents cannot make their bid during play that the player is willing to double their score if they do and the penalty if they do not. However, in modern bridge, the double is often used in conventional sense, to ask partner to bid or to pass information to partner. A "redouble" is a bid which can be made only following an opponents' "double"; it increases the points scored yet further. In practice the redouble can also be used systemically for other purposes. Double and redouble are in effect only until the next bid, i.e. any subsequent bid invalidates them.
Once the auction ends, the last bid (together with any double or redouble that followed it) becomes the contract, and the level of this bid determines the number of tricks required to achieve the contract and its denomination determines what suit, if any, will be trumps. The pair that did not win the contract is called the defense. The pair that made the last bid is divided further: the player who first made a bid in the denomination of the final contract becomes the declarer and their partner becomes the dummy. For example, suppose West is the dealer and the bidding was:
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| pass | 1♥ | pass | |
| 1♠ | pass | 2♦ | double |
| 3♠ | pass | 4♠ | pass |
| pass | pass |
Then East and West would be the defenders, South would be the declarer (since South was the first to bid spades), North would be the dummy, and spades would be the trump suit; 10 tricks would be required by declarer (and dummy).
Bidding boxes, which allow the calls to be placed using cards rather than pronounced are often used to prevent players at nearby table hearing the bidding and to avoid unintentional voice inflexions passing information to partner.
[edit] The play of the hand
The play consists of thirteen tricks, each trick consisting of one card played from each of the four hands. Aces are high in bridge, followed by kings, queens, jacks, 10s, 9s ... down to 2s, the lowest card in each suit. The first card played in a trick is called the lead, and players play a card clockwise around the table. Any card may be selected from a hand as the lead, but the remaining hands must follow suit (meaning, they must play a card in the same suit as the lead), unless they have no more cards of that suit. If a hand contains no cards of the led suit then any card may be played. The hand that plays the highest card in the suit of the lead wins the trick, unless any of the played cards are of the trump suit, in which case the hand that plays the highest trump card wins the trick. The hand that wins each trick plays the lead card of the next trick, until all the cards are played.
The first lead, called the opening lead, is made by the defender to the left of the declarer. After the opening lead is played, the dummy lays his/her hand face up on the table in four columns, one for each suit, with the column of the trump suit (if there is one) on the right as dummy looks at the table. The declarer is responsible for selecting cards to play from the dummy's hand and from own hand in turn. The defenders each choose the cards to play from their own hands. Dummy is allowed to prevent declarer from infringing the rules of play but otherwise must not interfere with the play; thus dummy may attempt to prevent declarer from revoking (by asking eg "No more spades partner?") but must not comment on opponents' actions or make suggestions as to play; even seemingly trivial comments such as "You won that trick partner" are not permitted. In casual bridge games the dummy often does nothing but in duplicate bridge dummy must play cards from the dummy hand at declarer's verbal instruction (eg "jack of hearts please partner"). This is a less ambiguous method of card selection than declarer leaning over the table and touching a card.
In the end, the goal for each pair is to make as high a score as possible. However, the level of the contract makes a specific target: the number (level) of the contract is the number of tricks the declarer must take beyond 6. Thus, the declarer always attempts to take at least a majority of the tricks. In the example above, the declarer must manage to take 10 tricks (the assumed "book" of 6, plus 4 as bid, with spades as trumps), to make the contract and get a score. Success in this goal is rewarded by points in the scoring phase for the declarer's side. If the declarer fails to make the contract, the defenders are said to have set or defeated the contract, and are rewarded points for doing so.
[edit] Scoring
When the declarer makes the contract, the declarer's side receives points for:
- Every trick bid (20 for minor suit contracts, 30 for major suit and notrump ones, with additional 10 points for notrump)
- Overtricks (tricks taken over the contract level)
- Bonuses for contract level
- Other specific bonuses
When the declarer fails to make the contract, the defending pair receives points for undertricks—the number of tricks by which declarer fell short of the goal.
Because of the structure of bonuses, certain bid levels have special significance. The most important level is game, which is any contract whose bid trick value is 100 or more points. Game level varies by the suit, since different suits are worth different amounts in scoring. The game level for notrump is 3 (9 tricks), the game level for hearts or spades (major suits) is 4 (10 tricks), and the game level for clubs or diamonds (minor suits) is 5 (11 tricks). Because of attractiveness of the game bonus, much of the bidding revolves around investigating a possibility to bid a makeable game. High bonuses are also awarded for bidding and making small slam (level 6) and grand slam (level 7, i.e. all the tricks).
The concept of vulnerability affects scoring and introduces a wider range of tactics in bidding and play. Every partnership is beforehand assigned one of two states: vulnerable or non-vulnerable. When a pair is vulnerable, game and slam bonuses are higher, as well as penalties for failure to make the contract. Methods for assigning vulnerability differ for duplicate (see board (bridge)) and rubber bridge.
There are two important variations in bridge scoring: rubber scoring and duplicate scoring. They share most features, but differ how the total score is accumulated. In rubber bridge, points for each pair are tallied either "above the line" or "below the line". In duplicate bridge, all the points are accumulated and present a single score, expressed as a positive number (sum of trick points and bonus points) to the winning pair, and by implication, as a negative number to the opponents. "Chicago" bridge is a form of friendly game which uses duplicate scoring, that is, a set consists of four deals with different vulnerabilities (whether a team has already made game), and every deal is scored as a single number.
In duplicate bridge, the same hand is played unchanged across two or more tables and the results are ranked. The resulting scores for each board are expressed in matchpoints or international match points (IMP). Regardless of the actual contract, the competitor (pair or team) with the best performance on each board gets the highest number of points for that board and vice versa. The competitor with highest total number of match points becomes the winner of the tournament. Thus, even with bad cards, a competitor can win the tournament if it has bid better and played better than the other players who played the same set of cards.
[edit] Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge
Rules of contract bridge are standardized by World Bridge Federation and published in the book Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. The last edition is issued in 1997 and consists of 93 laws (articles). All duplicate bridge sponsoring organizations on lower levels must apply these rules. A large portion of the laws, though, is devoted to dealing with various irregular situations, and as such it is mostly used by tournament directors (referees) as the reference book.
They do not apply to rubber bridge, which has its own set of Laws, the Laws of Contract Bridge, issued in 1993. In fact, simpler rules for dealing with irregularities are often applied by the players themselves or house rules are applied at rubber.
[edit] History
Trick-taking games can be traced back to the early 16th century. Whist became the dominant form and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word bridge is the English pronunciation of the game called "biritch". The oldest known rulebook of the game dates from 1886 and calls it "Biritch, or Russian Whist". The game featured several significant developments from whist: dealer chose the trump suit, or nominated his partner to do so; there was a call of no trumps (biritch); and the dealer's partner's hand became dummy. There were other similarities to bridge: points were scored above and below the line; game was 3NT, 4H and 5D (although 8 club tricks and 15 spade tricks were needed!); the score could be doubled and redoubled; and there were slam bonuses.
Despite the popularity of whist <ref>(Foster 1889)</ref>, this game, and variants of it, bridge <ref>(Elwell 1905 and Benedict 1900)</ref> and bridge-whist <ref>(Melrose 1901)</ref>, became popular in the United States and the UK in the 1890s.
In 1904 auction bridge, known for a time as royal auction bridge <ref>(Bergholt 1915)</ref>, was developed where the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so.
The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most significant change was that only the tricks contracted for were counted below the line towards game and slam, which resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability, making sacrificing to protect the lead in a rubber more expensive, and the various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced game. Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge."
In the USA and Australia, most of the bridge played these days is duplicate bridge and is played at clubs, tournaments and online. In the UK, bridge is still widely played in private homes (rubber or chicago) as well as at clubs (duplicate and rubber) and tournaments (duplicate).
[edit] Tournaments
Bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt cards, which makes it also a game of chance, or more exactly, a tactical game with inbuilt randomness, imperfect knowledge and restricted communication. The chance element is in the deal of the cards; in competitions and clubs the chance element is largely eliminated by comparing results of multiple pairs in identical situations. This is achievable when there are eight or more players, sitting at several tables, and the deals from each table are preserved and passed to the next table, thereby duplicating them for another 4 (or more) participants to play. At the end of a session, the scores for each deal are compared, and most points are awarded to the players doing the best with each particular deal. This measures skill because each player is being judged only on his ability to bid with, and play, the same cards as other players.
This form of the game is referred to as duplicate bridge and is played in clubs and tournaments, which can gather as many as several hundred players. Duplicate bridge is a mind sport, and its popularity gradually became comparable to that of chess, which it is often compared with for its complexity and mental skills required for high-level competition.
The basic premise of duplicate bridge had previously been used for whist matches as early as 1857. Initially, bridge was not thought to be suitable for duplicate competition; it wasn't until the 1920s that (auction) bridge tournaments became popular.
In 1925 when contract bridge first evolved, bridge tournaments were becoming popular, but the rules were somewhat in flux, and several different organizing bodies were involved in tournament sponsorship: the American Bridge League (formerly the American Auction Bridge League, which changed its name in 1929), the American Whist League, and the United States Bridge Federation. In 1935, the first officially recognized world championship was held. By 1937, however, the American Contract Bridge League had come to power (a union of the ABL and the USBF), and it remains the principal organizing body for bridge tournaments in North America. In 1958, the World Bridge Federation was founded, as bridge had become an international activity.
[edit] Bidding boxes and bidding screens
In tournaments, "bidding boxes" are frequently used. A bidding box is a box of cards, each bearing the name of one of the legal calls in bridge. A player wishing to make a call displays the appropriate card from the box, rather than making a verbal declaration. This prevents unauthorized information from being conveyed via voice inflection. In top national and international events, "bidding screens" are used. These are diagonal screens which are placed across the table, preventing a player from seeing his partner during the game.
[edit] Game strategy
[edit] Bidding
Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of arriving at a good final contract in the auction. This is a difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate sufficient information about their hands to arrive at a makeable contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted - information may only be passed by the calls made and later by the cards played, not by other means; and the agreed upon meaning of all information passed must be available to the opponents.
Since a partnership who have freedom to bid gradually at leisure can exchange more information, and a partnership who can interfere with their opponents bidding (or who raise the bidding level rapidly) can cause difficulties for their opponents, bidding systems are both informational, and also strategic. It is this mixture of information exchange and evaluation, deduction, and strategy that is at the heart of bidding in bridge.
[edit] Bidding systems and conventions
A bidding system is the typical solution to this problem: each player evaluates their hand and their best strategy, in light of new information, and makes bids to give or request information from their partner with the goal of arriving at an ideal contract. A bidding system is usually made up of a core system (such as Acol, Standard American or Precision Club), modified and complemented by specific conventions (optional customisations incorporated into the main system for handling specific bidding situations) which are pre-chosen between the partners prior to playing. The line between a well known convention, and a part of a system, is not always clear-cut, some bidding systems include specified conventions by default. Bidding systems can be divided into mainly natural systems such as Acol and Standard American, and mainly artificial systems such as the Precision Club.
Bids are usually considered to be either natural or conventional (artificial). A natural bid is one where the suit and level bid is essentially passing the information "I have this suit for you", or in the case of a double "I want to raise the stakes as I don't think the opponents can make their contract". By contrast, a conventional (artificial) bid offers and/or asks for information by means of pre-agreed coded interpretations in which some bids convey very specific information or requests which are not part of the natural meaning of the bid. Thus in response to 4NT, a 'natural' bid of 5D would state a preference towards a diamond suit or a desire to play the contract in 5 diamonds, whereas if the partners are including 'Blackwood' in their system (a common convention), a bid of 5D in this situation would say nothing about the diamond suit; it would tell the partner that the hand in question contains exactly one ace.
Conventions are valuable in bridge because of the need to pass information beyond the simple like or dislike of a named suit, and because the limited bidding space can be used more efficiently by taking situations where a given bid will have less utility and giving that bid an artificial meaning that conveys more strategically useful information. There are a very large number of conventions that players often choose from. Well known conventions include Stayman (to ask for the show of any 4 card major suit in a 1NT opening hand), Jacoby Transfers (a strategic request by the weak hand for the stronger partner to bid and play the game instead), and Blackwood convention (to ask for information on aces and kings in a slam bidding situation).
The term 'preempt' (or pre-emptive bid) is used to signify a high level tactical bid by a weak hand, relying upon a long suit rather than high value cards for tricks. Pre-emptive bids serve a double purpose - they allow a player to indicate they are bidding on the basis of a long suit in an otherwise weak hand, which is important information to share, and also effectively raises the stakes before a possibly strong opposition can identify whether they have a good possibility to play the hand. Several systems include bids on weak hands with 6 or 7 card suits at the 2, 3 or even 4 level, as preempts.
[edit] Basic natural systems
As a rule, a natural suit bid indicates a holding or at least 4 (or more depending on the system) cards in that suit as an opening bid (or a lesser number when supporting partner); a natural NT bid indicates a balanced hand.
Most systems use a count of high card points as the basic evaluation of the strength of a hand, refining this by reference to shape and distribution if appropriate. Aces are counted as 4 points, kings as 3, queens as 2, and jacks as 1 point; therefore, the deck contains 40 points. In addition, the distribution of the cards in a hand into suits may also contribute to the strength of a hand and be counted as distribution points. A better than average hand, containing 12 or 13 points, is usually considered sufficient to open the bidding, i.e. make the first bid in the auction. A combination of two such hands (i.e. 25 or 26 points shared between partners is often sufficient for a partnership to bid, and generally make, game in no trumps; more may be needed for a suit game).
In natural systems a one no trump (1NT) opening bid usually reflects a hand that has a relatively balanced shape (usually between 2 and 4 cards in each suit) and a limited number of high card points, somewhere between 12 and 18 (normally a 3 point range e.g. 12-14, 15-17 or 16-18).
Opening bids of 3 or higher are preemptive (strategic) bids, i.e. bids made with weak hands that especially favor a particular suit, opened at a high level in order to frustrate the opposition. A hand of ♠AK98742 ♥73 ♦42 ♣76 would be an ideal candidate for an opening bid of 3♠, designed to make it difficult for the opposing team to bid and find their Optimum contract even if they have the bulk of the points.
Openings at the 2 level may be unusually strong (2NT, natural, and 2C, artificial) or preemptive depending on the system. Unusually strong bids communicate an especially high number of points (normally 20 or more) or a high trick taking potential (normally 8 or more).
Opening bids at the one level are made with hands containing 12/13 points or more which are not suitable for one of the preceding bids - with some systems (e.g. Standard American or 5-card majors) a major suit opening shows a 5-card suit (5-card major convention, in which an opening bid of 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least 5 cards in that suit. This leads to some awkward bids, for instance, when a player has four cards in each major, and is forced to open the bidding with 1 of a 3-card minor suit).
Doubles are sometimes used in bidding conventions. A natural, or penalty double, is one used to try to gain extra points when the defenders are confident of setting (defeating) the contract. The most common example of a conventional double is the takeout double of a low-level suit bid, implying support for the unbid suits and asking partner to choose one of them.
[edit] Variations on the basic themes
Bidding systems depart from these basic ideas in varying degrees. Standard American, for instance, is a collection of conventions designed to bolster the accuracy and power of these basic ideas, while Precision Club is a highly conventional system that uses the 1♣ opening bid for strong hands (but sets the threshold rather lower than most other systems) and requires many other changes in order to handle other situations. Many experts today use a system called 2/1 game forcing. In the UK, Acol is the standard system. There are even a variety of techniques used for hand evaluation. The most basic is the Milton Work point count, but this is sometimes augmented by other guidelines such as losing trick count, law of total tricks or Zar Points.
[edit] Play techniques
Terence Reese, a prolific author of bridge books, points out that there are only four ways of taking a trick by force, and two of these are very easy:
- playing a high card that no one else can beat
- trumping an opponent's high card
- establishing long suits (the last cards in a suit will take tricks if the opponents don't have the suit and are unable to trump)
- playing for the opponents' high cards to be in a particular position (if their ace is in front of your king, your king may take a trick)
Nearly all trick-taking techniques in bridge can be reduced to one of these four methods.
The optimum play of the cards can require much thought and experience, and is too complicated to describe in a short article. However, some basic ideas of probability may be considered:
Some of the most important probabilities have to do with the position of high cards.
- The probability that a given opponent holds one particular card, e.g. the king: 50%
- The probability that a given opponent holds two particular cards, e.g. the king and the queen: approximately 25%
- The probability that a given opponent holds at least one of two particular cards, e.g. the king or the queen: approximately 75%
When developing long suits, it is important to know the likelihood that the opponents' cards in the suit are evenly divided between them. Generally speaking, if they hold an even number of cards, they are unlikely to be exactly divided; if the opponents have an odd number in the suit, the cards will probably be divided as evenly as possible. For example, if declarer and dummy have eight trumps between them, the opponents' trumps are probably (68% chance) divided 3-2 (one opponent with three trumps, the other with two) and trumps can be drawn in three rounds. If declarer is trying to play with a seven card trump suit, it is more likely that the outstanding trumps are divided 4-2 (48%) than that the cards are evenly divided 3-3 between the opponents (36%).
[edit] Basic techniques by declarer
- trumping
- crossruff
- establishing long suits
- finesse
- holdup (mostly at NT contracts)
- managing entries
- drawing trumps
[edit] Advanced techniques by declarer
- counting the hand (tracking the distribution of suits and high cards in the opponents' hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
- coup
- duck
- dummy reversal
- endplay
- principle of restricted choice
- suit combinations
- safety play
- squeeze
[edit] Basic techniques by defenders
- Opening lead
- when to lead trump
[edit] Advanced techniques by defenders
- avoiding an endplay or squeeze
- counting the hand (tracking the distribution of suits and high cards in the unseen hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
- false carding
- opening lead—using information from auction
- signaling
- uppercut
[edit] Example
- For definition of terms used in the example, see Contract bridge glossary.
| ♠ | J 3 | ||||
| ♥ | J 8 7 4 | ||||
| ♦ | A 10 7 6 5 | ||||
| ♣ | Q 3 | ||||
| ♠ | K Q 8 7 2 | N W E S | ♠ | 10 9 5 4 | |
| ♥ | A 2 | ♥ | 9 6 | ||
| ♦ | J 4 2 | ♦ | K Q 9 | ||
| ♣ | 10 7 2 | ♣ | K 9 6 4 | ||
| ♠ | A 6 | ||||
| ♥ | K Q 10 5 3 | ||||
| ♦ | 8 3 | ||||
| ♣ | A J 8 5 | ||||
The cards are dealt as in the diagram, and North is the dealer. As neither North nor East have sufficient high card strength to open the bidding, both pass, denying an opening hand. South, next in turn, opens with the bid of 1♥, which denotes a long suit and at least 12 high card points. West overcalls with 1♠, North supports partner's suit with 2♥, and East also supports spades with 2♠. South inserts a game try of 3♣, inviting the partner to bid the game of 4♥ with good club support and overall values, and North complies, having extra values in form of ♦A, fourth trump, and doubleton Queen of clubs. The bidding was:
| West | North | East | South |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | 1♥ | |
| 1♠ | 2♥ | 2♠ | 3♣ |
| Pass | 4♥ | Pass | Pass |
| Pass |
In bidding, North-South were trying to investigate if their cards are worthy for making a game, which yields bonus points if bid and made. East-West were competing with spades, hoping to play a contract in spades at a low level. 4♥ is the final contract, 10 tricks being required for N-S to make with hearts as trumps.
South is the declarer, having been first to bid hearts, and the player to his left, West, has to make the choice of the first card in the play, known as the opening lead. He chooses the ♠K because it is the suit both he and his partner have shown strength in, and because he has agreed with his partner that when they hold two honors they will play the higher ones first (for information purposes). He plays the card face down, to give the players a chance to ask any last questions about the bidding. After that, North lies his cards on the table and becomes dummy, both the North and South hands will be controlled by the declarer. West turns his leading card face up, and the declarer studies his hand and dummy to make a plan of playing. The bottom line is, since he has to concede trump ace, a spade, and a diamond, he must not lose a trick in clubs.
Tactically, if the ♣K is held by West, he will find it very hard to prevent it making a trick. However there is an almost-equal chance that it is held by East, in which case it can be 'trapped' against his Ace, and will be beaten, using a strategy known as a finesse.
After considering the cards, the declarer directs dummy (North) to play a small spade. East plays low (small card) and South takes the ♠A, gaining the lead. He proceeds by drawing trumps, leading the ♥K. West decides there is no benefit to holding back, and winning with his Ace, cashes the ♠Q. Since he may not continue spades for fear of a ruff and discard, he plays a diamond. Declarer ducks from the table, and East scores the ♦Q. Not having anything better to do, he returns the remaining trump, taken in South's hand. The trumps now accounted for, South prepared to execute the finesse. To do this he will play a Club from dummy, hopefully trapping the King as planned. If it fails, he will then have to either concede the game or find some more advanced play to win his 10th trick. He enters the dummy (ie makes dummy the hand to play the next trick) with a low diamond, using dummy's ♦A to win the trick, and leads ♣Q from dummy at the next trick, in an attempt to finesse East's King. East covers the Queen with the King, and South takes the trick with the Ace, and proceeds by cashing the remaining master ♣J. (If East doesn't play the King, then South will gamble by playing a low club and the Queen will win anyway, the essence of a finesse). The game is now safe: South has ensured his potential 4th losing trick is not lost. He ruffs a small club with a dummy's trump, then ruffs a diamond in hand for an entry back, and ruffs the last club in dummy (sometimes described as a crossruff). Finally, he claims the remaining tricks by showing his hand, as it now contains only high trumps and there's no need to play the hand out to prove they are all winners.
(The trick-by-trick notation used above can be also expressed in tabular form, but a textual explanation is usually preferred in practice, for reader's convenience. Plays of small cards or discards are often omitted from such a description, unless they were important for the outcome).
North-South have scored the required 10 tricks, and their opponents took the remaining 3. The contract is fulfilled, and North enters +620 for his side (North-South are in charge for bookkeeping in duplicate tournaments) in the traveling sheet. Every player returns his own cards into the board, and the next deal is played.
[edit] Bridge on the Internet
There are several free and some subscription-based servers available for playing bridge on the Internet. OKbridge [1] is the oldest of the still-running Internet Bridge services; players of all standards, from beginners to world champions may be found playing there. SWAN Games [2] is a more recent competitor.
Bridge Base Online [3] is the biggest online bridge club in the world, and provides the largest variety of services and games for free. There are also premium features like options to earn ACBL masterpoints, purchase software to improve Bridge skills, and earn money playing Bridge. These are for fee services.
Some national contract bridge organizations now offer online bridge play to their members including the English Bridge Union, the Dutch Bridge Union and the Australian Bridge Federation. MSN and Yahoo! Games have several online rubber bridge rooms. In 2001, World Bridge Federation has issued a special edition of the lawbook adapted for internet and other electronic forms of the game.
Advantages of playing bridge online are:
- Flexible choice of when to play.
- Choice of opponent skill level.
- Player rating system that attempts to measure ability without regard to the number of games played or the number of years spent accumulating masterpoints
- Fewer restrictions on which conventions can be used.
- Unauthorised information cannot be passsed by tone of voice or body language.
- Detailed records may be kept, to help resolve complaints.
- The software prevents plays and calls that are against the laws.
Disadvantage are:
- A greatly reduced social element.
- Increased opportunities to cheat, using IM technology
- Players dropping out after a few hands
[edit] Computer bridge
After many years of little progress, at the end of the twentieth century computer bridge made big strides forward. In 1996, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) initiated official World Championships Computer Bridge, to be held annually along with a major bridge event. The first Computer Bridge Championship took place in 1997 at the North American Bridge Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Strong bridge playing programs such as Jack (World Champion computer bridge 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006) and Wbridge5 (World Champion computer bridge 2005) probably rank among the top few thousand human pairs worldwide. A series of articles published in 2005 and 2006 in the Dutch bridge magazine IMP describes matches between Jack and seven top Dutch pairs. A total of 196 boards were played. Overall, the program Jack lost, but with a small margin (359 versus 385 imps).
[edit] Notable bridge people
Creators and early inventors, in the first half of the 20th century:
Influential players and theorists in the second half of the 20th century:
- Giorgio Belladonna
- Pietro Forquet
- Benito Garozzo
- Charles Goren
- Edgar Kaplan
- Terence Reese
- Alfred Sheinwold
- S. J. Simon
- Omar Sharif
Modern world-top experts:
Bridge players in fiction:
[edit] Definitions of common terms
[edit] External links
- American Contract Bridge League
- Dutch Bridge Bond
- English Bridge Union
- Laws of Contract Bridge
- United States Bridge Federation
- World Bridge Federation
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] History of bridge
- Bridge and Auction Bridge, "Valet de Pique". 1912 London, Eveleigh Nash.
- Bridge Whist, C.J.Melrose. 1901 London, L Upcott Gill and New York Charles Scribner's Sons.
- Elwell's Advanced Bridge, J.B.Elwell. 1905 (5th ed) London, George Newnes.
- Foster's Whist Manual, R. F. Foster. 1899 (4th ed) London, Frederick Warne and Co with Mudie and Sons
- Royal Auction Bridge, Ernest Bergholt. 1915? London, George Routledge & Sons.
- The Bridge Manual, "John Doe" (George Cavendish Benedict). 1900 London, Mudie and Sons.bg:Бридж
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