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Overtrumping with clubs as trumps
must know
Never lose sight of the fact that bridge is a partnership game – you play as a team with the person sitting opposite.
Your 13 cards – your ‘hand’
Once the cards have been dealt you can pick up your cards and sort them into suits. Place the highest card at one end of each suit, the lowest card at the other. Split up the colours (black-red-black-red or red-black-red-black) to avoid muddling the suits; hearts and diamonds are particularly easy to confuse.
The following diagram shows a typical bridge hand, in ranking order.
To save space, this will generally be represented as:
Notice the distribution, or ‘shape’, of the hand. It contains a four-card suit, a three-card suit, a two-card suit and another four-card suit. The number of cards in each suit determines the suit ‘length’ – a shorter length has fewer cards; a longer length has more cards. Rearranging the suit lengths, in the example we have a 4432 distribution. The more you play, the more you’ll realize that distribution is the key to bridge and can more than compensate for a low point score (see the following section).
Counting points
There is a unique method in bridge of evaluating the power of your hand – its trick-taking potential – based on the high cards. For each ace, the best card in the suit, you count four points, each king counts three, each queen is two and each jack (knave) one. No points are counted for tens and below.
As soon as you’ve sorted your hand and noted its distribution, you should count your points. There are 40 points in the whole pack – four aces, four kings, four queens and four jacks. The average number of points in any one hand is ten (one ace, one king, one queen and one jack). The hand in the previous diagram contains only seven points; if this were yours you should hope that your partner has a few more points.
Useful tip
Tens and nines may not count as points, but they are nevertheless potentially useful cards, and better than twos and threes.
Making tricks
The basic card-playing principles involved in making tricks are best learnt before tackling the bidding part of bridge – even though the bidding occurs first in practice. They will give you a feel for how many tricks to aim for at the bidding stage.
Counting tricks
The partnership that wins the bidding contracts to make a certain number of tricks during the play phase of bridge. Within this partnership there is a ‘declarer’ and a ‘dummy’ (for more on these roles, see pp. 22–3 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41)). The declarer controls his own hand and dummy’s (his partner’s) hand, playing cards from both to try and achieve their trick target. In the following examples, imagine you are playing the role of the declarer and see how many tricks you can expect to make by playing out the suit in each case:
In (a), you can make three tricks if you play just one high card per trick. In (b), you can make four tricks by playing one high card for each of the four rounds. In (c), although you have the six top clubs, you must follow suit and can make only three tricks overall.
must know
Bidding occurs before trick-taking. It establishes:
• which (if any) suit is trumps;
• the trick target for each partnership;
• which player within the highest-bidding partnership is ‘the declarer’ and which is ‘the dummy’. The declarer controls both his hand and dummy’s.
Which order to take (‘cash’) the tricks
In the examples on p. 14 (#u49788cc2-a489-413a-a08d-67872f437a3a), it doesn’t matter which hand is the declarer or the dummy, or from which you lead first. However, in many real-life cases, the order in which you play the cards is important if you want to make the maximum number of tricks available.
In (a), where there’s an unequal number of cards in the two hands, there are three available tricks to be made, one after the other, but only if you cash them in the correct order. If you play ♦A first (or ♦4 to ♦A), you will then have to lead ♦2 to ♦K – because the hand winning the previous trick always leads to the next trick – and will be stuck in the wrong hand, unable to win ♦Q. To avoid being ‘blocked’ in this way, lead ♦K (or ♦2 to ♦K) first, then follow with ♦4 to ♦AQ.
In (b), you should play ♦Q and ♦5 on the first round, then ♦3 to ♦AKJ. Only in this way can you make four consecutive diamond tricks.
In (c), lead ♦2 to ♦K (or ♦K to ♦2). Follow with ♦J and ♦5, then ♦6 over to ♦AQ.
Note that these examples assume your opponents do not have a trump card that would win the trick (more on the use of trump cards on pp. 18–19 (#ulink_71b8bceb-20ff-5269-9eac-5557bcc0df12)).
must know
The Unblocking Rule (a guideline for cashing winners in the right order):
• If leading from the hand with the shorter length, lead the highest card.
• If leading from the hand with the longer length, lead the lowest card.
• You may find it helpful to remember ‘L’ for ‘Lead Longest Lowest’.
Extra tricks by force
So far you have cashed your ‘top’ tricks and your opponents have not had a look-in. Now consider the next three examples. In each case you are missing a high, winning card (or cards), and in order to make tricks in the suit you must ‘force’ out that card from the opposition partnership.
In (a), you are missing ♠A and need to force it out from the opposition. You can use any high card in the suit to do this, then go on to win the other two high cards when you regain the lead. In this way you promote two tricks by ‘force’. Note that if your opponent withholds their ♠A on the first round, you’ll win the trick anyway, effectively ‘promoting’ the high card you use to lead. You can then sacrifice a second high card in order to promote the third. Both scenarios give you your two tricks.
Example (b) contains the same high cards but in this case it’s better to start specifically with ♠Q (or ♠7 to ♠Q) to force out ♠A. You’ll then hold ♠2 in one hand and ♠KJ in the other, which avoids ‘blockage’.
In (c), you need to force out ♠A and ♠K. To do this, sacrifice two of your sequential cards ♠Q, ♠J, ♠10, ♠9 (note that sequential cards between your hand and dummy’s are worth the same). Then you have promoted the two cards that remain into two force winners.
Useful tip
Don’t be overly concerned about losing the lead, particularly early in the play. You have to lose to win in bridge.
Extra tricks by length
If you can exhaust your opponents of all of their cards in a suit, then your remaining cards, however small, will be promoted into ‘length’ winners. Assuming your opponents have no outstanding trumps, these remaining cards will be extra tricks.
must know
Length before strength – a general rule to follow in bridge: having more cards in a suit is often more important than a higher point count.
In (a), you have four ‘top’ tricks (tricks made consecutively, with high ranking cards), but it would be very unlucky if you didn’t also score ♥2. Your opponents hold five hearts between them. Unless they are all in one hand, they’ll all fall when you win ♥AKQJ. ♥2 will then be a fifth-round winner – by virtue of its length. This scenario depends on how the five missing hearts are split between the opposition. If they’re split 3-2 (most likely), or 4-1, you’ll achieve your extra trick by length. The only problem will be the much less likely 5-0 split.
In (b) start with ♥Q (or ♥2 to ♥Q), as it’s the highest card from the shorter length. Then lead ♥3 back to ♥J, and cash ♥A and ♥K. The six missing cards in the suit will go in these four rounds if the cards are split 3-3 or 4-2. Assuming they are (you’ll develop a habit of counting missing cards as they’re played), you can enjoy a length winner with ♥4. A 5-1 split, however, would prevent this. Fortunately, this is much less likely.
In (c), you have three top tricks but may also make a fourth-round length winner. There are six missing cards, held by the opposition. If the split is 3-3 (three cards in each opposition hand), you have the chance to enjoy a low-card length winner. Start with ♥K (or ♥3 to ♥K), then ♥Q, then ♥4 to ♥A. If all six missing hearts fall (i.e. both opponents follow suit all three times), then ♥6 will be a length winner. You’ll be less lucky if the suit splits 4-2 (or 5-1 or 6-0) as there’ll be an outstanding heart, which is bound to be higher than your ♥6.
must know
Your ability to generate length winners in a particular suit depends on how the missing cards in the suit are split between the opposition partners. If you are missing five cards from your own partnership you can expect them to be split 3-2 between the opposition, perhaps 4-1, or rarely (and less fortunately for you) 5-0.
Trumping
Apart from length winners, the only way to make tricks with twos and threes is by trumping. Which suit is preferable here as trumps: ♠AKQ or ♣65432? The answer is clubs because ♠AKQ rate to score tricks whether or not they are trumps, whereas the only way the small clubs are likely to win is by being trumps. A key challenge of bidding is to discover which one of the four suits holds the greatest combined length between your partnership, as it will probably be best to make that suit trumps.
Drawing trumps
When ‘declaring’ (playing the role of the declarer), it’s often good to get rid of the opposition’s trumps near the beginning of the hand so they can’t trump your winners. This is called ‘drawing trumps’. You should avoid continuing playing your trumps (wasting two together) once your opponents have run out of theirs. You therefore need to count.
Counting trumps
First work out how many trumps are missing, then think of that missing number in terms of how the cards may be split between the opposition partners, bearing in mind that they’ll usually have approximately the same number as each other. Each time you see an opponent play a trump, mentally reduce the number of missing trumps by one.
In this example, the declarer counts five missing trumps. He cashes ♠K and, when he sees both opponents follow suit, reduces his mental count of missing trumps down to three. ♠2 to ♠Q draws two more of the opponents’ trumps. There’s just one more left out (and it’s now obvious that the split is 3-2). The declarer cashes ♠A, drawing the last trump, and doesn’t need to play a fourth round in the trump suit.
must know
Counting trumps is important. Once you have drawn trumps from your opponents, i.e. exhausted them of their trump cards, you should stop playing in the trump suit and turn to others. Carrying on playing in the trump suit would be a waste because your remaining trumps could probably be made separately, by trumping another suit.
Introducing the bidding
Each bid carries a message and is used to tell your partner what type of hand you have: its strength and which suit(s), if any, you’d like as trumps. Your aim is to outbid the other side with a final bid, a ‘contract’ or trick target, that suits both you and your partner’s hands (hence the term ‘contract’ bridge – see p. 228 (#litres_trial_promo)).
must know
By the end of the bidding, the following will be determined:
• whether the deal will be played in a trump suit (clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades), or without a trump suit (‘no-trumps’ – see p. 27 (#u31875983-02cf-4e2b-9cbb-0f19539b47a2));
• how many tricks need to be made by the side who has bid highest and therefore won the contract; and, by deduction, how many tricks their opponents need in order to stop them from winning;
• which player within the highest bidding partnership is the declarer, and which is the dummy.
Opening the bidding
The bidding starts with the dealer, who decides whether to ‘open the bidding’. If he has an average or worse-than-average hand, he says ‘no bid’ or ‘pass’. If he has a better-than-average hand (12 points is a good guide), he opens the bidding by stating his preferred suit as trumps – choosing one of his longest suits.
In (a), the dealer says ‘Pass’ as he has only ten points (an average point score as there are 40 points in the pack divided between four players).
In (b), the dealer has 14 points – enough to open the bidding. He has more spades than any other suit, and would like spades to be trumps, so he opens ‘One spade’ (see p. 21 (#ulink_fc404857-a0e4-5deb-b5bb-6263eaa9cfca), ‘Making a bid at the One level’).
Once the dealer has bid (or passed), the bidding moves to the next player in clockwise rotation. If the dealer has passed, the second bidder now follows the same process as the dealer: with less than 12 points, he passes, with 12 or more he opens ‘One…’ followed by the name of his longest suit. The third and fourth bidders similarly need 12 points to open the bidding. Occasionally, when the high cards are evenly distributed, none of the four players will hold 12 or more points. The deal is then ‘thrown in’, and the next player in clockwise rotation deals with the other pack.
Making a bid at the One level
The number in a bid is the number of tricks to be won above six tricks. There are 13 tricks in each deal, of which a partnership entering the bidding is expected to make at least six (just under half). When making a bid at the One level, e.g. ‘One spade’ if spades is your preferred trump suit, this means you are contracting to make one trick on top of the six, i.e. seven tricks, with the nominated suit as trumps (spades in this example). Bidding usually opens at the One level, but see p. 146 (#litres_trial_promo) for cases where you open above the One level.
After the bidding has opened
Once the bidding has opened, 12 points are no longer needed to bid. You can enter the bidding if you have a good, long suit. There are two options: to make a higher bid – going up the series of steps shown in the diagram on p. 22 (#ulink_2814fd4d-7fdb-5c59-81bb-e3f894758a41) – or to pass. Note that your bid must be higher than the previous one. This is where the ranking order of suits is crucial: you can bid a higher-ranked suit or ‘no-trumps’ (a deal played without a trump suit – see p. 27 (#u31875983-02cf-4e2b-9cbb-0f19539b47a2)) at the same level (e.g. at the One level), but to bid a lower-ranked suit you must ‘raise the level’ i.e. ‘contract for’ (promise to win) one more trick than the previous bidder.
The bidding continues until three players in a row pass, which signifies the end of the auction.
The bidding steps: the number next to the suit refers to the number of tricks plus six that you are contracting to make in the chosen trump suit, or in no-trumps (NT)
A typical bidding sequence
North deals and passes as he lacks 12+ points needed to open the bidding. East (next in clockwise rotation) opens the bidding with 1♥ – he has 12+ points and his longest (or equal longest) suit is hearts. South then bids 2♣ – he doesn’t need 12 points as the bidding has opened, but must raise the level to ‘Two’ (i.e. an eight-trick target) because clubs are ranked lower than hearts. West supports his partner’s chosen suit, hearts, by bidding 2♥, North then bids 3♣, upping his partnership’s target to nine winning tricks out of thirteen. North’s 3♣ bid ends the auction, because it is followed by three passes in a row, and 3♣ becomes the final contract. South becomes declarer and must make nine (or more) tricks with clubs as trumps; the defenders E-W need to win five tricks in order to stop him.
must know
Bidding essentials:
• Open the bidding with 12+ points.
• Once the bidding has opened, 12+ points are no longer needed to make a bid.
• You have two choices: to make a higher bid, or to pass (as in any other auction).
• The player within the highest-bidding partnership who was first to name the trump suit (or no-trumps) becomes the declarer. His partner becomes dummy.
• The defender on the left of the declarer leads the first card.
After the bidding has ended
Each of the four players has the opportunity to bid on the first round. When the bidding ends (three passes in a row), the highest bid becomes the final contract, and the player who first bid the suit (within the highest-bidding partnership) becomes the declarer. The player on the declarer’s left leads the first card (choosing any card to lead). The declarer’s partner then puts down his hand face up, sorted into suits (his hand is ‘tabled’), and, as the ‘dummy’, takes no further part in playing out the deal, the declarer playing cards from his own hand and from the dummy hand. Thus, everyone playing the deal is able to see half the deck: 13 cards in their own hand and the 13 cards laid out on the table by dummy. The advantage for the declarer is that he is the only player at the table who can see his own partner’s cards, and gets to play them.
In this example, South becomes declarer (by virtue of bidding the trump suit, clubs, first). West, on his left, leads, whereupon dummy (North) tables his cards face up, placing trumps (clubs) on his right, and the other suits (preferably with colours split) to his left, with the highest card in each suit nearest dummy, the lowest nearest the middle of the table.
Dummy is tabled
must know
Bridge is a co-operative game: try to inform your partner about your hand, remembering that quantity is more important than quality when it comes to suggesting a trump suit. Bridge is also a competitive game: your opponents are trying to make your life awkward. Do not be fooled or bullied by them.
After the play
Either the declarer fulfils his target (perhaps even making extra tricks), or he doesn’t (because he fails to achieve the contracted number of tricks, by one or more). All eventualities are taken into consideration in the scoring (see pp. 220–7 (#litres_trial_promo)).
want to know more?
• The type of bridge described in this book is ‘Rubber Bridge’, a version of Contract Bridge whose overall objective is to win a ‘rubber’, i.e. the best of three games. For more on scoring games and rubbers, see pp. 220–7 (#litres_trial_promo).
• Other types of bridge, including Chicago, Duplicate and Minibridge, are outlined on pp. 228–31 (#litres_trial_promo).
• Other methods of evaluating a bridge hand (besides counting points) are covered on pp. 190–5 (#litres_trial_promo).
2 Basics (#ulink_59d14799-7e6e-5c8a-b1ed-9148a2df3925)
By now you’ve had your first taste of bridge and you’re ready to move on. You’re learning that distribution, or ‘shape’, is the key to bridge. In this chapter you’ll learn more about assessing a bridge hand, finding a trump fit and bidding to a game contract. There’s also guidance on trick-taking and defence.
