Bridge Card Game

loveislife

Yes. It's called a weak jump overcall and is most commonly used after your opponent opens the bidding (1C by your right-hand opponent, 3H by you). A preemptive overcall can also be made after both opponents have bid (1C on your left, Pass by partner, 1H on your right, 2S by you). Some pairs agree to play weak jump-shifts by responder -- 1C by partner, Pass, 2S by you shows a very weak hand (around 3 to 7 high-card-points) and a 6+-card suit. Other pairs agree that responder's jump is preemptive only in competition (partner opens and your right-hand opponent overcalls or doubles).

A bridge hand with no cards in one suit is said to have a void.

A balanced hand is one with at most one doubleton (two-card suit) and no suit shorter than that. A semi-balanced hand can have two doubletons (and usually no six-card suit).

The Acol system is named from Acol Street.

It depends on where you play the card and the position. if it is faced up then yes if it is faced down then no, unless the game uses a discard pile and that's where you place the card.

For instance, if you place you cards on the table, face-down to go to the toilet or just to make room in your hand, then you are not playing them.

But in the game of "Not!" or "Bull" (family friendly name, there is a card game with a rude term for dishonesty), you play the cards face down into the discard pile and declare that you played. Nobody sees the cards unless someone suspects the player lied. So of you lay them in the stack, you are playing them, but if you just lay them in front of you, face-down, you're not.

Reverse bidding in bridge is a second bid, usually done by the opener at a two level or higher in a higher- ranking suit than the original bid. It's important to recognize a reverse when your partners does one.

Overcalls imply a 5-card (or longer) suit. If you have a strong enough hand to enter the auction you could consider a takeout double, which asks partner to choose from any unbid suit.

If your bridge partner forces you to bid, make the best bid you can manage and don't worry about it.

The responsibility is all on your partner. You never claimed to have a good hand. Trust your partner to have enough winning cards.

A splinter bid is a conventional bid that promises support for partner's suit while showing shortness (one or zero cards) in another suit. It is usually an unusual jump in a new suit. For example, over partner's 1H opening, a bid of 4C would be a splinter bid, showing four or more hearts and at most one club (plus the strength to be in game).

Bridge was such a popular game from 1925 to the 1960s that it's likely all the Presidents during that time knew how to play. The most famous bridge-playing President, though, was Dwight Eisenhower, who was an excellent player. During WWII, one of his criteria for choosing officers for his staff was their ability to play bridge. While in the White House, Eisenhower scheduled semi-regular Saturday-night games with leading experts. The Bushes are also a bridge-playing family, although there are no reports of George W. pursuing the hobby during his Presidency.

Rubber game or rubber match: Term used for the third game of 3-game series when the two teams have split the first two games. Originally a card-playing term.

You might consider a hand like this to be perfect, because you can bid 7NT, a grand slam, with confidence:

♠AKQ♥AKQ♦AKQ♣AKQJ

But such a hand is incredibly unlikely, and also without any challenge whatsoever. A much more satisfying hand would require creativity and concentration to bid and play, like this:

♠3♥AKT983♦AK932♣J

If partner has a fitting minimum, it's possible to bid to an slam with very few values:

♠T972♥7652♦Q8♣A76

Absolutely! The standard meaning of a double is penalty, and is usually based on having an equivalent (or better) hand than the NT bidder. Some partnerships use double to mean something conventional; a single suited overcall, or a hand with both majors, for example.

These cards are called honor cards, or simply honors (spelled honour(s) in UK). Cards that are not honors are referred to as spot cards.

Following are some 'Precision-specific' cases to keep in mind. The field of cue-bidding is so wide that more is not really possible in this type of forum!

I'll talk about two types of cue-bidding situations:

1. Specific to Goren's Precision bidding system

2. Specific to interference over Precision

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1. A couple of key situations are different in Precision

- after a strong 1C opening and positive response, he plays a jump shift by opener as strong with a very strong suit. Responder is expected to cue-bid with extra values and an interest in slam

- after a strong 1C opening and positive suit response, a raise by opener is a Trump Asking Bid (TAB). Subsequent bids by opener are control asking bids, and the responses show (in effect) controls similar to cue-bids would otherwise.

2. Over interference over a 1C opening (at a level of 2NT or higher) the most important thing is to show number of controls (A=2, K=1, void/singleton in enemy's suit is 2/1). There are various step bids, but a cue-bid in this case shows 4 controls (with at least one in the enemy suit) and either support for the other 3 suits or a strong suit of your own.

Almost all modern bidding systems are based on 5-card Major openings.

Some players agree to play methods that are based on 4-card Major openings, such as Goren, or older versions of ACOL.

Playing a 5-card Major system, experienced players sometimes open a 4-card Major in third position with a strong holding (like AKJ2). This has upsides , like getting partner off to the right lead, and inviting partner to compete in the auction.

The diamond suit is a 'minor' suit. Clubs is also a 'minor' suit.

Spades and hearts are the 'Major' suits.

They are called that because major suits give more points in the scoring than minor suits. It only takes a four-bid to make 'game' in hearts or spades, but you must bid five diamonds or clubs to make 'game'.

Each player receives 13 cards at the beginning of a bridge hand, so bridge cards are narrow to make it easier for a player to hold the cards in their hand.

singleton

When reading the future with ordinary playing cards there is no Trump card. Each of the suits have their own meaning, as do each of the numbered and face cards.

A grand slam is bidding and winning a contract of 13 tricks (all) in any suit or in no-trump. A small slam is bidding and winning a contract of 12 tricks (all but 1).