Bridge for Beginners E-Book

Zia Mahmood

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 573

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Bridge ia an easy game to learn but it takes a lifetime to master. This monumental work is designed to take the student to a level at which he or she can play in a bridge club or tournament with confidence. This book was originally published as three volumes on Bidding, Declarer Play and Defence. It combines the talents of top Canadian bridge teacher Audrey Grant, regarded as the leading tutor in North America, and the charismatic and world-renowned bridge player Zia Mahmud, voted bridge personality of the decade by both International Popular Bridge Monthly and Bridge Today. Zia presented the BBc television series Play Bridge with Zia and his lively and lucid style is ideal to popularise the game for a wide audience.

Leseprobe

Bridge for Beginners:

A Complete Course

Zia Mahmood

with Audrey Grant

Foreword by Omar Sharif

Contents

Foreword by Omar Sharif

PART ONE: BIDDING

SECTION 1  THE FIRST STEPS

1    Introduction

2    Hand Valuation

3    One-level Opening Bids

•  Opening One No-trump

•  Opening One of a Suit

4    Developing the Auction

SECTION 2  RESPONDING TO OPENING BIDS OF ONE

5    Responding to an Opening Bid of One No-trump

6    Responding to an Opening Bid of One Heart or One Spade

7    Responding to an Opening Bid of One Club or One Diamond

SECTION 3  REBIDS

8    Rebids by the Opener

9    Rebids by the Responder

SECTION 4  OPENING BIDS OF MORE THAN ONE

10  Strong Two Opening Bids

11  Pre-emptive Opening Bids

SECTION 5  ADVANCED BIDDING CONCEPTS

12  Slam Bidding

13  Conventional Bids

SECTION 6  THE COMPETITIVE AUCTION

14  Overcalls and Responses

15  Doubles

•  The Penalty Double

•  The Takeout Double

PART TWO: DECLARER PLAY

SECTION 7  THE FIRST STEPS

16  General Principles

SECTION 8  TAKING TRICKS WITHOUT TRUMPS

17  Promoting High Cards

18  Establishing Small Cards

19  The Finesse

20  The Power of High Cards

SECTION 9  TAKING TRICKS WITH TRUMPS

21  Principles of the Trump Suit

22  Trumping Losers

23  Discarding Losers

24  Managing Trumps

25  The Plan’s the Thing

PART THREE: DEFENCE

SECTION 10  THE FIRST STEPS

26  General Principles

27  Sure Tricks in Defence

SECTION 11  DEFENDING AGAINST NO-TRUMP CONTRACTS

28  Promoting High Cards

29  Establishing Small Cards

30  The Finesse in Defence

31  The Opening Lead against No-trumps

SECTION 12  DEFENDING AGAINST TRUMP CONTRACTS

32  The Use of Trumps in Defence

33  The Opening Lead Against a Trump Contract

SECTION 13  TEAMWORK IN DEFENCE

34  After Partner Leads

35  Signals in Defence

36  Thwarting the Declarer’s Plan

Glossary

Rubber Bridge Scoring Table

Index

Foreword

I think it was just before filming Lawrence of Arabia that I first discovered that ‘finesse’ didn’t necessarily mean choosing the correct vintage of Dom Perignon. It was a discovery that changed my life, as this introduction to the game of bridge, which developed initially as a method of combating the frequent boredom of film making, changed to a passion and an involvement that are stronger today than ever. It would be difficult to count the hours of pleasure I have received from bridge, surely the most fascinating of games ever invented, and I hope that you too can derive the same joy after this introduction to the game.

Zia has long been a friend of mine and he is rated by many as the No 1 player in the world. In my opinion, however, his contribution has been much more than expertise because of the charisma and sense of fun that he brings with him to the game. He is the living proof that bridge is not a boring game for boring people but an exciting game that mixes all the most vital human qualities and emotions.

In Bridge for Beginners, Zia has combined his expertise and sense of humour with the talents of the internationally known teacher and author Audrey Grant to bring an introduction to the game that is essential for all beginners.

For once, you can learn the secrets of the game presented in a simple yet entertaining manner that is as much fun to read as to play. For once, you can actually listen to an expert as he talks you through his thoughts on every basic step and situation. Finally, once you have read this book, I hope you will take up the game of bridge as I once did, because I already know that its lure is irresistible once felt, its addiction heady and exciting, and I would to like share this knowledge.

Omar Sharif

PART ONE: BIDDING

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

It is generally accepted that contract bridge started in about 1925 when Harold Sterling Vanderbilt was cruising the Caribbean on the SS Finland. He picked up a pack of cards, shuffled them, and said ‘Gentlemen, let me show you a new game. It may interest you.’

Bridge is said to be the Rolls-Royce of card games, and for good reason. It can be as comfortable as your favourite pair of shoes, and yet at the same time it can excite you as much after you have played for years as when you first experienced the game. Bridge can be a quiet source of pleasure when you play in familiar surroundings with friends you have known all your life, or a tool which introduces you to new people in new places. Tennis star Martina Navratilova once said that bridge meant a lot to her in her travels: ‘No matter where I go’, she said, ‘I can always make new friends at the bridge table’. Omar Sharif is said to have given up acting, horses and women for the game. For others, bridge is a great social activity. It is difficult to believe that bridge is good for us; to believe that something that brings so much joy is neither immoral, against the law nor bad for our health. If you are not yet familiar with the game, what have you been waiting for? If you have played for years, it’s time to introduce you to some of the secrets of the experts, taught, we hope, with a mixture of fun and simplicity.

Getting started

All you need are three other people and a pack of cards. If you have a card table, four chairs and a pencil and paper to keep score, so much the better. Already you are as well-equipped as a world champion!

Bridge is a partnership game. Although you can play with a regular partner, it is common to cut for partners. To do this, take the cards and spread them face down on the table. Each player selects a card and turns it up. The cards are ranked as usual in this order: Ace (highest), King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 (lowest). The players choosing the two higher-ranking cards play together and those picking the two lower-ranking cards are partners. If the four cards turned over were an ace, a king, a jack and a 3, the players choosing the ace and king would play together and the players turning over the jack and 3 would be partners.

What if two players pick the same ranked card? Let’s consider a most unusual case where all four players pick aces. It looks as if there is a four-way tie, but there is a method of breaking such a tie. The suits are ranked in alphabetical order with the clubs () being the lowest ranked suit, then diamonds (), hearts () and, at the top, the highest ranking suit, spades (). In the situation mentioned above, then, the players with the ace of spades (A) and ace of hearts (A) would play against the players holding the ace of diamonds (A) and ace of clubs (A).

The partners sit opposite one another. Bridge writers refer to the players not by name but by direction: North, East, South and West. Here, then, are the four players sitting round the table:

Introducing the play

Once everyone is sitting down and ready to play, the player who chose the highest card deals. The jokers are not used, so a bridge pack consists of 52 cards. Starting with the player on his left, the dealer deals one card at a time to each player, proceeding clockwise around the table, until the pack is exhausted and each player has 13 cards. If, during the deal, a card is accidentally turned face up, the deal must be restarted – the pack must be shuffled and cut, and the dealer tries again! Each player picks up his hand and sorts it into suits. It is easier to see your hand if you separate the black and red suits. Here is a sorted bridge hand:

In a book or newspaper, the above bridge hand is usually written out in the ranking order of the suits, with spades first, then hearts, diamonds and clubs as follows:

The objective during the play of the hand is for your partnership to try to take as many tricks as you can. A trick consists of four cards, one from each player, and the player contributing the highest card wins the trick for his side. The player who wins each trick leads the first card to the next trick face up on the table and the other three players play their cards, in turn, clockwise around the table. Everyone has to follow suit to the first card that is led, if they can. For example, let’s suppose that West leads the king of spades. All the other players, in turn, have to follow suit by playing a spade, if they have one. Suppose North contributes the ace of spades, the highest card in the suit, East plays the 3 of spades and South plays the 2 of spades. North has won the trick for his side (North-South). Here is the trick:

North collects the four cards and puts them in a stack face down in front of himself. Usually, one member of the partnership collects all the tricks won for his side. At the end of the hand, thirteen tricks will have been played and the table might look like this:

You can see that North-South took six tricks and East-West took seven. The game can be played in one of two ways: with a trump suit, or in no trumps. In no trumps, the highest card played in the suit led always wins the trick. If you cannot follow suit, you must play a card in another suit, but a card discarded in this way has no power to win the trick, even if it is higher-ranking than the card led. To take an unlikely example: West leads the two of clubs, on which North plays the ace of spades, East the ace of hearts and South the ace of diamonds. West is the winner of the trick, for his two was the highest – indeed the only – card played in the suit led. The winner of the trick, when playing in no trumps, is the person who played the highest card in the suit that was led.

The game can also be played in a trump suit where one suit becomes the most powerful suit for that hand. If you cannot follow suit you can play a trump and it will win the trick, provided a higher trump is not played on the same trick. For example, let’s suppose that clubs have been designated as the trump suit. West leads the A, North plays the 5, East plays the 3 and South plays the 2. The trick looks like this:

Because clubs are trumps, the small club wins the trick. South, however, can only play the 2 if he has no diamonds left in his hand. Otherwise, he must follow suit by playing a diamond on the trick. South does not have to play a trump if he has no diamonds. Instead, he can discard a heart or spade and let West win the trick with the A. It is permitted to lead trumps. If the trump suit is led, the highest trump played wins the trick. Let’s summarise all these points about playing the cards:

Summary of play of the hand

1  You and your partner work together to take as many tricks as you can.

2  When one player leads a card to a trick, all other players must follow suit if they can. If a player cannot follow suit, he plays a card from another suit.

3  The player who wins the trick leads to the next trick. Each player follows clockwise in turn.

4  In no trumps, the highest card of the suit led wins the trick.

5  When playing with a trump suit, if a player cannot follow suit he can choose to play a trump. If more than one trump is played to a trick, the highest trump played wins the trick. This is the only exception to the cardinal rule of trick taking which is that the highest card played in the suit led always wins the trick.

Introducing the bidding

In some card games, the trump suit is decided by turning up a card, sometimes from another pack. In bridge, each player gets an opportunity to suggest that the longest suit in his hand be the trump suit. Suppose this is your hand:

Your longest suit is hearts and so you would suggest that hearts be trumps, by bidding hearts. Now let’s look at your partner’s hand:

The longest suit in your partner’s hand is spades, so that would be his first choice, or bid. The bidding is simply a conversation that you have with your partner to reach a consensus about the trump suit. One drawback is that you have to reach this decision without seeing your partner’s hand. That seems fair, doesn’t it? Can you imagine how colourless the game would be if you could look at one another’s hands? Another limitation is that you cannot mention the actual cards that you hold in a suit or the number of cards that you hold in each suit. It would take away the challenge if you could say to your partner that you have the ace, king, 7, 5 and 2 of hearts or that you have a four-card club suit headed by the ace and king.

Instead, the type of conversation you and your partner could have with the above hands would, possibly, go something like this:

You:

I like hearts better than any other suit.

Partner:

I like spades best; I don’t have many hearts.

You:

I don’t like spades very much but what do you think about clubs?

Partner:

I don’t mind clubs.

You:

So let’s agree to choose clubs as our trump suit.

Partner:

Seems reasonable.

This is the concept of bidding. It really is this simple, except for a very small catch we will come to shortly. You and your partner are having a conversation to tell each other as much as possible about your hands. How did you and your partner do in the above discussion? You found your longest combined suit, which is the idea of bidding. In either hearts or spades, on these hands, you have only seven combined cards in the suit. In clubs you and your partner have an eight-card fit, which means you have eight cards in the suit between the two hands. No matter how far you go in bridge, bidding should never be more complicated than the concept of a conversation between two friends.

The partnership, through the bidding, tries to uncover the suit in which it holds the most cards – the suit that would make the best trump suit. A good trump suit is usually one containing eight or more cards between the two hands. Since there are thirteen cards in a suit, if your side has eight, the opponents have only five cards and you hold the clear majority of the suit. If you can make your longest combined suit the trump suit, you will be able to use your small trump cards to help win tricks whenever you cannot follow suit, since they will then have more value than even the ace in a suit that is not trumps.

Now, about that catch! Let’s take another look at the bidding. When you play a game of bridge, you are expected to use only the language and the vocabulary of the game. You cannot actually say ‘I like hearts, how about you?’ The good news, however, is that the bridge language is spoken world-wide and the vocabulary consists of only a handful of words: the numbers from one to seven; the names of the suits – clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades – or no trumps; and the words pass or no bid. These few simple words are all you need to describe your hand.

Bridge bidding is like an auction. The players try to outbid each other for the privilege of naming the trump suit. There is no auctioneer, however. Instead there is an agreed-upon, orderly way of conducting the bidding.

The dealer gets the first opportunity to open the bidding by suggesting a denomination (a trump suit or no trumps). If he does not want to commit his side to trying to take at least seven tricks – the minimum requirement for opening the bidding – he can say ‘Pass’ or ‘No bid’. Each player, clockwise in turn, then gets a chance to make a bid or to pass. The auction continues round the table until a bid is followed by three passes, meaning that everyone is in agreement with the last bid, and no one wants to bid any further.

What if one player bids 1 and the next player wants to bid 1? Which bid is higher? There is an automatic tie-breaker built into the language of bridge. The suits are ranked, remember, in ascending alphabetical order (clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades). No trumps is considered to rank the highest of all, higher than spades. Since diamonds are lower-ranking than spades, a 1 bid outranks a 1 bid. If the next player wants to suggest diamonds as the trump suit, he will have to commit his side to taking more tricks by raising the level and bidding 2. On the other hand, if the next player wants to suggest no trumps, he can bid 1NT, since that outranks the 1 bid.

We can think of the possible bids as a series of steps leading from one level to the next as illustrated below:

The bidding steps

Each bid must be further up or further to the right on the bidding steps than the preceding bid. If a player starts the bidding at the one level (1, 1, 1, 1 or 1NT), contracting to take seven tricks, another player can make a bid in a higher-ranking denomination at the one level or must climb to the two level, contracting to take eight tricks, if he wants to make a bid in a lower-ranking denomination. If a player does not want to bid any higher, he will pass.

Hearts and spades are referred to as the major suits and, when you look at the bidding steps, you can see they are higher-ranking than clubs or diamonds which are referred to as the minor suits.

After there are three passes, the last bid determines the trump suit and the number of tricks that the side naming this trump suit must take to be successful. The final bid becomes the contract. Let’s look at our two hands to see how they would be bid using the language of bridge. We will assume that the opponents do not wish to compete for the contract and choose to pass throughout the auction.

You

Partner

3 2

A 8 6 5 4

A K 7 5 2

6

7 3

9 6 2

A K 7 3

Q J 8 6

You:

One heart.

(I like hearts and am contracting to take seven tricks with hearts as trumps.)

Partner:

One spade.

(I would prefer spades as trumps. I can keep the bidding at the one level since spades rank higher than hearts.)

You

Two clubs.

(You don’t seem to like my hearts. How about clubs? I have to move to the two level to show my second suit since clubs are lower-ranking than spades.)

Partner:

Pass

(I like clubs much better than hearts and they should make a satisfactory trump suit. I do not want to go any higher up the bidding steps since we are already contracting to take eight tricks.)

Let’s suppose you are sitting in the South position and your partner is North. This is the way the above auction would normally be written down, showing your opponents’ passes as well as your bids:

South

West

North

East

1

Pass

1

Pass

2

Pass

Pass

Pass

West, North and East all have to say pass after the 2 bid in order to end the auction. North-South are said to have won the bid and the final contract is 2. What happens next?

Introducing the roles of each side

After the bidding is completed, one partnership has been successful in naming the trump suit and, in the process, has arrived at a contract, which is a commitment to take a certain number of tricks. In the example above, North-South arrived at a contract of 2 and, in doing so, committed to take eight tricks with clubs as trumps. If they take at least eight tricks with clubs as trump, they make their contract. If they are not successful in collecting eight tricks, then East-West defeat the contract. East-West are said to be the defence and they are trying to prevent North-South from taking enough tricks to fulfil the contract.

One player from the side who wins the contract is called the declarer and that player is going to play both his and his partner’s hands. The other hand is referred to as the dummy. Which player is the declarer and which player is the dummy? The player who first mentioned the suit that ended up being the trump suit (or whoever bid no trumps first in a no-trump contract is the declarer and his partner becomes the dummy. In the auction above, South is the declarer since he was the first to mention the club suit and his partner, North, is the dummy. The player to the left of the declarer makes the opening lead. In this case, it would be West and he would choose a card and place it on the table. North’s hand, the dummy, is then placed face up on the table. The trump suit is put on dummy’s right – the declarer’s left. Suppose the opening lead is the K. After the dummy is put down, the cards on the table might look like this:

In order to discuss the play from the declarer’s viewpoint, the hand is usually illustrated as follows:

The defenders (East-West) can take the first two diamond tricks but you can trump the third round of diamonds with one of your clubs. This is one of the advantages of playing this hand with clubs as the trump suit. It prevents the opponents from taking too many tricks with their diamond suit. You will learn how to play this hand as you read through the first part on declarer play.

Introducing the scoring

In the above hand, when you take the eight tricks to which you committed yourself in the auction, you are awarded a certain number of points for fulfilling the contract. The exact details of the scoring are contained in the appendix. All that is important for now is that you have a general idea of how the game is scored. The partnership which earns the highest number of points from all the hands that are played wins the game. Points can be scored in three ways:

•  If you make (fulfil) your contract, you are given a trick score for each trick you take beyond your book of six tricks.

•  If you defeat the opponents’ contract, by preventing them from taking the number of tricks to which they committed themselves, you gain points for each trick by which you defeat their contract. In effect, your opponents suffer a penalty when they go down (are defeated) in their contract.

•  Points are awarded for reaching and making certain bonus level contracts.

Summary

The four players form two partnerships, with the partners sitting opposite each other across the table.

After the cards have been dealt out, the players, in clockwise rotation starting with the dealer, have an opportunity to suggest the denomination (trump suit or no trumps) in which they would like to play the hand.

Each bid must be higher on the bidding steps than the previous bid. If a player does not want to bid, he says pass or no bid.*

The side willing to commit itself to the greater number of tricks for the privilege of naming the denomination wins the auction.

The last bid becomes the final contract.

The player who first suggested the denomination of the final contract becomes the declarer and his partner becomes the dummy.

The defender to the left of the declarer leads to the first trick and then the dummy’s hand is placed face up on the table.

The declarer tries to take the number of tricks his side committed itself to in bidding the final contract. He plays the cards from both the dummy and his own hand on each trick.

The defenders try to take enough tricks to defeat the contract.

With this introduction, you are ready to play.

* Pass is commonly used in the USA, ‘no bid’ in Britain, but either is correct

CHAPTER 2

Hand Valuation

The new game, contract bridge, not only interested those in the ship’s stateroom, it caught the imagination of people around the world. The media caught the ‘bridge bug’ and bridge became front page news. The game became a popular pastime, with both men and women. Housewives, who had hitherto thought a dummy was a baby’s pacifier, banded themselves together to the permanent ruin of their husbands’ digestion.

Well, you are about to learn a foreign language. If you have ever tried this before, you know how difficult it can be – which is the bad news. The good news about learning the language of bridge is that the vocabulary consists of only a few words. The more fluent you become in using this new language, the better bidder you become. All you need to do is remember that the sole purpose of bidding is to describe the cards in your hand as clearly as possible to your partner, using the language of bridge. Using only two words – ‘one spade’, for example – you paint a picture of your hand. If you ever wanted to be a person of few words, bridge provides the opportunity!

Valuing a hand

A bid portrays something about both the distribution and strength of your hand. The distribution is the number of cards you hold in each suit. As we saw in the sample auction in Chapter 1, you start to describe your distribution through the denomination of your bid. If you open the bidding 1, for example, you are telling your partner that hearts is your longest suit – ‘I like hearts’.

High card points

Before you can make a bid that starts to describe your distribution to your partner, however, you must have sufficient strength (trick-taking power) to enter the auction. After all, every time you make a bid you are committing your side to take a certain number of tricks. Since most tricks are taken with the high cards in each suit – aces, kings, queens and jacks – an estimate of the strength of your hand can be arrived at by giving a value to each of the high cards in your hand. Since the ace is the most valuable card in a suit, followed by the king, queen and jack, the following scale is used:

High card points

Ace

4 points

King

3 points

Queen

2 points

Jack

1 point

You add up the high card points (HCPs) for each of the high cards in your hand to arrive at a total value. For example, what do the following three hands have in common?

They each contain 13 high card points (HCPs) – 4 for the A, 3 for the K, 2 for the Q and 4 for the A. That was easy; you are already halfway to becoming a bridge player.

Although all the hands contain exactly the same high cards, however, are they all of equal value? Which hand would you most like to have? If you chose the third hand, go to the top of the class! The trick-taking potential of the third hand is increased because of the long suits. If, for example, you can make spades the trump suit, you will take a lot of tricks with your small spades, in addition to the A, K and Q. Likewise, the second hand is more valuable than the first. The total strength of a hand, therefore, is a combination of the strength and the length (distribution) of your suits.

Support points

When you are the dealer and have the first opportunity either to open the bidding or pass, you have no information about your partner’s hand. Sometimes your partner is the dealer and you hear your partner’s suggestion before you have to give your opinion. Consider this hand:

How would you feel about your hand if your partner opened the bidding 1? Compare this with the way you would feel if your partner opened 1. Most of us would feel that this particular hand is more valuable if our partner opens 1 since we can see that hearts would make a much more suitable trump suit than spades. To reflect the increased value of a hand in this type of situation, we use support points.

Support points are used when you are expecting to be the dummy, that is, when you are going to support (agree as trumps) your partner’s suit. With the above hand, if your partner opens 1, you are not planning to support his suit. On the other hand, if partner opens the bidding 1, you want to agree to that suit as trumps. When you support your partner, you value your short suits: voids (no cards in a suit), singletons (one card in a suit) and doubletons (two cards in a suit) using the following scale:

Void

5 points

Singleton

3 points

Doubleton

1 point

In the above hand, then, if your partner opens 1, give yourself 8 HCPs and 5 points for the void in spades, for a total of 13 points. On the other hand, if your partner opens 1, you would not be supporting his suit so the hand would be worth only 8 points.

You can see from this that the value of your hand can change dramatically during the auction. To start with, before any player has made a bid, your hand is worth 9 points as explained. When your partner opens the bidding in spades, your hand is still worth only 9 points. But suppose you make a bid – we will see exactly what bid you might choose later, but say for the moment that you bid two diamonds – and your partner now bids two hearts. All of a sudden, your hand has become worth 13 points, because of the extra support points that you have if hearts are going to be trumps. It is the hallmark of the expert bidder that he can make mental adjustments to the initial value of his hand as the auction progresses.

Determining the hand pattern

In addition to focusing on the strength of your hand, you also want to take a look at the distribution or the shape. The fundamental thing to remember whenever you look at a hand is: does it belong to the family of balanced hands or the family of unbalanced hands? There is a strong family resemblance among balanced hands. There are no voids, no singletons and no more than one doubleton. It is a small family and has only three members:

The numbers under each pattern refer to the number of cards in the four suits. For example, in the first hand, there are four cards in one suit and three in the other three suits (4–3–3–3). In the second hand, there are two four-card suits, a three-card suit and a doubleton (4–4–3–2). In the final pattern, there is a five-card suit, two three-card suits and a doubleton (5–3–3–2).

All other hand patterns are unbalanced. The possible combinations are now far greater. In an extreme case, a member of the unbalanced family of hands could have three voids and a thirteen-card suit. Here are three members of the unbalanced family:

The first hand qualifies as unbalanced because it has a void; the second because there are two doubletons; the third because there is a singleton.

Now that you are able to calculate the value of your hand and recognise its shape, you are ready to open the bidding.

Summary

Before you decide what to bid, value your hand using the following guidelines:

Hand value

High card points

Ace

4 points

King

3 points

Queen

2 points

Jack

1 point

Next, look at the shape of your hand and decide whether it is a member of the balanced or unbalanced family.

Hand families

Balanced

Unbalanced

•  No void

•  Could have a void

•  No singleton

•  Could have a singleton

•  No more than one doubleton

•  Could have more than one doubleton

If your partner has bid and you are planning to support the suit he bid, use support points, rather than length points, to value your hand.

Void

5 points

Singleton

3 points

Doubleton

1 point

Commonly asked questions

Zia:

Audrey, you work with a lot of students. What are some of the questions they most frequently ask?

Audrey:

Most of the questions at this point are about different methods of doing things which they have come across from other sources, such as books, newspapers, friends, relatives and even your television show, Zia. For example, they might wonder about giving points for length rather than shortness and whether they can play with a partner who values his hand by giving points for a void, a singleton or a doubleton when making an opening bid. They ask about valuing high cards in short suits – a singleton ace or king, a doubleton queen or jack.

Zia:

Our answer, of course, would be to keep it simple.

Audrey:

That’s right. There is no need to memorise a lot of material which you will rarely encounter. At the end of each chapter, we’ll include a section on the most frequently asked questions – along with the answers, of course.

CHAPTER 3

One-level Opening Bids

At Wimbledon, when we got rained off, I spent my time playing bridge to keep me sharp and on my toes. An evening of bridge at home with family and friends is so much more enjoyable than sitting around watching TV, unless a good tennis match is on.

Martina Navratilova

You can start the auction if you are the dealer or if everyone in front of you has passed. Starting the auction is called opening the bidding. In order to consider opening the bidding, you need a hand of slightly more than average value. If you consider the value of all the high cards in the pack, there is a total of 40 high card points. An average hand, then, would be 10 points. Most players agree that 12 or 13 points is the minimum requirement to start the bidding at the one level. Your opening bid can be either in no trumps or in a suit.

Opening one no trump

When your hand belongs to the balanced family, a bid of no trumps should be on your mind. Whenever possible, a bridge player wants to give as much information about his hand as he can in a single bid. The opening bid of 1NT is very popular because it is so precise. Not only must it fall within one of the three balanced hand patterns but it must also be within a specific three-point range. You and your partner decide on the range you are going to use. Some players use a strong range of 15–17 points. In Britain, most players use the Acol system of bidding which is well-known for its weak no trump opening bid and so we suggest you use the following requirements for an opening bid of 1NT:

•  A hand in the balanced family

•  12–14 points

Bids that describe the point count range within a few points are called limit bids and should be used at every opportunity. Look at each of the following hands and determine whether the dealer should start the bidding with 1NT:

The first hand is balanced, having no voids, no singletons and no more than one doubleton. However, there are 17 points, too many to open 1NT. To open 1NT you have to have 12, 13 or 14 points.

The second hand is balanced, having 4–4–3–2 distribution. It contains 14 points. Since it meets both requirements, you should open the bidding 1NT.

The third hand has 13 points but it is unbalanced, having two doubletons. It cannot be opened 1NT because it is not a member of the balanced family of hands.

As you can see, a hand has to be both balanced and contain 12, 13 or 14 points before it can be opened 1NT.

Opening one of a suit

Balanced hands containing more than 14 points and unbalanced hands of 12 or more points are opened at the one level with one of a suit (1, 1, 1 or 1). When opening with one of a suit, you bid your longest suit. There will always be at least one suit in your hand containing four or more cards. When you have a choice of two suits of equal length, there are some simple rules to help you decide.

Balanced hands

Hands which are balanced, yet have more than 14 points – too strong to open 1NT – are opened one of a suit. Consider the following hands:

In the first example, with 17 HCPs, it seems straightforward to start with 1, the longest suit.

In the second example, with 15 HCPs, although the diamonds are the longest suit you may find it more difficult to open the bidding 1. You would like to have more diamonds, or at least a stronger looking four-card suit, but that is not what you were dealt. To feel more comfortable with such an opening bid, consider the alternatives. You do not want to pass since you have a much better than average hand and it is likely that your side can make a contract and score some points. To start with 1NT, however, would not be an accurate description of your hand. Your partner would think you had, at most, 14 points. Bid 1 and rest assured that it is the correct thing to do. The auction is not over yet. You are merely starting with the most descriptive bid within the limited language of bidding available to you.

In the third example, with 16 HCPs, you are again too strong to open 1NT. You want to start the bidding with one of a suit. In this case, you have a choice between two four-card suits. The general rule with two four-card suits is to bid the lower-ranking. Open the bidding 1. (The reason behind bidding the lower-ranking of two four-card suits is discussed in more detail in commonly asked questions.)

Unbalanced hands

Usually it is very easy to know which suit to open when your hand is unbalanced. Choose the longest suit. If you have a choice of two five-card or six-card suits, you bid the higher-ranking suit. It would be easier if the rule for two five-card suits were the same as the rule for two four-card suits but the rules are designed to make the subsequent auction as economical as possible. (This is discussed more fully in commonly asked questions.) Let’s look at some examples:

With the first hand, open your longest suit, 1. On the second hand, you have an unbalanced hand with two five-card suits. Bid the higher-ranking, 1. The third hand contains two six-card suits. Again, start with the higher-ranking, 1.

There is one unbalanced pattern which we have not mentioned. You won’t come across this pattern as often as the others we have mentioned but you may want to be aware of what to do when you have three four-card suits. The hand pattern is 4–4–4–1, such as the following:

If you do get a hand like this, open the bidding in the middle-ranking four-card suit, 10.

Over Zia’s shoulder

Let’s look over Zia’s shoulder to see how he handles making an opening bid. These hands come from real tournaments where Zia was the dealer.

Audrey:

Zia, on this hand you opened 1NT, even though you have only two small spades. Weren’t you worried that the opponents would take a lot of tricks in spades?

Zia:

Although that was a chance I was taking, I did have a partner who might be able to provide some help in spades. Also the opponents do not always do what you fear most. They might lead another suit. You should not be too cautious or put so many conditions on your bidding that it restricts you. There are pluses and minuses in everything you do, in every bid you make. The main idea is to describe the shape and strength of your hand. Open 1NT as often as you can, even with this weak doubleton.

Audrey:

You opened 1with these cards:

The spades were so attractive. Did they tempt you, even a little?

Zia:

Generally it is the length that you should focus on when considering your opening bid. Starting 1 worked out well on this hand. It was as if I had a magic wand when the lowest heart, the 2, took the opponents’ A. Open your longest, not your strongest suit.

Audrey:

You made another 1NT opening bid on this hand:

Did you consider 1?

Zia:

The problem on hands like this, if you avoid a no trump opening, is that you have chosen to give your partner a general picture of your hand rather than a specific picture. I want to tell my partner as much as I possibly can with one bid. If I open 1, I’m saying I have 12 or more points and a hand that is either balanced or unbalanced. When I open 1NT with these cards, I’m saying I have a balanced hand and specifically 12, 13 or 14 points. That should be very helpful to my partner.

Summary

When you have an opportunity to open the bidding, you can use the following guidelines to decide what to do:

1  With fewer than 12 points, pass

2  Requirements for an opening bid of 1NT:

•  A balanced hand

•  12, 13 or 14 points

3  Requirements for an opening bid of one in a suit:

•  With two four-card suits, open the lower-ranking

•  With two five-card suits, open the higher-ranking

•  With three four-card suits, open the middle-ranking

•  Otherwise, open the longest suit

Commonly asked questions

Q    Why do you open the bidding with the lower-ranking of two four-card suits?

A    To answer this, you have to consider how the auction is likely to proceed after your opening bid – a subject which we will be looking at in later chapters. For now, consider the following hand:

If you open the bidding 1 and your partner likes hearts, you will have immediately found your trump fit. If your partner does not like hearts, there is still room at the one level for him to bid 1 and you will find your spade fit. If you were to open the bidding 1, your partner would not be able to bid hearts at the one level since they are a lower-ranking suit. If your partner does not like spades and wants to bid hearts, he would have to bid 2, going one level higher on the bidding steps. As we will discuss later, your partner may not have enough strength to move to the two level, and it is possible that you will never find your best trump suit.

Q    Why do you open the lower-ranking of two four-card suits but the higher-ranking of two five-card or longer suits? Wouldn’t it be easier to have only one rule to remember?

A    It would be nice to have only one rule but you must consider the difference in the shape of the two types of hands. When you have two four-card suits, your hand is balanced. You don’t mind playing the contract in no trumps. On the other hand with two five-card suits, your hand is unbalanced and you want to mention both of your suits as inexpensively as possible. Look at this hand:

You want to tell your partner as economically as possible about both the hearts and the diamonds. If you were to start with 1, the lower-ranking suit and your partner replied 1 you would have to bid 2 in order to show both of your suits. You have given your partner two choices, either diamonds or hearts. If your partner likes diamonds better, he has to bid 3 and you are at the three level, committed to taking nine tricks. Now, consider what would happen if you start the bidding with 1, the higher-ranking suit. Your partner bids 1 and you rebid 2. This time, the bidding can stay at a lower level. If your partner likes diamonds, he can pass; if he prefers hearts, he bids 2 and you are still at the two level.

Q    Do you suggest we open the suit below a singleton or doubleton?

A    Again, it isn’t necessary to think about the suit below the short suit. Open the lower of two four-card suits, the higher of two five-card suits and the middle of three four-card suits. You don’t need to be concerned about exceptions yet.

CHAPTER 4

Developing the Auction

Two bridge writers and players have dominated the game: Ely Culbertson and Charles Goren. In the 1930s, Culbertson went after the popular market. He staged tournaments challenging the best players of the day and this attracted media attention. Ely, however, did more than just this. He looked at his market and decided that his best chance to sell his books was to concentrate on ego, sex and fear.

Through the bidding, a partnership tries to exchange enough information to find the best denomination, either no trumps or a suit if there is a fit of eight or more cards between the two hands. In addition to this, the partnership wants to determine the best zone for the two combined hands in order to get the best possible score.

Introducing the bonus zones

There are three zones: the slam zone, the game zone, and the partscore zone. Since there are bonuses given for bidding and making slams and games, the partnership wants to know if there is enough combined strength to go for one of these bonus zones. This is very important, since the theme of determining the appropriate zone and denomination recurs at every level of the game. Let’s look into this in more detail.

Slams

There are huge bonuses given for bidding and making a grandslam, which is a contract to take all of the tricks (see the appendix for the actual size of the bonuses). To be in a grand slam contract, consider the combined strength you and your partner would need to take all the tricks. If you were in a grand slam, you would want to be reasonably sure that the opponents didn’t have the power to take even one trick. In other words, you want to be sure that the opponents don’t have as much as an ace. Since an ace is worth 4 points, you want the opponents to have no more than 3 points. Since there are 40 high card points in the pack, to have a reasonable chance of making a grand slam the partnership wants to have 37 or more points in the combined hands so that the opponents have, at most, 3 points.

A small slam is a commitment to make all but one trick – in other words, to take twelve tricks. This time you can tolerate the opponents having one ace, but you would not want them to have two aces. The value of two aces is 8 points. To bid a small slam a partnership wants to have about 33–36 points. If a partnership bids a small slam with only 32 points, the opponents could have 8 points, which might be two aces – which would be embarrassing as well as unfortunate!

Although it is a delight to bid and make either a grand slam or a small slam, the experience does not come up that often, so the partnership usually satisfies itself with one of the game bonuses.

Games

There is a game bonus available in each suit. The minimum number of tricks you have to contract for in order to win one of the game bonuses is often within the reach of one of the partnerships on any given hand. There are three different game zones: one for no trumps; one for the major suits; one for the minor suits. The minimum contract on the bidding steps which receives the game bonus in each case is:

Game zones

No trumps:

3NT

(9 tricks)

The majors:

4 or 4

(10 tricks)

The minors:

5 or 5

(11 tricks)

Experience has shown that if your partnership has about 25 combined points, you can usually collect nine tricks in no trumps. When you are playing in a trump suit of eight or more combined cards, you can usually take one more trick than if you were playing in no trumps. So, if you have an eight-card or longer fit in hearts or spades, you also need about 25 points to make 4 or 4. If you are going to try to collect eleven tricks for the game bonus in clubs or diamonds, you need a little more, about 28 or 29 points.

Partscores

The partnership may find out through bidding that there are not enough combined points to consider bidding to one of the game zones. All is not lost, however. The partnership can settle on a partscore and still collect some points. If you discover that your partnership has fewer than 25 combined points, you should stop the auction in a partscore contract, keeping as low as possible on the bidding steps. There is no extra bonus for bidding and making a partscore contract of 2NT rather than a partscore contract of 1NT.

Partscore

No trumps: 1NT or 2NT

The majors: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 or 3

The minors: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4 or 4

Since the focus is to aim for a game bonus whenever possible, the partnership’s goal in the bidding can be thought of in this way:

•  With 25 or more points, the partnership should reach a game contract.

•  With less than 25 points, the partnership should stop in a partscore.

Working as a team

You have to work with your partner so that you can provide each other with enough information to know whether it is reasonable to bid to a game contract or whether to stop in a partscore. In order to be successful in this regard, it helps to have a clear picture of the role of each partner. This is one of the most overlooked strategies of the game and yet it is the most important. Knowing the role expected of each player will make your game much more relaxed.

First of all, let’s suppose that your partner opens the bidding 1NT. Which player knows approximately how many combined points the partnership has? You do. Your partner, the person who opened 1NT, knows nothing about your hand but you know that your partner has specifically 12, 13 or 14 points. Not only that, you know that your partner has a balanced hand. You have a lot of information. As a matter of fact, when you add what you have in your own hand to what your partner has, you usually have enough information to place the contract (decide what the final contract should be). For that reason, your role is that of captain. On the other hand, your partner, the opener, is playing the role of describer, trying to paint an accurate picture of his hand so that you can make the appropriate decisions. It is wonderful when the opener makes a limit bid, such as 1NT, which with only one bid paints such a clear picture for the captain.

Acting the roles

During the bidding, the partnership is exchanging enough information to decide on both the appropriate zone and the appropriate denomination. Since those are two distinct decisions, the captain considers two questions:

•  What is the best zone for the partnership?

•  What is the best denomination for the partnership?

Deciding on the zone

When the opening bid is very specific, a 1NT opening, for example, the captain often has enough information to decide whether the partnership has the combined strength to go for the game bonus. It is a matter of adding up to 25. The captain adds his points to the point count range promised by his partner, mentally checking the total. For example, let’s suppose your partner opens the bidding 1NT and you have exactly 13 points in your hand:

Whether your partner has 12, 13 or 14 points, the partnership has a combined total of at least 25 points, which should be sufficient to get to the game zone. So, if your partner opens the bidding 1NT, you, as captain, know that your side belongs in a game-zone contract whenever you hold 13 or more points.

On the other hand, suppose your partner opens the bidding 1NT and you have the following hand:

You have only 10 points. Since your partner’s 1NT opening bid describes a balanced hand with 12–14 points, you know that the most your partner could have is 14 points. The total, 24 combined points, is not enough for the game zone. So you, as captain, want to ensure that the partnership stays in the partscore zone, keeping as low as possible on the bidding steps. Whenever your partner opens the bidding 1NT and you have 10 or fewer points, stop the auction in the partscore zone.

If you know that the partnership belongs in the game zone when you have 13 or more points and belongs in the partscore zone when you have 10 or fewer points, what happens when you hold 11 or 12 points and your partner opens the bidding 1NT? You cannot be certain whether the partnership belongs in a game or a partscore. For example, suppose you have exactly 12 points. Knowing the range of the opening 1NT, you can do the following calculations:

Partner’s points:

 12

or

 13

or

 14

Your points:

 12

 12

 12

Combined total:

 24

or

 25

or

 26

If your partner has only 12 points, you belong in a partscore. If your partner has 13 or 14, you belong in a game. You, as captain, are in a position where you need more information about the opener’s strength before you can make the final decision. In this situation, rather than decide immediately on the best game or partscore contract, you will have to make a bid that gets you more information about opener’s hand. We will discuss that in more detail in the next chapter. For now, it is sufficient to know that when you have 11 or 12 points and your partner opens the bidding 1NT, the captain cannot make an immediate decision.

Deciding on the denomination

In addition to describing the strength of the hand, a 1NT opening bid tells the captain about the distribution of the hand. The opener is describing a balanced hand with two or more cards in each suit and no more than five in any suit. Again, it is a matter of addition for the captain to determine whether the partnership should be playing in a suit contract or in no trumps. Consider this hand:

With 14 HCPs there are enough points to decide that you want to be in the game zone. As captain, you now have to decide on one of the game zone contracts: 3NT, 4, 4, 5 or 5. Although you might consider 3NT, since it requires only nine tricks, there is a better choice. You know that your partner has at least two spades, giving you a combined total of eight cards in the suit. As we mentioned earlier, when you have an eight-card or longer major suit fit, you want to play there in preference to no trumps. With a trump suit, you will usually lake at least one more trick than in no trumps since you will be able to trump the opponents’ high cards when you have no cards left in a suit. On this hand, then, 4 is likely to be a better game zone contract than 3NT. Since you are the captain, that is the decision you should make. You bid 4. The bidding conversation would sound like this:

Partner:

One no trump.

(I have a balanced hand with 12–14 points.)

You:

Four spades.

(Thank you. That tells me all I need to decide that we belong in the game zone and that spades would be the best trump suit.)

Partner:

Pass.

(You’re the captain!)

If you and your partner are North-South, the complete auction would look like this:

North

(Partner)

East

South

(You)

West

1NT

Pass

4

Pass

Pass

Pass

Let’s change your hand by removing some of the high cards: