$10.00 Revisions can be found at

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "$10.00 Revisions can be found at"

Lester Francis
5 years ago
Views:

1 by Warren Watson $10.00 Revisions can be found at Last revised October 2,

2 To Computer Game players and inventors. My they find the game of bridge and keep it thriving. They are the experts of the future. 2

3 CONTENTS Dedication... 2 Contents... 3 Why Learn Bridge?... 8 In a Nutshell... 9 Bidding... 9 Notrump... 9 Puppet Stayman... 9 Weak Notrump... 9 Competing Over One Notrump... 9 Losing Trick Count Slam Bidding... 9 Slam Force... 9 Grand Slam Force... 9 Cuebidding... 9 Keycard and the Queen Ask... 9 Competitive Bidding... 9 Balancing... 9 Cuebidding... 9 Sacrifices... 9 Passed Hand Bidding... 9 Declarer Play

4 What to Count Playing the bad or impossible contract... 9 End Plays... 9 Trumping in the Short Hand... 9 Trumping in the Long Hand... 9 Cross Ruff... 9 Dummy Reversal... 9 Trump Coups... 9 Trump End Play...9 Squeezes... 9 Defending Now You have the knowledge to be an advanced player. 4

5 Appendices A. Bridge Resources Available Titles Online Information B. Glossary C. Ghoulash Bridge D. Scoring ENJOY! 5

6 Why Become an Advanced Player? Did your uncle talk you into it or do you think you are ready for an old person's activity? If your answer is yes then close this pamphlet and walk away. However, if you want a mental challenge and you want to learn the best game around, then continue reading. This game will challenge all people of various card-playing skill and will provide hours of social or competitive enjoyment. 6

7 The Trilogy This is the second booklet of the bridge trilogy produced by myself. After all, all good things such as Star Wars IV to VI come in a trilogy. Bridge ABC's for the bridge beginner Bridge NOP's for the advancing player Bridge XYZ's for the advanced player The ABC's provided the basics to learn from scratch. The NOP's will make sure you have mastered what is necessary to become an advanced player. The XYZ's will give you a lot of what an advanced player knows. To master the three booklets of my trilogy will make you either an advanced player or a more advanced player. Once you start to put everything in these booklets into practice and you start to remember all of the cards and to know what's in everyone's hand (not just yours and the dummy and not just after the play of the hand), you will be an expert. Bidding Passed Hand Bidding In third Seat: Open a major with enough points to make the overcall at your vulnerability if you are using Drury. The weaker you are, the better the suit should be. Opening light in Third seat and Drury are advanced topics to be tackled once the techniques in this booklet are mastered. 7

8 Now You have what is necessary to become an Advanced Player... and beyond. Enjoy the game and learn more. 8

9 Appendices A. Bridge Resources Available Titles Additional Booklets by Me (pdf version, $5.00) Partnership Quotient o A quiz to get you and your partner on the same page. A Bidding Review o Bidding Tips Card Play Reviewed o Declarer Play Tips Bridge ABC's o Beginner bridge Standard Canadian o Simplified Standard American bidding system. Std Am: My Little Bridge Book-Part I o A detailed version of Standard American, the right side of the convention card. Std Am: My Little Bridge Book-Part II o A detailed version of Standard American, the left side of the convention card. 9

10 2/1: The Right Side o A basic Two Over One bidding system. The right side of the convention card. 2/1: The Left Side o A basic Two Over One bidding system. The left side of the convention card. 2/1: The Uptown Manifesto Part I o An advanced Two Over One bidding system. The right side of the convention card. 2/1: The Uptown Manifesto Part II o An advanced Two Over One bidding system. The left side of the convention card. Bridge Master In Depth o Tips learned from the Bridge Master Bridge Master Expert Précis o Tips learned from the Bridge Master What the Experts Say o excerpts from my library Weak Notrump Negative Free Bids No Frills Precision Hart-Watson Forcing Club Variant Starter Fluid Refresher on Mistakes Club Manager's Tasks The Law 10

11 Online Information See Bridge booklets are at: Bridge Columns are at: bidding Information at: 11

12 B. Glossary Above the line A rubber bridge term for overtricks and bonuses. Alert Partner makes a bid of a suit that does not promise three cards. Below the line A rubber bridge term for contracted tricks. Bidding Ladder The order of suit and notrump contracts. Bonuses A rubber bridge term for game, slam and doubled contract points. Book Six tricks. The bidding ladder starts at the seventh trick. Bullet An ace Club A minor suit and lowest ranking suit. Cold The contract was makeable. Contracted Tricks Book plus the bid. 2 contracts 8 tricks, the rest are overtricks. Cut Before the deal, the RHO places bottom part of deck on top. Deal Thirteen cards to each player. Dealer The person starting the bidding. This rotates clockwise each deal. Deck Regular deck with 52 cards and no jokers. Declarer The person who plays the hand. Diamond The higher ranking minor suit. Double At a low level, asks partner to bid and at a high level is for penalty. Dummy The hand that goes face up and is played by declarer. GF Game forcing. The bidding cannot be stopped until game is reached. Going down Not making a contract. Golden Fit An eight card fit between you and your partner. Grand Slam Contracting and winning all 13 tricks. Heart The lower ranking major suit. Hot Vulnerable Hot versus Not Vulnerable and opponent's are not. Lead Playing the first card to a trick. Leg A rubber bridge term meaning a contract lower than game Leg cut off Opponents get a game while you have a part score below the line. Leg on Partscore below the line in rubber bridge. LHO Left hand opponent Moysian A 4-3 fit. Some use the term for a 5-2 fit as well. New Suit Forcing Opener cannot pass a new suit by the responder and will bid again. Not Vulnerable The penalty and rewards are less than when vulnerable. Not Vulnerable A rubber bridge term for nobody having one game towards rubber Notrump There is no trump suit. Opening Leader The LHO of the declarer who makes the lead to the first trick. Pass Makes no bid on the bidding ladder. Penalty The score one gets when opponents do not make their contract. Quick rubber A rubber bridge term for a rubber and opponents do not have a game Rank The order of the suits. Notrump ranking the highest. Redouble Either help partner change suits or I have ten points. 12

13 RHO Rubber Skip Bid Slam Slow rubber Spade Stiff Suit Trick Vulnerable Vulnerable Right hand opponent A rubber bridge term for getting two games before the opponents do A bid that skips a rung, a level, of the bidding ladder. Contracting and winning 12 tricks, all tricks but one. A rubber bridge term for a rubber and opponents have a game The highest ranking suit A singleton Clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades Every player plays one card to a trick A rubber bridge term for having a game on. The penalty and rewards are more than when not vulnerable. 13

14 C. Ghoulash or Ghoulie Bridge This is good practice for slam bidding and you may not even be able to quit until sunrise. Here are the rules. Prime the deck by sorting it roughly into 8 suits. This means two sets of clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. LHO of the dealer cuts the deck and then the dealer deals five cards at a time to each person, then three cards at a time to each person and finally another five cards to each person. The first person with 12 high card points must open the bidding at any level. The next person must bid 4NT or higher. The bidding continues normally from there. The person who made the last bid then picks dummy from the other three players. That player if he opened, must at this time, say whether he psyched his opening. Three or less cards in the suit or 10 or less high card points constitutes a psych. The deal can be thrown in and the psycher loses some points (50 cents worth). The dummy is then asked whether he wants to throw in his lot with the declarer or the defender. The LHO of the declarer is asked whether he wants to double the contract and then the RHO is asked the same question. If the declarer makes the contract, he gets the points otherwise the defenders get the points. If Dummy sided with the defenders, he shares their fate by getting the 14

15 same points as the defenders. If Dummy sided with the declarer, he gets the same points as the declarer. If dummy won't side with the declarer, a double may be forthcoming. Speedball All undoubled contracts below slam are conceded. All doubled contracts and any slam are played. Claim as soon as possible to keep the deck primed. 15

16 D. Scoring Undoubled Contracts 20 minor trick 30 major trick 40 1st notrump trick 30 subsequent notrump tricks partscore bonus nvul 50 vul 50 game bonuses nvul 300 vul 500 slam bonuses nvul vul

17 Examples Undoubled Contracts Undoubled and Not Vulnerable NT Undoubled and Vulnerable NT

18 Doubled contracts 50 for insult Partscore (50), game(300 or 500) and slam (500, 750, 1000,1500) bonuses stay the same except 2 x, 2 x, 2NTx, 3 x, 3 x and higher get game bonuses. Overtricks nvul 100 vul 200 Redoubled contracts 100 for insult Partscore (50), game(300 or 500) and slam (500, 750, 1000,1500) bonuses stay the same except 1 xx, 1 xx, 1NTxx, 2 xx, 2 xx and higher get game bonuses. Overtricks nvul 200 vul

19 Undertricks Not Doubled Down NVul Vul Doubled Down NVul Vul Redoubled Down NVul Vul Do I think you will never go down more than four tricks? No, just continue the arithmetic progression. Redoubled is just the doubled penalty doubled. 19

20 Examples 1Nx+2 40x *2 if not vul x *2 if vul 580 tricks + insult 50 + partscore 50 + overtricks 1 x+3 30x *3 if not vul x *3 if vul x+2 30x x2 if not vul x x2 if vul 1070 tricks + insult 50 + game bonus + overtricks 1Nxx+2 40x *2 if not vul x *2 if vul 1560 tricks + insult game bonus + overtricks 6 x= 30x6x if not vul x6x if vul 1660 tricks + insult 50 + game bonus + slam bonus Contract Not Vul Vul 1 x x NTx x x NTx x= x= x= x= x x

Bridge Players: 4 Type: Trick-Taking Card rank: A K Q J Suit rank: NT (No Trumps) > (Spades) > (Hearts) > (Diamonds) > (Clubs)

Bridge Players: 4 Type: Trick-Taking Card rank: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Suit rank: NT (No Trumps) > (Spades) > (Hearts) > (Diamonds) > (Clubs) Objective Following an auction players score points by