Cambridge University Bridge Club Beginners Lessons 2011 Lesson 1. Hand Evaluation and Minibridge Jonathan Cairns, jmc200@cam.ac.uk Welcome to Bridge Club! Over the next seven weeks you will learn to play bridge to a standard where you can begin to play duplicate bridge, or enjoy a social game with friends, even if you ve never played cards before. This week we will be going over the rules of the game, and starting to play Minibridge. A couple of things, before we start: In Bridge, Aces are high - that is, in each suit, the cards rank as follows (low to high): 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, T, J, Q, K, A A trump suit is a suit that beats all other suits. If, say, hearts are designated the trump suit, you are said to be playing in hearts. Sometimes no suit is designated the trump suit, in which case you are said to be playing in no trumps, abbreviated to NT. Introduction 4 players - North, East, South and West - sit around a table. North and South play as partners against East and West. North starts as Dealer, giving 13 cards to each player. A hand of Bridge is played in 2 parts: the auction, where the partnerships compete to decide the contract. card play, where one side attempts to fulfil the contract whilst the other side tries to stop them. To do this, each side must take as many tricks as they can, out of the 13 tricks up for grabs. A contract is a declaration to win some number of these tricks, with a given suit as trumps (or, with no trump suit). Each contract has a numeric level, corresponding to the number of tricks taken in excess of 6 (since you must win more tricks than your opponents). Contracts 7 7 7 7 7NT 13 6 6 6 6 6NT 12 5 5 5 5 5NT 11 4 4 4 4 4NT 10 3 3 3 3 3NT 9 2 2 2 2 2NT 8 1 1 1 1 1NT 7 Tricks
For example: 2 says you intend to make 8 (=6+2) tricks with spades as trumps. 3 No Trumps (3NT) says you intend to make 9 (=6+3) tricks with no trump suit. Minibridge In this lesson, we will be playing Minibridge. Minibridge is very similar to Bridge - the card play is the same, but there is no auction. It is therefore a simple way to learn the basics of the game and of card play, and allows you to play any randomly dealt hand away from the lessons with friends. First things first - How can you tell if your hand of 13 cards is good or bad? A simple (and reasonably effective) method is to count high card points, often abbreviated to HCP. A = 4, K = 3, Q = 2, J = 1, (these are known as the honour cards) Other cards score 0. Therefore, there are 10 HCP in each suit, and there are 40 HCP in the pack. An average hand is worth 10 HCP. In Minibridge, each player starting with the dealer and continuing clockwise announces their HCP (check these add to 40!). The partnership with the highest combined HCP gets to declare the contract (if the points divide 20-20 then the dealer s side declares). The player in that partnership with the most HCP becomes Declarer and chooses the contract (if their point count is equal, then the player who announced their points first is declarer). Declarer s partner becomes dummy and places his or her hand face-up on the table - declarer will tell dummy which cards to play. The other side become the Defence. Which contract? Declarer must now choose the contract. Choosing trumps: Declarer must first choose whether to play with or without a trump suit (and which suit to have as trumps). A general guide is to play in a trump contract when you and Dummy have an 8 card fit in a suit (that is, you have 8 cards between you in a suit). 1 Choosing the level: You must then decide whether to play in Partscore, Game, or Slam. To do this, you need to know how contracts are scored. Scoring making contracts This refers to duplicate contract bridge (the type you usually play at club evenings). There are variations for Rubber Bridge (played socially) that I will not discuss here. 1 8-card trump fits are good, because the remaining 5 cards will divide 3-2 between the defenders 68% of the time, giving you a good chance of controlling the trump suit. With a 7 card fit, the remaining 6 cards will divide 3-3 on only 35% of hands - you run the risk of ending up with fewer trumps than your opponents!
If you make your contract, you get points for each odd trick taken (that is, tricks taken after the 6th one): In Diamonds ( ) or Clubs ( ) (the minor) suits: score 20 per odd trick. In Spades (S) or Hearts (H) (the major) suits: score 30 per odd trick. In No Trumps (NT): score 40 for the first odd trick and 30 for each subsequent odd trick. You get points for each trick taken, even if you take more tricks than you said you would in your contract. (The extra tricks taken in this way are called overtricks) So why shouldn't you just pick 1 level contracts every time? Simple: you get a bonus if your contract is above a certain level. Specifically, if you bid and make a contract worth 100 Contract Level Tricks 7 7 7 7 7NT Grand Slam 13 6 6 6 6 6NT Small Slam 12 5 5 5 5 5NT 11 4 4 4 4 4NT Game 10 3 3 3 3 3NT 9 2 2 2 2 2NT 8 Part-score 1 1 1 1 1NT 7 points or more in odd tricks, you are said to have made game and get a bonus. (Overtricks therefore do not count towards making game!) Making a part-score contract (any white contract in the diagram) gives you a measly bonus of 50. In a game contract (any grey or black contract in the diagram), you get a bonus of 300 points. 2 In a small slam contract (any contract at the 6 level), you get a bonus of 500 - in addition to the 300 bonus for making game! In a grand slam contract (any contract at the 7 level), you get a bonus of 1000 - in addition to 300 bonus for making game! (You need all 13 tricks though, so you'll have to work hard for this bonus!) Examples: 1. a contract of 4 making 10 tricks scores: 4 30 = 120 for four odd tricks bid and made 2 In Bridge, this bonus depends on the vulnerability. We will encounter this later in the term - for now, we are assuming everyone is non-vulnerable. When vulnerable, bonuses are increased to 500 for game, 750 for small slam, 1500 for grand slam.
300 game bonus (since score for tricks bid and made 100) TOTAL = 420. 2. 2NT making 11 tricks scores: 40 for the first odd trick bid and made 30 for one subsequent odd trick bid and made 50 partscore bonus (since score for tricks bid and made < 100) 30 3 = 90 for overtricks made TOTAL = 210. Penalities for failing to make a contract If you fail to make your contract, then your opponents win 50 points for each undertrick (those mode below the number contracted for). For example, 4 (game contract) making 8 tricks scores 100 (you should have made 10 tricks, you were 2 short, your opponents get 2x50 = 100 points). If you'd stayed in 1, 8 tricks would have earned you +110. So, you do not want to bid higher than you can afford. As rough guide, Declarer and Dummy need a combined: 25 HCP to make Game in No Trumps or a major suit (3NT/4 /4 ) 27 HCP to make Game in a minor suit (5 /5 ) 33 HCP to make a Small Slam (6 of anything) 37 HCP to make a Grand Slam (7 of anything) Cardplay in Minibridge The points have been declared, Dummy has been faced and the Declarer has chosen the contract (in Minibridge this is just Partscore/Game/Slam in NT/ / / / ). It is customary for Dummy to put the chosen trump suit on their right. Now it is Declarer's job to make the required number of tricks to make the contract. The opponents - the defence - must do everything they can to stop Declarer from succeeding. The defender on to Declarer s left goes first, and chooses a card to play ("the opening lead"). 3 This can be any card, even a trump. After the opening lead Play continues clockwise with each player contributing a card in turn (but Declarer chooses which card Dummy will play). You must follow suit if you can - that is, you must play a card of the same suit as the card that was led. 3 In Minibridge you get to see Dummy before choosing the opening lead. In Bridge, you do not have this luxury!
If you cannot follow suit, you can play any card in your hand. You may get rid of a useless card from your hand (discarding), or you can try to win the trick by playing a trump, if you have one (ruffing). When 4 cards have been played to a trick, one of the sides will win the trick: If nobody played a trump, then the player who played the highest card in the suit led wins the trick for their side. If somebody ruffed (played a trump), then whoever played the highest trump wins. Do not mix your cards with those of another hand! Place your card, in front of you, face down on the table. If your side won the trick, point the card towards partner. Otherwise, point the card towards your opponents. The lead to the next trick is made by the person who won the previous trick. Keep going until everybody is out of cards. At the end of the hand Each player has a record of tricks won and lost, depending on which way the cards are pointing. Did declarer make the contract? Congratulate declarer on making, or offer consolations and a tissue. Once everybody agrees on the score, the player to the left of Dealer becomes the new Dealer - shuffle the cards, deal them out, and bring on the next hand! Key points from Lesson 1. These are the key things to remember from this session. You are now in a position to play any hand of Minibridge, so do get together with friends and play if you have the time. it s the best way to learn! Most importantly, good Bridge is about using all the information available to you - so try to work out what you can learn from cards played and the auction or point-count declarations. Feel free to email me if you have any questions! Count and announce HCP. Work out who declarer is. Dummy tables hand. Choose the suit for your contract. Count points, and choose Game, Partscore, or Slam contract Defender to left of declarer makes the opening lead Card play - follow suit if you can, otherwise consider ruffing Declarer s assessment of trick-taking power of combined hands.
Strategy As you start to get comfortable with the rules, reading the following sections will give you some more guidance on what to do: Choosing an opening lead One usually wants to choose a "safe" lead - that is, a lead that doesn't cost your side tricks in the long run. A rough guide is: In NT contracts, lead from your longest suit. Lead the 4th best card from a suit headed by an honour, unless you have a sequence of 3 honours at the top of the suit. e.g. lead K from KQJ63, but lead 3 from KQ632. (You can also lead from so called intermediate sequences - honour sequences with one gap in them. Lead the largest honour that touches another - e.g. lead Q from AQJ63, or from QJ963) If you don't have any honours in the suit, lead 2nd best. (e.g. 6 from 96432) In suit contracts, lead top of a sequence of adjacent honours if possible. For example, lead A from AK432, K from KQ65 or Q from AQJ54. Therefore, leading a K tells your partner that you do not have the A, but you probably have the Q. If you don't have a sequence of adjacent honours in any suit, you can lead 4th best from a long suit headed by an honour as before. (Of course, if you have 3 cards in the suit, lead 3rd best.) Consider leading a short suit against a suit contract. So lead a singleton (1 card suit) or the top card of a doubleton (two card suit). You might be able to ruff (i.e., trump) this suit later. Tips for Declarer As Declarer, you have the advantage of knowing exactly what your partner s cards are. Good declarer play comes from analysing probabilities and experience something best gained with time and not taught. However, here are a few tips: Take some time at the start of the hand to work out how you intend to take the tricks needed to maximise the chances of making your contract. Do you have enough tricks? If so, take them. If not, where are those extra tricks coming from? In a suit contract, drawing trumps early (if you have control of the suit) is usually a good idea - that is, stop defenders ruffing by playing on the trump suit, removing their trumps. (This might stop you ruffing your losing cards, however!) Quick tricks. These are tricks that you can take immediately you get the lead. An Ace counts as 1, suits headed by AK count as 2, etc. A suit headed by KQ does not count as a quick trick because you need to force out the ace before you can take a trick in this suit.
Setting up tricks. A suit such as KQJ4 is worth 2 tricks. Lead the King and if it is beaten by the Ace then you have set up the Queen and Jack to win tricks. Long suits also act in a similar way. If you hold: West: A32 East: K7654 Then you have 2 quick tricks, but since the N/S cards are likely to divide 3-2, playing a third round of the suit will set up a further 2 tricks. However, in no trump contracts, this should be done as early as possible since if weak side suits are left unstopped then the defence will win their tricks before you get a chance to make yours! Positional Tricks the Finesse: If you hold: West: AQ2 East: 543 Playing the Ace then Queen will only give you 2 tricks when the King is singleton (by itself) which is very unlikely (1% of hands). Instead, try leading the 3, playing the Q unless South plays the K, in which case you take it with the A. You will win 2 tricks whenever South holds the King (50% of the hands, provided no information is available), but only 1 when it is with North. Similar principles apply to: West: K32 East: 45 (1 trick if the Ace is with South) West: A43 East: QJT (lead Q and play low, 3 tricks if K with S) Tips for Defenders Defence is one of the hardest parts of Bridge and comes with experience of playing many times with the same partner. Expert players are sometimes able to work out exactly what cards everyone has after only a few tricks, but this takes a lot of practice! Generally, the old Whist theory of second player plays low, third player plays high applies, but remember that in Bridge you have the extra information of seeing Dummy s hand. Also, attitude signalling is useful: if you want your partner to continue leading a suit he has led, play the highest card you can afford to encourage him/her (to discourage, play the lowest card you have). The Rule of 11 - This rule is especially useful in NT contracts. After a 4 th best lead from your partner, subtract the value of that card from 11. That is the number of cards in that suit above this in Dummy, your hand and Declarer s hand. As you can see Dummy and your own hand, you can calculate how many cards Declarer holds in that suit above the value of the card led. Declarer can make the same assessment about your hand, but this information is usually of more use to the defence. Of course, it could be that partner has not lead 4 th best! In this case, you may be able to work it out - for example, if the outcome of the Rule of 11 doesn't fit what you can see. written by Rob Richardson, 2004; updated by Jonathan Cairns, 2011