Copy of `Acol Bridge Club - Bridge terms`

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Acol Bridge Club - Bridge terms Category: General technical and industrial > Bridge terms Date & country: 23/03/2011, UK Words: 48

Auction
The part of the game where the partnerships bid to play in a contract. The dealer opens the auction.

Balanced hand
A hand which contains no voids, singletons and no more than one doubleton. Possible card distributions for a balanced hand are 4-3-3-3 (the so-called"flat" hand), 4-4-3-2 and 5-3-3-2.

Bid
The nominating of a suit plus the number of tricks in excess of six that a player believes he and partner can make with the named suit as trumps. Thus a bid of 4 hearts means that the bidder expects to win 10 tricks with hearts as trumps. The bid may also be in no trumps.

Cash
To play a card that is currently the highest in the suit, thought certain to succeed, or to take all available winners in a suit one after the other.

Chicago
A variation of rubber bridge for four players where each session is just four deals. Chicago is reputed to have been devised by a group of commuters who played bridge on daily train journeys, where the time available for play was limited by the length of the trip.

Contract
The final bid of the auction. A bid becomes the contract when it is followed by three passes.

Convention
An artificial bid whose meaning is not necessarily related to the strength or denomination of the bid. The most well-known conventions are Stayman (used to find a major suit match after partner's opening bid of no trumps) and Blackwood (used, when investigating the possibility of a slam, to find out how many Aces partner possesses).

Cover
To play a card higher than the previous one.

Cross-ruff
A playing technique in trump contracts, where declarer makes tricks by ruffing in both hands alternately.

Cue-bid
an artificial, strength-showing bid of an opponent's suit (e.g. 1? by your left-hand-opponent, 2? by you). The term "cue-bid" is also used to describe a high-level bid that shows control in that suit.

Declarer
The player who is the first to bid the suit (or no trump) of the final contract.

Defender
The opponents of the declarer are called defenders and must try to stop the declarer from making the contract.

Discard
The play of a card (other than a trump) of a different suit from the one led.

Distribution
The way in which the 13 cards in a hand are divided among the four suits. Hands can be described as balanced or unbalanced according to the distribution.

Double
a special bid that can be made only over an opponent's bid that uses up no space in the auction. A double usually has one of two meanings, depending on the previous auction

Doubleton
An original holding of two of a suit.

Duck
A card-playing technique in which a player does not immediately play a card that might take a trick, but plays a lower card instead.

Dummy
Declarer's partner. Dummy does not participate in the play. After the bidding is completed and the opening lead is made, dummy places his cards face-up on the table, sorted into suits, and they are played by declarer.

Duplicate bridge
A type of bridge tournament where the same cards are played at more than one table. Your scores are then compared with those of the other players playing in the same direction as you.

Entry
A winner in one of the partnership's hands that can be used to get the lead into that hand.

Finesse
A play that attempts to win a trick with a certain card, even though the opponents hold a higher card in the suit, by taking advantage of the position of the particular cards.

Forcing bid
A bid that obliges partner to ensure the forcing bidder will get another chance to bid. This means that after a forcing bid and a pass of the opponent, partner has to make a bid other than pass.

Game
A contract, bid and made, where the tricks are worth 100 points or more. The game contracts are 3NT (40 for the first trick + 30 each subsequent trick); 4? and 4? in the majors (4 tricks

Grand slam
A contract of seven, in a suit or no trump

Hand
either [i] one of the players or [ii] the cards held by a player.

HCP
High Card Points. The most common hand evaluation system is one where an Ace is worth 4 points, a King 3, a Queen 2, and a Jack 1.

Honour
Ace, King, Queen or Jack (and sometimes ten).

Lead
The first card played in a trick, which dictates the suit that others must play if able to do so.

Major suit
Hearts and spades

Minor suit
Clubs and diamonds

No trump
the highest-ranking denomination in the bidding, in which the play proceeds with no trump suit.

Opener
The first person to make a bid (not a pass).

Overcall
A bid made after an opponent has opened the bidding.

Overruff
To ruff a trick with a higher trump than has already been played.

Part score
A contract, bid and made, where the tricks are worth less than 100 points, e.g. 1NT, 2?, 3?. A pair bidding and making a part-score contract is awarded a bonus of 50 points.

Rebid
Any subsequent bid made by a player who has already opened, responded or overcalled in an auction.

Responder
Opener's partner

Revoke
To fail to follow suit when holding a card of the suit led.

Ruff
To play a trump onto a trick, usually in order to try to win the trick.

Singleton
An original holding of just one of a suit.

Slam
Six bids are small slams; seven bids are grand slams.

Squeeze
a play that forces an opponent to part with a needed card.

Stopper
a protected honour in a suit. Examples are A, Kx, Qxx, Jxxx. The term refers to its ability to "stop" the opponents from running a suit (especially in a no trump contract)

Tenace
A broken sequence of (often) honour cards, such as ?AQ or ?KJ.

Trick
Four cards, one contributed by each player in turn (clockwise around the table). The highest card of the suit led (or the highest trump) wins the trick. The player who wins the trick chooses the card to lead to the next trick. There are 13 tricks in each deal.

Trump
A card that belongs to the suit that has been chosen to have the highest value in a particular game; a trump can take any card of any other suit.

Void
Suit with no cards in it.

Vulnerability
A scoring condition assigned to each pair in advance of a deal where there is a bonus for making a game contract and an increased penalty for failing to do so.