Terminology

 Throughout this blog, I will be using some terms and abbreviations. Refer back to this page to get their meanings.

Calls

We need to distinguish between a bid and a call. A call is any contribution to the auction by a player. It can be a bid, a pass, a double or redouble. Only a call of a number and a suit or no trump is considered a bid. For example, "two hearts" is a bid. "Pass" is not a bid. In fact, in some circles, players say "no bid" instead of "pass."

Meet the Players

Once the bidding is opened, the players in each seat get a name.

Opener

The opener is the first player who makes a bid other than pass.

Responder

The partner of the opener

Overcaller

The first person to make a bid on the opposing side to the opener. Beginners will often say to their partners, "but you opened..." when their partners actually made an overcall. There is only one opener at the table--the first player to bid.

Overcaller's Partner

The overcaller's partner--clever name, isn't it?

Sometimes I will refer to players by their relative position to the player whose turn it is to act.

RHO

The right-hand opponent. The player to your immediate right when it is your turn.

LHO

The left-hand opponent. The player to your immediate left when it is your turn.

A note on avoiding sexist language: I will try my best to keep my discussion gender neutral, but there are times when I need to use pronouns for the players. Rather than jumping through hoops to make the subject plural, or using he/she, I will adopt the following conventions:

The opener is female. Her partner is male.

The overcaller is female. Her partner is male.

Your RHO is female. Your LHO is male.

Bidding Terms

HCP

High-card points. These are the points you count for aces, kings, queens, and jacks

Welcome

I have a group of bridge playing friends who are largely novices, but eager to learn to play bridge better. I had considered giving lessons at the senior center where we play, but the corona virus pandemic has kept us from meeting in person.

I decided to create this blog to offer explanations on bidding and play. Feel free to suggest topics for future posts or to ask questions.

The lessons are meant to stand alone and can be read in any order. There may be sometimes when a topic is too broad to cover in one post. We'll see how that goes.

My intention is to help you think at the bridge table. There will be some things that need to be memorized, but I would like to help you to understand the reasons for many of the bids. I hope that this approach will help you use logic to figure out what the proper bid for your hand should be, and to reason out what your partner or opponents might hold.

The general principles of the bidding are "Standard American Yellow Card" or SAYC as described by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). You can find a summary of SAYC in this free booklet. The SAYC system was developed so that two players who know the system can sit down (or play online) as partners and have an agreed upon bidding system without needing any discussion. They simply say, "shall we play SAYC?"

Many novices find the booklet a little difficult to understand at first. Helping my readers to understand it is part of the purpose of this blog. I'll save the more advanced parts of the system for later posts. The general principles of the system are:

• 5-card majors
• Weak twos
• Limit double raises
• Stayman convention
• Jacoby transfers

If you don't know what all of those things mean, stay tuned. I'll cover them all.

That's all for this introduction. Watch for future posts.