INTRODUCTION Welcome to Omar Sharif On Bridge. For those of you who have experienced the game of bridge, you will find that you have in your hands one of the smartest and easiest-to-use bridge programs in the world. For those of you new to the game, you will find an excellent tutorial on the disk as well as some rules and tips on playing and bidding within this manual. It is suggested that novice bridge players refer to these sections of the manual before attempting to play. And now for a brief history of the game of Contract Bridge: The game of bridge derives from a series of card games played back in England during the time of Shakespeare. The first game to strongly resemble contract bridge was the game of whist. Whist was developed again in England in the Eighteenth Century. Edmond Hoyle, who is commonly associated with most of the card games played today, set down the rules for whist. Whist is much like bridge but without the bidding aspect. The game of bridge first came into being in the late Nineteenth Century, but still did not have all the rules for bidding and for counting points toward games and such. The actual game of Contract Bridge as we know it today was invented by Harold S. Vanderbilt in 1925. Since then it has grown in popularity to become one of the most commonly played card games in the world. It is a game that is studied by experts and played by millions. Playing on an IBM/Tandy or 100% compatible Omar Sharif On Bridge requires 640K of free memory. It requires about 1.2 MB of hard disk space when fully installed. Playing on an IBM/Tandy or 100% compatible with Windows. If playing Omar Sharif on Bridge on a system with Windows, you must have 2 MB of memory. You also must install the program to your hard disk The program will occupy about 3 MB of your hard disk space. MAIN MENU Several title screens will appear first. You can wait for them to go away on their own or press to page through them more rapidly. On the main title screen, a window will appear with the initial game options. Before playing bridge, you must determine the "Type of Deal" and the "Players." Type of Deal This can be set to "randomly generated" or "manually entered." Randomly generated deals will distribute the cards to the players randomly, as if from a shuffled card deck. Manually entered deals will require the player to assign cards to the players before each hand is played. It is recommended to use manually entered hands when testing and practicing game strategies. The Type of Deal can also be "loaded from disk." Deals that are loaded from disk will prompt you for which hand you wish to load at the beginning of each hand. Players You must set up who will be in control of each of the four settings for bridge: north, east, south, and west. Each can be played by the computer or by a human player. When all choices have been made and are acceptable, dick on the (Continue) Button at the bottom of the window. If you want to leave the game, you can click on the (Quit) Button. A Note about the Interface Mouse For most options, you can simply point to the option you wish to select with the arrow cursor and click on the left mouse button. To play a card, for example, point to the card you wish to play and click on the left mouse button. Keyboard You can move the arrow cursor around from the keyboard by use of the arrow keys or use the arrow keys on the numeric keypad for faster movement of the arrow cursor. When the arrow cursor is pointing at the option you wish to select, simply press the key. When playing cards, you can point to them with the arrow cursor and press or type in the name of the card using the following abbreviations: 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,T,J,Q,K, or A for the card value followed by S for Spades, H for Hearts, D for Diamonds, C for Clubs. For example, if you wanted to play the ten of clubs you would type in: "TC". In general, the key is the equivalent of the left mouse button and the key is the equivalent of the right mouse button. The key is used to accept highlighted menu options. Manually Entered Hands To manually distribute cards, select "Manually Entered" from the Main Menu. This will bring up a blank board with all 13 spades showing Click in the side area of the side you wish to distribute to first. For example, if you wish to give the Ten of spades to East, dick in East's area (in the center to the right) and then click on the Ten of spades. When you click on an area, note that a thicker outline surrounds it. Whenever you click on any cards, they will go to that area. You can click in the center box if you want to return a card for later distribution. The computer will not allow you to give more than 13 cards to one player. (This is an example of a hand in the process of being manually entered.) PULL-DOWN MENUS To call up the pull-down menus, move the cursor to the very top of the screen and press the right mouse button. The menu bar will appear across the top of the screen. Move the arrow cursor across the screen to the menu you wish to pull down. Move the arrow cursor up and down through the menu until the option you wish to select is highlighted. Then press the left mouse button to select the option. To exit the menu bar without selecting, move the arrow cursor outside of the menus and click on the left mouse button. From the keyboard you must call up the menu bar by pressing the key. The key cancels out of the menus, the cursor keys move around the menus, and or select menu options. Certain menu options can be accessed quickly by "hot keys." These are accessed by pressing the ALT key in conjunction with another key. The options that have "hot keys" available will be mentioned below. Special About This will call up a window telling you a little bit about the people behind Omar Sharif On Bridge. File Save Hand Selecting this option will call up a window asking you to give a name for your saved hand. You can save it to any directory by clicking on the name of the directory. Your hand will automatically be saved with the extension of .HAN. When finished giving your hand a name, press or click on the (CANCEL) Button to exit the window without saving your hand. Load Hand This option lets you load in a hand that has been previously saved. You are allowed to set the full path of where the hand is located. Note that a GAMES directory and TUTORIAL directory have been added to your OMAR directory. If you click on these directories you will find hands already saved. The GAMES directory contains the following hands for you to practice: NOTRUMP — A game where South should bid No Trump. HGAME—A game where South should bid and make a contract of 4 Hearts CGAME—A game where South should bid and make a contract of 5 Clubs SLAM1—A game where South should bid and make a slam SLAM2—Same as above GSLAM1—A game where South should bid and make a grand slam GSLAM2—Same as above STAYMAN— A game where the Stayman convention is used in bidding The TUTORIAL directory also contains hands with the extension of .HAN. These are special hands used to help teach the fundamentals of the game of bridge. Refer to the Tutorial section of this manual for an explanation of how these tutorial hands work. Print (ALT-P) This utility allows you to print your hand to the printer or to a text file. You are first given the choices of what you wish to print out. You can select: Show Hand, Bidding, Playing, or Scoring You can also select any combination of the above. When ready you must then choose whether you wish to print to the printer port or to a text file. If you select a text file, you must first give it a name. When ready select (Print) or (Cancel) to exit without printing. Erase Hand This will call up the window showing the hands in the current directory. If you wish, move to the directory containing the hand you wish to erase and click on it or type in its name. Select (Continue) when ready and the computer will ask you if you are sure you wish to erase the file and if you select (YES), then it will be gone forever. Quit Program (ALT-Q) - This will allow you to exit Omar Sharif On Bridge. Display Show North (ALT-N) - This will reveal all the cards that North has in his hand. If North's cards are already revealed, then this option will read "Hide North and will turn over North's cards so that they remain unseen. Show East (ALT-E) - Reveals or Hides all of East's cards. Show South (ALT-S) - Reveals or Hides all of South's cards. Show West (ALT-W) - Reveals or Hides all of West's cards. Hide All - Hides all the cards in the game. Show All - Reveals all the cards from all the hands. Review Bidding - Brings up the initial bidding screen that shows how the bidding proceedings went. Display Score - Shows the current score in the Rubber Match with Above and Below the Line scores. Explain Score - Explains the scoring from the last hand played. Gives explanations for all points scored both Above the Line and Below the Line. Action Claim Tricks - If you feel that you are able to take the rest of the tricks, select this option and the computer will accept your claim or deny it. Note that the computer may also try to Claim the remaining tricks. Sometimes the computer will bluff, so you shouldn't always accept. Concede Tricks - If you feel the situation is hopeless and that you are unlikely to win any more tricks, you can select this option and concede all remaining tricks to your opponent. Hint (ALT-H) - This will reveal to you which card the computer expects you to play or bid. You can ignore the computer's suggestion or you can play or bid the card. Select the appropriate button. Forwards (ALT-F) - Following a Take Back, you can use this option to step through the tricks taken back one by one until you have reached the point where you left off. To Last Play - This option is also used following a Take Back or a series of Take Backs. Selecting this will quickly advance you through all the tricks Taken Back to the point where you started the Take Backs. Take Back (ALT-B) - This will allow you to Take Back either bids or plays all the way back to the beginning of the bidding or playing. Abort Hand - This option will allow you to abort out of the current game and continue on to the (Next Hand) or return to the (Main Menu). Of course, you can also (Cancel) the command. Switch Players - This option allows you to switch which players are controlled by Humans and which are controlled by the Computer at any time during play. Therefore, if you like the computer's hand better than your own, you can switch sides and play the hand from its perspective. Preferences Preferences are chosen by the player playing the game and can be saved to disk using the Save Preferences option. Once Preferences are saved, they will be loaded every time the game is loaded. Some of the options in this menu have a check mark beside them to denote whether or not they are currently functioning. If they have the check mark beside them, they are currently selected. Game Speed - This option allows you to speed up the computer's thinking time or slow it down if the game is moving too fast for you. Select the speed from 1 to 100% of normal. Fast Card Entry - When selected, you can enter and play cards at a much faster rate. When typing in a card from the keyboard, if you have only one of that type (either rank or suit), that card will be automatically played. Novice - If selected, when you make an illegal play, the computer explains to you why it was illegal rather than just beep at you. Card Back - Select one from the many types and varieties of card backs displayed before you. Simply click on the one that you wish to use and then click on (OK) or (Cancel) if you wish to exit without selecting. Background - This option allows you to change the background color on which the game is played. Click on the color bars until you have reached a color that is satisfactory to you. Music (DOS only) - This will enable or disable the music that accompanies Omar Sharif On Bridge. Speech - This will enable or disable the speech that accompanies Omar Sharif On Bridge. Save Prefs - Save the current settings from this menu off to the disk in the file BRIDGE.CFG so that every time the game is loaded, they will also be loaded. Default Prefs - Return all the selections in this menu to their default (standard) settings. Bidding and Playing Once all options have been selected and you are ready to play, the dealer is selected and begins bidding. You will see a bidding chart in the center of the screen. As a bid is made, lower (and therefore illegal) bids are crossed off. For example, if East bids 1 Heart, then 1 Club and 1 Diamond are crossed off (See How To Play Bridge). To make a bid, move the arrow cursor to the square containing the bid you wish to make on the chart and click on the left mouse button (or, if playing from the keyboard, you may press the number followed by the suit). Once the contract has been established, the game moves on to the playing If nobody bids, the hand passes out and a new hand is dealt. If your partner is being played by the computer, and your partner makes the contract, then you will be asked "Should dummy play?" If you answer "Yes" to this, then you will be in control of your partner's hand as well as your hand (which is the dummy hand). If you answer "No," then the computer will play from your hand. Play begins with the player to the left of the declarer (See Glossary, pg. 30.) Each player follows in turn playing cards from his hand. You can tell whose turn it is to play by looking for the thicker outline surrounding one of the areas. If an illegal card is played, the computer will catch you and stop you. Pressing will play the lowest card in the suit that is led. The (Play Hint) Button in the upper right section of the screen can be used to quickly play the card that the computer recommends. After a trick is won or lost, the cards will remain in the center of the screen for a while or until you click in the center of the screen with the mouse (or press any key). When the hand is finished, then the score will appear in the center of the screen. You are then asked if you would like to continue to the (Next Hand) or return to the main menu. If you return to the main menu, the current game scores (if any) will be lost. TUTORIAL HANDS The tutorial hands included in the program are to help novice players to learn the game of bridge. Coupled with the documentation of how to play bridge, these tutorial hands should present the novice bridge player with and easy-to-use learning guide to the world of Contract Bridge. To select one of these hands, select load Hand from the Pile menu and move into the Tutorial directory by clicking on it in the window. A list of ten hands will be listed to help practice the game of Bridge. Select one of them for practice by clicking on it. The game will then progress to the bidding screen as per normal with one major exception: you will no longer be free to input whatever bid you like. If you do not respond the way the tutorial wants you to, you will be asked to try again. If after three tries, you are unable to select the correct choice, you will be shown the correct bid with an explanation of why it is the best choice. When playing, you are also given three chances to select the best play and if you fail, the proper one will be selected. Please note that in some hands, a player knows he will lose or claim all remaining tricks so it really makes no difference to the order of play. If the tutorial recommends another card at these points, ignore it. Following along with Tutorial Hand Number One Select HANDl.HAN from the Tutorial directory. (See the chart to the left.) South is the dealer and needs to make the first bid. The correct bid at this point is 1 No Trump. If you select any other bid, the computer will prompt you to try again. Bidding will proceed in this fashion until the contract of 3 No Trump is established. At this point, play will begin. Since South is the Declarer, West begins play. When it is North's turn to play, you must select a card from his hand since North is the dummy hand. Again you will have three chances to select the proper card. Play will proceed in this fashion until the contract has been made. (The tutorial hand when bidding is complete) HOW TO PLAY BRIDGE There are countless books and guides that teach the game of bridge. In fact, some people devote their entire lives to researching the game and its endless possibilities. What follows here is a description of the game of bridge so that those who have never played bridge will learn the fundamentals and be able to play Omar Sharif On Bridge. It is in NO WAY a comprehensive guide to all the facets of the game. The Deck A deck of 52 cards is shuffled and dealt around the table to four positions which the game of bridge labels North, South, East, and West. The game is played by partners who sit across the table from each other Therefore,North and South are partners and East and West are partners. Each player will hold thirteen cards in his hand when the entire deck has been dealt. The deal for each hand rotates around the table. There are two phases to the game of bridge: the bidding and the playing. The game begins with the bidding and progresses into the playing. Since it is fundamental to bidding to understand the playing, I will start with that: Playing A "hand" of bridge consists of thirteen rounds. During each round, each person will play one card and only one card from his hand. One player starts (or leads) by playing a card from his hand. Play continues in a clockwise direction from here until each person has played one card. The goal of each round is to play the highest card in the suit that the first person plays. For example, if East leads with a 4 of clubs, then South would most likely (there are exceptions) play a higher club. West would follow South and North would play his card last. Note that the Ace is the highest card in each suit. There are certain rules which accompany this process: 1. All players must follow in the same suit as the one that is played first. For example, if East plays the 5 of diamonds, everybody MUST play a diamond. 2. If the player is unable to follow in the same suit because he has no more cards in that suit, then he must play from another suit, which will ALWAYS lose, no matter what the card is. (EXCEPTION: See Trumps) Tricks The four cards played during a round are collectively called a "trick." Therefore, the goal is to collect the most tricks. North/South collect tricks that are won by either North or South and East/West collect tricks that are won by either of them. Partners keep their tricks together. After a trick is won, the player who played the winning card leads for the next round. Therefore, a hand is completed when thirteen tricks have been won. The score in tricks may be something like: North/South - 5, East1West - 8. Trumps the general guidelines for continued bidding or passing becomes much fuzzier. Please remember that Omar Sharif On Bridge plays a very precise game of bridge. The game gives bidding recommendations that at times may disagree with what you think the appropriate bid would be. A co mmonly made mistake by players is done by rushin g the bidding sequence. There is no need to raise the bidding higher just based upon the speculation that your partner's hand may accompany your hand very well. Take your time with tts, and West follows with the 5 of Hearts. North would normally have to play a heart (and since the Ace has been played, would lose), but if North were out of hearts, then he could play the 2 of Spades and win the trick. Bidding A hand of bridge actually begins with the bidding. During bidding, players are bidding for what suit they want to be the trump suit. Obviously, a player with many high cards in a given suit will be at an advantage if that suit is declared the trump suit. The dealer starts the bidding. A bid consists of a number from one to seven followed by the suit you want to be trump. A "book" is six tricks. When you bid the number, you are claiming that you can claim a certain number of tricks above your book. In other words, if you bid 1 club, that means you think that you will be able to claim seven tricks with clubs being the trump suit. The highest you can bid is 7 of any suit which means that you think you can claim all 13 tricks 7 tricks bid + 6 "book" tricks). This is called a Grand Slam. (A "Small Slam" is regarded as a bid of 6 in any suit.) You are allowed to bid for any suit to be trump as well as No Trump. No Trump means exactly that: no suit will be trump for that hand. Each suit has a rank as follows from lowest to highest: Clubs Diamonds Hearts Spades No Trump During your turn you may Pass (which means you don't want to bid) or increase the standing bid. You can increase the bid by raising the number or moving to a higher ranking suit. If the bid is No Trump, then you have no choice but to go to the next number. For example, if East bids 1 Diamond, South can bid 1 Spade but cannot bid 1 Club since clubs rank lower than diamonds. However, South could bid 2 Clubs if he wanted. Bidding proceeds in a clockwise fashion around the table until three consecutive players pass. At that point the last bid becomes the "contract" and the first team member to bid in that suit becomes the "declarer." Play begins with the player to the left of the declarer. If the team makes more tricks than their contract, the extra tricks won are said to be "overtricks." If a contract fails it is important to note how many tricks it failed by. The Dummy The declarer's partner is called "The Dummy" hand. When it is his turn to play, all his cards are turned face up and the declarer plays a card from from the dummy's hand. The declarer continues to play for his partner (the dummy) when it is the dummys' turn, until the hand is finished. SCORING The goal of bridge is to accumulate the most points at the end of a best two out of three game match, which is called a "rubber." A game is won by scoring 100 points "below the linen, which refers to how many tricks are bid and made. Below the line points can be scored only by completing a contract. Scores are as follows for below the line: Clubs, Diamonds....20 pts. per level of contract. These two suits are called "minors" because of their low point value. Hearts, Spades...30 pts. per level of contract. These two suits are called "majors" because of their high point value. No Trump........40 pts. for the first level of contract; 30 pts. for every level there after. Below is a list of point totals for the following contracts. These are just examples. There are obviously a wide variety of possible contracts that will allow you to win a game. 5 Clubs = 100 pts. below the line 4 Hearts = 120 pts. below the line 3 No Trump = 100 pts. below the line 7 Spades = 210 pts. below the line. Any contract which will not win a game by itself (a game under 100 pts.) is called a "partial." For example, 3 spades would be a partial since it is worth only 90 points. Note that you only score for the actual contract below the line and NOT overtricks. Overtricks are scored above the line (see below). You can win a game over the course of several hands. When a game has been won, all scores from both teams below the line go "above the line" and a new hand is dealt with both teams having 0 points below the line. When a game has been won, the winning team is said to be "vulnerable." When a team is vulnerable, all above the line penalties assessed to them (see below) are doubled. Above the line points are awarded as follows: Each club, Diamond overtrick = 20 pts. Each Heart, Spade, No Trump overtrick = 30 pts. Each failed trick = 50 pts. (For example, if North/South bid 4 Hearts and completed only 1 Heart then East/West would get three tricks above the line. For these three tricks they would get 150 points). Remember this penalty is doubled if a side is vulnerable. There are additional bonus points for each of the following: 100 pts. = one person's hand having four of the five highest cards in the trump suit. 150 pts. = one person's hand having the five highest cards in the trump suit (this is called "honors") or having the four aces if the contract is in no trump. 500 pts. for bidding and making a small slam contract when not vulnerable and 750 when vulnerable. 1000 pts. for bidding and making a grand slam when not vulnerable and 1500 when vulnerable. 500 pts. when winning a rubber in three games and 750 when winning it in only two. When a rubber has been completed, all scores are added up and the team with the most points above and below the line wins. PENALTY DOUBLE If your opponents make a contract that you feel is too high, you as a defender should "double". To double you have to wait until the bidding comes around to your turn and instead of passing or making your own bid, you say "double". The purpose of doubling is that when you double the scores of the hand also double. For example, if the bidding ends in hearts (normally worth 30 points a trick) the hand would then be worth 60 points per heart trick Besides for the doubled trick value, there is also a 50 point bonus for the fulfillment of a doubled contract. Also note that you cannot double your own or your partner's hand. Doubling is purely a defensive move and is only available to the team that is defending against the hand's contract. REDOUBLING If your opponents believe that they can fulfill their contract, even though you have just doubled, they should consider "redoubling". Redoubling quadruples the point total of each trick Thus, the normal 30 points per heart trick would become 120 points per trick. The 50 point bonus for the fulfillment of the contract remains the same. CALCULATING YOUR POINT TOTAL The most popular way to determine what to bid is to calculate your Point Total. To figure out your Point Total you give point totals to each of the high ranking cards (Aces, Kings, Queens, and Jacks) that are in your hand and then add those number of points together. The point totals go as follows: Ace = 4 pts. King = 3 pts. Queen = 2 pts. Jack = 1 pt. Therefore, if you hold one Ace, one Queen, and three Jacks then your point total is 9 (4+2+1+1+1=9). In addition to getting points through high cards you can also obtain additional points by having an unbalanced hand if you are bidding in a suit. The point totals are as follows: Each Void (none of a suit) = 3 pts. Each Singleton (one of a suit) = 2 pts. Each Doubleton (two of a suit) = 1 pt. The reason for the added points for an unbalanced hand, that is not being played in no trump, is so you can indicate to your partner that you are low in a suit or two. This in turn indicates that you could possibly collect extra trump tricks due to the quick voidance of a suit. OPENING BIDS Considering that there are forty high card points in a deck, it is best not to open bidding unless you clearly have better than an average hand which is ten points (40 points divided by 4 people = 10 points each). In general, it is recommended that you should not bid unless you hold at least thirteen points. If you hold thirteen or more points, you should bid the suit that has the most cards. If two suits have the same number of cards, then select the one with the higher cards. The exception to this is that you should not generally open with the Major suits (Spades or Hearts) unless you hold at least five cards in them. This is called a 5-Card Major. The idea here is to let your partner respond with his strength before forcing the contract too high. Below is a list of suggested opening bids with their corresponding point totals: 0-12 pts. = pass At least 13 pts. = 1 of a suit 16-18 pts. with balanced distribution = 1 NT 25 or more pts. with a very strong suit = 2 of a suit 22-24 pts. with balanced distribution = 2 NT 25-27 pts. with balanced distribution = 3 NT There is an exception to using the point scale above to determine if you should make an opening bid or not. It is called pre-emptive bidding and is used in a case where you have an exceptionally strong suit with little support in any other suit, as well as having less than 13 points. A hand in which you have at least eight cards of a particular suit including about all of the high card points has the potential for a pre-emptive opening bid. This bid will instantly tell your partner that you are overloaded in a particular suit as well as having little defense if the opposing team starts bidding A preemptive bid is at Level 3 if you have 6-7 sure tricks in that suit or at Level 4 if you have over 8 sure tricks in a suit. The reason for the high opening bid is to immediately try to force your opponents away from bidding for the hand because you have no defense outside of your strong suit. RESPONSES TO BIDS OF ONE IN A SUIT Before you respond to your partner's opening bid you may have more strength to your hand than you originally thought! For example, if your partner opens with 1 Diamond and you have "trump support" (your hand having four diamonds or three diamonds that include an Ace, King, Queen, or Jack/Ten combo) then your overall position is stronger because the opposing team would be hard pressed to get many tricks in the trump suit. Such a scenario would even be more beneficial if you had an imbalance in the distribution of your hand because of the potential trump tricks you and your partner can make. For just this reason, it is suggested that the usual unbalanced distribution point totals be raised to the following: Each Void = 5 pts. Each Singleton = 3 pts. Each Doubleton = 1 pt. Once you total your points we recommend that you bid as follows: Pass with 0-5 pts. without trump support. Raise by one in the same suit with 3-9 pts. and trump support. Raise by two in the same suit with 11-13 pts. and trump support. 1 NT with 6-10 pts. and a balanced hand. 2 NT with 14-15 pts. and a balanced hand. 3 NT with 16-17 pts. and a balanced hand. New suit at level one with 6-17 pts. and a wide range. New suit at level two with 10-17 pts. and a wide range. RESPONDING TO 1 NO TRUMP Pass with 0-6 points if you do not have a "long suit" (five or more cards in the same suit). 2 of a suit with 0-6 points and a long suit. 3 of a suit with 7-9 points and a long suit. 2 Clubs (see Stayman Convention). 2 NT with 7-8 points and a balanced hand. 3 NT with 9-14 points. 4 NT with 15 or more points. BIDDING AFTER THE OPENING ROUND Bidding continues as many rounds as the bidding partners want. This applies as long as they remember that the bidding contract must continually be raised. Once you get to the second round of bidding the general guidelines for continued bidding or passing becomes much fuzzier. Please remember that Omar Sharif On Bridge plays a very precise game of bridge. The game gives bidding recommendations that at times may disagree with what you think the appropriate bid would be. A commonly made mistake by players is done by rushing the bidding sequence. There is no need to raise the bidding higher just based upon the speculation that your partner's hand may accompany your hand very well. Take your time with the bidding process and do not get too overanxious to reach a high bid. This happens most frequently by people going into a convention (See: Conventions) sooner than they should—so beware! To determine how high a team's bidding should go a lot depends on how "strong" the points in your hand are. A strong hand, if you are bidding in a suit would be represented if you have many of the suit's high cards. For example, if your partner just bid in hearts and your hand contains the Ace, King, and Jack of Hearts then most likely you and your partner will win all the potential heart tricks and should have a couple of hearts left over to use as trumps. This would be considered a very strong hand and the bidding should be raised. If you are in a suit, but have many of the low cards in that suit, it may be time to end the contract and pass. A strong hand if you are in no trump occurs when you have a long suit with some of that suit's high cards. CONVENTIONS Bridge conventions indicate a type of understanding between partners relating to the use of a special bid. That sounds confusing, but once you learn and understand a bidding convention you will see why they are preferred over the usual indicators forbidding. There are many different bridge conventions. Omar Sharif On Bridge does not support every bridge convention known to humankind, but it does support the most commonly used ones, which are as follows: The Stayman Convention The Blackwood Convention The Gerber Convention Unusual No trump Take Out Doubles STAYMAN CONVENTION The Stayman Convention is the most commonly used used convention. This convention is used following a bid of 1 No Trump, in which a response is 2 Clubs (you do not need any Clubs in your hand to bid this). By bidding 2 Clubs you are asking if the bidder has a four card major. If he does, he will bid two of that suit. If he does not, he will respond with 2 Diamonds. Your response to 2 Diamonds should be 2 No Trump. The intent of this convention is to try to take the contract to game, but you want to see if your partner has a strong major suit. If not, you settle for a 2 No Trump contract. BLACKWOOD CONVENTION If the bidding has reached the 3 or 4 Level rapidly, and it seems that you and your partner together have such a strong hand that you may lose only one or no tricks, you should consider going for a slam. However, you should not rush potential slam bidding until you can account that you and your partner have the necessary amount of Aces and Kings to be able to win twelve or thirteen tricks. The Blackwood Convention is used when going for a slam to determine how many Aces your partner holds. A bid of 4 No Trump is the Blackwood Convention. The response to this bid should be as follows: 5 Clubs = No Aces or Four Aces 5 Diamonds = One Ace 5 Hearts = Two Aces 5 Spades = Three Aces If you and your partner have all four Aces then you may want to ask your partner how many Kings he has. This is done by moving the bidding to Level 6 and the responses to Kings would be the same as it was for Aces. GERBER CONVENTION The Gerber Convention is similar to the Blackwood Convention because its purpose is to ask your partner for the number of Aces he has before you possibly go for a slam. The difference between the two conventions is that the Gerber Convention starts at the lower bid of 4 Clubs and is a response to your partner's bid of 1 or 2 No Trump. Your partner's response to the convention's bid of 4 Clubs should be the following: 4 Diamonds = Zero or Four Aces 4 Hearts = One Ace 4 Spades = Two Aces 4 No Trump = Three Aces If you are satisfied with his response then you may want to know how many Kings your partner has. To do this, you should bid 5 Clubs and your partner's response should follow the same pattern as the Aces. The advantage of using the Gerber Convention instead of the Blackwood Convention is that the bidding starts lower, thus if the hand is not all that promising for a slam, you end the contract earlier. UNUSUAL NO TRUMP The Unusual No Trump is a bid of either 1 or 2 No Trump in a situation where you would not possibly want to play the hand in no trump because you have a weak hand. It would be used in the following circumstance: You are South and your hand has two Spades, one Heart, five Diamonds, and five Clubs. West opens with 1 Heart, North passes, East bids 2 Hearts, now it's your turn— what should you do? The answer should be a bid of 2 No Trump. The reasoning for this bid is that considering you have only one Heart in your hand, your opponents probably have a vast majority of the remaining twelve Hearts between them. In most circumstances there is nothing wise you can do, but pass if you do not have a very strong hand. Passing would probably mean that your opponents would have no problem completing a large contract in Hearts, but for you to bid at Level 3 would mean certain ruin unless you have a lot of cards in another suit, and in this case, you do! Using the Unusual No Trump Convention of 2 NT tells your partner that you have at least five cards in each of the minors and that if he has support in either Diamonds or Clubs, that it should be our team that bids for the final contract. TAKE-OUT DOUBLES Whereas the Unusual No Trump Convention says that you have a mediocre hand that is strong in the minors, a Take-out Double says that you have a mediocre hand, but it is strong in one of the majors. So if the situation arises where your opponent opens with one Diamond and you do not have an opening hand, but you do have the Ace, Queen, Nine, Six, and Two of Spades; you may want to use the take-out double. This bid is requesting for your partner to follow the bidding if they have a hand with support in either of the majors. It is important to note that when you use the Take-out Double, you just say "Double", not "Take-out Double". It is up to your partner to figure out if your are using a Penalty Double or a Takeout Double. STRATEGIC PLAYING You should try to keep track of what cards remain in each suit (especially the trump suit), so that you know what cards will be winners for you. The following are popular techniques used during play to help you make your contract: THE FINESSE A Finesse takes place when you try to make a lower card a winner by taking advantage of the fact that your opponents do not know what cards the other holds. For example, if South holds the King of Spades and East holds the Ace and Jack of Spades with North leading a low Spade, East can play his Ace, but he may play his Jack hoping his partner holds the King. If he plays the Jack, then South has successfully finessed his King (which normally would have lost to the Ace). RUFFING Ruffing takes place when you are void in a suit and your partner leads that suit so you can trump it. This works very nicely if both you and your partner are void in different suits and have many trumps so that you can "cross ruff". DUCKING Ducking is the process in which you purposely lose a trick or play a low card so that the lead will be passed to the weaker opponent or regained by your partner who will then be able to hold the lead for a time. Ducking is used to keep the dangerous opponent (the opponent with a clearly stronger hand) away from getting the lead. The reasoning for this is that if the strong opponent gets the lead, he would be able to keep it because of the strong nature of his hand. DRAWING TRUMPS You can lead trump to draw out your opponent's trumps so that your remaining trumps are all good and that high cards in other suits will not be trumped by your opponents. GLOSSARY OF BRIDGE TERMS ABOVE THE LINE - is scoring that is attained through over-tricks, bonuses, and penalties. BALANCED DISTRIBUTION - a hand in which the suits are fairly evenly distributed and which contains no voids, singletons, or a suit of six or more. BELOW THE LINE - is scoring that is accumulated through the amount of tricks that are bid and made. BID - a spoken contract by any player in terms of how many tricks he pledges that his side would make, in an attempt to name the trump suit. BLACKWOOD CONVENTION - was created by Easley Blackwood of Indianapolis, Indiana in order to locate aces and kings on the way to a potential slam by bidding 4 No Trump. BOOK - the first six tricks taken by the declarer's side. CONTRACT - the highest bid which determines the number of tricks to be made as well as the trump suit. CONVENTION - an understanding between partners in association with a specific bid or signal. DECLARER - is the first person to name the contract suit, even though his partner may have made the highest bid in the contract. DOUBLE - is a call made from the side that did not make the last bid. Once declared a double raises the scoring of tricks, bonuses, and penalties. DOUBLETON- having only two cards in a particular suit. DUMMY - is the partner of the declarer, whose hand is faced upwards and played by the declarer. FIVE CARD MAJOR - having either five spades or hearts in your hand. GERBER CONVENTION - a slam convention created by John Gerber of Houston, Texas that asks for aces by bidding 4 Clubs. GRAND SLAM - the bidding and making of all thirteen tricks. KIBITZER - an outside observer to the game, who usually can not stop talking. LITTLE SLAM - bidding and making twelve tricks. MAJOR - heart and spade suits. MINOR - diamond and club suits. NO TRUMP - a bid where all suits have the same value by there being no trump suit. OVERBID - bidding a greater number of tricks than warranted. OVERTRICK - a trick that exceeds the amount of the contract. PRE-EMPTIVE BID - is an opening bid based on hands with a very long suit and little defensive strength. REDOUBLE - a bid that doubles a previous double and quadruples the scoring of the hand's tricks. RUBBER - the first two games won by a side. SINGLETON - having only one card from a particular suit. STAYMAN CONVENTION - a bid of 2 or 3 Clubs in order to discover if your partner has a major suit. TAKE-OUT DOUBLE - a convention that signifies that you do not have enough points for an opening bid, but have a long suit in a major TRICK - four cards, each player having contributed one of the four in a clockwise order VOID - having no cards from a particular suit. X - any card lower than a 10, whose number is not significant because of its low ranking. YARBOROUGH - a hand containing no card higher than a nine. Symptoms include dizziness, bug eyes, and a repetition of counting to make sure that you have enough cards in your hand.