The following terms are used in Contract bridge and Auction bridge.
A
- ACBL
- American Contract Bridge League
- Autobridge
- a game for one person, which helps to learn this highbrowy game
- Auction
- see bidding
B
- Bid
- A declaration of both level and denomination (suit or no trump) that generally indicates the number of tricks the bidder believes their partnership can win; certain bids can also be used as Conventions.
- Bid out of turn
- A bid erroneously made when it was other player's turn to bid. Subject to penalty.
- Bidding
- The first phase of the game, where players try to establish the final contract by making subsequent bids.
- Bidding system
- The complete set of agreements and conventions assigned to every possible bid by a partnership.
- Board
- 1) a device that keeps each player's cards separate for duplicate bridge
- 2) see deal
- Book
- The basic six tricks that must be taken by the declaring side. Since there is a total of 13 tricks, these six tricks below the half are always assumed and are never taken into account in scoring. Thus, a contract on level 1 denotes taking at least (6+1) tricks.
- Bonus
- In scoring, the additional points awarded for making a contract of certain level and/or doubled or redoubled. The bonus for making a doubled partial contract is 50 points, while bonus for bidding and making a game is 300 or 500 points, depending on vulnerability. Doubled non-vulnerable overtricks are worth 100 points each and vulnerable overtricks are worth 200 points each. In rubber games the bonus is sometimes referred to as the 'insult'.
C
- Call
- Any bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage.
- CHO
- Centre Hand Opponent; a slang term for the partner
- Communication
- The process of (or the ability to) move the lead between the two hands of a partnership, so as to lead each trick from the more advantageous hand.
- Competitive auction
- A bidding sequence which involves both partnerships.
- Contract
- 1) The statement of the pair who has won the bidding that they will take at least the given number of tricks. The contract consists of two components: the level, stating the number of tricks to be taken (plus the book tricks), and the denomination, denoting the trump suit (or its absence). The last bid in the bidding phase denotes the final contract.
- 2) Short for Contract Bridge as opposed to other forms of bridge, such as Duplicate bridge or Auction bridge.
- Convention
- An agreement on the meaning of particular (sequence of) bid(s) between two partners, where the meaning of the bid(s) is not necessarily (and most often is not) related with length and strength of bid suits.
- Crossruff
- A playing technique in trump contracts where extra tricks are gained by taking ruffs in both hands alternately.
D
- Deal
- The set of particular 52 cards as dealt to each player, and the collectivity of bidding and play that occured with it.
- Dealer
- The player who deals the cards and bids first. In duplicate bridge, cards are not literally dealt in every play, but the dealer is pre-defined in each board.
- Declarer
- the person who plays the hand in the partnership that wins the contract ; by the rules, the declarer is the first player in the partnership who had called the final denomination in the bidding stage. The other partner becomes the dummy.
- Denomination
- Component of a bid and contract denoting the trump suit or notrump. Thus, there are five denominations (see rank (2)).
- Defenders
- The pair who tries to defeat the contract.
- Director
- Referee (in duplicate bridge)
- Distribution
- 1) the number of cards in each suit in a player's hand, ususally expressed as a series of 4 numbers. A distribution of 4 - 6 - 2 - 1 means 4 spades, 6 hearts, 2 diamonds, and 1 club. Sometimes also called a "Hand pattern".
- 2) The degree to wich a player;s hand consists of particualrly long and short suits.
- Distribution point
- A mesure of a hand's strngth due to the length or shortness of suits.
- Double
- A call that increases penalties for opponents' failing to make a contract, but also increases the bonus for making it. A player can only double a contract bid by the opposition. Often used as a convention.
- Doubleton
- A suit contianing exactly two cards (in a hand)
- Duck
- A play technique where a player deliberately does not immediately take a trick, but plays a small card instead.
- Dummy
- 1) the partner of the declarer, whose hand is placed on the table and played solely by the declarer; dummy has minimal rights and must not interfere with further play of the hand (especially not by suggesting the declarer).
- 2) the dummy's hand as exposed on the table.
- Dummy reversal
- A playing technique in trump contracts where extra tricks are gained by taking ruffs in the hand with longer trumps.
- Duplicate bridge
- A form of bridge where every deal is played at several tables, by several pairs, unchanged, and the scores are ultimatively compared against each other. At minimum, two tables (four pairs) are required for a duplicate bridge match;
E
- EBL
- European Bridge League, the official organising body of bridge in Europe
- EBU
- English Bridge Union, the official organising body of bridge in England
- Entry
- A card that allows a player to win in one hand after leadign from the other. Entries are vital to communication.
F
- Finesse
- A playing technique where extra tricks are gained by using favorite lie of cards.
- Follow suit
- Every player is obliged to play the card of the same suit as the one that was first led to the trick, if in possesion of one. Failure to follow suit constitutes a revoke.
- Forcing bid
- A bid by your partner that requires you make another bid, ie. you may not pass.
G
- Game
- A contract worth 100 points (or more) bid and made. The minimal games are 3NT, 4♥, 4♠ in majors, and 5♣, 5♦ in minors. The game can also be achieved by making a doubled or redoubled contract, e.g. 2 spades doubled is initially worth 2×(2×30) = 120 points. The pair bidding and making the game is awarded a high bonus.
- Grand slam
- A contract to win all thirteen tricks in the hand. Making a grand slam scores significant extra points.
H
- Hand
- 13 cards belonging to one player; sometimes also used as a synonym for entire deal.
- High card points (HCP)
- Method for evaluation of hand's strength, where every honor card is assigned a numeric value
- Hono(u)r
- A high card (Ace, King, Queen or Jack); usually also includes the ten.
- Holding
- 1) The cards in a particular player's hand at a particualr point in play -- often at the start of play.
- 2) The cards of a specific suit in a particular player's hand.
- Holdup
- A type of ducking play used for the purpose of cutting opponents' communication in the suit. In a holdup, a player delays taking a trick until entries are reduced.
I
- IMP
- International Match Points – a method of overall scoring in duplicate bridge where every result is substracted from a datum (average or median) score and converted to so-called IMPs using a table defined by WBF.
L
- Lead
- 1) Playing the first card to a trick, thus dictating the suit which others must play if able (see follow suit).
- 2) The card so led.
- 3) The hand which is next entitled to lead to a trick is said to be "on lead" or to "have the lead", often shortend to simply "the lead".
- 4) See opening lead.
- Lead out of turn
- Playing a card when it was another player's turn to lead
- Level
- In bidding, the component of a bid or contract (the other being denomination) which indicates how many odd tricks are to be made. Since six book tricks are not taken into account, there is total 13 (available tricks) – 6 (book tricks) = 7 levels. Thus, e.g. contracts on level 4 indicate taking of 6+4 = 10 tricks.
- LHO
- Left-hand opponent
- Losing trick count
- a method of hand evaluation.
M
- Major suit
- hearts and spades
- Match
- 1) the encounter between two teams at two tables, each team sitting North-South in one table and East-West at the other.
- 2) see round.
- Matchpoints
- A type of overall scoring in duplicate bridge where every board is assigned the same value, the best pair on every board receiving a top (100%) and the worst the bottom (0% matchpoints). In Matchpoint scoring only the number of pairs that a pair beats or ties matter, not by how much other pairs may be beaten.
- Minor suit
- clubs and diamonds
N
- No trump
- When a hand is played without a trump suit, or a proposal to play without trumps
- Non-vulnerable
- The state of vulnerability where both bonuses and penalties are lower; in other words, less is at stake for a pair which is non-vulnerable.
O
- Odd trick
- The number of tricks above 6 (the book) that are to be taken in the contract. See also level.
- Opening lead
- The first card led by defenders in the play stage. Unlike other leads, the dummy is not uncovered yet at the time of lead, so the opening lead is made "blindly", and often has a crucial impact to the outcome of the deal.
- Opening leader
- The defender who makes the opening lead. It is always the declarer's LHO
- Overbid
- 1) A bid overstating one's strength.
- 2) Ending up in a too high, usually unmakable, contract.
- Overruff
- To ruff with a higher trump than was previously played in the same trick.
- Overtrick
- Every trick taken by the declaring side over the number of tricks required by their bid contract.
P
- Pair
- Two players who play as the entity.
- Partnership
- 1) see pair
- 2) A pair who plays long time together.
- Partscore or Partial Contract
- A contract below the level that earns a game bonus
- Pass
- A call indicating that player declines to bid for that turn. The bidding ends after three successive passes (except on the very first round).
- Penalty
- 1) A score substracted (added to the opposing side) for the failure to fulfill the contract
- 2) A penalty to a pair or team assigned by director, for disobeying game rules (infraction) (e.g. a revoke). It can be expressed in terms of tricks, matchponts or IMPs, or imposed by barring certain actions to the offender or his partner.
- Play
- The second stage of a deal, when cards are played. In the play, the declarer tries to take at least as many tricks as his/her side promised by the level of the contract, while defenders try to prevent him (i.e. to set the contract).
- Point count
- A numeric value placed on the strength of a hand -- used to guide bidding.
- Preempt
- A bid whose primary function is to take up bidding space from the opponents.
Q
- Quick tricks
- A method of hand evaluation.
R
- Rank
- 1) The strength of an individual card; Aces have the highest rank, followed by K, Q, J, 10,... down to deuce (2)
- 2) The order of denominations in the bidding. Notrump is highest-ranked denomination, followed by spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs. (♣)
- Redouble
- A call that essentially doubles the penalties and bonuses of a previous double; a player can only redouble a contract bid by their side which has been doubled by the opposition.
- Revoke
- Failing to follow suit (as required) when a player is able to do so.
- RHO
- Right-hand opponent
- Round
- 1) In bidding, the sequence of four consecutive bids, usually starting from the dealer.
- 2) In duplicate bridge, a set of (usually 2-4) boards which one pair plays against another in pairs games.
- Rubber bridge
- 1) A form of bridge scoring used in "home parties" (as opposed to duplicate bridge)
- 2) In such form of scoring, the act of making second game by means of addition, ending one set of deals.
- Ruff
- The play of a trump when another suit is led. A ruff is allowed only when the player cannot follow suit (of course, only in trump contracts.)
S
- Sacrifice
- (Usually deliberate) bidding of a contract known to be unmakable, with the intent that the cost of penalty (even if doubled) will be smaller than the value of opponent's score.
- Score
- The numerical value assigned to one pair or another as the outcome of each deal. The score is awarded to the pair who successfully fulfilled a contract, or to their opponents if the contract was not made (see penalty). If the contract is made, the score is calculated by summing up points for bid tricks, bonuses, and points for overtricks. Otherwise, it is calculated by summing up penalties for undertricks (which significantly increase if the contract was doubled or redoubled). The other pair, actually, receives a "minus score", i.e. their score is negative opponents' score.
- Signal
- 1) a special system of agreed meanings to cards played by defenders in order to communicate their holdings to each other.
- 2) A particular play with such a meaning.
- Singleton
- A holding of exactly one card in a suit.
- Slam
- Bidding for and taking twelve tricks is a "small slam", bidding for and taking all thirteen is a "grand slam"
- Squeeze
- A playing technique whereby the defender(s) are forced to discard a vital card.
- Strain
- See Denomination.
- Suit
- a sign on the cards indicating the "class" which the cards belongs to. There are four suits: spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦) and clubs. (♣). In bridge, suits are ranked, but only for bidding purposes. (See also denomination).
- System
- see Bidding system.
T
- Table
- 1) A table where bridge is played;
- 2) see dummy
- 3) the number of groups of four players in play at a bridge event is described as the number of tables.
- Table talk
- 1) Illegally conveyed information between partners, for example by means of talking, gestures, or facial expressions.
- 2) Extranous discussion during play, discouraged becauase it might convey information or distract a player
- Team
- A group of 4-6 players (but only 4 playing simultaneously, as 2 pairs against 2 pairs of another team) who compete as an entity in certain forms of duplicate bridge.
- Trials
- A form of pairs duplicate game, usually of high competition level, played as round-robin tournament with small number of pairs (typically 16) playing relatively long matches (typically 16-32 boards). Usually scored in IMPs with conversion to Victory points.
- Trick
- A set of 4 cards played by each player in turn, during play stage.
- Trumps
- A suit, determined by the declaring side during bidding, which if played, wins a trick regardless of rank of other played cards.
- Two suiter
- A hand containing two long suits, usually each containing 4 or more cards, with at least 10 cards bwtween the two suits.
U
- Underbid
- A bid whereby the bidder has understated the value of his cards, by an error or by taking a "pessimistic view", or becaue the only other choice is an overbid (which may indiacte a flaw in the bidding system in use).
- Undertrick
- Every trick that the declarer ended up short of making the contracted level at the end of the play.
V
- Victory points (VP)
- The points which represent the total score of a single match in duplicate team games and trials. The most common scale is WBF 25:5 scale, where 15:15 presents a tie, 25:5 an absolute win and 25:0 the most extreme result. (The scale depends on IMP difference achieved and number of boards played.)
- Void
- A holding of zero cards in a particular suit (in a hand).
- Vulnerability
- The state assigned to each pair in advance (in duplicate bridge, vulnerability is indicated on boards, in rubber bridge, it is determined in other ways). Vulnerability affects the scoring, i.e. both size of bonuses for making contracts and penalties. In duplicate bridge, boards are designed so that every pair is vulnerable on approximately 50%, and non-vulnerable on other 50% of deals. Vulnerability affects bidding tactics, as the ratios between potential scores available for both pairs change.
- Vulnerable
- The state of vulnerability where both bonuses and penalties are higher; in other words, more is at stake for a pair which is vulnerable. In Contract bridge a pair is vulnerable when they have won one game towrds a rubber.
W
- Weak Twos convention
- A convention whereby an opening bid of two of a suit indicates a weak hand, but a long suit. This is a form of preempt.
- WBF
- World Bridge Federation, the worldwide governing body of the game.
Y
- Yarborough
- A hand containing no card higher than a ten. A very bad hand.