Games - Contract bridge glossary

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	Games - Contract bridge glossary

The following terms are used in Contract bridge, Duplicate bridge, and Auction bridge. Some of them are also used in Whist, Bid whist, and other trick-taking games.

Note: Except for ones indicated bold, all the links in this article are internal, i.e. lead to other list entries rather than external articles

A

;ACBL: American Contract Bridge League
;Agreement: An understanding between partners as to the meaning of a particular bid or play. The set of all the agreements in a partnership forms the Bidding system and the Signals. ;Alert: An indication to the opponents that the partner's bid is artificial (or that its meaning might be otherwise unexpected). An alert is made by pronouncing "alert", displaying an appropriate card from the bidding box, or sometimes by just knocking on the table. Use of alert (alert procedure) is regulated by sponsoring organizations. ;Artificial: 1) A call or play that is not natural. :2) A bidding system that contains many such calls. ;Autobridge: A non-digital game for one person, designed to teach bridge (see image). ;Auction: 1) see bidding. :2) Auction bridge
, an older form of bridge, now replaced by Contract bridge
.

B

;Balanced hand: A hand is said to be balanced if it has a distribution of 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, or 5-3-3-2 (Also defined as "no voids, no singletons, and at most one doubleton"). Balanced hands are particularly suitable for notrump contracts. ;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. ;Board-a-Match: A form of scoring for team events, parallel to matchpoint scoring in pair games, in which every deal scores the same – +1 for a win, 0 for a tie, and -1 for a loss. Now less common than IMP/victory point scoring. ;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, for making a doubled contract, or for making doubled or redoubled overtricks. There are different bonus amounts at the partscore, Game, small slam, and grand slam levels. Bonus amounts may depend on the vulnerability, and whether or not the contract is doubled or redoubled. Bonus amounts are different in rubber bridge and duplicate. See Bridge scoring
for details. : see also points for Honours. ;Break: When the cards of a suit in the hands of the opponents are split evenly, or nearly evenly, so that neither opponent has a particularly large or small holding in that suit, then suit is said to break. The corollary is a "bad break" when the suit does not split evenly. See also distribution.

C

;Caddy: A non-playing person designated to move boards between tables during a tournament. ;Call: Any bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage. ;Chicago: A form of bridge in which a rubber is completed every four deals, and the vulnerability is different in each of those deals. The scoring and sequence of dealer and vulnerability used in duplicate bridge are derived from those used in Chicago bridge. Chicago is said to have been devised by commuters who played bridge on daily train journeys, where the time available for play was limited by the length of the trip. ;CHO: Centre Hand Opponent; a slang term for the partner. ;Claim: A statement by declarer about how the remaining unplayed tricks will be won or lost. Normally the claiming player exposes their hand and describes the sequence of play for the remaining tricks and their disposition. This is usually done when the play of the rest of the hand is straightforward. See also concession. ;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. ;Concession: An admission by a player that he must lose some or all of the remaining tricks. (See claim.) ;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
. ;Control: 1) In play, declarer's ability to limit the number of tricks that opponents could cash (usually related with trump contracts). :2) A feature of a hand which prevents the opponents of taking any (or more than one) immediate tricks in a suit. Aces are always "1st-round" controls and Kings are "2nd-round" controls; in trump contracts, voids are also 1st-round controls and singletons 2nd-round ones. ;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 to the length and strength of bid suits, that is, an agreement on an artificial call or play. ;Convention card: A form filled out by a partnership that shows all the bidding and play conventions being used. Usually used during tournaments. ;Crossruff: A playing technique in trump contracts where extra tricks are gained by taking ruffs in both hands alternately. ;Cuebid: 1) A bid of the opponents' suit in a competitive auction. Usually a conventional, forcing bid that shows strength or an unusual hand. :2) A bid that shows control in a suit (usually with an Ace or King, sometimes with a void) but does not indicate length or strength in the suit otherwise. Partnership agreements indicate when in an uncontested auction a bid is considered a cuebid. Usually used in exploring for a slam contract, or for showing stoppers needed for a notrump game.

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