Bridge at Home

Lesson 1

How the game works

This week you learn the whole game. Not the whole game well. Nobody has learned the whole game well, and people have been trying for a hundred years. But by the end of this lesson you’ll be able to sit down, pick up thirteen cards, and play a complete hand without anybody having to take your cards off you and do it themselves.

The big idea: it’s all about tricks

Bridge is a trick-taking game. A trick is four cards, one from each player, played clockwise. Someone leads a card, and everybody else must follow suit, meaning play a card of the same suit, if they possibly can. The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick. That’s it. That’s the engine of the whole game.

There are only two complications, and both are good news.

Complication one: you can’t follow suit. If a spade is led and you have no spades, you can play any card you like. Usually this card is useless: if you throw a heart onto a spade trick, your heart can’t win, no matter how big it is. The ace of hearts on a spade trick is like a world champion swimmer entered in a marathon. Very impressive. Doesn’t matter.

Complication two: trumps. In most hands, one suit is chosen as trumps. A trump beats every card of every other suit. So if you can’t follow suit, and you have a trump, you can play it and win the trick, even if it’s the 2. A two of trumps beats an ace of anything else. This is the most satisfying thing that will ever happen to you at a card table, and it will also happen to you, frequently, at the worst possible moment.

If you must follow suit and do, you can’t trump. You only get to trump when you’re out of the suit led. Many beginners think trumping is an option you can take whenever you feel like it. It is not. Unless you’re void in the suit that was led, you follow suit. Every time.

Notrump

Sometimes there are no trumps at all. This is called “notrump,” and it’s written NT. In notrump, the highest card of the suit led always wins, full stop. Notrump hands are pure: nobody can swoop in with a little trump. They are also, for that reason, the hands where a long suit is a treasure, because once your opponents run out of that suit, every card you have left in it is a winner. We’ll come back to that.

The auction: how you choose trumps

Before any cards are played, there’s an auction. Each bid is a promise: “My partner and I will win at least this many tricks, with this suit as trumps.” A bid has two parts: a number from 1 to 7, and a suit or NT.

The number is the number of tricks you promise over six. Why six? Because there are 13 tricks, and to win the hand at all you need more than half of them. So the first six tricks, called “book,” are taken for granted. A bid of 1♠ promises 7 tricks (6 + 1). A bid of 4♥ promises 10 tricks. A bid of 7NT promises all 13, which is called a grand slam and is mostly something you’ll read about rather than bid.

Each new bid must be higher than the last one. “Higher” means either a bigger number, or the same number in a higher-ranking denomination. The order, from lowest to highest, is: ♣, ♦, ♥, ♠, NT. So after 1♥ you could bid 1♠ or 1NT, but if you want to bid diamonds you must go up to 2♦. Notrump outranks all the suits, which tells you something about how bridge players feel about notrump.

Counting your points

To decide how much to bid, you need to know how good your hand is. The standard way is to count high-card points (HCP):

Each suit has 10 points, so the pack has 40. That means an average hand has 10. If you’ve got 10 you’re pulling your weight. If you’ve got 15 you’re carrying the partnership. If you’ve got 3, you’re a supportive presence.

Why does this work? Because about 25 or 26 HCP between you and partner is usually enough to win 9 or 10 tricks. Points are a rough guide to tricks. They’re not perfect, which is why later lessons add a little extra for long suits. But they’re a fantastic start.

Games and part-scores

Some contracts are worth a big bonus if you make them. They’re called games:

• 3NT (9 tricks)
• 4♥ or 4♠ (10 tricks)
• 5♣ or 5♦ (11 tricks)

Anything lower is a part-score, which earns a small bonus. So the whole strategy of bidding comes down to two questions: “Do we have enough to bid game?” and “Where should we play it?” The rough answer to the first is: if you and partner have 25 or more HCP between you, bid game. If you don’t, stop low and take your small profit. You’ll notice 3NT needs only 9 tricks while 5♣ needs 11, which is why bridge players will do almost anything to avoid playing in a minor-suit game. It’s two more tricks for the same bonus. Nobody wants to work harder for the same pay.

Playing a hand: the first four techniques

When you’re declarer, your job is to win enough tricks. Here are the four techniques you need this week. Lay out the cards for each one.

Practise at home

Check yourself

Lesson 2

Opening the bidding and responding

Bidding is a conversation between you and your partner, using a vocabulary of exactly 38 words (35 bids, plus pass, double and redouble), while two strangers listen in and try to ruin it. It’s like planning a surprise party by text message with the guest of honour reading over your shoulder. Every word has to count, nobody’s allowed to explain what they meant, and someone is always judging.

The big idea: two questions

Every auction is trying to answer two questions:

1. Where should we play? In a suit where we have a fit, or in notrump?
2. How high should we go? A part-score, a game, or (Lesson 5) a slam?

A fit is a suit where you and partner hold at least eight cards between you. Eight is the magic number because it means the opponents have at most five, so you can usually draw their trumps and still have some left over. A fit in a major (hearts or spades) is the prize, because a major-suit game needs only ten tricks. If you can’t find a major fit, notrump is usually next best. Minor-suit games are the bridge equivalent of taking the scenic route because you missed the turn-off.

As for how high, you’ll remember the 25-point rule from Lesson 1: with 25 or more HCP between you, bid game. So the auction is really a way of both partners describing their hands, adding up the points, and checking for an eight-card fit. Neither of you can see the other’s cards. All you’ve got is the bids. That’s why every bid has a precise meaning, and why you have to learn them. Bidding “what you feel like” is like driving on whichever side of the road you feel like. It works fine until it suddenly doesn’t.

When to open

The first person to make a bid “opens the bidding.” In our system you open when:

• You have 12 or more HCP, or
• Your HCP, plus the number of cards in your two longest suits, comes to 20 or more. This is the Rule of 20, and it exists because long suits take tricks that points don’t measure.

With fewer, you pass. Passing isn’t a failure. A pass is a bid too: it tells partner “I don’t have an opening hand,” which is valuable information. Some of the best bids I’ve ever made were passes. Some of the worst bids I’ve ever made were things I did instead of passing.

Which bid to open

Work down this list and stop at the first one that fits:

Let’s unpack the two big rules.

Why five-card majors? When you open 1♥, you promise at least five hearts. That means partner, holding just three hearts, knows straight away there’s an eight-card fit (5 + 3 = 8) and can raise. If 1♥ could be a four-card suit, partner would never know. It’s a simple, beautiful idea, and it’s why the system is called “Standard American”: it was standardised in America, and Americans like knowing exactly what they’re getting.

What if you have no five-card major? You open a minor, even if it’s only three cards long. This feels wrong the first time. You have four lovely spades and you’re opening 1♣ with ♣ 8 6 3? Yes. Because if you opened 1♠ with four, partner would raise with three and you’d be in a seven-card fit, which is like going camping with seven tent pegs. Opening the minor keeps the bidding low so partner can show their major, and you can find the fit together.

And balanced hands? Balanced means no singleton or void and at most one doubleton. With 15–17 and a balanced hand, open 1NT (even with a five-card major, if the hand is 5-3-3-2 and you like it in notrump; experienced players argue about this endlessly, so you might as well start now). With balanced hands outside 15–17, you open a suit and show your strength later: 12–14 by rebidding 1NT, 18–19 by jumping to 2NT. That’s Lesson 3.

Worked examples: what would you open?

Cover the explanation with your hand, decide, then check.

Responding: partner has opened, now what?

When partner opens one of a suit, they could have anything from about 12 to 21 points. That’s a huge range. So your first job as responder is to keep the auction alive whenever game is possible, and to describe your hand so partner can do the maths.

The key number: with 6 or more HCP, you must respond. Partner could have 19 or 20, and your 6 would make game. With 0–5, you can pass.

When partner opens 1♥ or 1♠

Notice that raising partner comes first if you have support. Finding a major fit is the whole point, and once you’ve found it, you say so immediately. Hiding a fit from your partner is like finding your partner’s lost car keys and not mentioning it because you’re enjoying the search.

When partner opens 1♣ or 1♦

Partner may have a major hiding in there. So your priority is to show your four-card major, even with a weak hand:

• A four-card major, 6+ HCP: bid it at the 1 level. With both majors four cards long, bid hearts first (“up the line”) so you can find either fit cheaply. With five spades and four hearts, bid spades first (longer suit first).
• No four-card major, balanced: 1NT with 6–10, 2NT with 13–15 (which forces to game).
• Support for partner’s minor, no major: raise to 2 with 6–10 and good support (five cards is ideal).

Worked examples: partner opens 1♥, what do you say?

Practise at home

Check yourself

Lesson 3

Opener’s rebid and notrump bidding

This is the week you learn to bid diamonds when you have hearts. On purpose. When I first heard about transfers, I assumed it was a prank people play on beginners, like sending the apprentice to the hardware shop for a tin of tartan paint. It isn’t. Everybody plays them, they’re brilliant, and by the end of this lesson you’ll be explaining them at parties to people who are slowly backing away.

The big idea: describe, then let partner decide

Your opening bid told partner roughly what you have: “at least 12 points and this is my longest suit” (or, if you opened 1NT, a lot more). Partner’s response told you something too. Now opener speaks again, and this second bid, the rebid, is where opener says how strong the hand really is.

Think of opening hands in three bands:

The principle is simple: the more you jump, the more you have. A cheap bid is a modest hand. A leap is a strong one. It’s the opposite of how people behave at auctions for actual furniture, where the one who jumps the price is usually just showing off.

Opener’s rebid options, one at a time

Raising partner. If partner responds in a major and you have four cards in it, you’ve found a fit. Raise to the 2 level with a minimum, the 3 level with a medium hand, or straight to game with a maximum. (With only three-card support, you usually don’t raise partner’s one-level response, because partner might only have four.)

Rebidding notrump. With a balanced hand that was too weak or too strong to open 1NT: rebid 1NT with 12–14, or jump to 2NT with 18–19. This is how notrump bidding covers every balanced hand: 12–14 rebid 1NT, 15–17 open 1NT, 18–19 rebid 2NT, 20–21 open 2NT. Write that ladder on a card and stick it on the fridge.

Rebidding your own suit. This shows six cards. At the cheapest level (1♦ – 1♠ – 2♦) it’s a minimum. A jump (1♦ – 1♠ – 3♦) shows a medium hand with a good six-card suit.

Bidding a new suit. If you have a second suit of four cards, you can show it. At the 1 level (1♣ – 1♥ – 1♠) that just shows four spades: it could be minimum or medium. At the 2 level, a lower-ranking new suit (1♥ – 1♠ – 2♣) is also a natural, wide-ranging bid. A new suit that’s higher-ranking than your first suit at the 2 level (1♦ – 1♠ – 2♥) is called a “reverse” and shows a strong hand, about 16 or more. Don’t panic about reverses yet. Just don’t make one by accident with 12 points.

Worked examples: you opened 1♣, partner responded 1♥

Responder’s second bid: time to be captain

Once opener has rebid, responder often knows almost everything. Opener has narrowed their hand to a three- or four-point band. Responder adds their own points and decides:

• Total clearly under 25? Stop: pass, or sign off in the cheapest sensible contract.
• Total maybe 25? Invite: bid 2NT, or 3 of your agreed major, and let opener decide.
• Total definitely 25+? Bid game.

For example: 1♣ – 1♥ – 1NT. Opener has 12–14. With 7 points, responder passes (19–21 total). With 11, responder invites with 2NT (23–25). With 13, responder bids 3NT (25–27). The person who knows the most decides. In bridge that’s nearly always the person who has heard partner make a limited bid. This is one of the few areas of life where whoever knows the most actually gets to make the decision.

Responding to 1NT: the most important bidding in this course

Partner opens 1NT: 15–17, balanced. You already know a lot. So your job is mostly arithmetic:

And there are two conventions you need: Stayman and transfers.

Stayman: “Partner, do you have a four-card major?”

Partner’s 1NT may hide a four-card major (remember, 1NT shows a balanced hand, and balanced hands can contain four hearts or four spades). If you also have four cards in a major, you’d love to know whether you have a 4-4 fit, because a major-suit fit usually plays better than notrump.

So a response of 2♣ doesn’t say anything about clubs. It asks: “Do you have a four-card major?” Partner replies:

• 2♦ “No, I don’t.”
• 2♥ “I have four hearts” (and maybe four spades too).
• 2♠ “I have four spades, but not four hearts.”

You use Stayman when you have a four-card major and at least 8 HCP (because you need to be able to cope with any answer at the 2 level and still have enough to invite).

After the answer, you carry on according to your points:

• If you’ve found a fit: raise to 3 with 8–9 (inviting), or to 4 with 10+.
• If you haven’t: bid 2NT with 8–9 (inviting) or 3NT with 10+.

Here’s the clever bit. Suppose partner has both majors and answered 2♥, but you were asking about spades. You bid 3NT. Partner thinks: “Hang on. They used Stayman, so they have a four-card major. It isn’t hearts, or they’d have raised. So it must be spades.” And partner bids 4♠. Bridge is full of these little deductions, and when one of them works you feel like a detective in a cardigan.

Transfers: bid the suit below the one you want

Now suppose you have five or more hearts. You bid 2♦. That doesn’t show diamonds. It says: “Partner, please bid 2♥. I have at least five hearts.” Partner must bid 2♥, whatever they hold. Similarly, 2♥ is a transfer to spades: partner must bid 2♠.

Then you describe your hand:

• Pass with a weak hand (0–7). You’ve got to a safe contract in your long suit.
• 2NT with 8–9 and exactly five cards: “I’m inviting game. Choose notrump or my suit.”
• 3NT with 10–15 and exactly five cards: “We’re in game. Pick 3NT, or 4 of my major if you have three cards in it.”
• 3 of your major with 8–9 and six cards: invite.
• 4 of your major with 10–15 and six cards: “We’re playing here.”

Why go to all this trouble instead of just bidding 2♥ yourself? Three reasons:

1. The strong hand becomes declarer. Partner, with 15–17, plays the hand, so their cards are hidden, and the opening lead comes up to their kings and queens rather than through them. Leads up to a K x are less dangerous than leads through it.
2. You have more ways to describe your hand. Pass, 2NT, 3NT, 3 of the major and 4 of the major all mean different things.
3. Weak hands with long suits play much better in the suit. A six-card heart suit with no points is useless in notrump (you can never get to it) but takes several tricks if hearts are trumps.

After a 2NT opening

Exactly the same tools, one level higher. Partner has 20–21, so you need only about 4–5 points for game. 3♣ is Stayman, 3♦ transfers to hearts, 3♥ transfers to spades. With 4–10 and nothing to look for, just bid 3NT.

Practise at home

Check yourself

Lesson 4

Competitive bidding and preempts

Until now the opponents have been extremely polite. They’ve sat there passing while you and partner had a lovely chat about your majors. That ends today. This lesson is about interrupting, which bridge players have turned into an art form. It is the only place in polite society where you can cut someone off in the middle of a sentence and they’ll compliment you on it afterwards. Well. Some of them will.

The big idea: why bid when they’ve opened?

When an opponent opens, the odds are that their side has more points. But that doesn’t mean you should sit quietly. There are four good reasons to compete:

1. You might have a fit and a contract of your own. Points are split about evenly on many hands. You may be able to make a part-score, or even a game.
2. You can push them higher. If they were going to stop in 2♥ and you make them bid 3♥, they might go down.
3. You can tell partner what to lead. If you end up defending, partner will lead your suit. That’s often worth a trick by itself.
4. You use up their bidding space. Every bid you make takes away bids they wanted to use to describe their hands. It’s like parking in their driveway.

The danger is that you might be doubled and go several down. So competitive bids have rules too: you need either a good suit, or the right shape, or both.

The overcall

An overcall is a bid of your own suit after the opponents have opened. You need:

• A good suit of five or more cards. “Good” means a suit you’d be happy for partner to lead, usually with two of the top three or three of the top five honours.
• 8–16 HCP at the 1 level (1♦ – 1♠).
• 11–16 HCP at the 2 level (1♠ – 2♣), and an even better suit, because you’re contracting for eight tricks.

The quality of the suit matters more than the points. Ask yourself the “lead test”: if partner leads this suit, will I be pleased? With ♠ A Q J 8 4, yes. With ♠ 9 7 6 4 2, you’ll be apologising before the dummy is down.

When partner overcalls, help them: with three-card support and 6–10 points, raise one level. With a stopper in their suit and 8–11, bid 1NT. With a long suit of your own and a decent hand, bid it.

The 1NT overcall

Just like opening 1NT, but slightly stronger: 15–18 HCP, balanced, with at least one “stopper” in their suit (a card that will stop them running the suit, such as A, K x, or Q J x). Partner responds as if you’d opened 1NT.

The takeout double

This is the most useful bid in competitive bridge, and it doesn’t sound like what it is. When you double an opening bid of one of a suit, you are not saying “I think they’ll go down.” You’re saying: “Partner, I have an opening hand, I’m short in their suit, and I’ve got support for all the others. Pick one.”

A classic takeout double has:

• 12+ HCP,
• shortness in the suit they opened (two cards or fewer),
• and three or four cards in each unbid suit, especially the unbid majors.

(A very strong hand, 17 or more, can also double first and then bid its own suit. That says “I was too strong to overcall.” But that’s for later.)

When partner makes a takeout double, you must bid (unless the next opponent bids first, which takes you off the hook). Even with no points at all. Partner has asked a question and you must answer. Passing would turn their double into a penalty double, which with your hand would cost a fortune. So:

Notice that the 0-point response and the 8-point response are the same bid. Partner will assume you have a weak hand, and with 8 you can pleasantly surprise them later.

Preempts: the weak two and the three-level opening

So far, every opening bid has shown a good hand. Now meet the bids that show a bad one. A weak two (2♦, 2♥ or 2♠) shows:

• 5–11 HCP,
• a good six-card suit (usually two of the top three honours, or three of the top five),
• and nothing else much to speak of.

(You can’t open a weak 2♣, because 2♣ is reserved for your huge hands: Lesson 5.)

A three-level opening (3♣, 3♦, 3♥, 3♠) is a weak hand with a seven-card suit.

Why would you open a weak hand? Because it’s incredibly annoying. The opponents probably have the balance of the points, and they want to bid 1♣ – 1♥ – 1♠ – 1NT, gently describing their hands. Your 2♠ or 3♦ takes all of that away. They now have to start their conversation at the three level, guessing. Sometimes they guess wrong. This is called preempting, and it’s legal, ethical and one of the most effective weapons in bridge. The secret of preempts is that a weak hand with a long suit actually takes quite a lot of tricks if that suit is trumps. You can bid 3♦ with 6 points and go only one or two down, while the opponents could have made a game.

When partner preempts, remember they’re weak. Don’t go hunting for game unless you have a really good hand (about 16+ with a fit). With support, you can raise the preempt to make it even more annoying (2♠ – Pass – 3♠ isn’t an invitation; it’s just more obstruction).

Vulnerability

Each board says who is “vulnerable” (you made boards in the setup section, remember). Being vulnerable means the stakes are higher: going down costs twice as much, and games score more. So when you’re vulnerable, be a little more careful with overcalls and preempts. When you’re not vulnerable and they are, be a little bolder. The full numbers are in Lesson 6. For now, just look at the board before you bid. Every time. Experienced players do this automatically, like checking the mirror before changing lanes.

Worked examples

Your right-hand opponent opens 1♣. What do you do?

Now LHO opens 1♥, partner doubles, RHO passes. What do you say?

Finally, you’re the dealer:

Practise at home

Check yourself

Lesson 5

Strong hands, slams and declarer play

Some days you pick up a hand so good you have to stop yourself from smiling. This lesson is about those days. It’s also about the single most important habit in all of bridge: stopping to make a plan before you play to the first trick. I didn’t do this for years. I just played whichever card looked nicest. I would like you to be better than me, and the bar, honestly, is on the floor.

The big idea, part one: very strong hands

Your one-level openings cover hands up to about 21 points. Above that you need a special bid, because partner might pass your one-level opening with 5 points and you’d miss a game with 27 between you.

2♣ is the strong opening. It shows either 22+ HCP, or an unbalanced hand that can take about nine tricks on its own (a long, strong suit and some aces). It says nothing about clubs. It says: “Partner, I have a monster. Do not pass.”

Partner nearly always replies 2♦, a “waiting” bid. It doesn’t show diamonds. It just means “I’m listening; tell me more.” (Partner can show a really good five-card suit and 8+ points instead, but when in doubt, 2♦.) Then opener describes the hand:

• 2NT shows 22–24 balanced. This is the only sequence partner can pass, with almost nothing.
• A suit (2♥, 2♠, 3♣, 3♦) shows a long, strong suit, and the auction must now continue until game is reached.

And remember 2NT as an opening bid shows 20–21 balanced, with the same Stayman and transfer responses as Lesson 3, just one level higher.

The big idea, part two: slams

A small slam is a contract for 12 tricks (6 of something). A grand slam is all 13 (7 of something). They earn huge bonuses (Lesson 6), so when you have the cards it’s worth bidding them. The rough guide:

• About 33 HCP between you for a small slam.
• About 37 HCP for a grand slam.

With a good trump fit and some short suits you can make slam with fewer points. With two balanced hands you usually need the full amount. And you must not be missing two aces, because the opponents will simply take them, one after the other, while you sit there with your enormous hand and your enormous embarrassment.

Blackwood: counting aces

Once you and partner have agreed a trump suit and you think slam is possible, a bid of 4NT asks partner how many aces they hold. This is Blackwood, named after Easley Blackwood, who invented it in the 1930s and has been mentioned at bridge tables every night since. Partner replies:

Then the 4NT bidder decides. If you’re missing two aces, sign off in five of your suit. If you’re missing one, bid six. If you have all four, you can ask for kings with 5NT (replies in the same order, one level up: 6♣ = none, 6♦ = one, and so on) and think about seven.

Two warnings. First, Blackwood only counts aces. It won’t tell you that you’ve got two losers in a suit where you both have small cards. Second, don’t use Blackwood when you hold a void: partner’s ace might be in the suit you’re void in, which is useless to you, and the answer won’t tell you which ace they’ve got.

The big idea, part three: plan before you play

Here it is, the habit that separates bridge players from people who play bridge. When dummy goes down, before you play a card from it:

1. In notrump, count your winners. Sure tricks: tricks you can take right now without losing the lead. Compare with the number you need.
2. In a suit contract, count your losers. Look at your own hand (the one with long trumps), suit by suit, and count how many tricks you might lose in each, taking dummy’s high cards into account. Compare with how many you can afford to lose.
3. If you’re short, look for a way to fix it, using the techniques below.
4. Then think about the danger: what are the opponents trying to do to you, and in which order should you do things to stop them?

This takes perhaps thirty seconds. It’s the most profitable thirty seconds in bridge. The opponents may sigh. Let them. They’ll sigh even louder when you make it.

Declarer techniques

Practise at home

Check yourself

Lesson 6

Defence and scoring

Half the time you won’t be declarer. You’ll be defending, which means working with your partner to stop the other side, using only the cards you play to send each other messages. It’s like passing notes in class, except the teacher is allowed to read them and you’re not allowed to use words. Then, to finish, you learn how scoring works, which is where bridge reveals that it was secretly an accounting exam all along.

The big idea: defence is a partnership

Declarer can see both of their hands. You can see only yours and dummy’s. Your partner is in the same position. So the defenders’ great disadvantage is information, and nearly everything in defence is about fixing that: leading cards that tell partner something, playing cards that tell partner something, and watching very carefully what partner’s cards are telling you.

The other big idea is counting what you need. If they’re in 4♠, they need ten tricks, so you need four. Before you play to trick one as a defender, say to yourself: “Where are our four tricks coming from?” It’s the defender’s version of declarer’s plan, and almost nobody does it. Which means doing it will make you better than almost nobody. That’s a good place to be.

The opening lead

The opening lead is the only card you play without seeing dummy, so it’s partly a guess. But it’s an educated guess, and there are good rules.

Against notrump, you’re trying to set up long-suit tricks for your side, exactly as declarer does.

• Lead partner’s suit if they’ve bid one.
• Otherwise, from a strong sequence of three touching honours (K Q J, Q J 10, J 10 9), lead the top one.
• Otherwise lead the fourth highest of your longest and strongest suit. From ♠ K 9 6 4 3, lead the 4: count down from the top, K, 9, 6, 4. Why the fourth highest? It tells partner you have length and probably an honour, and it means you’re not wasting a high card that might win later.

Against a suit contract, length matters less, because declarer will ruff your long suit after a round or two. You want quick tricks, or a ruff.

• Lead partner’s suit if they’ve bid one.
• Lead the ace from A K. You win the trick and see dummy, and you still hold the king.
• Lead the top of a sequence (K Q J, Q J 10, or even K Q).
• A singleton can be good: partner may win and give you a ruff.
• Don’t lead away from an ace (leading a small card from A x x). Declarer may win the trick with a king, and your ace may never score. Leading an ace by itself is fine; underleading it is the problem.
• Be wary of leading away from a king, too. It often gives declarer a trick they couldn’t have made on their own.

Which card in partner’s suit? With three cards headed by an honour (K 8 4), lead low. With a doubleton, lead the top (from 8 4, the 8). This lets partner work out what you’ve got.

Second hand low, third hand high

These two old sayings cover most situations during the play.

Second hand low. When declarer leads a small card and you’re the next to play, usually play low. Your partner plays after dummy, so they’re in a better position to win the trick. If you rush in with your king, you often just make declarer’s life easy. You’re the second person to arrive at a party: don’t take over the music.

Third hand high. When partner leads a small card and dummy plays low, you’re third to play. Play high, to try to win the trick or to force out declarer’s honour. If you have touching honours (Q J), play the lower of them (the jack). It does the same job, and it tells partner something: if your jack forces out declarer’s ace, partner knows you also have the queen.

Cover an honour with an honour. If declarer or dummy leads an honour (say the queen) and you have a higher one (the king) just behind it, usually cover. If they play the ace on your king, you’ve used up two of their honours for one of yours, and that may promote a smaller card for your side, like partner’s jack or ten. (Exception: if they lead the first of two touching honours, like the queen from Q J, wait and cover the second.)

Signals

When partner leads a suit and you’re not trying to win the trick, the card you play sends a message:

• A high card (a 7, 8 or 9, say) encourages: “I like this suit. Keep going.”
• A low card (a 2 or 3) discourages: “Please try something else.”

A special case: with a doubleton, playing high then low (the 9 and then the 2) is called a high-low or an “echo,” and it often means “I’m going to run out after this round. Lead it again and I’ll trump it.”

Signalling is the closest thing defenders have to talking, so make your signals clear. A 6 might be high or might be low. A 9 is high. A 2 is low. If you only have middling cards, do your best; partner will look at what’s missing and work it out.

Scoring: the accounting exam

You can play happily for years without knowing the scoring in detail, because at most clubs a little electronic box does it for you. But knowing roughly how it works changes your decisions, so here it is.

1. Trick score. For each trick you contracted for, beyond the first six:

So 4♥ is 4 × 30 = 120. 3NT is 40 + 30 + 30 = 100. 5♦ is 5 × 20 = 100. If your trick score for the contract is 100 or more, you’ve bid a game. That’s why games are 3NT, 4♥/4♠ and 5♣/5♦: they’re the lowest contracts that reach 100.

2. Bonuses for making it.

3. Overtricks score at the same rate as the trick score (30 each in hearts, for example), but they don’t count towards making game.

4. Going down. The defenders score for each undertrick:

5. Doubled contracts that make. The trick score is doubled, which may turn a part-score into a game (2♠ doubled is 120). Each overtrick is worth 100 (not vulnerable) or 200 (vulnerable). And you get an extra 50 for having made a doubled contract, which bridge players call “50 for the insult.” I love this. It’s the only sport that formally compensates you for having been doubted.

How duplicate scoring decides the winner

At a club, every board is played several times by different pairs. Your result isn’t judged on its own; it’s compared with everyone else who played the same cards in the same direction. If you scored 420 and everyone else scored 450, you got a bad result on that board, even though you made your contract. That’s why overtricks matter, why making a part-score when everyone else went down is a triumph, and why a hand where you had rotten cards can still be a top if you lost less than everyone else.

In “matchpoint” scoring (used at most club pairs games), you get points for every pair you beat on each board, and half for every pair you tie with. At the end, it’s turned into a percentage. Fifty percent is average. Sixty percent will often win the session. Nobody gets 100%. If anyone ever does, check whether they were sitting next to the dealing machine.

The lovely thing about duplicate is that luck mostly disappears. Everyone plays the same cards. If you lose, it wasn’t the cards. Which is, depending on your temperament, either the most comforting or the most horrifying thing about bridge.

Practise at home

Check yourself

The rules nobody writes down

Table manners: the whole list

You’ve met bits of bridge etiquette in every lesson. Here it all is in one place, plus the things that only come up when you actually walk into a club. Most of this is just kindness with a few specific habits attached. Bridge clubs are friendly places. They’re also places where some people have been playing in the same seat, with the same partner, at the same table, since before decimal currency, and they have opinions. Knowing the customs means you’ll fit in from your very first night.

Before you play

• Arrive early, about fifteen minutes before the start. You’ll need to sign in, pay your table money, and find out where you’re sitting. Arriving as the first board is being shuffled makes everyone else wait, and bridge players are not good at waiting. Their whole game is about getting there first.
• Come with a partner if you can, but if you can’t, tell the club. Many clubs will find you a partner or have a “host” player ready. Ask about supervised or beginners’ sessions, where someone is on hand to answer questions. This is the best possible first step after this workbook.
• Agree your system with your partner before the session: “SAYC, 15–17 notrump, Stayman and transfers, weak twos, Blackwood.” Bring a system card. You’ll sound like you’ve done this before.
• Turn your phone off, or to silent, and put it away. At many clubs a phone on the table is a big no-no, because of concerns about cheating. Also because nobody needs to hear your ringtone during 3NT doubled.

At the start of each round

• Greet the opponents. A smile and a “Hello, I’m Pat” (insert your own name, unless it is also Pat) goes a long way. If you’re new, say so: “We’re fairly new; please be patient with us.” Most people will be lovely about it.
• Exchange system cards, or briefly say what you play.
• Check the board: its number, who’s the dealer, and the vulnerability. Make sure it’s pointing the right way, with North on the board facing North at the table.
• Count your cards face down before you look at them. Thirteen.

During the auction

• Use the bidding box. Pull out your card cleanly, place it in front of you, and don’t touch it again.
• Bid in a steady tempo. Don’t hover. Don’t sigh. Don’t say anything.
• Alert partner’s special bids. Never alert your own (except online, where it’s the other way round).
• Ask about the opponents’ bids only at your turn, and ask the partner of the bidder.
• After an opponent jumps, pause for about ten seconds before your call.
• If partner hesitates or explains something unexpectedly, keep a straight face and don’t let it influence what you do. This is the hardest rule in bridge, and the most important one.

During the play

• Lead face down first, then turn it over.
• Play your cards one at a time, face up in front of you. Once you’ve played a card, it’s played.
• Keep your won and lost tricks in a neat row, vertical for won, horizontal for lost.
• As declarer, call dummy’s cards clearly. As dummy, play exactly what’s called and nothing else.
• Don’t comment on the play while it’s happening. Not even “Ooh.”
• Don’t detach a card from your hand before it’s your turn. Pulling out a card early tells everyone something.
• Keep up a reasonable pace. About seven or eight minutes a board is normal.

When something goes wrong

• Call the director, calmly and politely. Don’t try to sort it out among yourselves, and don’t argue with the ruling.
• If you revoke, bid out of turn, or drop a card, own up. Everyone does it. It’s only a problem when people pretend they didn’t.
• If you think an opponent has done something wrong, don’t accuse them. Just call the director and let them handle it. Most “cheating” at bridge clubs is actually confusion.

After the hand

• Agree the result, enter it, and check it.
• Put your cards back in your own pocket.
• Keep the post-mortem short, quiet and kind. Don’t discuss boards that other tables haven’t played yet.
• Never criticise your partner. Never gloat. Thank the opponents.
• At the end of the session, thank your partner, whatever happened. Especially whatever happened.

The general rule

Nearly everything above comes down to two principles. First, the only way to communicate with partner is through your bids and your cards; everything else (your voice, your face, your speed, your sighs) must stay neutral. Second, treat everyone at the table the way you’d want to be treated on your first night. Every expert was once a beginner who played the wrong card, and the good ones remember it.

Practising online

Bridge online: BBO

Let’s be practical. Sometimes your practice partner is away, or it’s raining, or it’s eleven at night and you have a burning desire to play a hand of bridge, which is a sentence I never expected to write and now write regularly. For those moments, there’s the internet.

BBO (Bridge Base Online) is the largest online bridge site in the world. It’s free to join, it runs in a web browser and as an app on phones and tablets, and at any hour there are thousands of people playing. It also has robots: computer players who will happily partner you or play against you at three in the morning without once asking you to explain your bidding. If you never get to a club (because of where you live, your health, your schedule, or because you’ve been banned from the local one for punching the air), BBO means you can still play bridge for the rest of your life.

Getting started

1. Create a free account at bridgebase.com or in the BBO app. Pick a username you won’t be embarrassed by when you’re playing in a club’s online game in two years’ time.
2. Set your skill level honestly in your profile. Choose beginner or novice. People will be kinder to you, and you’ll be matched with people at your own level.
3. Set up a convention card. Choose a standard SAYC card. It tells your opponents (and robots) what your bids mean.
4. Find the practice area. That’s where the learning tools live.

What to try, in roughly this order

BBO’s menus change from time to time, and some extras need a paid BBO+ subscription, so if something isn’t exactly where I’ve described, have a look around the practice area. It’ll be in there somewhere, probably next to the seven of diamonds you lost.

About the robots

• The robots play a system based on “2/1,” a close cousin of SAYC. Most of their openings and simple responses will look familiar. Some of their later bids won’t.
• You can check what any robot bid means: hover over or tap it, and BBO shows an explanation. Use this constantly. It’s like having a tiny teacher in the corner.
• Robots are good at some things and occasionally strange at others. When your robot partner does something odd, don’t take it personally. It doesn’t take things personally either. That’s the best thing about robots.

Online etiquette

Online bridge has its own customs, and a few of them are the exact opposite of what happens at the club.

• Say hello. A quick “hi” in the table chat when you sit down is normal. “gl” (good luck) at the start and “ty” (thank you) at the end are common. You’ll pick up the abbreviations quickly. Bridge players love abbreviations; the internet just gave them more room.
• Alert your own bids. Online, you alert and explain your own special bids, because your partner can’t see your explanation and the opponents can. This is the opposite of face-to-face bridge. Don’t let it confuse you when you go back to the club.
• Don’t leave in the middle of a hand. Walking away from a table mid-hand is the online equivalent of getting up and leaving a club while the cards are being played. Finish the hand, say thanks, then go.
• Don’t use the chat to help your partner. Never say anything about the hand to your partner during the auction or play. Typing “lead a heart!!” is not tactics. It’s cheating, even with a smiley face.
• Be patient. Some people play slowly because they’re learning. You were that person too, last month.
• Be kind in the chat. Text has no tone of voice, so what sounds like a joke in your head can land like a slap. If in doubt, “wp” (well played) is always safe.
• Misclicks happen. In casual games, people sometimes ask to undo a mis-click. Be generous when it’s obviously a slip of the mouse. In tournaments, an undo isn’t allowed, so click carefully.

But (and it’s a big but)

BBO is a wonderful tool. It is not the whole game. Bridge is a social game, and it’s best played with other people in the same room. Here’s what the internet can’t give you:

• Your partner’s face when your finesse works.
• The chat at the end of a round, where the person who beat you tells you how they’d have played it, and is sometimes even right.
• The friends. For a lot of people the friendships are the main reason they play. Bridge clubs are some of the friendliest places I know, full of people who are sharp, funny, curious, and happy to welcome a newcomer.
• The tea, the biscuits, and the quiet hum of a room full of people thinking very hard about clubs.
• The physical habits of club bridge: the bidding box, the tempo, the duplicate trick-keeping. People who only ever play online can find their first club night a bit of a shock. People who play both find it easy.

So use BBO as a practice ground, a backup, and a way to keep playing when you can’t get out of the house. Then, as often as you can, get yourself to a table with real people. It’s a much better time. Robots never laugh at your jokes, and believe me, I’ve tried.