Teacher's lesson plan: Learn Bridge in 6 Weeks

Course overview

Six weekly sessions take complete beginners from “what’s a trick?” to playing a supervised duplicate session using Standard American, based on the SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card). Each session runs about 2.5 hours: 45 minutes of teaching, 90 minutes of pre-dealt practice hands at tables of four, and 15 minutes of review.

Format per session

• Recap and questions from last week (10 min)
• New topic, taught with cards face-up on the table (35 min)
• Pre-dealt practice boards with a crib sheet (90 min)
• Review of one or two key hands (15 min)

System at a glance (what students learn by Week 6)

Bid	Meaning
1♣ / 1♦	12–21 HCP, no 5-card major; open the longer minor, 1♣ with 3-3, 1♦ with 4-4
1♥ / 1♠	12–21 HCP, 5+ cards
1NT	15–17 HCP, balanced
2♣	22+ HCP, or about 9 playing tricks; artificial and forcing
2♦ / 2♥ / 2♠	Weak two: 5–11 HCP, good 6-card suit
2NT	20–21 HCP, balanced
3-level	Preempt: weak, 7-card suit
Over 1NT	2♣ Stayman; 2♦/2♥ Jacoby transfers to ♥/♠
Raising a major	3+ card support; single raise 6–10, limit raise 10–12
Slam	4NT Blackwood
Competitive	Overcalls 8–16 HCP, 5+ cards; 1NT overcall 15–18; takeout doubles
Carding	Top of sequence, 4th highest from length; high card encourages

The key difference from Acol is five-card majors: an opening 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least five cards, so partner can raise with three. Check which system your graduates will meet at the club so they’re not caught out.

Week 1 — How the game works

Goal: students can play a hand of minibridge as declarer and defender, follow suit correctly, and count high-card points.

Teach

1. Partnerships, compass seats (N/S vs E/W), dealing 13 cards each.
2. Tricks: lead, follow suit, highest card of the led suit wins, winner leads next.
3. Trumps: ruffing when void, overruffing, notrump means no trump suit.
4. Suit ranking: ♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ NT (lowest to highest).
5. High-card points: A=4, K=3, Q=2, J=1; 40 in the pack, 10 per hand on average.
6. Contract basics: book is 6 tricks, so a 1-level contract needs 7; game is 3NT, 4♥/4♠, 5♣/5♦.
7. Declarer, dummy and the opening lead (made by declarer’s left-hand opponent).

Practise: minibridge

Each player announces HCP. The partnership with more points declares; the stronger hand is declarer. Dummy goes down before the lead so declarer can choose trumps or notrump and a contract level. This teaches card play before any bidding.

Play tips to introduce

• Count your sure winners before playing to trick 1.
• Play the high card from the shorter hand first.
• Draw trumps early when you can afford to.

Homework

Deal 10 hands at home, count each hand’s HCP, and note which ones have 12+.

Week 2 — Opening the bidding and responding

Goal: students open correctly at the one level and give the right first response.

Teach: the auction

Bidding goes clockwise from the dealer; each bid must outrank the last. Three passes end the auction. Introduce bidding boxes now so they never learn spoken bidding habits.

Teach: one-level openings

• Open with 12+ HCP, or 11 HCP with a good 5-card suit (Rule of 20: HCP plus length of two longest suits ≥ 20).
• Balanced 15–17 → 1NT; balanced 20–21 → 2NT (detail in Weeks 3 and 5).
• With a 5+ card major, open it. With two 5-card suits, open the higher; with 6-5, open the longer.
• No 5-card major: open the longer minor, 1♣ with 3-3 and 1♦ with 4-4. A minor opening can be as short as three cards.

Teach: responses to a suit opening

Response	Shows
Pass	0–5 HCP
New suit at 1 level	6+ HCP, 4+ cards, forcing
1NT	6–10 HCP, no fit, nothing to bid at the 1 level
Single raise (1♥–2♥)	6–10 HCP, 3+ card support
New suit at 2 level	10+ HCP, 4+ cards (5+ for 2♥ over 1♠), forcing
Jump raise (1♥–3♥)	10–12 HCP, 3+ support, invitational (limit raise)
2NT	13–15 HCP balanced, forcing to game
3NT	16–17 HCP balanced
Game raise (1♥–4♥)	Weak, 5+ support, shapely (preemptive)

Key idea: 8+ cards between the two hands is a fit. Because 1♥ and 1♠ promise five cards, three-card support is enough to raise. 25 combined HCP is roughly game.

Practise

16 boards: deal-and-bid only for the first 8 (no play), then bid and play the last 8.

Homework

Crib-sheet quiz: 12 hands, choose the opening bid; 12 more, choose the response to 1♥.

Week 3 — Opener’s rebid and notrump bidding

Goal: opener can describe strength on the second bid, and the partnership handles 1NT openings with Stayman and transfers.

Teach: opener’s rebid by strength

Opener’s HCP	Typical rebids
12–15 (minimum)	Raise partner once, rebid own suit, 1NT, new lower suit
16–18 (medium)	Jump raise, jump rebid of a 6-card suit, reverse
19–21 (maximum)	Raise to game, jump shift (forcing)

Balanced hands: 12–14 opens a suit and rebids 1NT; 15–17 opens 1NT; 18–19 opens a suit and jumps to 2NT; 20–21 opens 2NT.

Teach: responding to 1NT (15–17)

• 0–7 balanced: pass. Weak with a 5+ major: transfer and pass.
• 2♣ Stayman: 8+ HCP with a 4-card major. Opener replies 2♦ (no major), 2♥ (four hearts, may have spades), 2♠ (four spades, not four hearts).
• 2♦ transfers to hearts; 2♥ transfers to spades. Opener must complete the transfer. Responder then passes (weak), bids 2NT/3NT (invitational/game with exactly 5), or raises (6+ cards).
• 2NT: 8–9, invitational. 3NT: 10–15, to play.

Why transfers: the strong hand becomes declarer and the opening lead comes up to it.

Practise

Half the boards are 1NT openings; the rest test opener’s rebid. Play every hand.

Homework

Write the auction for 10 given 1NT responder hands.

Week 4 — Competitive bidding and preempts

Goal: students enter the auction when the opponents open, and use weak twos and preempts to make the opponents’ life hard.

Teach: when they open

Action	Requirements
Simple overcall (1-level)	8–16 HCP, good 5+ card suit
Simple overcall (2-level)	11–16 HCP, good 5+ card suit
1NT overcall	15–18 HCP, balanced, stopper in their suit
Takeout double	12+ HCP, short in their suit, support for the unbid suits
Double then new suit	17+ HCP, too strong to overcall

Advancer (overcaller’s partner): raise with 3+ card support. After a takeout double, advancer must bid (not pass) with 0–8, jump with 9–11, cue-bid their suit with 12+.

Teach: weak twos and preempts

• 2♦/2♥/2♠: 5–11 HCP, 6-card suit with two of the top three honours (or three of the top five).
• Response 2NT asks for a feature; raises are preemptive, not invitational.
• 3-level opening: 7-card suit, under opening strength. Rule of 2 and 3: be within 2 tricks of the contract vulnerable, 3 not vulnerable.

Practise

Boards dealt so both sides have something to say. Discuss vulnerability on every board.

Homework

Given an opponent’s 1♥ opening, choose the action for 12 hands.

Week 5 — Strong hands, slams and declarer technique

Goal: students handle big hands without stopping short, bid slams with Blackwood, and plan the play before trick 1.

Teach: strong openings

• 2♣: 22+ HCP, or an unbalanced hand with about 9 playing tricks; artificial and forcing. Responder bids 2♦ as a waiting bid; opener then shows the real suit or rebids 2NT (22–24 balanced).
• 2NT opening: 20–21 balanced. Responder can use 3♣ Stayman and 3♦/3♥ transfers, same as over 1NT.

Teach: slam bidding

• Small slam needs about 33 combined HCP; grand slam about 37.
• 4NT Blackwood: 5♣ = 0 or 4 aces, 5♦ = 1, 5♥ = 2, 5♠ = 3. 5NT then asks for kings.
• Do not use Blackwood with a void or two quick losers in an unbid suit.

Teach: declarer planning

1. In notrump, count sure winners; in a suit, count losers in the long trump hand.
2. Ways to gain tricks: the finesse, establishing a long suit, ruffing losers in dummy, discarding losers on winners.
3. Hold-up play in notrump: duck the opponents’ long suit to cut their communication.
4. Keep entries: think about how you’ll get back to each hand.

Practise

Boards built around one technique each, labelled on the board slip. Declarer states their plan aloud before playing to trick 1.

Homework

Five declarer-play problems: find the plan.

Week 6 — Defence, scoring and your first duplicate

Goal: students defend with standard leads and signals, understand scoring, and play a short supervised duplicate session.

Teach: opening leads

• Against notrump: 4th highest of your longest and strongest suit; top of a sequence (KQJ, QJ10).
• Against suits: partner’s bid suit, top of a sequence, or a singleton. Avoid leading away from an ace.
• Second hand low, third hand high.

Teach: signals

• Attitude: a high spot card encourages, a low one discourages.
• Count: high-low shows an even number of cards.

Teach: scoring and duplicate

• Trick scores: ♣/♦ 20 per trick, ♥/♠ 30, NT 40 for the first and 30 after. 100+ trick points is game.
• Game bonus 300 non-vulnerable, 500 vulnerable; part-score bonus 50.
• Undertricks: 50 each non-vulnerable, 100 vulnerable (undoubled).
• Duplicate: boards travel, everyone plays the same hands, and you’re compared with others holding your cards (matchpoints).
• Procedure: bidding boxes, alerts for artificial bids, the System Card, calling the Director, and entering scores on the club’s scoring device.

Graduation session

12 boards, 3 per round, with helpers at each table. Results posted afterwards, then a short celebration and an invitation to the club’s supervised or novice sessions.

Teaching tips and resources

Pre-deal every practice board so each hand illustrates the night’s topic; random deals waste beginners’ time.

• Hand out a one-page crib sheet each week and let students keep it on the table while playing.
• Pair beginners with a helper (a club member) for Weeks 4–6.
• Play every hand out, even on bidding nights; card play is what keeps people coming back.
• Keep the system narrow: no extra conventions beyond Stayman, transfers and Blackwood until after the course.
• The ACBL publishes the SAYC booklet and convention card; check its site for current versions before printing.
• Practice between lessons: online play with robots (e.g. BBO, which offers SAYC as a standard system).