Bridge - Beginner 3

• You must also have understood the importance in bridge of bidding game (to score the game bonus) and slams (which score many points too). All the basic rules of the scoring in bridge are detailed on the Beginner 2 page.

  Introduction to the bidding system « The 5-card major »

• You will discover here the first bids of the system called « The 5-card major ». This system, used all over the world, takes its name from the fact that the 1♥ or 1♠ opening is always done with at least 5 cards in the major bid.

• The first bids described are very simple and accessible to any beginner:
  • The 1NT opening and its NT responses.

  • The 2NT opening and its NT responses.
  • The 1♥ or 1♠ opening and its support responses.

  • The Blackwood 4NT to ask partner for his number of Aces.

• The meaning of each bid is detailed further on, but you won't have to learn anything because the tooltips of the bidding box and the table will remind you of all the information you need to choose your bid. Their display will be as follows:

  Tooltip of the table

  Tooltip of the bidding box

• In the prepared games accessible below, a short comment on a yellow background will appear at the end of each deal, so that you can verify that you have chosen the right bid and played the right contract.
  

  If you want this comment to appear only after the comparison, open the General preferences on the Play page and check the box In a prepared game, display the comment only after the comparison. Note that even if the comment is not visible, clicking the message bar at the bottom of the window can display it if needed.

The 1NT opening and its NT responses

• To open 1NT, you need:
  • a balanced hand (no more than one doubleton - 4333, 4432 or 5332 hand).

  • a hand without a 5-card major (no more than 4 cards in Hearts and Spades).

  • from 15 to 17 H points.

• For a NT response to the 1NT opening, you need:
  • a hand without a 4-card major (no more than 3 cards in Hearts and Spades).

  • 9 H points to respond 2NT (it is then an invitation to game).

  • from 10 to 15 H points to respond 3NT (it is then a sign off).
    The 4NT, 5NT, etc. responses (rarer) will be described during the games.

• To pass over the 1NT opening, you have:
  • 0 to 8 H points.
    The hands where you must speak with these points are not discussed at this level.

• To open 2NT, you need:
  • a balanced hand (no more than one doubleton - 4333, 4432 or 5332 hand).

  • a hand without a 5-card major (no more than 4 cards in Hearts and Spades).

  • from 20 to 21 H points.

• For a NT response to the 2NT opening, you need:
  • a hand without a 4-card major (no more than 3 cards in Hearts and Spades).

  • from 5 to 11 H points to respond 3NT (it is then a sign off).
    The 4NT, 5NT, etc. responses (rarer) will be described during the games.

• To pass over the 2NT opening, you have:
  • 0 to 4 H points.

  New technique for the card play

• Double finesses are used when 2 high honors are missing. They yield 1 trick at 75% (the two opposing honors are then split or located on the right side). Here are some examples of double finesses with touching honors:
  • Direct double finesse with AJ10 (low towards the Jack, then low towards the 10).

  • Indirect double finesse with QJx (low towards the Queen, then low towards the Jack).

  • Forcing double finesse with J109 and Ace opposite (Jack and then 10 towards the Ace).

• With two non-touching honors, you should play the lowest honor first to give yourself a 25% chance of making 2 tricks. But depending on the number of tricks you can afford to lose, you may as well play the highest honor for a simple finesse. Some choices will simply be taken at random. Here are two examples:
  • Direct double finesse with AQ10 (low towards the 10 first, then low towards the Queen).

  • Indirect double finesse with KJx (low towards the Jack first, then low towards the King).

• To open 1♥ or 1♠, you need:
  • at least 5 cards in the major bid.

  • at least 12 H points.

• For a support response to the 1♥ or 1♠ opening, you need:
  • at least 3 cards in the opening major.

  • from 6 to 10 HD points to respond 2♥ or 2♠.

  • from 11 to 12 HD points to respond 3♥ or 3♠.

  • from 13 to 15 HD points to respond 4♥ or 4♠.
    Hands with more points are not discussed at this level.

• To pass over the 1♥ or 1♠, you have:
  • from 0 to 5 H points without a 3-card support.

  • from 0 to 5 HD points with 3-card support.

Suit contracts are declared according to the team's HD points, which must reach at least 33 HD for a small slam, and 37 HD for a grand slam. But HD points leave the possibility for the opponents to have 1 or 2 Aces, making the hoped-for slam often dangerous. The Blackwood 4NT (conventional bid known to all bridge players) provides a solution to the problem.

• The 4NT bid asks partner for his number of Aces.

• The responses to the Blackwood 4NT (0314 variant) are:
  • 5♣: 0 or 3 Aces.

  • 5♦: 1 or 4 Aces.

  • 5♥: 2 Aces without the trump King.

  • 5♠: 2 Aces with the trump King.

To reach the grand slam, you sometimes also need to know your partner's number of Kings. The 5NT bid, when following the ace-asking 4NT, is a king-asking bid:

• The 5NT bid asks partner for his number of Kings.

• The responses to the Blackwood 5NT (0314 variant) are:
  • 6♣: 0 or 3 Kings.

  • 6♦: 1 or 4 Kings.

  • 6♥: 2 Kings.
    If the trump King was shown when responding to 4NT, it is no longer counted.

What to know before practicing

• During the bidding, you are helped by the tooltips of the table and the bidding box, but also by the warnings. Each time it's your turn to speak, the first bid you choose is verified by the program, and if it does not fully match your hand, a warning window will notify you. Read carefully the text at the top of the window. It tells you why your choice is questionable (most of the time, you have too many or not enough points). And be careful with your second bid because it will never be warned.

• If in spite of everything your bid puts your partner in a situation where he has no system bid at his disposal, he will receive the bidding slip and will declare the final contract himself. That way, the deal will remain interesting as far as the card play is concerned, since you will probably play the right contract. North's bid will be displayed with a small orange square, to let you know that he has received the bidding slip.
  

• When, as declarer, you have urgent ruffs or discards to make while the opponents still have trumps, it is normal to wonder about the risk of a ruff or overruff. Here is a simple method* to assess the risk of a ruff in a suit on a given round:
  • Count the number of cards your team has at the start (ex: 5).
  • Add the number of the round you want (ex: 3 for the 3rd round of the suit).
  • If this total is 8 or -, the risk is very low (ex: 5+3=8, very little risk).
  • If this total is 9, there is a slight risk (which you can take if no other solution).
  • If this total is 10 or +, the risk of a ruff or overruff is great.

    *Method invented by Bertrand Romanet, from the book "Bridge total" by B. Romanet.

• The prepared games are never counted in your statistics. You can therefore play them and replay them without fear of altering your statistical results.

• At the end of each deal, you can replay the deal by the Replay deal normally button of the primary toolbar.

  Replay deal normally button or shortcut F3.

• At the end of each prepared games, you can replay the game or only certain deals, using the Return to the prepared game button (bottom right of the screen).
  

If you want to practice random games with the same settings as the previous prepared games, this is very easy. You just have to start the game below (even without necessarily playing it to the end). Just starting this game will change your rule preferences to get the correct settings.

Beware, if you only want to test these settings while keeping your old preferences, you must first change the current user using the File / Choose user menu (shortcut Ctrl+U). Select a new user (2, 3, etc.) and name it First system bids (for example). Then, return to this page and start the setting game. Once done, you can play random games of the level described here, while keeping the preferences of your user N°1.

Direct link to this page, that you are free to use: