The Penguin Book of Card Games: Everything You Need to Know to Play Over 250 Games (12 page)

four

Blackwood:

4NT asks for Aces. Response: 5 = none or four, 5 = one, 5 = two, 5 = three

5NT asks for Kings. Response: 6 = none,6 = one, 6 = two, 6 = three, 6NT=

four

6. Defensive bids

A defensivebidisonemadebyeitheropponentofthe opener. Thegeneralrequirement is a

biddable suit, with length rather than strength. Relative vulnerability is important: you need to be more cautious when playing vulnerable against non-vulnerable. In general, but not without exception, you should have:

to overcall with 1 of a suit:

5+ in suit and 10-12 pts. Count 1 extra point per card over five.

to overcall with 2 of a suit:

5+ in suit and 13-15 pts. Count 1 extra point per card over five.

to overcall with 1NT:

A balanced hand and 16+ points (or 14+ after a bid and two passes).

to overcall a pre-emptive 3:

6+ in suit and 16+ pts. With a strong hand but no long suit, consider 3NT,

asking partner for best suit.

7. Defensive double

With 13+ points and fewer than three cards of the suit opened, double. This shows a hand with its own opening values and, in the event of an intervening pass, requires partner to name his best suit at the lowest level.

Bridge: partnership variants

Chicago

As a home game, Chicago has two advantages. One is that a rubber

is always four deals, so if two or more tables are operating it is

is always four deals, so if two or more tables are operating it is

possible for players to swap tables and partners without too much

hanging around. The other is that its scoring system, essential y that

of Duplicate (Tournament) Bridge, encourages players to bid up to

the ful value of their hands, so there is no question of ‘Why bother

to bid up to five clubs if we only need 20 for game?’.

The scoresheet needs only five rows divided into two columns, one

for each side. There is no distinction between above– and below-

line scoring: if a partnership makes its contract, it scores in its own

column; if not, the defenders score in theirs. Part-scores are not

carried forward from deal to deal (though they were original y, and

many Americans stil play this way).

In deal 1, neither side is vulnerable. In deals 2 and 3, non-dealer’s

side is vulnerable. (A modern development. Original y, dealer’s side

was vulnerable.) In deal 4, both sides are vulnerable. If a deal is

passed out, the cards are gathered and (after the shuf le and cut) re-

dealt by the same dealer instead of being passed round to the next

as in Rubber Bridge.

The score for a successful contract is the sum of two parts:

1. Thenatural scoreforthe numberoftricks actual ymade, including

overtricks, and with any doubling taken into account;

2. If the contract value was less than game (100), add 50 for a

part-score. If it was 100 or more, add for game 300 if not

vulnerable, 500 if vulnerable.

The defenders’ score for defeating a contract is the same as in

Rubber Bridge. There is no score for honours, nor extras for the

rubber.

Chicago may be played with so-cal ed ‘Russian’ scoring, which

reduce seven further the luck of the deal. This imposes upon a

partnership holding 21 or more high-card points between them the

obligation to bid and make a contract worth a minimum specified

amount. To verify the obligation, play as at Duplicate, with each

card played to a trick left face down in front of its player, vertical y

card played to a trick left face down in front of its player, vertical y

orientated in a won trick, horizontal y in a lost.

hcp

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

0

50 70 110 200 300 350 400 430

… if vulnerable 0 50 70 110 290 440 520 600 630

hcp

29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37+

target (not vul): 460 490 600 700 900 1000 1100 1200 1300

… if vulnerable 660 690 900 1050 1350 1500 1650 1800 1950

The dif erence between the target and the actual score is then

converted to International Match Points according to the standard

IMP table.

Reverse Bridge

This variant, played by a few heretics, makes ‘bad hands’ biddable

and reduces the incidence of hands being passed out. Here, each

natural bid can be overcal ed by the same bid ‘reversed’. In a

reversed contract, al cards rank upside down – Two highest,

fol owed by Three, Four, and so on down to Ace lowest. Otherwise,

the play and scoring are precisely the same. As Richard Sharp says

(in The Best Games People Play, London, 1976): ‘Fascinating

sequences can be constructed in which many of the reversed bids

would have a conventional meaning – e.g. a response of “4NT

reversed” to an opening 1 , asking for Twos!’

Nul o Bridge

Bridge-players acquainted with other trick-taking games such as

Solo Whist often bemoan the absence of a misere bid in Bridge.

Such a bid was experimented with around 1912 in Nul o Auction

Bridge, and can be adapted to Contract if desired. Basical y, nul os

is a bid ranking between spades and No Trump, and represents an

of ering to lose the stated number of tricks, playing at no trump.

Thus a bid of ‘2 nul os’ of ers to win no more than five tricks in al ,

while ‘7 nul os’ is a complete misere. The problem with it, as

Milton Work pointed out (in Auction Developments, 1913), is that

it takes only one card to win a trick, but two to lose it. This makes

it essential y a solo game.

Brint

Bridge with a scoring system model ed on that of Vint (q.v.). The

value of a trick is not related to whether the contract was major,

minor, or no trump, but only to its numerical level – the higher you

bid, the more each trick is worth. Brint, as devised by J. B.

Chambers in 1929, seems needlessly elaborate. I of er the fol owing

simplification.

Below the line If successful, declarers score below the line for al

tricks made, including overtricks. The value of each trick is ten

times the contract value, i.e. 10 at level one, 20 at level two, and so

on up to 70 for a slam. Game is 150 below the line, requiring a

contract of 4 for game from a zero score (or 3 bid and 5+ made).

Above the line Defenders score above the line 50 per undertrick.

Doubling Doubling and redoubling af ect scores above and below

the line. Vulnerability doubles al scores except those made below

the line. Vulnerability doubles al scores except those made below

the line in an undoubled contract.

The rubber bonus is 500 or 700, as at Contract. Honours don’t

count, and slam bonuses are unnecessary because of the relatively

immense dif erential between contracts of one and seven. (At

Contract, 7NT scores eleven times the value of 1 trick bid and made

in a minor suit, compared with forty-nine times its value at Brint.)

Non-partnership Bridge

Pirate

A variety of Bridge developed by R. F. Foster (Foster’s Pirate Bridge,

1917), Pirate replaces fixed partnerships by floating al iances made

from deal to deal, so that everyone plays for themselves in the long

run. It looks ideal for those who dislike fixed partnerships, but in

practice suf ered from the fact that the players with the best-

matched hands invariably found each other and made their contract.

Dealer bids first. If al pass, the hands are thrown in. When a bid

is made, each in turn thereafter must either accept it, thereby

of ering himself as dummy in partnership with the bidder, or pass.

If no one accepts, the bid is annul ed, and the turn to bid passes to

the left of the player who made it. There is no need to overcal an

unaccepted bid. For example, if South opens 2 , and no other

accepts, West may cal anything from 1 up. If no one accepts any

bid, the hands are thrown in.

Once a bid is accepted, each player in turn from the left of the

accepter may bid higher or pass, or (in the case of a prospective

opponent) double, in which case one of the prospective declarers

may redouble. If al pass, the accepted bid becomes the contract. A

new bid need not dif er insuit froman accepted bid, and may

new bid need not dif er insuit froman accepted bid, and may

itselfbeaccepted by its previous bidder or accepter, thereby denying

the original y proposed al iance. An accepted bidder may himself

try to break an al iance by naming a new contract when his turn

comes round; but that al iance stands if no higher bid is accepted.

A double reopens the bidding, giving the would-be al ies a

chance to bid themselves out of the al iance by naming another bid

in the hope that someone wil accept it. Or they can stay with the

accepted bid, and redouble if suf iciently confident.

A contract established, declarer leads to the first trick, his partner

lays his hand down as a dummy, and play proceeds as normal. Play

in strict rotation even if declarer and dummy are adjacent. Scores

are noted above or below the line in the column of each of the

players involved.

Three-handed Bridge

Three-handed Bridge is much like the real thing once a contract has

been established, but suf ers from the lack of partnership bidding.

The simplest version is that designated Cut-throat. Towie (Replogle

and Fosdick, 1931) is said to stil have its devotees, at least in

America. Booby (Hubert Phil ips, 1953), while not without merit, is

complicated by the addition of nul o bids, though it soon becomes

obvious why they were introduced.

Cut-throat Bridge

Deal four hands, leaving one face downastheeventual dummy.