Blackwood Bidding Convention

If you think that you and your partner have enough points to bid for a slam it can be essential to know that you have enough aces (and kings) - to avoid the embarrassment of losing that vital trick to an ace held by the opposition.  It is possible to hold enough points and still be missing an all important card.

This is where the Blackwood bidding convention comes into its own.  It is a way of asking your partner how many aces (and/or kings) they hold, to ensure that you have enough high cards to make the contract.

You can read more about Blackwood and see how it works if you click here.

Leading Away From A King

The opening lead in a game of bridge can be the crucial card that helps your partnership to defeat the contract.  Most players accept that you should never lead away from an Ace - it can give away a trick, especially if the opposing partnership hold a singleton king.

Does the same thing apply to leading away from a king?  Usually, it is safe to lead away from a king and in most circumstances it is unlikely that it will give away a trick.  You can read more about leading away from a king and see a working example if you click here.

Bridge lessons For Beginners

I have been busy working on a new website - bridge lessons for beginners.  It's a site for beginning Acol bridge players - the system usually used in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

It assumes that the reader has no bridge knowledge at all and starts right at the beginning by telling you how to add up the number of points in your hand, progressing through some basic jargon to how to play the cards.

It then starts looking at basic bidding techniques, starting with explaining how to decide who opens the bidding in each game.

Using this site, anyone should be able to start playing Acol bridge.  You can then sign up for your two week trial at No Fear Bridge and practice and learn online, with fun exercises, quizzes, hands to play, progress chart, hands of the day, handouts, flash cards and much more.  Join now by clicking here.

The Rule of 15

We are West and the last person to bid in the opening round.  We hold the following hand:

Before reaching us the bidding has gone as follows:

North  East   South  West
Pass     Pass   Pass      ?

Our hand only 11 points.  As a general rule any player holding fewer than 12 points should pass.  Can we safely open the bidding or would it be better for us to pass to and for the cards to be redealt?

As no-one else has opened the bidding, it appears that the card points are evenly distributed between the sides.  We know that there is a total of 40 points distributed between the four hands.  We have 11 of them.  That tell us that there are 29 points distributed between the other three players.  We know that no-one has 12 or more points  because if they did they would have opened the bidding.

If we bid, the game might be played in our choice of contract, but it is also possible that the opponents could overcall us.  If that happens, it would have been better for us if we had just passed.

How do we decide if we should open or pass.  This is where the Rule of 15 comes in.  You can read all about it and take a quiz to test your knowledge by clicking here.

The Rule of 20

The Rule of 20 is a handy bridge bidding technique which is used in the opening round of bidding.  It has a very specific use, namely helping you to decide if your hand is suitable for making the opening bid.  As a general rule a hand should contain 12 high card points (HCP) to be suitable for making the opening bid.  Occasionally, though, you might have a hand that you think is suitable or opening even if it contains fewer than 12 points.  

How do you decide whether or not to open the bidding in this situation?  You use the Rule of 20.

What is The Rule of 20?

Add up the number of high card points in your hand.  Add to that the length of your two longest suits.  If the total is 20 or more then your hand is suitable to open the bidding.  

How to Use the Rule of 20

The easiest way to explain how to use the rule is to show you some example hands.

Examples

Hand 1

(spades) K 10 5 4
(hearts)  J 5 2
(diamonds) A K 9 6 4
(clubs) 7

This hand has 11 HCPs. Our two longest suits are spades and diamonds, which contain 4 and 5 cards.  If we add 11, 4 and 5 we get a total of 20.  This hand satisfies the Rule of 20 and we can open the bidding. 

Hand 2

(s) 6 5
(h) K Q 10 9 5
(d) K Q 6 4 3
(c) 9

This hand has 10 HCPs.  The two longest suits each contain 5 cards.  If we add 10, 5 and 5 we again get a total of 20, so this hand also satisfied the Rule of 20 and we can open the bidding. 

Hand 3

(s) Q 10 7
(h) A J 7
(d) 8 3
(c) K J 8 6 3

Hand 3 has 11 HCPs.  The longest two suits contain 5 cards and 3 cards.  If we add 11, 5 and 3 we get a toal of 19.  This hand DOESN'T satisfy the Rule of 20 so we must pass. 

How To Play Bridge

I also run a beginner's bridge blog with lots of hints and tips on how to play bridge.  You are welcome to head over and take a look.

If you read through the home page of the site you will find a few practice hands and tests designed to help you learn how to play bridge.

The Rule of 14

When replying to partner's opening bid of one of a suit, it is usual to make a bid of our own in Acol bridge if we hold 6+ points.

As a general rule, we shouldn't raise to the two level if we hold less than 9 points. If we can't support partner's suit and hold another suit that we are able to bid at the one level then there isn't usually a problem - we bid it. If we don't hold a suit that can be bid at the 1 level, then we bid 1NT. As a responding bid, 1NT doesn't tell partner we have a balanced hand, it just tells them we have 6+ points and so have to make a bid.

Look at this hand which we hold when replying to partner. Partner has opened with a bid of 1 spade.

Spades: 8 7

Hearts: Q J 8 3 2

Diamonds: Q 7 5 3

Clubs: J 6

Ideally we would like to bid 1 heart, but as partner has already bid spades we can't bid hearts without raising to the two level.  We have to bid 1NT.

Are there any circumstances where we can bid at the two level even if we hold fewer than 9 points?

This is where we use the:

Rule of 14.

This rule is used in one circumstance only - when replying to partner's opening bid of 1 of a suit and when holding 6 - 8 points and when our longest suit has a lower rank than the suit bid by partner.  Add up the number of points in your hand and then add that to the number of cards in your longest suit.

If the total = 14+ then we can use the Rule of 14 and make our bid at the two level.

In the previous example that would give us a total of 6 (high card points) plus 5 (cards in longest suit) = 11.  The hand doesn't satisfy the Rule of 14 and should be bid as 1NT.

Some More Examples

Example 1

Our hand

S: J 8 6

H: 10 3

D: K 6 4

C: K J 10 8 2

Partner opened the bidding with 1H.  Ideally we would bid 1C, but that is a lower rank bid than partner's opening so we would have to raise to the two level.  If we use the Rule of 14 we get a total of 13.  We have 8 points in hand and 5 cards in our longest suit.  The total is less than 14 so we bid 1NT.

Example 2

Our hand

S: 9 4 2

H: J

D: J 8 5

C: A Q 9 7 3 2

Again, partner has opened the bidding with 1H. Ideally we would like to make a club bid, but to do so would have to bid at the two level.  We apply the Rule of 14.  We cold 8 points in hand and we have 6 cards in our longest suit.  This gives us a total of 14, so this time we satisfy the Rule of 14 and can bid our clubs at the two level.

You can practice using the Rule of 14 if you join No Fear Bridge for your two week trial membership.

Acol players (UK, Ireland, NZ) can join HERE.

American Standard players can join HERE.