Bridge Strategy: A Simple Bidding System and Card Play Tips

Bidding is a conversation with your partner, and like any conversation it only works if you both speak the same language. This page writes out, in full, the simple natural system that your computer partner and opponents use in our free Bridge game. It is a small, friendly slice of Standard American, the style most American home players learned. After the bidding come practical tips for playing the cards.

How We Count a Hand

Count high-card points: ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1. Then add 1 point for each card over four in any suit. When you are raising partner's suit, count shortness instead of length: a void 5, a singleton 3, a doubleton 1. A hand is balanced with no singleton or void and at most one doubleton.

Keep these targets in mind for the partnership's combined points:

• 25 for game in notrump (3NT) or a major (4♥, 4♠).
• 29 for game in a minor (5♣, 5♦), so we usually prefer 3NT.
• 33 for a small slam; 37 for a grand slam.

Opening the Bidding

We don't use weak two-bids or preempts. A hand that is weak with a long suit simply passes.

Answering Partner's One of a Suit

• Pass with 0–5 points.
• Raise a major with three or more cards in it: 6–9 points, raise to 2; 10–12, jump to 3 (an invitation); 13 or more, bid game at 4.
• Raise a minor with four or more (five for clubs) and no four-card major: 6–9 to the 2 level, 10–12 to the 3 level.
• New suit at the one level: 6 or more points and four or more cards. Show a four-card major first (hearts first with four of each). This is forcing: opener must bid again.
• New suit at the two level: 10 or more points and four or more cards (five for hearts over 1♠). Also forcing.
• 1NT: 6–10 points with nothing better to say.
• 2NT: 11–12, balanced, an invitation. 3NT: 13–15, balanced.

Opener's Second Bid

Opener now describes their strength in three bands: minimum 12–15, medium 16–18, maximum 19–21.

• With four cards in partner's new suit, raise it: one level with a minimum, a jump with a medium hand, game with a maximum.
• With a balanced minimum, rebid 1NT; with 18–19 balanced, jump to 2NT.
• With a six-card suit, rebid it: at the cheapest level with a minimum, with a jump with 16–18.
• Show a second four-card suit. A new suit lower than your first is fine with 12–18; a higher one at the two level (a "reverse") promises 16 or more.
• After partner raises you: with a minimum pass a simple raise, invite with 16–18, bid game with 19 or more. After a jump raise, accept with 14 or more.

Notrump Bidding

Over partner's 1NT (15–17):

• Pass with 0–7 balanced. With 0–7 and a five-card suit (not clubs), bid it at the two level to play there.
• 2♣ is Stayman: 8 or more points with a four-card major, asking opener for one. Opener answers 2♥ with four hearts, 2♠ with four spades (and not four hearts), or 2♦ with neither. With a fit, raise to 3 (8–9) or 4 (10–15); without one, bid 2NT or 3NT.
• 2NT: 8–9, inviting 3NT. Opener accepts with 16–17.
• 3NT: 10–15. 3♥/3♠: five or more cards and game values; opener chooses 4 of the major with three cards, otherwise 3NT. 4♥/4♠: six or more cards, to play.
• 4NT (16–17) invites 6NT; 6NT with 18–20; 7NT with 21 or more.

Over 2NT (20–21): pass with 0–3, 3NT with 4–10, and the same major-suit bids at the three and four levels. Over 2♣: answer 2♦, which says nothing. Opener then bids 2NT with 22–24 balanced, 3NT with 25–27 balanced, or names their best suit; after a suit, the partnership keeps bidding until it reaches game.

When the Opponents Open

• Overcall with a five-card suit: 8–16 points at the one level, 11–16 at the two level.
• 1NT overcall: 15–18, balanced, with a stopper (such as A, K-x or Q-x-x) in their suit.
• Takeout double: 12 or more with two or fewer cards in their suit and support for the others, or any hand with 17 or more. Partner must answer, bidding their best unbid suit (jumping with 9–11, bidding game with 12 or more).
• After partner overcalls, raise with three-card support: 6–9 a single raise, 10–12 a jump, 13 or more game.
• Over their 1NT, bid a six-card suit with 10 or more points, or double for penalty with 16 or more.
• If they overcall our opening, a double is for penalty (10 or more points and four of their suit). If they double our opening, redouble with 10 or more points.

Later in the Auction

After the first couple of rounds, the computer adds up what it holds and what partner has shown. It looks for an eight-card fit (a major first), and bids game with 25 combined points, a small slam with 33 and a grand slam with 37. With a possible game but no certainty it invites, and partner accepts with the top of their range. It competes for a part score only with a fit, and no higher than one level per trump over six (eight trumps between the partners: the two level; nine: the three level). We don't use ace-asking conventions, so slams are bid only on points.

Playing as Declarer

• Plan before the first card. When the dummy comes down, count your sure winners. Then decide where the extra tricks will come from.
• Draw trumps when your side holds most of them, so the defenders can't ruff your winners. Count them as they fall: 13 in all.
• Ruff losers in the short hand. If the dummy is out of a suit and still has trumps, lead that suit and trump it there for an extra trick.
• Lead toward your honours. With A-Q in the dummy, lead low from your hand: if the king is with the player on your left, the queen wins. That is a finesse.
• Set up a long suit. In notrump, knock out the opponents' high cards in your longest suit early; the small cards that are left become winners.
• Claim when everything left is yours: tap Claim the Rest.

Defending

• Opening lead: lead your partner's suit if they bid one. Otherwise lead the top of a sequence (K from K-Q-J), or against notrump the fourth-best card of your longest suit. Against a trump contract a singleton can work well if you hold a trump or two.
• Second hand low, third hand high. Play low when you are second to a trick; play high when your partner has led.
• Return partner's suit when you win a trick.
• Signal: when partner leads a suit and you can't win, a high spot card (such as the 8) says "I like this suit"; your lowest says "I don't".
• Watch the dummy. You can see half of declarer's cards. Lead through the dummy's strength and avoid leading into its high cards.

Learning With the Game

Use Hint while you bid: it shows the bid this system would make and why. Tap any bid in the grid to see what it showed. After each deal, use Show All Hands to see whether your contract was the right one, and Replay This Deal to try again. The full rules include a scoring table, and the variations page lists the popular conventions we left out.