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Bridge Conventions
Bridge conventions are bids that are artificial ie. they do not give any information about your card holdings - instead they are comprised of a set of artificial bids enabling you share or to gather key information from your partner about important cards and controls in order to bid more effectively.The practice hands and activities for lessons below are available to members only.
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It is easy to count your partnership's total points from your opening and responding bids at the beginning of the auction. To determine the amount of controls in your partner's hand, however you must ask it with special "asking" bids and the 4NT bid now means something different rather than just inviting partner to bid Slam
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A Blackwood King ask is usually made when you are decidingif you can bid a Grand Slam at the level of 7 or a Small slam at the level of 6...
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If you or your partner have bid notrump at any level in the auction, you should not use 4 NT to ask for the number of aces held. You must use a different asking bid to find out this information. Gerber Convention is an alternative which is very popular and it has the added benefit of starting at a much lower level....
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After you have replied to your partners Ace ask they may want to know about your holding in Kings - to do this they will bid 5♣ and you will need again to count how many kings you have and bid according to the table below. If the Slam is in a trump suit, a singleton may sometimes be counted as a King....
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Control bids are a good tool for very precise and accurate slam bidding. Instead of using Blackwood or Gerber to find out how many aces partner has, control bids to tell partner exactly which aces you possess, as well as kings and other controls such as voids. A control bid for slam is often known as 'cue bidding.'
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Stayman is a bidding convention in bridge, this means that it is an artificial bid which is used by a partnership to find a 4-4 or 5-3 trump fit in a major suit after the opener makes a one notrump (1NT) opening bid. It has been adapted for use after a 2NT opening, a 1NT overcall, and many other natural NoTrump bids....
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In bridge there are two types of slams - small and grand. A small slam is bidding for 12 tricks whereas with a grand slam you contract to win all 13 tricks. Slam bidding falls into two groups: notrump slams and trump (or suit) slams....
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What works best is when there is a good trump fit and each player has a different short suit. Unbalanced hands take more tricks at a trump contract than balanced hands....
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The negative double is probably the most useful of all the defensive bidding conventions in use. It's an important tool to use after the opposition have overcalled your partner's opening bid and you do not have enough points to bid over the opposition...
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LESSON 5A.Jacoby Transfer :
"Transfers" otherwise known as Jacoby Transfers, is a convention when you (as responder after your partner's No Trump opening bid) request that opener bids the suit ranked the next suit higher than the suit just bid by you. ...
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NOTE: The beginner lessons have the unique Bridge terms linked to an online glossary so you can just click on the word and immediately see the definition and a link back to the full lesson if you require it.
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