BiddingThe bidding involves knowing how high to bid with the hand you and your partner have altogether. Bidding is how you communicate the strength of your hand to your partner. Of course your opposition understand the strength of your hand from you and your partner’s bids as well, you are not allowed to have a private bidding system with your partner, you always need to have your partner able to describe what your bid means. The purpose of the bidding is to estimate how many rounds you and your partner could win together if they get the contract by making the highest bid followed by three passes (called winning the auction).
Bidding is the most complex part of Bridge with a large number of rules. However on 60 second bridge you will be able to see bidding hints and follow those hints until you have studied the lessons and learned the necessary rules for each bid. By making extensive use of the hints at the beginning, you’ll be able to be up and playing Bridge very quickly. Then over time you’ll learn the bidding rules and be less reliant on the hints.
Bidding ExampleYour partner North starts the bidding with 1 Club (1C). East responds with 1 Diamond (1D). You (South) bid 1 Spade (1S)West says ‘Pass’ (No Bid)North bids one No Trump (1NT)East says ‘Pass’ (No Bid)
You (South) bid 3 No trumps West, East and North then all ‘Pass’ so the bidding is over and the ‘Contract’ is 3 No Trumps*.
The highest bid at the end of the bidding is called the ‘Contract’. In this example North-South have the Contract and must win 9 ‘Tricks’ (rounds).
* ‘No Trumps’ means only a card of the same suit can beat a card eg. 9 of spades will beat an 8 of spades, but a 10 of hearts cannot.
NOTE: The minimum number of tricks you can bid for is 6, so winning the first tricks is assumed and so a bid of 1D or 1H or 1S means you need to win at least 7 tricks. eg. A bid of 2D or 2H or 2S means you must win at least 8 tricks.
