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Bridge Maxims
A bridge maxim is a rule of thumb in contract bridge acting as a memory aid to best practice gained from experience rather than theory. Maxims Bidding * If you have a choice of reasonable bids and one of them is 3NT, then bid it – known as "Hamman's Law", devised by Bob Hamman.Published among other places in ''English Bridge'', June 2006, page 19 *Prefer majors to minors. Bid a major suit before a minor suit. They can overbid opponents at the same level and score higher. *Prefer length to strength. A long suit, even if weaker, is often ultimately more powerful and desirable as a contract than a short suit, however good, because long trumps will usually make tricks in the end, and they allow a greater level of control during the game. *With a misfit, bid cautiously; with a good fit, bid boldly. Avoids chasing a poor contract with a misfit, but enables a surprisingly high contract with a good fit. Card play Declarer *Eight ever, nine never. This refers to guidance for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contract Bridge
Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level. The game consists of a number of , each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players; then the players ''call'' (or ''bid'') in an auction seeking to take the , specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners use their bids to also exchange information about their hands, including o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Hamman
Robert David "Bob" Hamman (born August 6, 1938 in Pasadena, California) is an American professional bridge player, among the greatest players of all time. He is from Dallas, Texas. Hamman and Bobby Wolff played as partners for nearly three decades on teams that challenged for major trophies in North America and often for world championships. Representing the United States (from about 1980, previously North America) they won eight world championships for national teams, the 1988 World Team Olympiad and seven Bermuda Bowls spanning 1970 to 1995. For the last they were members of Nick Nickell's professional team, where Hamman remained a fixture through the current two-year cycle and won three more Bermuda Bowls in partnership with Paul Soloway and Zia Mahmood. Beginning 2012/2013, Nickell has replaced Bobby Hamman and Zia Mahmood with Bobby Levin–Steve Weinstein. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finesse
In contract bridge and similar games, a finesse is a type of card play technique which will enable a player to win an additional trick or tricks should there be a favorable position of one or more cards in the hands of the opponents. The player attempts to win either the current trick or a later trick with a card of the suit he leads notwithstanding that the opponents hold a higher card in the suit; the attempt is based on the assumption that the higher card is held by a particular opponent. The specifics of the technique vary depending upon the suit combination being played and the number of tricks the player is attempting to win in that suit. Terminology To ''finesse a card'' is to play that card. Thus, in the example, the Queen is finessed. The outstanding King is the card finessed ''against'', or the card the player hopes to capture by the finessing maneuver. Thus, you finesse against a missing honor, but you finesse the card you yourself play, the card finessed being s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principle Of Fast Arrival
In the game of contract bridge, the principle of fast arrival (also known as the principle of slow arrival) is a bidding treatment widely used in game forcing auctions whereby: * Bidding game directly, usually via a jump bid, shows a minimum hand for one's previous bidding, and is limiting, and * Conversely, making a forcing bid, such as a change of suit below game level, shows extra strength or potential beyond the minimum. Historically, constructive bidding was based on the idea that the stronger a responding hand, the higher a bid, or jump, was made. In modern bidding styles, a slower progression of bids was deemed a more scientific method of investigating for the best contract. The principle of fast arrival was a logical product of this newer style and inverted previous meanings on the premise that since jumps to game leave less room for slam investigation, they imply an absence of slam values and therefore discourage more bidding. In addition, on weaker (or limited) hands f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Principle Of Restricted Choice
In contract bridge, the principle of restricted choice states that "The play of a card which may have been selected as a choice of equal plays increases the chance that the player started with a holding in which his choice was restricted." Crucially, it helps play "in situations which used to be thought of as guesswork." For example, South leads a low spade, West plays a low one, North plays the queen, East wins with the king. The ace and king are equivalent cards; East's play of the king decreases the probability East holds the ace – and increases the probability West holds the ace. The principle helps other players infer the locations of unobserved equivalent cards such as that spade ace after observing the king. The increase or decrease in probability is an example of Bayesian updating as evidence accumulates and particular applications of restricted choice are similar to the Monty Hall problem. In many of those situations the rule derived from the principle is to ''play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Useful Space Principle
The Useful Space Principle, or ''USP'', in the game of contract bridge was first articulated in a series of six articles in '' The Bridge World'', published from November 1980 through April 1981. (The International Bridge Press Association awarded its 1981/1982 award for Best Article or Series on a System or Convention to Jeff Rubens for this series.) The USP is expressed succinctly i''The Bridge World'' glossaryas "a partnership's assigning meanings to actions so that the remaining bidding space matches the needs of the auction." The articles on the USP were the genesis of widely used conventional methods such as Kickback and transfer advances of overcalls. The USP tells bidding theorists that bidding space should be allocated where it is most needed. A USP example: Kickback The Blackwood convention, as originally formulated, violates the USP. Suppose that the agreed trump suit is spades. After the Blackwood "asker" bids 4NT, "teller" can convey four separate messages without byp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bridge World
''The Bridge World'' (TBW), the oldest continuously published magazine about contract bridge, was founded in 1929 by Ely Culbertson. It has since been regarded as the game's principal journal, publicizing technical advances in bidding and the play of the cards, discussions of ethical issues, bridge politics and leading personalities, and reports of major tournaments. Culbertson edited TBW (assisted by a staff of well known writers and players such as Josephine Culbertson, Alfred Sheinwold, Samuel Fry Jr., Richard L. Frey, Albert H. Morehead, and Alphonse "Sonny" Moyse Jr.) until 1943. Morehead then became editor and continued until 1946, when Moyse took over. The McCall Corporation purchased TBW in 1963, and subsequently sold it to Edgar Kaplan. Kaplan became editor and publisher in late 1966; his first issue is dated January 1967. Jeff Rubens acted as Kaplan's co-editor until Kaplan's death in 1997, when Rubens became editor and publisher. Largely because of its emphasis on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rule Of 11
In contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions ..., the Rule of 11 is applied when the opening lead is the fourth best from the defender's suit. By subtracting the rank of the card led from 11, the partner of the opening leader can determine how many cards higher than the card led are held by declarer, dummy and himself; by deduction of those in dummy and in his own hand, he can determine the number in declarer's hand. Logic The rule works because the opening leader is known to have exactly three cards higher than that led and the number of cards lower in rank to that card is also known. The following reasoning applies when the lead is known to be or is suspected to be the lead of opener's fourth best card in the suit: * the total number of cards greater than the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
