CONTRACT BRIDGE BIDDING TIPS

I have added a new sub-category to Entertainment which is called Games of Chance.

My first post to this new category is in regards to the game of  Contract Bridge.  This post contains tips on how to make commonly accepted bids that should be able to recognized by many players familiar with the game of Contract Bridge.

The complete document that I have written can be viewed in the following PDF …

Contract Bridge Bidding Tips

If you are familiar with the game of bridge, and have yourself ventured into some research and reading, you may have no doubt come to the conclusion, as did I, that bidding can quickly become very complex.  The real experts in the game can determine their team’s relative strenghs, and then maximize their bidding to ensure the biggest point reward, through bidding strategies that can be very intricate.

What I have tried to do in my document is to boil down the most basic of bidding strategies so that even beginning bridge players might be able to more competently analyze not only their own hand, but also to ferret out as best as possible, what your partner’s hand may look like.

My parents played bridge a lot with their friends when I was very young.  However, I never picked up the game at that time.  I do remember occasionally looking at the articles that bridge legend Charles Goren had syndicated in newspapers all around the United States.

It was not until high school that I really began to play the game once again.  That started with our noon “activity periods” during which we could select from a wide variety of activities which we would engage in for about a 45 minute period after lunch, before returning to classes in the afternoon.

The two activities I chose were bridge and chess.  However, after high school ended, while I did continue to play chess quite a bit, I did not again play bridge until very recently here in New Mexico.

My wife Deborah actually began playing first, getting together monthly with a number of her friends, rotating between households as the location for their games.

Two of our good friends, Jan and Fred Bales, play the game and Deborah indicated that she would like us to be able to play together.

So I took it upon myself to relearn the game, especially to learn the basic bidding techniques.  Correct bidding is essential in order to be able to determine where you and your partner’s relative strengths lie, and therefore to understand how to properly bid each hand.

My “bible”, as it were, for my learning is the book, “Bridge for Dummies”.  I have supplemented that with other research on the internet.  I have also added some more specific information regarding certain bidding strategies.  The most recent example of that is the recent section I wrote regarding how to utilize the “Blackwood Convention” in order to determine if you have a reasonable opportunity to bid … but most importantly … to make  a Small slam (12 of 13 tricks) or a Grand slam (all 13 tricks).

One additional excellent source for information, and for practice, is the website BRIDGE  BASE ONLINE.  This site allowed me to play against “robots’ which are programmed to play using the most common bridge bidding techniques.

• I could play for free with and against three robots which is how I started.

• I could play with a partner against two robots
  • This is how Deborah and I did our initial practice
  • This option is available for the exhorbitant fee of $1/week.

• I could play with a partner against two other players whom I designated
  • This is how we played virtually against Jan and Fred when we started.  This proved particularly advantageous during this time of Covid-19
  • This option is also available for that same exhorbitant fee of $1/week.

• One additional option which I have never used is to play against other online players, and even to participate in online tournaments.  That option never really interested me.

Here is the URL for the online site …

https://www.bridgebase.com/

 

Here is a You Tube tutorial on how to use Bridge Base Online …

 

As always, if you are interested in reviewing my manual, I would very much like to receive your feedback.  If you notice anything which appears incorrect, please let me know so that I might further research it and then correct my manual, if necessary.

 

Happy bidding.