HW1: Language of Bidding, Scoring System
The Language of Bidding
There are two components to a bridge game: the auction phase and the play phase. You
have already experienced the play phase in class: each partnership is trying to take as
many tricks as possible, and there may or may not be a trump suit. Now we will discuss
the auction phase.
When you are playing a bridge game, you cannot have an informal discussion with your
partner to determine the trump suit and number of tricks you think you and your partner
will take as you had in class. The purpose of the auction phase is to determine which side
gets to choose the trump suit and how many tricks that side must take. Starting with the
dealer, each player in turn may place a bid, pass (decline to bid), and in some situations
double or redouble. Each bid has two components: a number and a suit. The number is
between 1 and 7, and represents a number of tricks you must take if your bid wins.
However, you must bid for at least a majority of the tricks. Since there are 13 tricks in a
deal, the minimum bid is for 7 tricks. A 1-bid represents 7 tricks, a 2-bid represents 8
tricks, and so on. A 7-level bid represents all 13 tricks. So, more accurately, the number
of the bid represents the number of tricks your partnership must take in addition to six if
your side wins the bidding. The suit represents which suit will be trump if you win the
bidding.
Here are some example bids:
3NT 9 tricks with no trump suit
4S 10 tricks with spades as trumps
6H 12 tricks with hearts as trumps
2D 8 tricks with diamonds as trumps
1C 7 tricks with clubs as trumps
In any real-life auction, you cannot make a lower bid than the current high bid. The same
is true in bridge. You must either bid for more tricks than the current high bid or you can
bid for the same number of tricks if your suit is higher-ranking than the current high bid.
The suits are ranked, from highest to lowest:
No-Trump Highest
Spades
Hearts
Diamonds
Clubs Lowest
Thus, if the current high bid is 3H, you may bid 4 or more of any suit, 3S, or 3NT. If you
do not wish to place a higher bid than the current high, then you must pass, double, or
redouble.
A double says that you do not think that your opponents can fulfill their proposed
contract. You may double if one of your opponents has placed the current high bid. If no
one bids after your double, then your opponents will play the contract you have doubled
(their suit is trumps and they have to take the number of tricks for which they bid). If
they fulfill, or ‘make’ their contract, they get approximately double the score they would
have had if you had not doubled. If they fail to make, or ‘go down’ in their contract, then
your side gets double the score you would have received. If they are several tricks away
from making their contract, then your side receives many times the points you would
have received had you not doubled. The double is of the current high bid only; if
someone else makes a higher bid after you double, then your double is cancelled.
You may only make a redouble if your opponents have doubled the current high bid,
which was placed by you or your partner. A redouble raises the stakes for the current
high bid even further than the double. The redouble is of the current high bid only; if
someone else makes a higher bid after your redouble, then your redouble is cancelled.
If you cannot or do not wish to bid, double, or redouble, then you must pass. A pass
simply says that you do not wish to take any of the other actions, and does not commit
you to anything. If you pass, you are free to make bids, doubles, or redoubles later in the
auction, should you have the opportunity.
The auction continues until three consecutive players pass (with the exception that if the
first 3 players initially pass, the fourth player has a chance to bid). At that point, the high
bid becomes the contract, and the partnership that placed the current high bid must take
the stated number of tricks or more with the stated suit as trumps. If the high bid was
doubled or redoubled, those take effect, raising the stakes of the contract. The person on
the winning side in the auction who first placed any bid with the contract’s suit as trumps
becomes the declarer (plays both his own hand and dummy’s), and his partner becomes
the dummy (exposes cards to all players). The player to the left of the declarer makes
the opening lead against the contract, and the dummy then tables his cards for all to see.
Take a look at the following auction:
North East South West
Pass 1H 2C 2D
Pass 2S Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT Pass Pass
Pass
West is the declarer since East-West won the bidding, and West mentioned NT first.
Since West is declarer, North (the player sitting to the left of West) makes the opening
lead. West plays his partner’s hand and must take 9 or more tricks with no trump suit.
Figuring out how to best communicate your hand to your partner during the auction is
one of the intriguing, frustrating, and wonderful things about bridge.
Scoring
If you make a contract that you have bid, you get a positive score for the hand. If you fail
to make your contract, your opponents get a positive score for the hand. The size of the
score is determined by the level and suit of the contract and whether it is doubled or
redoubled. We will first look at making undoubled contracts.
The first component of the score is the trick score.
If playing in notrump, you get 30 per trick for which you bid + 10 additional
If playing a major suit (spades or hearts), you get 30 per trick for which you bid
If playing a minor suit (diamonds or clubs), you get 20 per trick for which you bid
The second component of the score is the bonus score.
If you receive less than 100 points in trick score, you get the partscore bonus of 50
points for making a contract. If you receive 100 or more points in trick score, you get the
game bonus. The game bonus is 300 or 500 points, depending on whether your side is
vulnerable (you get more points when vulnerable). Vulnerability is predetermined for
each bridge deal. If your side bids and makes a 6-level contract, you get the slam bonus,
which is 800 or 1250 points, depending on the vulnerability. If your side bids and makes
a 7-level contract, you get the grand slam bonus, which is either 1300 or 2000 points,
depending on the vulnerability. The four bonuses described above are not additive: you
may only receive one of them per hand. You also receive points for each overtrick, or
extra tricks taken after the contract is fulfilled. Those are given on the same scale as trick
points, but they are considered bonus points rather than trick points.
To compute the total score for a hand, add the trick score to the bonus score. The
interesting result of this scoring system is that there are different ‘levels’ in the bidding
that correspond to the different bonuses available. 6-level contracts are always slams,
and 7-level contracts are always grand slams. However, 3NT is a game, as are 4H and
4S, and 5C and 5D. Lower bids in the respective suits do not score 100 or more trick
points, and hence are partscores. Take a look at the following examples.
Contract Trick Score Bonus Score Total Score
2H, making 3 60 + 80 = 140
3H, making 3 90 + 50 = 140
3S, making 4 90 + 80 = 170
4S, making 4 (NV) 120 + 300 = 420
3NT, making 5 (NV) 100 + 560 = 460
4NT, making 5 (NV) 130 + 530 = 460
5NT, making 5 (NV) 160 + 500 = 460
4C, making 5 80 + 70 = 150
5C, making 5 (NV) 100 + 300 = 400
1C, making 1 20 + 50 = 70
1NT, making 2 40 + 80 = 120
6D, making 6 (NV) 120 + 800 = 920
NV = Not Vulnerable V = Vulnerable
The above chart illustrates that the bonuses are pretty much everything when it comes to
scoring, and that the differences between the suits are somewhat negligible compared to
the difference between a partscore and a game, or a game and a slam. This leads us to the
following realization: the main purpose of bidding is to determine the highest bonus
achievable on the deal with your hand and your partner’s hand. On most deals, the
question is a simple ‘should we bid a game or not?’ Usually the decision is between a
partscore and a game, since slams are difficult to make.
If your contract has been doubled or redoubled, the scoring is somewhat complicated. If
you make, you get double the trick points you would normally get, and then you receive
the bonus according to this doubled trick score. You also receive an additional 50 in
bonus for ‘the insult’ of being doubled and 100/200 in bonus for overtricks depending on
vulnerability instead of the normal overtrick value. Thus, 2HX is a game (60 per trick),
1NTX is not a game (60 per trick + 20 additional), and 4SX remains a game since slam is
not determined by trick score but by level. Hence, it is very dangerous to double a
partscore that will become a game as a result of the double, and it is less dangerous to
double a small partscore or a game as the bonus level will not be affected.
Making a redoubled contract is similar to making a doubled contract. Calculate the
points for the doubled score, and redouble the trick score, overtrick score, and insult
score. The redoubled trick score determines the bonus level. 1C and 1D are the only
contracts that are not games when redoubled.
If you do not make your contract, your opponents get points for each trick difference
between what you made and what you bid. For instance, if you bid 4S and only took 6
tricks, the difference between what you bid and what you made is 4 tricks.
NV V
Trick Difference normal X’d XX’d normal X’d XX’d
1 50 100 200 100 200 400
2 100 300 600 200 500 1000
3 150 500 1200 300 800 1600
+ (per adnl) 50 300 600 100 300 600
In summary, it is very important to bid your games and slams when you can make them
to get the big bonuses, and it is very important to avoid going down multiple tricks when
doubled.
Counting HCP
The next logical question we can ask is ‘How do we know when to bid game or slam?’
Knowing when to bid game separates the good bridge players from the bad ones.
Knowing when to bid slam separates the expert bridge players from the good ones.
In this first course, we will focus on bidding games, and we will not worry about slams.
Fortunately, the auction phase of bridge allows for intelligent communications between
the partners and an educated decision on whether to bid game. Bridge partners do not use
the auction to argue with one another about which suit should be trumps. Rather, they try
to determine the trump suit ‘on the way’ to deciding whether to bid game.
The most common method of evaluating a bridge hand’s trick-taking potential is to count
the hand’s high-card-points (HCP).
Ace 4 HCP Queen 2 HCP
King 3 HCP Jack 1 HCP
As you have seen, high cards are not the only way to win tricks in a bridge deal. Small
cards in long suits may also win tricks if the other players cannot follow suit. The
following supplement to HCP is called length points.
5-card suit 1 point 7-card suit 3 points
6-card suit 2 point 8-card suit 4 points
Add a hand’s HCP to its length points to produce a total hand value. A partnership
should bid a game when it holds 26 or more combined points. A partnership should bid a
slam when it holds 33 or more combined HCP, and a partnership should bid a grand slam
when it holds 37 or more combined HCP. Length and shortness also matter for slams but
there is no good systematic way to count points for length and shortness when deciding
between game and slam. This is all we will mention about slams in this course.
We will use this tool in the next class.