Contract bridge

Psychic bid

English

Playing cards

Psychic bid (also psych) is a bid in contract bridge, grossly misstating the power and/or suit lengths of one's hand, used deliberately to confuse the opponents.

Contract bridge glossary - C

English
Caddy
A non-playing person designated to move boards between tables during a tournament.
Call
Any bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage.
Chicago
A form of bridge in which a rubber is completed every four deals, and the vulnerability is different in each of those deals. The scoring and sequence of dealer and vulnerability used in duplicate bridge are derived from those used in Chicago bridge. Chicago is said to have been devised by commuters who played bridge on daily train journeys, where the time available for play was limited by the length of the trip.
CHO
Centre Hand Opponent; a slang term for the partner.

Law of Total Tricks in Contract Bridge

English

BridgeThe Law of Total Tricks pertains to the card game of contract bridge, and is used to help determine how high to bid in a competitive auction. It is not really a law (because counterexamples are easy to find) but it describes a relationship that seems to exist somewhat regularly. Written by Jean-René Vernes for french players in the fifties as a rule of thumb, it was first described in English in a 1969 magazine article.

Coups

English

HeartIn contract bridge, coup is a generic name for various techniques in play, denoting a specific pattern in the lie and the play of cards.

There are various types of coup which can be effected.

Pure Coups

There are many coups where the opponents can do little about:

Bath coup

Contract bridge glossary - B

English
Balanced hand
A hand is said to be balanced if it has a distribution of 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, or 5-3-3-2 (Also defined as "no voids, no singletons, and at most one doubleton"). Balanced hands are particularly suitable for notrump contracts.
Bid
A declaration of both level and denomination (suit or no trump) that generally indicates the number of tricks the bidder believes their partnership can win; certain bids can also be used as conventions.
Bid out of turn
A bid erroneously made when it was other player's turn to bid. Subject to penalty.
Bidding
The first phase of the game, where players try to establish the final contract by making subsequent bids.
Bidding system

2/1 Game Forcing

English

2/1 game forcing (Two-over-one game forcing) is a bidding system in modern contract bridge, where a non-jump two-level response to a one-level opening bid commits a partnership to at least the game level. It is based on Standard American bidding and has largely superseded it; the principal difference is that a full opening bid is required for a response at the two level to an opening bid of one of a major. Thus, the response of 1NT to 1♥ or 1♠ opening is forcing or semi-forcing.

Squeeze

English

Squeeze play (or simply squeeze) is a play in contract bridge that often occurs late in the game and involves the play of a card (often, but not necessarily, a winner) which forces an opponent to discard a vital card from his hand, thus giving up a trick (or two in some cases). The discarded card can be either a winner or any card that solidifies defender's defensive position.

Although the squeeze was already discovered and described in whist, its use was best described and perfected in contract bridge.

The squeeze operates on the principle that, in a n-card ending with n-1 combined winners, the two hands can have one potential trick (threat card) each, but there's no room in single defender's hand to cover both of those. In order for a squeeze to work, the victim might not hold any "idle" cards, but all his cards must be "busy", covering some sort of menace.

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