Bridge Glossary

ABA

acronym for American Bridge Association, one of the governing bodies for organized bridge in America.

Above the line

points that do not count toward game; points other than those scored for tricks bid and made.

ACBL

acronym for American Contract Bridge League, the largest governing body for organized bridge in America.

Accept

(1) (of a game-try or a slam-try or an invitation to take a particular action) make the call suggested or invited, or a move in that direction

(2) (of a transfer) make the call suggested by the transfer.

According to Hoyle

following correct procedure (whether legally, ethically, customarily or technically).

Ace

the highest-ranking card.

Ace from ace-king

a conventional opening-lead agreement.

Ace-showing responses

bids that indicate possession or absence of specific aces after partner's strong, forcing opening.

Acol

a popular British system based on simple, natural bidding, four-card majors, weak or split notrump openings.

Acol two-bid

a strong (forcing) opening bid suggesting distributional strength.

Active

(1) (of a player) aggressive

(2) (of a defensive play) risking tricks in the hope of establishing tricks quickly.

Adjusted score

in tournament bridge, a score artificially assigned to adjust for an irregular occurrence.

Advance cue-bid

a cue-bid in the absence of an explicitly agreed suit.

Advance sacrifice

a sacrifice bid before the opponents bid to their intended contract.

Advance

(1) (verb) bid, double or redouble after partner enters the auction by doubling or overcalling;

(2) (noun) any such bid, double or redouble.

Advancer

the partner of a player who is the first for his side not to pass after the opponents have opened the bidding; intervenor's partner.

Adverse

(adjective for vulnerability) = unfavorable.

Aggregate

scoring a session by adding the raw (duplicate bridge) scores of individual deals; sometimes "total-point scoring."

Agree

anoint as the agreed suit.

Agreed suit

a suit in which a partnership has located and announced a fit. or that has been or is being designed as the intended trump suit.

Agreement

an advance understanding between partners about the meanings of their calls and defensive card plays..

Alarm-clock

(adjective) a call or (more commonly) a defensive play intended to alert partner to an unusual situation.

Alarm clock

(noun) a call or defenswive play intended to alert partner to an unusual situation.

Alcatraz coup

a deliberate, illegal failure to follow suit to gain information from the opponents.

Alert

a technique used by tournament players to draw opponents' attention to unusual agreements.

Amber

See: Vulnerability conditions.

American Bridge Association

See: ABA.

American Contract Bridge League

See: ACBL.

American Whist Movement

a team-of-four movement.

Amorphous

admitting a wide variety of shapes; often used as an adjective for a one-diamond opening that might be based on a balanced hand with only two or three diamonds, or for one that might be based on shortness in diamonds (where the natural opening of one club is unavailable owing to artificial use of that bid).

Anchor suit

the guaranteed suit when a player has shown a two-suiter with only one suit specified.

Antipositional

(adjective for call) placing or tending to place the less advantageously located partner as declarer.

Appeal

in tournament bridge, a requested review of a ruling (usually of a director's ruling).

Appendix movement

a method of adding an additional table to a tournament without changing the number of deals played.

Approach forcing

a common bidding method in which responder's new-suit bids are forcing.

Apricot sundae

(slang) a weak heart-diamond two-suiter (from "a red, sticky, unappetizing mess")

Arrow

a marker, usually a physical arrow, pointing to the location of the North player at each table.

Arrow switch

(during a session of duplicate bridge) a revising of the locations of the geographical compass points marking the players' designations.

Artificial

(1) not natural;

(2) (of a call) (a) not indicating a desire to play in the named (or, if not a bid, in the last-named) strain; or (b) offering information relevant to a specific strain other than the one named (or, if not a bid, the last-named); or both;

(2) (of a bidding system) consisting significantly or more of agreements that actions, or most early-in-the-auction actions, are artificial.

Asker

a player who uses an asking-bid (such as an ace-ask, a key-card-ask, a trump-ask, etc.) or an equivalent call

Asking bid

a bid that requests information about a specific feature of partner's hand (e.g., number of aces, controls in spades, quality of heart support).

Asking cue-bid

a bid in the enemy-shown suit that asks partner to bid notrump with a stopper in that suit; sometimes called California Cue-Bid or Western Cue-Bid.

Assist

raise.

Aspro

a British variant of Astro in which two clubs shows a two-suiter including hearts and two diamonds shows spades and a minor.

Astro

defensive bidding method over opponents' notrump openings that emphasizes showing two-suiters (two diamonds = spades and another suit; two clubs = hearts and a minor suit).

Astro cue-bid

a direct cue-bid over a suit opening bid to show four hearts (or four spades over a one-heart opening bid) and length in the lowest unbid minor.

Attacking lead

an opening lead intended to institute active defense.

Attitude

whether a defender does or does not want a suit led, or does or does not want to show strength in it. [A defender's attitude toward a suit is usually described as "encouraging" or "discouraging."].

Attitude lead (or signal)

a lead (or signal) indicating a defender's attitude.

Auction

the bidding; portion of a deal in which the players bid for the right to name the final contract.

Auction bridge

a predecessor of contract bridge.

Automatic

(of a squeeze) maturing regardless of the opponent's position at the table.

Autosplinter

call that describes a short suit in a hand with one long suit (such as one that announces the singleton in a hand distributed 6-3-3-1).

Average

the mean (arithmetic average) score on one deal, or over one session, in a duplicate bridge contest.

Average-minus

a moderately below-average matchpoint score, typically awarded as a result of the scorer's irregularity.

Average-plus

a moderately above-average matchpoint score, typically awarded as a result of an opponent's irregularity.

Avoidance

a play, usually by declarer, that makes it impossible, difficult or expensive for a particular opponent to gain the lead.