Bridge Glossary

MacGuffin

a card that if played exposes its discarder's side to one danger but if kept exposes it to another.

Main suit

a bidder's or a declarer's longest suit, especially one that will be used as a primary source of tricks.

Major penalty card

a card prematurely exposed deliberately, or any honor prematurely exposed.

Major suit

spades or hearts.

Major tenace

a holding of the first- and third-highest then outstanding cards of a suit. [Example: The ace-queen of a suit before that suit has been played.]

Make

(1) (verb) fulfill (a contract);

(2) (verb) capture a trick, or a number of tricks.

(3) (slang) (noun) successful contract.

Make up

join a game so as to complete a foursome.

Mama-papa

(slang) (usually an adjective for bridge) simple; straightforward.

Marionette

(1) (noun) a transfer (meaning 2), after which partner will usually make the cheapest bid but is permitted to bid higher with special hands. (Compare with puppet.)

(2) (verb) to use a marionette (meaning 1).

Marked

of known location.

Marked finesse

a finesse against a marked card.

Master

(1) (adjective) the highest outstanding card of a suit;

(2) (noun) an expert player.

Master bid

(1) an imaginative, perhaps brilliant, bid, typically with lesser values than usually associated with similar actions;

(2) (said sarcastically) an unusual bid that leads to disaster.

Master hand

the hand having (or eventually having) the predominant trump length.

Masterpoint

a unit of measurement of achievement in tournament play.

Match

(1) a unit of play in knockout and related forms of team competition;

(2) a sizable number of deals played against the same team (occasionally, against the same pair) with the results combined into one scoring unit.

Matchpoint

(verb) calculate the score on a deal in matchpoints.

Matchpoints

(1) a common form of scoring in duplicate bridge in which a pair scores one unit for every other pair whose score they best and one-half unit for every other pair whose score they tie.

(2) the scoring units in (1).

Mathe

(1) a defense against big-club openings in which a double shows the major suits and one notrump shows the minor suits;

(2) an asking-bid to locate a short suit in the hand of a responder who offered a direct limit major-suit raise.

Matrix

a generic layout of the cards (usually describing some form of ending, especially a squeeze).

Maximal overcall

a bid that leaves the opponents no room below the next level of the suit they have already bid (e.g., one-spade opening, two-heart overcall).

Maximal overcall double

the double of a maximal overcall, or of the raise of a maximal overcall, as a game invitation.

Maximum

a relatively strong holding for the previous calls made.

McCabe Adjunct

a two-notrump response to a weak two-bid as a puppet to three clubs, usually preliminary to signing off at three of a suit underranking opener's.

McKenney

suit-preference signal.

Member (of a table)

player.

Menace

a card that an opponent must guard lest it become a winner.

Merrimac coup (also Merrimack Coup)

the sacrifice of a high card to deny an opponent a timely entry.

Michaels cue-bid

a direct cue-bid over an opening bid (e.g., North one club, East two clubs) to show distributional strength. In its modern form, a minor-suit cue-bid shows length in both majors, a major-suit cue-bid shows length in the other major and one of the minors (second suit unspecified).

Middle honors

kings, queens and jacks.

Mini-

(prefix) of lesser strength; weaker than the usual kind (e.g., Mini-Roman two diamonds: a two-diamond opening showing the same hand-type but less strength than a Roman two diamonds.)

Minimum

a relatively weak holding for the previous calls made.

Minimum equal-level conversions

an agreement between partners that doubler's new-suit bid that does not raise the bidding level of a new-suit advance does not show extra strength. [Example auction where such an agreement might apply: one heart -- double -- pass -- two clubs -- pass -- two diamonds.]

Mini notrump

a one-notrump opening showing less than usual opening bid strength (typically 9-12 or 10-12 points).

Mini-splinter

a splinter raise describing the values to invite game.

Minnie

(slang) minimum.

Minor penalty card

a card below honor rank inadvertently exposed prematurely.

Minor suit

diamonds or clubs.

Minor honor

lower honor; (usually, but not necessarily) queen, jack or ten.

Minor tenace

the second-highest outstanding card of a suit and at least one other card where the other card (or cards) is at best the fourth highest of the suit then outstanding (such as king-jack or king-deuce of a suit before any cards of that suit have been played).

Minorwood

a variant of key-card Blackwood in which the asking bid is four of the agreed minor suit.

Mirror

(1) (of distributions) identical.

(2) (of tournament movements) simultaneously held in parallel (as in a Mirror Mitchell, a team-of-four movement in which the pairs are organized into two Mitchell arrangements).

Misbid

(1) (noun) a bid that is inappropriate because it is of the wrong kind, or is misdescriptive to partner (as opposed to an underbid or an overbid).

(2) (verb) to err by making a misbid (1).

Misfit

a pair of partnership hands, each having poor support for the long suits of the other; no combined eight-card or greater trump holding despite skewed distributions.

Mississippi heart deal

a swindler's deal, dating from whist, on which the mark holds six solid hearts and seven top cards in the black suits but cannot make more than six tricks with hearts trumps, because left-hand opponent holds the other hearts and solid diamonds, with no black cards.

Mitchell movement

a tournament arrangement in which all pairs remain seated at fixed compass directions (North-South or East-West) and meet only pairs seated in the opposite direction.

Mixed

(1) (of a partnership) composed of one player of each sex;

(2) (of a tournament) one in which every competing pair is mixed;

(3) (of a call, usually a raise) having both preemptive and constructive aspects;

(4) having varying (especially conflicting) properties or objectives.

Monster

(slang) a strong hand.

Morton's fork coup

the forcing of an opponent to choose between establishing one or more extra tricks in the suit led and losing the opportunity to win a trick in the suit led.

Montreal relay

an artificial one-diamond response to leave room for opener to show a four-card major at the one level, usually used in conjunction with major-suit responses to one-club openings that imply at least five-card length.

Movement

the arrangement and rearrangement of players and boards to achieve appropriate replays and comparisons in duplicate bridge. [Related entries include: American Whist Movement, Flower, Howell, Mirror Mitchell, Mitchell, New England Relay, Relay Boards, Relay Table, Scrambled Mitchell, Rainbow, Shomate, Stagger, Stanza, Three-Quarter, Web.]

Moysian fit

a partnership trump holding of four cards in one hand and three in the other.

MUD

acronym for Middle-Up-Down; the lead of the middle card from three low cards.

Mrs. Guggenheim

a character of S. J. Simon's who cannot achieve anything beyond the obvious or routine; hence, any such player.

Mr. Smug

(1) a character of S. J. Simon's marked by moderate skills, extreme overconfidence, and practical behavior at the table;

(2) The Bridge World's computer.

Multi

a two-diamond opening showing one of several hand-types, usually including some weak and some strong. [One popular variation: two diamonds shows a weak two-bid with long hearts, a weak two-bid with long spades, or a balanced hand with 21-22 points].