Bridge Glossary

Ugly duckling

See Duckling.

Unassuming cue-bid

advancer's cue-bid to show a strong raise of overcaller's suit, but not necessarily the values to force to game.

Unauthorized information

knowledge that a player is not entitled to use (as, for example, that obtained through partner's uneven tempo).

Unbalanced distribution

a distribution that includes a void, a singleton, or two doubletons; any distribution other than 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2 or 5-3-3-2.

Unbalanced band

a hand with unbalanced distribution.

Unbid suit

a suit that has not been named, or indicated, in the bidding.

Unblock

play or discard a high card that is preventing the run of a suit.

Under

(applies to players during the auction and to cards) to the right of; in front of.

Underbid

(1) bid less than one's cards warrant;

(2) bid less than can be made.

Underbidder

one who often underbids.

Underlead

lead a card that does not rank equally with the highest card held in the suit.

Underruff

to ruff with a trump lower than one already played to the same trick.

Under the gun

(slang) in a position where action is dangerous because of an unknown quantity behind.

Undertrick

trick that declarer fails to make, thus failing in his contract.

Undertrump

underruff.

Unfavorable

See: Vulnerability conditions.

Unfinished rubber

a rubber stopped before either side has scored two games.

Unguard

discard accompanying, protecting low cards.

Unguarded

not accompanied by another card in the same suit, or accompanied by insufficient cards in the suit to prevent its being captured by higher enemy cards.

Unlimited

(of a call) with no specified upper strength requirement below the maximum possible.

Unlucky Expert

a character of S, J. Simon's marked by superb technical skill but an inability to consider the possibility of imperfections in others; hence, any player with those attributes.

Unmixed

(of a partnership) consisting of two players of the same sex.

Unpassed

not having passed before the first bid.

Unpenalty double

a slam double showing zero defensive tricks.

Unplayable

(1) (of a contract) noticeably inferior or worse.

(2) (of an agreement or system) leading to inferior results in an obvious or dramatic way.

Unseeded

not seeded; seeded lower than the current opponent.

Unsupported

(1) (of a suit) not raised by partner.

(2) (of an honor) not accompanied by the next lower-ranking card.

(3) (of an honor) unguarded.

Unusual notrump

an artificial notrump bid to show distribution (often a minor two-suiter).

Unusual over unusual

a countermeasure against unusual notrump overcalls. [Example: After a two-notrump overcall of one spade, a popular method is three clubs = heart length, strong hand; three diamonds = spade support, strong hand; three hearts = heart length, moderate hand; three spades = spade support, moderate hand.].

Up

(1) ahead.

(2) (as a verbal instruction to dummy) high.

Uppercut

ruff in an attempt to force out an opponent's higher trump (usually with a mind to promoting a trump trick for partner).

Upside-down

opposite in meaning to the natural, usual or traditional (such as upside-down count signals, where a high card indicates odd parity instead of the traditional evewn parity); sometimes phrased as "inverted".

Up the line

(1) describing bidding the cheapest of equivalent features; [Responding one heart to a one-diamond opening with four cards in each major is bidding up the line.]

(2) describing playing the lowest of available cards.

Up to

from the left of.

Useful space principle

a partnership's assigning meanings to actions so that the remaining bidding space matches the needs of the auction.