Bridge Is a Conversation is a guide to bridge fundamentals for players who already have an understanding of the basics of the game and the desire to improve their competitiveness at the bridge table. The goal is not to teach how bridge systems are built, nor to describe their content, but rather to clarify how to use them the way the best players in the world do and to offer an alternative to simply "playing by the book." You will find the game much more interesting, challenging, and enjoyable than you ever dreamed it could be. The principles in this book are valid regardless of the bidding system used.In sixty years of playing bridge, author Gerard Cohen has observed many games of bridge, and he brings that knowledge to this guide. His observations of how his partners, opponents, and others play that make them outstanding are key to the thoughts included here. He looked for patterns, drew conclusions and developed general concepts that those who haven’t reached the top level yet can learn and apply for a chance at competing with the best. Take your bridge game to the next level with Bridge Is a Conversation.

BRIDGE IS A CONVERSATION

PART I: THE AUCTIONBy Gerard Cohen

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Gerard Cohen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-4505-1

Contents

Chapter 1: The Basic Principle of Bridge Conversation......................1Chapter 2: The Object of Conversations.....................................6Chapter 3: The Bridge Language Elements....................................8Chapter 4: Using Bridge Systems............................................13Chapter 5: Using Conventions...............................................16Chapter 6: Using Partnership Agreements....................................18Chapter 7: Format of a Conversation in Bridge..............................21Chapter 8: Components of Conversation......................................23Chapter 9: Starting the Auctions...........................................33Chapter 10: The Opening Statements.........................................36Chapter 11: The Responses to Opening Statements............................52Chapter 12: The Notion of Captainship......................................55Chapter 13: Pass by the Captain............................................57Chapter 14: Invitations by the Captain.....................................61Chapter 15: Answers to Captain's Invitations...............................69Chapter 16: Questions by the Captain.......................................73Chapter 17: Answers to Captain's Questions.................................80Chapter 18: Closing Statements by Captain..................................83Chapter 19: Integration of Artificial Bids in Auctions.....................88Chapter 20: Bidding Contracts Without Interference.........................97Chapter 21: Bidding Contracts with Interference............................102Chapter 22: Interfering with Contract Bidding..............................104Chapter 23: Guidelines for Questions by Captain............................107Chapter 24: Guidelines for Answers to Questions............................110Chapter 25: Organization of the Conversation...............................113Chapter 26: Recognizing the Nature of Bids.................................117Chapter 27: Integration of External Conventions............................121CONCLUSION.................................................................131

Chapter One

The Basic Principle of Bridge Conversation

When two people want to establish and maintain communication with each other, they use a language that both can understand and manipulate, such as English, Chinese, Hebrew, or body language.

Even "body language"? Yes! When I was at school and had an urgent need during a class, I had to raise my hand and wait for the teacher to respond to it. One single arm signal from him was enough to make me jump out of my seat and dash out of the classroom.

The interesting part of this short story is that the teacher was able to have two conversations at the same time, in two different languages. He conducted the class in French and communicated with me in body language, and neither of the conversations interrupted the other one.

Each one of these languages has vocabulary, grammar, and syntax—even body language.

We do the same thing when we play bridge. We may have a casual conversation with the other players around the table in English or Turkish or Japanese while simultaneously exchanging bridge information in the language of bridge. Bridge is a language, too!

The Vocabulary

In all spoken languages, the vocabulary consists of a collection of words used to describe a physical object, a concept, or a feeling (nouns); an action (verbs); or to describe or modify something (adjectives and adverbs). Other words do not have any specific meaning but are used as language hinges (articles and pronouns).

It is important to realize that each descriptive word in a vocabulary is only a sound, even when it is written down on paper. For instance, the word horse, in itself, does not have a meaning. Whoever invented the English language decided that horse would be the word associated with the four-legged animal that makes a funny noise when it tries to talk. That meaning has stuck, and today, anybody who speaks English knows what a horse is.

"To horse around," having "horse sense," and other expressions built on the word horse derive from the concept of horse.

This was a simple example. Some of the words in the vocabulary may have several different meanings altogether, depending on the context in which they are used. For instance, the word fan represents an object used to cool oneself off when the temperature is too high. When a performer gets on stage and his/her fans are in the audience, it can get hot. That's something else altogether.

The English language has the biggest vocabulary, with around 250,000 words; French, around 150,000; Spanish, 120,000, etc. A standard English dictionary commonly defines 50,000 of them, but few people actually recognize half of that number, and most do not use more than 5,000.

In highly sophisticated languages with a vast array of words, like English, most words have one or a limited number of different meanings. Therefore, each word is less dependant on the context in which it is used. In more compact languages, most words depend entirely on their context, as we will see later on when exploring the language of bridge, which vocabulary contains only forty words.

One does not need to know every single word in the English dictionary in order to communicate in that language. That would be a lifetime commitment, but in bridge, novices learn the complete list of bridge words right away.

In any language, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax are the tools that permit a structured and intelligible conversation.

The Grammar

The grammar is the set of rules that governs the classification of the words into language constituents, expressions, propositions, sentences, paragraphs, etc. The meaning of each language constituent is a function of the relative position of each word used.

In English, "to go around a horse" and "to go horse around" have different meanings because, in accordance to the grammar rules, the order in which the words are placed determines the class of each one. In our example, the word horse can be a noun or a verb, depending on its position relative to the other words in the sentence.

The English language is particularly notorious for the simplicity of its grammar. The English vocabulary is so extensive that grammar does not need to be very complex in order to express just about anything one might want to say. The game of bridge is just the opposite, with its very limited vocabulary; therefore, it needs a very complex grammar.

In bridge, auctions are language constituents, and each bid in the auction varies according to its position. This whole book reviews this in detail. Good bidders learn to arrange the words with sound grammar they learned from bridge writers like Culbertson, Goren, and others. These bridge writers all were, or are, masters at teaching it.

Experts use the same words, of course, but with advanced grammar. Some, like Edwin Kantar, Mike Lawrence, Max Hardy, and others, are excellent teachers of advanced grammar.

The Syntax

The syntax is the set of rules organizing the language constituents into sentences.

In English, "to go around a horse" is an acceptable syntax, while "around a horse to go" is not.

In bridge, doubling an opponent's bid is an acceptable syntax, while doubling a partner's bid is not.

Learning the syntax of a language, whether English, Chinese, or any other language, is a must. Lack of knowledge of syntax is often considered to be the same as a lack of education; isn't that true?

The bridge syntax, just like the bridge vocabulary, is something novices learn right away.

The Gerard Principle

Yes, the bridge language is no exception. It has its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, and in order to play bridge one needs to know all of them.

Participants in the conversation must also follow a specific protocol. All cannot talk at the same time. Some people ask questions, and there are times for that. Others answer, and there are times for that. Some make statements, and there are times for that, too—and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a right time and a wrong time for everything.

As in any communication between people, people and machines, or machines and machines, there needs to be a protocol and, so far, no one has identified bridge's mysterious communication protocol. All great players, teachers, and super-experts use it every time they bid, but none has articulated it.

Call it what you want, the Gerard Principle or some other name, but it governs all bridge conversations. That is what this book is about.

Chapter Two

The Object of Conversations

Some people talk for no reason. They don't have anything specific to say, but they say it anyway. They hope to grab someone's attention and start a conversation. The reason is that they want to feel that they are "somebody." I'll leave it to psychologists to analyze their deep motivations. The bottom line is that, even for these people, there is a reason and a goal for trying to communicate.

There is always a goal for conversations, and that is to either inform or request information.

Bridge is no exception to the rule. For each team, the goal of the conversation between partners is to find an eight-card fit to play the contract in (or settle on a NT—short for No Trump—contract if no fit can be found) at a level that will bring the maximum number of scoring points possible. This is done by one player passing information to the other player, and the other player processing the information and making a determination of what to ask next or what to do next.

Both teams carry a conversation, and often enough each team tries to derail the other team's conversation. It is part of the competition process that takes place in the game. The proof that it is a competition is that, even in social games, after a board has been played, the score is kept. At the end of the game, there is a winner and a loser.

Both teams engage, one board at a time, in an intellectual confrontation, at the end of which one will have the pleasure of playing the contract and the other one the misfortune of having to defend it.

During the search for a contract to play, one team, usually the one with more points, is the offense; the other one is the defense. The team on the defensive will try to put a wrench into the spokes and prevent the team on the offensive from getting it right.

Without competition, and with hands that are fairly standard, a team formed of decent players can find the right contract. It's like driving in a straight line on a freeway with no other cars around. You press on the accelerator, and off you go. You make a few bids and find a contract. All you have to do now is make it.

But many times, the opponents won't let it happen so easily. They will interfere in the bidding. The road is not a straight line on a freeway anymore, but a racing track with many turns, chicanes, narrow passages, and all sorts of other traps. You know how to drive, but the other guys are good. That's when you really need an in-depth knowledge of how to use the tools.

Bridge is a mind game, but not between partners. It is a mind game between opposing teams. Whatever goes on between partners during the game is meant to benefit the team in the match, and the result depends very much on how well the communication has worked between the two of them.

The communication between partners needs to be precise and efficient in order for them to achieve good results.

Chapter Three

The Bridge Language Elements

In bridge, the vocabulary is limited to forty words altogether:

[TABLE OMITTED]

The words alert and skip are informative only. Alert is meant as a warning to the opposite team that a bid has a meaning other than the standard meaning, and skip announces an abnormal flow in the auction, caused by skipping levels.

The grammar is the protocol used to play the game, also called the rules of the game. One of the rules is that players bid by auction using exclusively the forty terms listed in the table above, each term in the list being either one bid or a warning.

The lowest bid in an auction is 1[flower] and the highest is 7NT RDbl.

I assume that if you are reading this work, you already have been playing bridge for a while and are familiar with most rules and particularly with the concept of bridge auctions.

People from different origins, backgrounds, and native languages can still play bridge together, provided they know the bridge vocabulary and follow the rules of the game.

What do all these words, like 1[flower], 2[heart], 4[speed], etc., mean?

By themselves, they do not mean anything. For each of them to be meaningful, you need to agree with your partner on the significance of it. Once this is done, for the duration of your agreement, the meaning will always be the same.

For example, you might decide that a 1[flower] opening bid will show 13-21 points with three or more clubs, deny any major by five cards with more than three clubs or fewer diamonds than clubs, or you might decide that 1[flower] opening bid means that you have 1[flower] or more points with any shape or again, you might decide that 1 has some other meaning.

As mentioned earlier, the bridge vocabulary is very limited in size, and each word has multiple meanings, depending on what other bids preceded it.

For example, in SAYC (StandardAmerican Yellow Card) system, 1NT may mean different things, depending on the context in which that bid is placed, as shown in Example 3-1 through Example 3-10.

As shown above, the word 1NT does not always mean the same thing. It is very dependant on the context in which it is used.

Notice that in the ten examples above, sometimes the word shows is used and sometimes the word implies is used. This is neither accidental nor arbitrary.

In a later chapter, there will be a full explanation of what the difference is, but for the time being, let's just state that shows stands for mandatory meaning while implies stands for less stringently defined meaning.

The word 1NT is only one word. Every word, from 1[flower] up to 7[speed], has several meanings depending on the context. Only 7NT has a single meaning, since it is the highest possible bid.

Even the words Pass, Dbl, and RDbl have several meanings, depending on where they are used in any given auction.

Gerard's Tidbit of the Night: Bridge History

The word bridge comes from the Russian "biritch," meaning announcer. Bridge players announce their contract bids. Harold Vanderbilt created the game in 1925, during a shipboard cruise, and Ely Culbertson released the first bridge treaty, called the Blue Book, which topped all book sales for the year 1931.

Chapter Four

Using Bridge Systems

It would literally take days, weeks, months, or maybe years to define the meanings of each and every bid whenever you got a new partner, and it would therefore be impossible to play.

I often play bridge on the Internet. If I had to define the meaning of every single bid before starting to play with a specific partner, my telephone bill would be astronomical. Luckily, others have done that already; the use of a preset of meanings is highly recommended. This is what a bidding system is: a preset of meanings for each and every bid, depending on its context within an auction.

Early bidding systems were very skimpy, and all bids had a natural meaning. If you opened with 2[flower], it showed a strong hand with a club suit, while 2[diamond] showed a strong hand with a diamond suit, etc.

With time, more sophisticated bidding systems appeared, incorporating more and more artificial bids and representing specific and recurring point counts and card distributions. The idea was, and still is, to have bidding systems that allow players to communicate the content of their hand with increased precision.

New bidding systems pop up each day, devised by highly competent bridge players throughout the world. Some of them become very famous, while others remain unknown to most. Some of the systems are more complex than others.

For ease of recognition, each one of these bidding systems is given a name, tentatively unique to that system. Among the most famous systems are Standard American and its yellow card variation (SAYC), Two over One Game Force (2/1GF), Precision, Blue Team Club, Acol, Roman Club, Albaran Method, and many more. More recently, Polish Club, Nightmare by Buratti and Lanzarotti, and others have appeared.

Why so many of them? It is because none of them has yet reached the state of perfection. They all have limitations, though their scope has improved, thanks to constant modifications. They may even get a new name or a modified name that encapsulates the new adjunctions, deletions, and modifications. Recently, I played Roman Club 1959 with a partner and got rimmed by him, because I used a modification that appeared in the 1961 version. It's much like trying to put a replacement part for a certain model car in another year of that model. It does not always work.

It is impossible to say which system is better. Each one of them has its merits and its downfalls. All have in common that they attempt to define the hand being held with the greatest precision possible. It seems obvious, to me at least, that the more complex the system, the greater the precision; but it is also more difficult to memorize the bidding procedure, and therefore, the chance is higher of making errors during auctions.

One thing is certain, however. No bidding system is perfect, because no bidding system can cover the seemingly infinite number of combinations of cards held by players around a bridge table.

Most people select their bidding system to conform to the bridge community around them. If only one system is used, they are kind of stuck playing that one system, but most often, two, three, or more systems are played, and the choice depends on other factors, like the amount of time they wish to spend on learning a system, how often they play, or how many other players they know who use it. On top of that, players need to make an honest assessment of their retention capabilities.

It is of no use for someone who only plays party bridge once a month with the neighbors and who only knows Goren's 5 Cards Major System (and partially at that), to learn the Italian Blue Team Club System.

(Continues...)

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