A brief summary of the last nine posts

This is my final post. I have talked a lot about the bridge. After the nine posts of introducing the bridge, I think maybe you still confuse about what I am talking about, so today I am going to write a summary.

Playing bridge is a popular activity in the world, and many competitions are held every day. I have introduced the rules and the basic skills of the bridge. I also have taught you how to bid and play. Furthermore, I also introduced a website, bridge base online, and some useful apps where you can play bridge. If you want to improve your skills, my introduction is not enough, so you should go and find some books or ask someone playing bridge for a long time.

Playing bridge is like another exercise, it's also a kind of sports competition! It is a more static activity than any other sport, but it needs the most use of your brain. In other words, it can make you smarter than before. Because to play bridge well, you need good logic and a good sense of mathematics, especially the probability.

Let's play the bridge from now on!

Hope all of you will love and enjoy it after my ten posts of introduction!

The bidding system-SAYC

After introducing some skills of playing bridge, I want to talk about the bidding system. Bidding plays an important role in bridge, and good bidding system can let you find a good contract to make. Today, I will introduce a useful bidding system which can teach you how to bid.

It is called SAYC(Standard American Yellow Card), which is also called nature bidding system because it is very nature. This is the most common system in the world because it is very easy to understand and to learn. The idea in this system is very simple: just bid the suit you have. The more cards of the trump suit you have, the more easily you can make the contracts. However, sometimes we use "alert(特約)" to present some different meanings. It means the bid doesn't present that you have the suit. For instance, in SAYC, if you open(開叫) 2 club doesn't mean you have many clubs, but means you have more than 22 HCPs.

What is HCP? The most valuable card is A, and then K, Q, J, so we determine your cards' value by counting HCP, high card points. A is four points; K is three points; Q is two points, and J is one point. The more HCP you have, the more valuable your cards are.

Here are two links. One is talking about the details of SAYC. The other is a video talking about how and why to learn SAYC.

https://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/sayc.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYHMw01vi8Q

How to play bridge?(3)

After learning the different way to play the trump and no-trump contract, I want to talk about more advanced skills. Last time, we have learned how to count the winners and make a contract.

Counting the winners you have can help you to know more about the situation of the game. However, in some contracts, perhaps you don't have enough winners to win the game. Therefore, we should learn some skills to win more tricks as possible.

Now, here are two skills which are easy to learn.

In this picture, I want to talk about "finesse"(飛牌). In this case, you only have one winner. However, if you play a small card from South, and then you can win one more trick. Because if the West plays the K, you can use A to eat the K, and then the Q and J become the winners. If the West plays small card, you can play the Q and win one more trick.

 

In the picture below, there are three winners in the North. If you cash the A, K, and Q, and the distribution is 3-2 or 2-3, you can win three more tricks(4,3,2) because the defenders don't have spade anymore.

How to play bridge?(2)

Now, we all know that the contracts can be divided into two categories, trump and no-trump. Last time, I was talking about the no-trump contract. Today, I want to introduce how to play the "trump contract".

Take this game for example. If you are sitting at South, and you are playing 7S. How to play?

The first step is counting how many tricks you can win. However, the trump contracts are more complicated than no-trump contracts. The most important reason is that there is one special skill in the trump contract, which is called "ruff(王吃)". Because the trumps are the biggest cards in the game, you can win the tricks by using trumps to "ruff" the other suits. The only requirement is that when you ruff the trick, you should not have the suit in your hand.

Look at this picture. How many tricks you can win directly? Eleven. You can win 6 spades, 3 hearts, 1 diamond, and 1 club. However, if you use the trumps to ruff the small diamonds in your hand, you can win 2 more tricks, then you can make 7S.

How to play bridge?(1)

After introducing a lot of things, I eventually want to talk about how to play bridge.

I should say again, bridge is a "trick-taking" game, so taking the tricks is the most important thing.

Let's learn how to play.

First, the contracts can be divided into two categories, trump and no-trump. The different is that if there is a trump contract, then the suit of trump are dominant in this game. If it is a no-trump contract, then the card led by the player determine the dominant suit in that trick. Today, I want to talk about how to win the tricks and play no-trump contracts.

Take this game for example. If you are sitting at South, and you are playing 5NT. How to play?

In fact, playing bridge is very very easy. The first step is counting how many tricks you can win.

In the no-trump contract, ace is a "winner", which means that ace can let you win a trick. And if you have ace, then K is a winner, too. If you have A and K, Q is a winner. However, it doesn't mean that if you have 8 top cards(AKQJT987), you can win 8 tricks. Why?

Look at the picture. How many tricks you can win in the spade? Five. You only have five spades in hand, and three on table, so you can only win 5 tricks. Now, count how many tricks can you
win in total? Can you make the contract?

ANS: 11,YES!

The useful bridge apps

I have introduce the website "bridge base online" before. Today, I would like to introduce some apps to you. These apps are all FREE. If you want to improve your skill, it is a good way for you to using these apps. You can play bridge on your smartphones everywhere.

The app I like most is "WeWeWeb". Just download it on "Google Play App Store". In this app, it can teach you many things about bridge. I will do a brief introduction, and you can explore other functions of it on your own.

(It is the first one in the left picture.)

First, you can choose online or offline game. If you want to play online, you should register first. If you just want to play on your own, click the single game and then you can play with computers.

Choose what you want to bid, and you can learn the easiest bidding system by click the "bid analysis". It is called "SAYC", standard America yellow card. The system teach you how to let your partner know your cards through the bidding.

Although its artificial intelligence is not well-developed, it is also a helpful app which can help you.

Finally, I would like to tell you that there is also an app version for "bbo". It is similar to the website version, and most of the functions are the same. You can also search it on Google Play App Store.

Brief History and International Tournament of Contract Bridge

Nowadays many people in the world play the bridge, but maybe you just take it as a kind of entertainment. Today, I would like to introduce brief history of the bridge and tell you bridge is not just a leisure activity.

The first record of some rules which are similar to contract bridge rules was in 1886. After these rules were established, the game gradually became popular among the American and British. In 1925, an American, Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, modified the old rules and created new rules. After that, a lot of people learned it and the contract bridge became popular in a few years. Now, almost all the rules of contract bridge is set out in 1925.

Many athletes compete in sports, including the bridge players. Bridge is like a kind of sports, and many players compete in the international tournaments. The biggest and the most famous tournament is called Bermuda Bowl. In many bridge players' eyes, bridge to the Bermuda Bowl is like soccer to the World Cup. It hold every two years in the different cities in the world. The first time is held in Bermuda, so we call it "Bermuda Bowl".

By the way, you can watch the Bermuda Bowl Broadcast on BBO. Click "watch bridge" and then click "broadcast", and you can watch it immediately even if you are not in the field. Just enjoy it and have fun!