Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms - U

U

Unauthorized information

Information obtained from partner that one is not permitted to act on: for example, the manner in which partner plays a particular card, or the tone of voice when making a bid.

Unbalanced distribution

1) Broadly, any distribution of a hand or suit other than 4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2 or 5-3-3-2.

2) Unbalanced is commonly used in a narrow sense that excludes semi-balanced, 5-4-2-2 and 6-3-2-2. Narrowly, unbalanced distribution implies a void, singleton, or 7-card suit.

Unbalanced hand

A 13-card hand with unbalanced distribution in the broad or narrow sense just above.

Unbid suit

A suit that has neither been bid nor indirectly shown.

Unblock

To play a card whose rank interferes with the use of cards in the opposite hand. Opposite dummy's KQJ, declarer's singleton ace blocks the suit, and so is played to unblock. There are other situations that require unblocking, such as the Vienna coup.

Under

See In front of.

Underbid

1) (Verb) To bid less aggressively, or to a lower contract, than most would with the same cards.

2) (Noun) A bid that most would regard as weaker than warranted by the strength of the hand.

Underlead

To lead a low card when holding the top card or cards in a suit. The underlead is standard in defense of notrump contracts (so as to preserve communications between defenders' hands), but unusual against suit contracts.

Underruff

To play a trump lower than one already played on the lead of a plain suit. Usually this is undesirable but is sometimes necessary to adjust the number of trumps held while preparing a trump coup, or while preparing to defend certain squeezed positions.

Undertrick

A trick that declarer does not win, causing the contract to go down. Multiple undertricks occur: for example, two undertricks could result in 4♥ down two.

Unfinished rubber

A rubber that the players agree not to finish. In rubber bridge scoring, a 300 point bonus is given to a vulnerable side, and a 100 point bonus to a side with a part score - note this differs from the 50 points for a part score in duplicate bridge.

Unguard

To discard lower cards that help prevent a higher card from being captured by an opponent.

Unlimited bid

See wide-ranging bid.

UPH

Unpassed hand.

Unplayable

1) (Of a contract) Unable to be played so as to bring about a favorable outcome.

2) (Of an agreement) Inevitably bringing about undesirable bidding sequences or contracts.

Unusual notrump

An artificial jump overcall in notrump that shows a Two-suiter, usually bid to suggest a sacrifice. As originally played, 1M - (2NT) showed a hand weak in high cards with, probably, 5-5 in the minor suits.

Unusual over unusual

A conventional method of conveying information after the opponents have deployed the unusual notrump convention or a Michaels Cue Bid, also called Unusual vs. Unusual.

UOU

Acronym for Unusual over unusual

Up the line

To bid the lower of two adjacent suits before the higher. For example, of two four card majors, the heart suit is normally bid before the spade suit in response to an opening bid of 1♣ or 1♦.

Uppercut

To ruff in the expectation of being overruffed, when the overruff will cause a trump in partner's hand to become a winner.

Upside-down signals

An agreement that when following suit to partner's lead, a low card encourages a continuation and a high card discourages. This is "upside-down", or the reverse of traditional practice.

Useful space principle

A guide to developing bidding conventions and treatments that directs developers' attention to the allocation of bidding space.