Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms - A

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Above the line

In rubber bridge, the location on the scorepad above the main horizontal line where extra points are entered; extra points are those awarded for holding honor cards in trumps, for bonuses for scoring game, small slam, grand slam or winning a rubber, for overtricks on the declaring side and for undertricks on the defending side and for fulfilling doubled or redoubled contracts. Points awarded for contract odd tricks bid and made are entered below the line. See Bridge scoring.

ACBL

American Contract Bridge League

Acol

An approach-forcing, natural bidding system, based on a weak NT and 4 card majors, popular in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Active

1) An approach to defending a hand that emphasizes quickly setting up winners and taking tricks. Contrast passive.

2) An approach to competitive bidding that emphasizes frequent interference with opponents' bidding sequences.

Adjusted score

In duplicate bridge, a score that penalizes a pair or team that has committed an irregularity, and/or compensates a pair or team that has been damaged by an irregularity. The penalty and the compensation need not be commensurate.

Advance cue bid

The cue bid of a first round control that occurs before a partnership has agreed on a strain.

Advance sacrifice

A sacrifice bid made before the opponents have had an opportunity to determine their optimum contract. For example: 1♦ - (1♠) - Dbl - (5♠).

Advancer

Overcaller's partner, especially one who bids following the overcall.

Adverse vulnerability

Vulnerable vs. non-vulnerable. Also called "unfavorable vulnerability."

Aggregate scoring

Deciding the outcome of a contest by totaling the raw points gained or lost on each deal. Also called "total point scoring."

Agree

For a partnership to come to a decision, explicitly, conventionally or by implication, on the denomination in which to play a hand.

Agreement

An understanding between partners as to the meaning of a particular call or defensive play. There are two types of call agreements: (1) when the call is natural, the agreement is said to be a treatment, and (2) when the call is artificial, the agreement is said to be a convention.

Air, on

To win a trick with a high card while capturing only small cards - normally said of a defensive play. In the example at right, when South leads the ♥8, West must take the ♥A on air, or risk making no heart tricks. Nevertheless, best defense on a given hand may call either for ducking the winner or for playing it on air.

Alcatraz coup

Declarer's intentional and unethical attempt to locate a finessable card by revoking. If the play is unintentional, it is nevertheless subject to score adjustment.

Alert

A method of informing the opponents that partner's bid carries a meaning that they might not expect; alerts are regulated by sponsoring organizations such as the ACBL and the EBU, and by individual clubs or organisers of events. Any method of alerting may be authorised including saying "Alert", displaying an Alert card from a bidding box or 'knocking' on the table.

Announcement

An explanatory statement made by the partner of the player who has just made a call that is based on a partnership understanding. The purpose of an announcement is similar to that of an Alert. It is made following calls whose meanings are not unusual, but which different partnerships treat differently. In the ACBL, common announcements include "Transfer" for a direct transfer bid, the point range for an opening bid of one notrump, and "Forcing" or "Semi-forcing" for a 1NT response to a major suit opening bid. The sponsoring organization specifies which calls should be announced.

Antipositional

A call is antipositional if it tends to make the "wrong" partner the declarer. If West opens the bidding, it may be best for South to declare a North-South contract, so that West will have to play from his high cards on opening lead. This positioning may protect South's tenaces. In that case, a call that will make North declarer is antipositional. See wrongside.

Appeal

In tournaments, to appeal is to request that a committee review a ruling made by a director.

Approach-forcing

A principle, first used in the Culbertson system, that has survived in modern bidding. The original idea was to abandon the indiscriminate notrump bids that characterized auction bridge in favor of a slower exchange of information via suit bidding.

Arrow

A marker, usually a large card with an arrow on it, that shows which direction is treated as North at a table in a duplicate event.

Arrow switch

The action of changing the North direction during an event, typically for the last round of a Mitchell movement, so that the pairs who were North-South become East-West and vice versa. This allows a single winning pair to be determined.

Artificial

1) A call that is not natural which by agreement carries a coded meaning not necessarily related to the call's (or to the prior call's) denomination.

2) A bidding system that contains many such calls.

Asking bid

A bid that, by prior agreement, requests information about a feature of partner's hand: for example, number of controls, suit length, or control of a particular suit.

Attacking lead

A lead that instigates an active defense; often, the lead of an honor from a sequence, or a forcing defense.

Attitude

A defender's desire, or lack thereof, for his side to continue playing a suit. By means of signals, defender encourages or discourages the continuation of the suit.

Auction

1) See bidding.

2) Auction bridge, an older form of bridge, replaced by Contract bridge.

Autobridge

A mechanical game device consisting of a set of printed deal sheets and a viewing template used to learn bridge by oneself. (see image).

Automatic squeeze

A squeeze position that succeeds against either opponent. Contrast with positional squeeze.

Average

1) In matchpoint scoring, one-half the matchpoints available on a given deal.

2) An average score is sometimes awarded to both pairs when for some reason they cannot complete the board. If neither pair is at fault or both pairs are at fault, the director may decide to award average to each side. Law 12.C.2 of the Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge states that if one pair is at fault, it receives an average-minus (at most, 40% of the available matchpoints on the board). A pair not at all at fault receives average-plus: 60% of the available matchpoints on the board, or, if greater, the average of the matchpoints the pair earned on other boards played during the session. The assigned scores need not sum to the total available matchpoints.

3) Also see IMP pairs, where "average" refers to the datum used in scoring.

Avoidance play

A play designed to keep a particular defender off lead, often to prevent the lead of a suit through a tenace position in either declarer's hand or dummy.