Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms - C

C

Caddy

A non-playing person designated to move boards between tables during a tournament, collect score slips, etc.

Calcutta

1) See Cross-IMP scoring

2) A tournament in which bettors bid on participating pairs or teams. The proceeds from the auction are distributed partly as prizes to the top finishers, partly to the bettors who successfully bid on them. A pair or team can typically buy an interest in itself.

Call

Any bid, pass, double, or redouble in the bidding stage.

Canapé

An approach to bidding in which a player bids his shorter suit prior to his longer suit. A feature of the Blue Team Club and the Roman Club.

Captain

1) In teams competition one person, called captain in the rules, must represent a team in stipulated official settings and to make stipulated official decisions for a team. A playing captain (pc) is eligible to participate as a player at the table; a non-playing captain (npc) may not. World championship teams are limited to six players, thus to six or seven members depending on the kind of captain. Other team officials such as a coach are not team members and not covered in the rules of bridge.

2) The partner who makes the decision for a partnership in certain bidding situations, such as ace-asking sequences.

Card reading

The act of determining the distribution of cards in unseen hands, and the location of high cards therein, by analyzing the bidding, play and other clues.

Carding

The defensive signaling used by a partnership.

Carryover

In a complex event, some participants begin a later stage with scores that depend on performance in an earlier stage. Simple accumulation of scores from stage to stage is full carryover but the term is commonly used only when carryover is less than full.

Some team events have a later knockout stage with carryover equal to some fraction of any margin of victory from an early-stage match between the same teams.

Many tournaments for teams, pairs, or individuals have stages that progressively reduce the field, such as by cutting the bottom half at the end of each day. Sometimes the qualifiers continue with a fraction of their qualifying margins as carryover, which effectively gives weight less than one to points scored in the earlier, larger, lower-quality field. Sometimes there is no carryover; comfortable and borderline qualification are equivalent in the next stage.

Cash

To take a trick with a card that is currently the highest in the suit, thought likely to succeed, or to take all available winners in a suit.

Cavendish variation

A version of Chicago, with dealer's side not vulnerable on the second and third hands, as in the standard version.

CBF

Canadian Bridge Federation.

Change of suit

A bid in a new suit, as 1♠ in the sequence 1♦ - 1♥; 1♠.

Chicago

A variant of rubber bridge in which a rubber consists of four deals with vulnerability predetermined for each deal.

Chicane

A hand without any trumps.

CHO

Centre-hand opponent (slang), a derogatory or facetious term for one's partner, or partners generally. Compare LHO and RHO, left- and right-hand opponents.

Chunky

A suit with enough honor strength to play well unaided by partner's cards (but not solid) is chunky. Normally said of four-card suits. AQJ10 is a chunky suit; AQ96 is not chunky.

Claim

A statement by declarer about how the remaining unplayed tricks will be won or lost. Normally the claiming player exposes his hand and describes the sequence of play for the remaining tricks (but such plays as finesses, unless already proven, are disallowed). A claim is best made only when the play of the rest of the hand is obvious. Claims are often inadvisable: apart from the possibility of a mistaken analysis, it can take longer to explain the line of play than to play it. See also concession.

Clear a suit

Knock out an opponent's high-card control of a suit, or unblock one's own high cards.

Closed hand

Declarer's hand (as distinct from the dummy, which is faced or open).

Closed room

In a team match, a room where two of the pairs compete, and in which spectators are not allowed.

Coffeehousing

Making improper remarks to mislead the opponents, or asking improper questions designed to suggest a defensive play.

Cold

A contract that a player cannot fail to make, even against the best defense, is cold.

Combination

1) See suit combination.

2) finesse: See double finesse in finesse.

Combination play

A line of play that offers more than one chance to take additional tricks: for example, playing to drop an honor in a longer suit and then finessing for an honor in a shorter suit.

Come-on

A defensive signal that encourages partner to continue a suit, usually by means of the rank of the card used to follow suit.

Comic notrump

A notrump overcall that shows a weak hand with a long suit, to which the overcaller can escape if doubled. Also known as Gardener 1NT.

Communication

1) The placement of the lead in one or the other of the two partnership hands, so as to make a subsequent lead from the more advantageous hand, specifically the ability to place the lead in such hand.

2) The means of conveying a message to partner via the bidding and by the card played to a trick. The only legal means of communication is through the calls and plays themselves, rather than through mannerisms such as tone of voice and hesitations. Often generalized as communications in both senses.

Comparative scoring

The method of scoring used in matchpoint or Board-a-Match events. The metric used is not the number of points earned on a particular deal, as it is when using quantitative scoring, but the number of pairs that have been out-scored.

Competitive auction

A bidding sequence which involves both partnerships. Also, competitive bidding.

Concession

A statement by a player as to the number of remaining tricks that he must lose. See also claim.

Condone

To act after an opponent's irregularity without arranging for the penalty specified in the Laws to be applied.

Congratulatory jack

The unnecessary play (by follow-suit or by discard) of a jack following partner's exceptionally successful action. More often used by the defense, but possible as a play from dummy.

Constructive

1) Bidding that is aimed at reaching a side's optimum contract, as distinct from calls intended to interfere with the opponents' bidding.

2) Constructive raise: by partnership agreement, a single raise of a major suit opening that shows more strength than usual.

Contract

1) The statement of the pair who has won the bidding, that they will take at least the given number of tricks. The contract consists of two components: the level, stating the number of tricks to be taken (in addition to the book tricks), and the denomination, denoting the trump suit (or its absence in a notrump bid). The last bid in the bidding phase denotes the final contract.

2) Short for Contract bridge in contrast to Auction bridge (auction) and other card games in the family.

Control

1) A feature of a hand which prevents the defenders from taking sufficient immediate tricks in a specific suit so as to set the contract or make the setting of the contract unavoidable. Aces are termed "first-round" controls and kings are termed "second-round" controls. In trump contracts, voids are also considered first-round controls and singletons second-round controls. See also stopper.

2) (Said of trump contracts) Declarer's ability to manage the trump suit successfully. To lose control usually means being forced to shorten one's trumps so much that the opponents can subsequently control the play of the hand. See Forcing defense.

Control-bid

A bid that shows control of a particular suit. Often a cue bid, but not all cue bids are control-bids.

Convenient club

See Short club.

Convention

1) An agreement between partners on an artificial meaning of a call or sequence of calls, which is not necessarily related to the length and strength of bid suits or of willingness to play in notrump. Many bidding conventions are artificial; see, for example, Slam-seeking conventions.

2) An agreement that a particular defensive play has a special meaning.

Compare with Treatment.

Convention card

A form filled out by a partnership that shows the bidding and play conventions they are using. Normally used during tournaments.

Convert

To change the effect of a call. For example, passing partner's overcall of 2♦ when playing Michaels cue bids converts the overcall from a request to bid a major suit to a contract of 2♦. There are many other applications: for example, to pass partner's takeout double is to convert it to a penalty double.

Correct

In the bidding, to choose (usually) partner's first bid suit; in that case, a correction is equivalent to a preference.

COS

Acronym for Choice of Slams. An artificial or natural bid made to ask partner to select a strain from several choices where the slam might be played.

Count

1) (Noun) The number of cards held in a suit or suits, usually said of an opponent's hand.

2) (Verb) To determine, by inference or by follow-suit, the number of cards held in a suit by an opponent.

3) (Noun) In squeeze play, the number of tricks that declarer must lose before the squeeze can function.

Count signal

A defensive card play that shows whether the player has an even or odd number of cards in a suit.

Coup

1) Any extremely skillful play.

2) Any of several specific play techniques, such as the Scissors coup, Trump coup or Devil's coup.

Coup en passant

The lead of a side suit through an opponent who holds a higher trump so as to score a lower trump in the third hand.

Coup without a name

See Scissors coup. "Coup without a name" is an earlier term for the coup, conferred by Ely Culbertson.

Cover card

A card (honor or extra trump) which is known to compensate one of partner's losers; for example, a king in trumps covers partner's trump loser.

Crack

(Slang) To make a penalty double.

CRASH

1. An acronym for Color, RAnk and SHape, a convention used to show a 2-suited hand, as an overcall of opponents' strong 1 ♣ or 2♣ opening. The two suits share the same color (red or black), rank (majors or minors) or shape (rounded or pointed). The type of pairing is shown by the number of steps above the opening bid that are taken up by the overcall.

2. The play of two winners by a pair on a single trick: for example, the ace and king of trumps. This usually involves a declarer's use of a deceptive play to cause a defender to follow suit with one high card (for example, the K from Kx) when the other defender holds the singleton ace.

Crocodile coup

On defense, second hand's play of a higher card than apparently necessary, so as to obtain the lead. The play is intended to prevent fourth hand from being forced into the lead to make a return favorable to declarer. The name suggests a crocodile opening its maw to swallow up partner's winning card.

Cross

To enter the opposite hand. Normally used of dummy or declarer's hand: "He crossed to dummy in diamonds."

Crossruff

A playing technique in trump contracts, where extra tricks are gained by ruffing in both hands alternately.

Cross-IMP scoring

A form of IMP scoring in pairs tournaments, where each pair's score is determined as an (averaged) sum of differences to all other scores (rather than to a single datum score). Also known as X-Imps or Calcutta.

Cuebid (also, cue bid or cue-bid)

1) A bid of the opponents' suit in a competitive auction. Usually a conventional, forcing bid that shows strength or an unusual hand, or a particular distribution.

2) A bid that shows a control in a suit (usually with an ace or king, sometimes with a void), but does not indicate length or strength in the suit otherwise. See control bid. Partnership agreements indicate when in an uncontested auction a bid is considered a cue bid. Usually used in exploring for a slam contract (see Bridge conventions (slam seeking)), or for showing stoppers needed for a notrump game.

Culbertson system

The earliest dominant bidding system, developed by Ely and Josephine Culbertson. Its principal features were an approach-forcing bidding style, four-card majors, strong two-bids and the use of an honor trick table to evaluate hand strength.

The curse of Scotland

The ♦9. The origin of the term is not known with certainty.

Cutthroat bridge

A form of three-handed bridge.