Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms

MacGuffin: A defensive card that, if retained, is a liability on one line of play, but that, if played, will be missed on another line of play.

Major penalty card: A card that is exposed by a defender prematurely and through intentional play; or, an honor card that is exposed prematurely even if accidentally. A major penalty card remains face up on the table to be played at the first legal opportunity, including as a discard. Compare with minor penalty card.

Major suit: The heart suit and the spade suit are major suits. Declarer scores 30 points for each trick taken in an undoubled contract with a major suit as trump. Because game requires at least 100 points for tricks bid and made, both 4♥ and 4♠ (or 2♥ doubled and 2♠ doubled) constitute game contracts. Compare with minor suits.

Major tenace: The highest and the third highest remaining cards in a suit, held in the same hand. For example, the ♠AQ before spades have been played. Tenaces define the structure of finesses. See minor tenace.

Make: (Verb) To take at least as many tricks as a contract calls for. Frequently used in the past tense of the verb, i.e. Made.

Mama-papa: (Adjective) An unsophisticated game, approach to bidding, or line of play.

Marionette Bid: (Noun) A type of relay bid in which the cheapest response is expected nearly all the time, thus similar but not identical to a puppet bid. Name derives from "a puppet with strings."

Marked: To be known to hold a particular card: "He was marked with the ♥Q."

Marked finesse: A finesse for a card that is marked with a particular opponent.

Masterpoints: Units awarded for successful performance in a bridge tournament.

Match: A series of hands played by two teams in knockout events. One pair from each team sits North-South at one table and the other pair sits East-West at the other table.

Matchpoints: A type of scoring in duplicate bridge. A pair's score on a given board is one matchpoint for every pair they outscored and one-half matchpoint for every pair they tied. (Outside the US these awards are often doubled, so as to avoid the award of fractional matchpoints.) See comparative scoring.

Matrix: The layout of the cards that play pivotal roles in certain endplays, most typically squeezes.

Maxims of bridge: A brief expression of a general principle - most have some validity but none are true in all circumstances.

Maximal overcall double: By prior agreement, a game-invitational double of an overcall that leaves no room for a bid, when a bid would invite game. For example, after 1♠ - (2♥) - 2♠ - (3♥) there is no room below 3♠ for a game invitation (and a bid of 3♠ itself would be taken as merely competitive), so a double is used as a game invitation.

Menace: A card that requires an opponent to retain a higher card in the same suit, as a guard. The term is typically used of squeeze play.

Merrimac coup: The deliberate sacrifice of a high card to remove a vital entry to an opponent’s hand, usually the dummy. Named for a ship sunk during the Spanish-American War, to block the entrance to a harbor. Sometimes confused with, and spelled as, the Merrimack, the American Civil War ship that fought the Monitor. See Deschapelles coup.

Michaels cue bid: By prior agreement, an immediate cue bid of an opening bid, such as 1♦ - (2♦), for two-suited takeout. The cue bid of a minor suit shows length in both major suits. The cue bid of a major suit shows length in the other major suit and in an unspecified minor suit.

MiniBridge: A simplified form of contract bridge designed to expose newcomers to declarer and defensive playing techniques without the burden of learning a detailed bridge bidding system.

Minor penalty card: A card below the rank of an honor card that is exposed by a defender prematurely but accidentally, via mishap. A minor penalty card remains face up on the table until played. The minor penalty card must be played before any other card below honor rank in the same suit; however, an honor in the same suit may be played before the minor penalty card is played. Compare with major penalty card.

Minor suit: The club suit and the diamond suit are minor suits. Declarer scores 20 points for each trick taken in an undoubled contract with a minor suit as trump. Because game requires at least 100 points for tricks bid and made, both 5♣ and 5♦ (or 3♣ doubled and 3♦ doubled) constitute game contracts. Compare with major suits.

Minor tenace: The second-highest and the fourth-highest (or lower) remaining cards in a suit, held in the same hand. For example, the ♠KJ before spades have been played. See major tenace.

Mirror: Identical hand distributions: "North and South had mirror distributions."

Misbid: A bid that fails to describe the hand properly. Often a misdescription of a hand's shape, as distinct from an overbid or underbid.

Misfit: Two partnership hands, neither of which can support the other's long suit. For example, a red Two-suiter opposite a black Two-suiter constitutes a misfit.

Mitchell movement: A pairs tournament movement in which the pairs sitting in one direction (usually North-South) stay in the same seats throughout, but after each round the pairs sitting in the other direction (usually East-West) move to the next higher numbered table, and the boards are moved to the next lower numbered table. Unless an arrow switch is performed, the effect is to create two events, a "North-South" contest and an "East-West" contest, with separate winners.

Mixed: 1) Of an event: contested by pairs or teams in which every pair comprises one male and one female player.; 2) In the auction: A mixed raise is, by agreement, a jump cue bid of opener's suit in support of partner's overcall. It tends to show four card support for partner's suit and the strength of a good single raise. In 1♦ - (1♥) - 1♠ - (3♦), 3♦ is a mixed raise.

Morton's fork coup: A play that forces the defense to choose between taking a high card that will establish extra winners for declarer, and ducking the trick, after which the high card cannot be cashed.

Movement: In a tournament, the scheme for the progression of players and boards from table to table, arranged so that a pair does not play the same boards twice, or meet the same opponents twice etc. The most common movements for pairs tournaments are Howell and Mitchell.

Moysian fit: A 4-3 trump fit. Named after Alphonse "Sonny" Moyse Jr., long-time editor of The Bridge World, who wrote and published a variety of articles that promoted the virtues of such fits, and bidding styles designed to locate them.

MUD: An acronym of "Middle, Up, Down", describing a style of opening lead from 3 low cards.

Multi: An ambiguous opening bid of 2♦ that promises one of several different types of hand.

Glossary of Contract Bridge Terms - M