Bidding
| Rank | A | K | Q | J | 2–10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Each player adds all high-card points in their hand and announces the result. The partnership with more combined high-card points then plays the hand. If both partnerships have the same number of high-card points (i.e., 20 each), the hand is redealt. Of this partnership, the partner with more high-card points becomes the declarer.
The partner with fewer high-card points becomes the dummy: this player's hand is put face up on the table, and is played by declarer in addition to declarer's own hand. If both partners have the same number of high-card points, the one who states his high-card point count first is the declarer.
| Denomination | Partscore | Game |
|---|---|---|
| No trumps | 7 | 9 |
| Major suit (♥ or ♠) | 7 | 10 |
| Minor suit (♣ or ♦) | 7 | 11 |
Having consulted dummy's hand, declarer decides the denomination (i.e., the trump suit, if any), and whether to be in game or a partscore. For partscore, declarer needs to win 7 tricks in order to score. For game, 9–11 tricks are necessary, depending on the denomination.
Declarer's decision is often based on a few simple guidelines:
- Two balanced hands usually require about 25 high-card points to score a game bonus.
- With eight cards (or more) in either Major suit (a "Golden Fit"), that suit should usually be the trump suit.
- Without a "Golden Fit" in a Major suit, play notrump.
Read more about this topic: Minibridge
Famous quotes containing the word bidding:
“A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Go; and if that word have not quite killed thee,
Ease me with death by bidding me got too.
Oh, if it have, let my word work on me,
And a just office on a murderer do.
Except it be too late to kill me so,
Being double dead: going, and bidding go.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home, coöperate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)