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A bridge (or bidding) convention is an agreement between two players on a different meaning of a bid in the card game bridge. These agreements are made so that partners can more quickly determine which contract, with both their cards, they can win together. Often, conventions are forged together into one, which is then called a bidding system.

An example of a convention is the 2♣ bid in response to partner's 1NT opening. The ‘natural’ meaning of this bid is that the bidder thinks he can get at least 8 tricks if clubs become the trump suit. The Stayman convention changes the meaning: now the bidder asks his partner if he is in possession of four hearts and/or spades.

Using conventions always has disadvantages in addition to advantages. The natural meaning of the conventional bid lapses and another solution must be found within the system. For example, when Stayman is used, it must be agreed what to do after 1NT with a weak hand with clubs. Furthermore, the pair involved must be aware of all their agreed conventions at all times, including the situations that almost never occur. Conventions should be alertered and explained when asked, with a forgotten alert or a wrong explanation being an offence.

 

The most important Bidding Conventions

 

 

Some conventions, such as the Stayman convention, are household names in the bridge world and are played all over the world. Other conventions are only used by few pairs.

 

Bridge Convention - List

A List of Bridge Conventions for Bidding (All You Could Ever Want).

Smolen who? Jacoby what? Scramble how? It seems that there are a million different sets of artificial bids and gadgets that different players love to use. Although many an expert player has told me that good bridge players don't need to play any given set of conventions, most have several favorites.

OK, onto the conventions. I have listed over 360 conventions and systems for your reference at present. I've organized the conventions into openings, responses, defenses and slam/game probes. Where appropriate, I've tried to place conventions in multiple sections (e.g., a preemptive bid also showing two suits would be in the Preempts and Two-Suited Hands sections).

  1. Openings: Conventional or Treatments
  2. Preempts, Overcalls, Preempt Responses, Two-Suited Hands
  3. Doubles, Redoubles, Cue Bids and Related Conventions
  4. 1 NT: Opening, Responses
  5. Two-Over-One
  6. Precision Club, Blue Club, Strong Club Conventions
  7. Defenses against Strong Club Openings
  8. Responses to Minor Suit Openings
  9. Responses to Major Suit Openings
  10. Preempts and Defenses to Openings
  11. Specific Defenses against Conventional Bids
  12. Slam and Game Probe Tools

Openings: Conventional or Treatments

Preempts, Overcalls, Preempt Responses, Two-Suited Hands

For the preempting side:

Constructive bidding after

Defenses against preempts:

Preempting after partner has opened:

Doubles, Redoubles, Cue Bids and Related Conventions

By the opening side

By the overcalling side

1 NT: Opening, Responses

The Opening NT Side:

Defenses against NT openings

Two-Over-One

Precision Club, Blue Club, Strong Club Conventions

Defenses against Strong Club Openings

Responses to Minor Suit Openings

Responses to Major Suit Openings

Structures for raising

Strong Raises:

Balanced hands:

Unbalanced hands:

Limit Raises/Responses

Preempts and Defenses to Openings

Specific Defenses against Conventional Bids

One-suited bids

Slam and Game Probe Tools

The tools:

without interference

with interference

All purpose tools

A bridge convention is an agreement on an artificial auction or a set of artificial auctions in bridge. The auctions convey information about the player's cards. Calls can be ‘natural’ (i.e. they are based on possession of the suit bid, or a balanced distribution in the case of a no-trump auction) or ‘artificial’ (showing a characteristic unrelated to the bid indicated).

Conventions assign more specific information to certain bids, particularly at the more advanced levels of competitive play. Bill Root defines a ‘convention’ as ‘a specific agreement between partners to give an unusual meaning to an auction’.

If you have any additional conventions or good examples of how to use a convention, please send them to me. Also, if you detect any mistakes in a description of a convention, please e-mail me immediately so that I can correct the error as quickly as possible. Thanks for any helpful comments or constructive criticism you may have.

Disclaimer:
I have used approximately 35 different sources to create this Web Page and have tried to cite sources wherever they have been substantially copied or paraphrased. If you find any source you believe needs to be cited for any particular convention, please e-mail me immediately. The goal of this page is as a reference source, and I would like all sources to be referenced fairly. Although copyright law only requires a brief citation, I'm more than happy to add reasonable supplemental info any source would like.

Source: unknown