A full listing of the sections in the Acol Bidding Notes [...] Read more

Playing Tricks & Quick Tricks, Trial Bids, Opening Leads [...] Read more

When the opponents have already opened the bidding, your bidding strategy is different to that in an uncontested auction. You are not necessarily expecting to win the contract, but by entering a competitive auction you may disrupt the opponents’ bidding space and force them up to a higher level than they would wish. It can Read more

A convention is an artificial bid or series of bids carrying a meaning other than the apparent natural one. 4.1 The Stayman Convention After an opening bid of 1NT a bid of 2C is asking opener to show any 4 card Major suits with a view to finding a fit in one of the Majors. Read more

Distributional Hands are those with at least 9 cards between the two longest suits. Some of the bids described in this section are also applicable to Balanced Hands – often it is not until the opener’s second bid that it becomes clear whether a hand is Balanced or Distributional. 3.1 Opening Bids of 1 of Read more

Balanced Hands are those with no more than 8 cards between the two longest suits. Some of the bids described in this section are also applicable to Distributional Hands – usually it is not until the opener’s second bid that it becomes clear whether a hand is Balanced or Distributional. You will notice recurring themes Read more