Courses

  • 14 Lessons

    001-014: Beginners – Evaluating your Hand

    In this course you will learn  how to value your hand in order to bid effectively, the difference between bridge and other card games, the rank of the bids, where you get your points from, trumps or NoTrumps, terminology and tricks you will play a game after each lesson as well as having a short progress quiz at the end of each lesson.
  • 5 Lessons

    015-019: Absolute Beginners – Play and Learn

    A brief overview of our lesson features and an introduction to Bridge. At the end of this course you'll play your first Bridge game. Lessons 015-019
  • 16 Lessons

    300: Learn Card Play – Declarer

    Before starting to play “Wait.” As soon as the opening lead has been made, it is time to stop and think, to count winners and losers, to review the opposition bidding (or lack of it) and to draw conclusions, to search for where the missing tricks might come from and, of course, to decide what principles to apply. Plan your line of play. Do not touch a single card in dummy, even if it is a singleton, before planning the play.

  • 36 Lessons

    400: Bidding for The Defense

    When you are on defense there are several ways (called systems) you can communicate with your partner. Of course you can only communicate using the cards you put down, your partner needs to watch carefully and try to watch for your signals. These lessons cover a few of the more commonly used systems and are intended as general guides for players and are not intended to be rigid failsafe rules.
  • 15 Lessons

    500: Learn Bidding – Conventions

    Some of the more common conventions used in Bridge and what they mean. Bids may be "natural" meaning they are based on a holding of the suit bid, or a balanced distribution in the case of a notrump bid or "artificial" where the bid shows a feature unrelated to the suit that has been bid.

  • 20 Lessons

    600: Card Play for the Defense

    When you are on defense there are several ways, called systems you can use to communicate with your partner. Of course you can only communicate…

The Acol Bidding System

*If you live in the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand Acol is the most widespread system Acol has the following characteristics:
  • It is a natural system: most opening bids, responses and rebids are made with at least 4 cards in the suit bid, and most no trump bids are made with balanced hands.
  • It is a four-card major system: only four-card suits are required to open 1 or 1, unlike Standard American and many other systems where five-card suits are typically required.
  • It makes extensive use of limit bids: limit bids describe the hand so closely, in terms of high card points (HCP) and shape, that the one who makes the limit bid is expected to pass on the next round, unless partner makes a forcing bid.
  • Understanding and correct use of limit bids and forcing bids is fundamental to applying the system: all no trump bids below the level of 4NT are limit bids, as are all suit bids that merely repeat a suit already bid by the partnership; changes of suit may be forcing or not depending on the approach bids.
  • The level of the 1NT opening bid influences other bids: the normal choice is between a “weak no trump” (12–14 HCP) and a “strong no trump” (15–17 HCP).
  • All 1 of a suit opening bids then promise at least 4 cards in the bid suit
  • Notrump follow-up conventions include Stayman, Jacoby transfers Blackwood and Gerber Convention.