Nickel Bridge › Glossary

The Glossary

A plain-language glossary of 127 contract bridge terms — bidding, card play, defense, scoring and SAYC conventions — each with an example.

• 1NT opening — In SAYC, an opening bid showing a balanced hand with 15–17 HCP. The most descriptive single bid in the system.
• Advancer — The partner of the player who overcalled or doubled.
• Attitude signal — A signal telling partner whether you want the suit continued: standard is high = encourage, low = discourage.
• Auction — The first phase of every deal, where players take turns making calls to decide the final contract.
• Average — Half the available matchpoints on a board — the 50% midpoint every result is measured against.
• Balanced hand — A hand with no void, no singleton, and at most one doubleton (4–3–3–3, 4–4–3–2, or 5–3–3–2). The natural home of notrump bids.
• Balancing — Bidding in the passout seat to keep the auction alive when the opponents are about to buy it cheaply.
• Bid — A call naming a level and a strain, offering to win that many tricks (plus the book of six) with that strain as trumps.
• Bidding system — A partnership’s complete set of agreements about what its calls mean.
• Blackwood — A 4NT bid asking partner how many aces they hold, used to check that a slam isn’t missing two aces.
• Blocked suit — A suit whose high cards in the short hand trap the lead there, so the long hand’s winners can’t be reached.
• Board — One deal as played and scored — in the app, one of the four identical deals every player in a tournament faces.
• Book — The first six tricks, always assumed and never counted in the bidding. A 1-level contract therefore promises seven tricks.
• Bottom — The worst result on a board — zero matchpoints. In matchpoints, minimizing bottoms matters as much as scoring tops.
• Break — How the opponents’ cards in a suit divide between their two hands.
• Call — Any action taken at your turn in the auction: a bid, pass, double, or redouble.
• Cash — To lead and win with a card that is currently top of its suit.
• Claim — Stating that the rest of the tricks are yours (or conceding some), ending the play early. Nickel Bridge claims for you once no card anyone plays could change the result — or hands them back, if you…
• Communication — The ability to move the lead between the two partnership hands at the right moments, managed through entries.
• Competitive auction — An auction in which both partnerships bid.
• Contract — The final bid of the auction: a promise by one side to win at least that many tricks in the named strain.
• Convention — An agreement giving a call an artificial, coded meaning unrelated to the suit named.
• Count signal — A signal showing an even or odd number of cards in the suit: standard is high-low = even.
• Cover an honor — Playing an honor on the opponents’ honor lead, aiming to promote lower cards for your side.
• Crossruff — Scoring trumps separately in both hands by ruffing different suits back and forth, instead of drawing trumps.
• Cue bid — A bid of the opponents’ suit (showing strength or a raise) or, in slam auctions, a bid showing a control in that suit.
• Danger hand — The opponent you cannot afford to see on lead, because their return would hurt you.
• Deal — One specific arrangement of the 52 cards into four hands.
• Dealer — The player designated to make the first call on a board. It rotates from board to board.
• Declarer — The player who first named the strain of the final contract. Declarer plays both their own hand and dummy’s.
• Defender — Either member of the pair that did not win the auction; their goal is to defeat the contract.
• Discard — Playing a card of a different, non-trump suit when you can’t follow suit. It can never win the trick.
• Distribution points — Extra points added for shape — typically for short suits once a trump fit is found (void 3, singleton 2, doubleton 1).
• Double — A call that raises the stakes on the opponents’ contract — bigger penalties if it fails, bigger rewards if it makes. Many doubles carry a conventional meaning instead.
• Doubled contract — A contract played after a double: trick points and penalties are multiplied, and making it earns an extra 50 (‘for the insult’).
• Doubleton — Exactly two cards in a suit.
• Down — Failing to make the contract, described by the number of missing tricks.
• Drawing trumps — Leading trumps until the opponents have none left, so your winners can’t be ruffed.
• Duck — Deliberately not winning a trick you could win, keeping a high card back for a better moment.
• Dummy — Declarer’s partner. After the opening lead, dummy’s cards go face up and declarer chooses every card played from them.
• Duplicate bridge — The form of bridge where every player plays the identical deals and results are compared — removing card luck so only judgment is measured. It’s what Nickel Bridge is.
• Eight ever, nine never — The classic memory aid for a missing queen: finesse with eight cards in the suit, play for the drop with nine.
• Elo rating — Nickel Bridge’s long-term skill rating, recomputed from the full history of head-to-head board results every time new results arrive.
• Entry — A card that lets a particular hand win a trick, so play can continue from that hand.
• Establish — Turning small cards into winners by forcing out all higher cards in the suit.
• Field — Everyone playing the same boards — the group your result is compared against. In the app, the tournament (or, with Clubs, your club).
• Finesse — Trying to win a trick with a lower honor by leading toward it, hoping the missing higher card sits in front of it — a roughly 50-50 shot that costs nothing to try.
• First crossing — Every member’s first walk over the bridge: the toll office’s welcome, then practice board №0 with the tollkeeper. Nothing scored, nothing rated — and the ledger keeps no record of practice boards.
• Fit — Eight or more cards in one suit between the two partnership hands — the threshold for a comfortable trump suit.
• Five-card majors — The SAYC agreement that opening 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least five cards in the suit.
• Follow suit — The obligation to play a card of the suit led if you have one. Only when you’re out may you play another suit.
• Forcing bid — A bid that, by agreement, partner must not pass. New suits by responder are forcing in SAYC.
• Game — A contract worth 100+ trick points: 3NT, 4♥/4♠, or 5♣/5♦. Bidding and making it earns a large bonus.
• Game bonus — The reward for bidding and making game: 300 not vulnerable, 500 vulnerable. The engine that drives all bidding decisions.
• Game try — After a single raise, a new-suit bid asking partner to evaluate for game — often showing where help is needed.
• Grand slam — A 7-level contract: your side must win every trick.
• Hand evaluation — Judging what a hand is worth by combining HCP, shape, and how the hands fit together.
• High card points — The standard measure of hand strength: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1. A full deck holds 40.
• Holdup — Declarer’s duck — refusing to take a winner early to cut the defenders’ link in their long suit.
• Honor — An ace, king, queen, jack, or ten.
• IMP — International Match Points — the team-scoring scale that converts score differences into a compressed 0–24 range. Not used in Nickel Bridge (we matchpoint), but you’ll meet it elsewhere.
• Invitational bid — A bid asking partner to carry on to game with a maximum and stop with a minimum.
• Jacoby transfer — Over 1NT, a bid of 2♦ or 2♥ asking opener to bid the next suit up, so the strong hand declares responder’s major.
• Jump bid — A bid one or more levels higher than necessary, used to show extra strength or (in some auctions) to preempt.
• Lead — The first card played to a trick. Winning a trick earns the right to lead to the next one.
• Level — The number part of a bid, from 1 to 7. Add six (the book) to get the tricks promised.
• LHO / RHO — Left-hand opponent and right-hand opponent — the players sitting to your left and right.
• Limit raise — A double raise of partner’s suit showing invitational strength (about 10–12 points) and support.
• Long suit — A suit of five or more cards — the raw material for extra tricks, since its small cards win once everyone else runs out.
• Loser — A card in declarer’s plan that figures to lose a trick unless something is done about it.
• Major suit — Hearts and spades. They score 30 points per trick, so game needs only the 4 level.
• Making — Taking at least as many tricks as the contract promised.
• Matchpoints — The pairs scoring method: on each board you earn one matchpoint per pair you beat and half per pair you tie — then it’s shown as a percentage.
• Medal — A series of achievements awarded for continuous play: one suit badge — ♣, ♦, ♥, ♠, in that order — earned at the 4th, 25th, 100th, and 500th completed tournament. The Major suit medals (♥, ♠) are…
• Minor suit — Clubs and diamonds. They score 20 per trick, so game needs the 5 level — which is why pairs prefer major or NT games.
• Notrump — A strain with no trump suit at all: the highest card of the suit led always wins the trick.
• Opener — The player who makes the opening bid.
• Opening bid — The first bid of the auction. Making it usually promises about 12+ points.
• Opening lead — The very first card of the play, made by the player to declarer’s left before dummy appears.
• Overcall — A bid made after an opponent has opened, showing a decent suit and competing for the contract.
• Overruff — Ruffing with a higher trump after an opponent has already ruffed the trick.
• Overtrick — A trick taken beyond the contract. Nice, but worth far less than tricks bid.
• Part score — A contract below game, worth its trick points plus a modest 50-point bonus.
• Pass — A call that makes no bid. Three passes in a row after any bid end the auction.
• Passed out — A deal on which all four players pass with no bid made; it is scored as zero for both sides.
• Penalty double — A double intended literally: you believe the opponents cannot make their contract.
• Penalty points — What a failed contract pays the defenders — 50 per undertrick not vulnerable, 100 vulnerable, climbing steeply when doubled.
• Percentage score — Your matchpoints as a share of the maximum available; 50% is exactly average.
• Preempt — A high-level opening or jump with a long suit and a weak hand, made to steal bidding space from the opponents.
• Raise — Supporting partner’s suit by bidding it at a higher level, promising a fit.
• Rating movement — The line under your Nickel rating on the home screen, which reports one of two things and names which. “In the last crossing” is the swing you just earned yourself in the last tournament. “Since…
• Rebid — A player’s second (or later) bid, refining the picture their first bid painted.
• Redouble — A call available after the opponents double, doubling the stakes again — or, conventionally, showing strength.
• Responder — The partner of the player who opened the bidding.
• Response — The first call made by the opener’s partner, describing their strength and shape.
• Revoke — Failing to follow suit while able to — an illegal play that carries penalties in live bridge. The app simply won’t let you.
• Robot partner — The app’s deterministic AI partner and opponents: they bid and play identically for every player on the same deal, which is what makes score comparison fair.
• Ruff — Playing a trump when you cannot follow suit, usually winning the trick.
• Sacrifice — Deliberately bidding a contract you expect to fail because going down will cost less than the opponents’ making game or slam.
• SAYC — Standard American Yellow Card — the widely-played system Nickel Bridge teaches: five-card majors, 15–17 1NT, weak twos.
• Score — The points awarded after each board, based on the contract, tricks taken, doubling, and vulnerability.
• Second hand low — The rule of thumb that the second player to a trick usually plays low, saving honors to capture honors.
• Sequence — Two or more touching honors, like KQJ. Leading the top of a sequence is a safe, standard opening lead.
• Shape — How a hand’s 13 cards are split across the four suits, e.g. 5–4–3–1. Also called distribution or pattern.
• Sign-off — A bid intended to end the auction; partner is expected to pass.
• Signal — A defender’s choice of card used as a legal message to partner — encouraging, discouraging, or showing count.
• Singleton — Exactly one card in a suit.
• Slam — A 6-level contract (small slam, 12 tricks) or 7-level contract (grand slam, all 13). Both pay big bonuses.
• Slam bonus — The extra bonus for a made slam: 500/750 for small slams, 1000/1500 for grands (non-vul/vul).
• Spot card — Any card from the 9 down to the 2.
• Stayman — A 2♣ response to 1NT asking opener to show a 4-card major. It says nothing about clubs.
• Stopper — A holding that prevents the opponents from immediately running a suit against notrump — an ace, or a guarded lower honor.
• Strain — The suit part of a bid — clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, or notrump. Also called the denomination.
• Takeout double — A double of an opponent’s low-level bid asking partner to bid their best suit, showing support for the unbid suits.
• Tenace — Two honors with a gap, like AQ — worth extra when the missing card sits in front of it.
• Third hand high — The rule of thumb that the third player to a trick plays their highest card to fight for it for partner’s side.
• Toll receipt — The app’s results card for a board or session: contract, tricks, score, matchpoints, and rating change — stamped like a bridge toll ticket.
• Top — The best result on a board among all who played it — full matchpoints.
• Trick — Four cards, one from each player in clockwise turn. The highest card of the suit led wins it — unless a trump appears.
• Trick points — Points for tricks bid and made: 20 each for minors, 30 each for majors, and 40-then-30 for notrump.
• Trump — The boss suit named by the contract. Any trump beats any card of another suit.
• Unblock — Playing away a high card that would otherwise strand the lead in the wrong hand.
• Undertrick — Each trick by which a failing contract falls short; each costs penalty points to the declaring side.
• Void — Zero cards in a suit. In a trump contract, a void lets you ruff that suit immediately.
• Vulnerability — A per-board condition (marked red in the app) that raises both bonuses and penalties. It rotates through the boards automatically.
• Weak two bid — An opening of 2♦, 2♥, or 2♠ showing a good 6-card suit and 5–10 HCP — the mildest preempt.
• Winner — A card that will take a trick when led — the highest still out in its suit.

A further 784 entries are available in the app’s deep reference.

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Adapted from Wikipedia’s Glossary of contract bridge terms · CC BY-SA 4.0 — our adapted text is shared under the same license.