How to Bid in Online Contract Bridge?

Use of doubles and redoubles during the online bidding process is extremely common among contract bridge players when playing on a casino website. In fact, the absence of doubles and redoubles calls in any game of contract bridge is likely to take away much of its appeal.

While doubles and redoubles are not generally classified as overcalls in contract bridge, they can be effectively used by a partnership to interfere in the bidding plans of the opponents. These two calls, the double in particular, can be systematically employed by a player to communicate specific information to the partner.

Doubling a Bid in Contract Bridge

Contrary to the general notion that an opponent’s bid is always doubled for penalty purposes, a player can also call a double for several other reasons. While the objectives of making a double call could be many, some of the most familiar ones are outlined below:

• As a penalty double when a player is confident enough to stop the opponents’ contract from making.
• As an informatory double to try and communicate to the partner the overall strength of own card holding in terms of point count.
• As an informatory double to try and inform the partner about the overall quality of own hand in terms of suit holdings, particularly the longer suits.
• A lead-directing double, seeking a specific lead from the partner – agreed upon earlier as part of the partnership convention.
• As a balancing double subsequent to two passes following the left hand opponent’s opening bid.
• As a support double by doubling an opponent’s overcall thereby indicating a fit with respect to the suit bid by partner.

Major Categories of Doubles Calls in Contract Bridge

One can find a host of names for doubles calls, each of which is made with a specific intent or purpose during the course of bidding process. Nevertheless, the three principal types of double calls that find extensive mention in contract bridge circles are:

• Penalty Double. Also known as natural or business double, a penalty double is meant to defend and defeat the opponents’ contract to get extra points in the form of penalty. It is, therefore, crucial that a player should not resort to a penalty double unless the partnership is absolutely certain of defeating the contract. Failure to do so will result in a big gain for the opponents in the shape of bonus points.
• Takeout Double. Unlike the penalty double, a takeout double is aimed at competing in the bidding process, without any apparent interest in collecting penalty points from the opponents. This artificial double by a player reflects a fairly strong holding – an opening hand at the least – with adequate strength in the unbid suits. A takeout double requires the partner to bid his best suit when his turn for bidding comes.
• Negative Double. The negative double strategy is employed by a player immediately after an overcall has been made by the right hand opponent to interfere over the partner’s trick-bid. Apart from showing a supporting hand, it also indicates possibility of some strength in the unbid suits. A negative double is almost similar to a takeout double, except that it promises holding in one of the two unbid suits instead of three suits that can be indicated through a takeout double.

Redoubling a Double in Contract Bridge

Redouble is a call that is made by a player to counter a double by an opponent. As the term obviously indicates, a redouble simply doubles the bonus or the penalty points as applicable to the double call.

The Redouble call, in contrast to the double, does not have enough scope for a player to communicate as much information to the partner through artificial biddings. Two examples of conventional/artificial redouble, however, are:

• SOS redouble seeking partner’s help for salvaging a problematic, doubled contract through a bid favorable to the partnership.
• Rosenkrantz redouble to support partner’s overcall, which is followed by a negative double by the right hand opponent.

Whether it’s a double or a redouble, the reward/punishment factors should be thoroughly considered before making one of these two calls. Every player of contract bridge must remember that discretion is the key to good bidding.

Basic Format of Duplicate Bridge

According to Online Casinos Indonesia website, duplicate bridge can be played by a minimum of eight players sitting at two tables, or could extend to as many players/tables as the organizers may permit. The basic premise behind duplicate play is that the hands dealt to the players sitting in a particular direction (North, South, East and West) on all the tables are identical.

A board is passed from one table to another at the end of game-play. In the online scenario, the boards are simply duplicated in tandem without the hands being available for viewing by players of the other competing tables.

Types of Duplicate Bridge Events

The three duplicate bridge events commonly played in clubs and tournaments are:

Individual Events

In this form of duplicate play, the partnership does not remain constant throughout the game/event. In other words, a player is assigned a different partner after every round of play.

The individual event is perhaps one in which the chance factor could influence the results to fairly great extent, because a player is never sure of the compatibility he can have with his next partner. The individual format, as such, finds relatively less favor with most of the duplicate bridge players.

Pair Events

As the name suggests, two players form a team to play as partners for the entire duration of the event. This fixed partnership factor obviously brings in enhanced stability to the game since the partners can bid and play with a sound understanding.

Pair game is considered as the most popular of the duplicate bridge events. There are quite a few variations of the pair events depending on a host of diverse criteria.

Team Events

A team event is akin to the pair game except that the team has four players playing at two tables. One pair of the team sits as North-South at the first table with the second partnership automatically assigned the East-West seats at the other table.

A team, in fact, can comprise of four to six players with four of them playing in any one session. There are a number of variations of the team game too, the most common ones being Swiss, knockout and board-a-match.

Duplicate Bridge Movements

As per the rules of duplicate bridge, any one pair, having played a particular board just cannot get to play the same hand once again. Each of the boards is also required to be played at all the tables. These prerequisites coupled with other organizational and fair-play requirements, the boards are made to move from one table to another after a round, following a plan laid down by the authorities.

Any of a number of movements can be selected for a tournament depending on its type/size. The most popular of the lot is Mitchell movement, which is a generally preferred for use in most clubs and tournaments. The Howell movement, though a little more complicated, is also extensively used.

Scoring in Duplicate Bridge

The scoring in duplicate bridge is entirely different vis-à-vis rubber bridge. The scoring in duplicate play, on the other hand, is based on a comparison of the performance of the teams when playing individual boards with identical sets of cards.

Depending on the organizers and the type of event being played, the method of scoring in duplicate bridge differs. Nevertheless, the two methods normally employed are:

Matchpoint Scoring. A very commonly used method, particularly considered suitable for pair events. These points are awarded to the teams in terms of percentage scores – the maximum being 100% and the minimum, 0%.

IMP Scoring. IMP is an abbreviated form of International Match Points. After comparing all individual scores, the differences are converted to IMP using a standard table. This method can be used effectively for all the three events.