Artificial bids, (Conventions)

Important note: You do not have to learn these artificial bids or "conventions" when you first start to play bridge but you will need them eventually. Any good bridge club will encourage you to play and learn the more advanced bids as you go along.

There are some bids in the game of bridge that are artificial or "conventional" bids. If you think about it there are only thirty eight legal bids you can make in an effort to describe over six hundred billion possible hands! As a consequence of this, some bids have been adapted to mean certain things and may have nothing to do with whatever that particular hand holds.

The bids that have been chosen by various experts over the years nearly all make the use of bids that would not be made during the normal course of a bidding sequence. Some of these work out well and some make the game overly complicated. For that reason I am only covering a few of the most popular that the average beginner will need to learn soon after they start playing the game. If you want a list of all of them here is a good place and good luck with it!

As mentioned, when you first start playing, you really don't need to know these because it will lead to a lot of confusion but after playing for a few months you need to gradually introduce the more common of these artificial bids as without them it will not be possible to bid some hands properly. I only intend to list the most used artificial bids here.

Whatever system of artificial bidding you use it is imperative that both you and your partner agree upon it and stick to it else the chances of confusion are much greater. Note that, in a bridge club, you must inform your opponents of any artificial bids you are using and that it is against the rules of the game to "invent" your own, secret, system. The artificial bids covered on this website are:

Prepared club | Pre emptive bids | Stayman convention | Take out doubles | Slam bidding