The first six tricks

Under the rules of bridge, whatever number of tricks you bid to make, you have to add another six tricks to that number. For example a bid of one means your are going to try to take seven tricks, a bid of two is eight tricks and so on all the way up to a grand slam which is a bid of seven but requires all thirteen tricks to be successful.

In view of this, it's quite sensible to ask the question why? Here is the answer but you don't need to know this in order to play the game and I offer it purely for interest's sake.

In a pack of cards there are a total of forty high card points, (HCP), Ace, King, Queen and Jack in each suit. Imagine that the pack was shuffled and dealt, one card at a time as in bridge, thousands of times. It would be reasonable to assume that overall the hands would even out with an average on ten high card points in each hand.

Since the game is played in pairs, each pair would receive twenty points on average and if the hand was played without using any trumps, each pair would take six and a half tricks on average without even trying.

Since there is no such thing as "half a trick", the lowest number of tricks that would require any skill to make would have to be seven which is, of course, the lowest bid you can make in the game.

This little story also helps to explain the Acol bidding system. A king is valued at three points and it can be looked upon as half a trick too! Why half a trick? Check out the picture here. To make NORTH's king of spades for certain we must play towards it and hope the ace is in the hand before it as shown here. You lead the three of spades from the SOUTH hand towards the king and west is trapped. If s/he plays low you make the king. If s/he plays the ace you play the two and make the king next time you play on the suit. It's a well know bridge technique called a "finesse". (You can read more about finesses here.)

All the above goes out of the window if the EAST hand holds the ace: you will never make the king. It therefore follows that, since you don't know who has the ace, its a 50/50 chance that you make the king or in other words, the king is worth half a trick.

Add this to the six and a half tricks described above and you have the seven tricks demanded by the game for the lowest bid. When I was taught the game in the early sixties I was told never to open the bidding with less than thirteen points or "A king above average". (10 points plus 3). Over time this requirement has loosened and it's now normal to open the bidding with twelve to fourteen points.