The following pages give some guidance to bidding and play for people wishing to improve their game.

It is not meant for people that have no knowledge of the game, but more for someone who has just started and is finding things a little difficult.

The aim here is to start with a very simple bidding system and to explain some of the possibilities when playing the cards.

Undoubtedly many people may disagree with some of the things mentioned so I am going to try and explain the reasoning behind some of the things stated.

There are many different Systems and Conventions that can be used to achieve a good result and these can be very confusing, not just for beginners, but also of people with some years experience.

Conventions are used with a system to provide partnerships with additional information not necessarily covered in the System used.

To focus on areas needing clarification or more thought, players should write down details of the system that they use.
The EBU have sample Convention Sheets that can be printed on a single sheet of A4.

It is important that a partnership agrees the full details of any convention including all possible responses and follow-up bids. It is also necessary to consider competitive auctions where the Convention may have opponents 'interfering'.

It is strongly recommended that beginners start by reading Learn To Play Bridge. This gives an introduction to the game, bidding and play.
It should be noted that it is based on English Acol at a basic level and does not include many of the bidding idiosyncracies used by most players.