Introduction

These are the system notes for Ari and Tom. They record the bidding agreements the two of them play. This chapter explains the notation used throughout the rest of the notes so the later chapters read cleanly.

Suit symbols

Suits are written as short tokens rather than pictures. ♠ means spades, ♥ means hearts, ♦ means diamonds, and ♣ means clubs. A card holding is written with the suit followed by the ranks, so ♠AKxx means the ace, king, and two small spades.

Auctions and bids

A bid is written as its level and denomination, for example 1C, 2NT, or 4H. An auction is written as a sequence of calls joined by dashes, so 1NT-2C-2D means opener bid one notrump, responder bid two clubs, and opener rebid two diamonds. Pass, Dbl (double), and Rdbl (redouble) appear as calls where relevant.

Common shorthand

The notes lean on a small set of abbreviations. Each is spelled out here once.

• GF is game forcing. The auction may not stop below game.
• Inv is invitational. It asks partner to bid game with extra values.
• NF is non-forcing. Partner may pass.
• HCP is high-card points, counting ace as 4, king as 3, queen as 2, jack as 1.
• M is a major suit. Once a major has been shown, M refers to that same major.
• OM is the other major, used after one major has been shown.
• m is a minor suit, and om is the other minor.
• RKC is Roman Keycard Blackwood, the ace-and-trump-king slam ask.
• COG is choice of games, a bid that lets partner pick the final contract.
• UTL is up the line, meaning bid the cheapest suit first (♣ then ♦ then ♥ then ♠).

Raise and step shorthand

Some sequences describe raises and steps by their height rather than by naming the exact bid.

• R is a simple raise, and DR and TR are the double and triple raise.
• +1 is the next bidding step above the last relevant bid.
• JS is a jump shift, and DJS is a double jump shift.
• LMH is a low-middle-high scheme, used where three steps show three hand types in order.