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This article explains how to use special notation to present in our text bridge related items like hands, deals, bidding sequences and a like, so that they appear nicely formatted.

Hand description

Hand description looks like this:

[Hand T93.AQJxxx.6.KJ4]

When expanded, it looks like this:

T93

AQJxxx

6

KJ4

Expansion happens automatically, ie. you don't have to do anything special. In a nutshell, the hand description consists of:

1. Opening [Hand sequence, followed by a single space
2. suit holding descriptions, separated by '.' (dot), with no spaces in between. The suits are given exactly in order of spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs.
3. Closing ] (rectangular bracket).

Some important facts:

• Valid card denominations are: AKQJT98765432x
• Dots that separate suit holdings are compulsory, ie. they must be present EVEN when there is a void in a suit
• The notation is case sensitive, ie. if you substitute any of the valid characters with a lower- or upper-case variant not described above, the notation will not be recognized
• There is no check if all 13 cards are specified, and no check if some cards repeat. This is deliberate, to allow for creativity of writers :-)

This is an example of a hand with a void in spades:

[Hand .AQJxxx.632.KJxx]

which expands into:

AQJxxx

632

KJxx

or a hand with a void in diamonds:

[Hand A32.AQJxxx..KJxx]

which expands into:

A32

AQJxxx

KJxx

Deal description

Now that you're mastering hand description, deals are only marginally more complex. A deal is simply a description of all 4 hands. It looks like this:

[Deal AKQ5..JT23.T8762 432.KQJTxx.J9.AQ J987x.xxx.xxx.xx T6.xxxx.xxxx.xxx]

which expands into:

	J987x xxx xxx xx
432 KQJTxx J9 AQ		T6 xxxx xxxx xxx
	AKQ5 JT23 T8762

1. Opening [Deal sequence, followed by a single space
2. hand descriptions of South, West, North and East (exactly in that order), separated by a single space character. Each hand description is in exactly the same format as used with a single hand description in the previous paragraph.
3. Closing ] (rectangular bracket).

Sometimes, especially when describing partnership bidding, we don't care about the holding of opponents hands, so we want to describe only 2 hands. In that case, we can use a 2-hand deal notation that looks like this:

[2HandDeal AKQ5..JT23.T8 T9.KQ.AKxxx.AJxx]

which expands into:

AKQ5 JT23 T8

T9 KQ AKxxx AJxx

Bidding description

The bidding description consists of:

1. Opening [Bidding sequence, followed by a single space
2. bidding calls made, starting with South, and going clockwise. Calls are separated by a single space character.
3. if South wasn't the dealer, you put '-' (minus) character as a call. You continue putting minus characters until you reach the dealer. For example, if the dealer was East, you need to start with 3 minus characters (separated by spaces).
4. valid calls are: '-' (minus), to skip (as explained above), X (for double), XX (for redouble), P (for pass) or a digit, from 1 to 7, followed by denomination (S, H, D, C or N).
5. Closing ] (rectangular bracket).

For example, for a bidding sequence where North was a dealer, the bidding description may look like:

[Bidding - - 1S X XX 2N P 4C P 5C]

which expands into:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1	X
XX	2NT	Pass	4
Pass	5

You don't have to put in last 3 passes that end the auction - not checked for.

Suit symbols in the text

If you just want to use a suit symbol inside your text for whatever reason, we have a notation for that as well:

1. [S] becomes
2. [H] becomes
3. [D] becomes
4. [C] becomes