Using special bridge notation

This article explains how to use the special notation to present, in our text, bridge related items like hands, deals, bidding sequences and alike, 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

 

The deal description consists of:

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. You can also annotate certain bids by appending =NN= immediately after the bid, where NN is annotation number. Normally, numbers would start from 1 and increment, but this is not checked for. This is useful for situations where, for example, bids are artificial, or require additional explanation. For example:

[Bidding  - - 1S X=1= XX 2N P=2= 4C=3= P 5C]

expands into:

South	West	North	East
-	-	1	X1
XX	2NT	Pass2	43
Pass	5

 

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