Bridge Convention Card: How to Fill It In, Section by Section

A bridge convention card is a one- or two-page form on which a partnership lists its bidding system, conventions, opening leads and signals, so the opponents can see what your calls and cards mean. It is required in most club games and tournaments, and it is your best tool for agreeing methods with a new partner.

The idea behind it is full disclosure. In bridge, your agreements are not secret: you may keep your hand hidden, but not the meaning of your bids. The card puts that meaning on the table before the first board.

The Laws of Duplicate Bridge say that the opponents are entitled to know your partnership agreements. A convention card is how clubs and tournaments make that practical:

• The opponents can read your methods before and during the auction, without asking about every call.
• The director can check what you agreed. If there is a misexplanation, the card is the first evidence of what your agreement actually was.
• It protects you. If your card says your 1NT is 15-17 and partner opens it with 13, the card shows that partner deviated, not that you hid an agreement.
• It forces the two of you to talk. Filling in the card raises questions you would otherwise meet for the first time at the table.

Clubs vary in how strict they are. Some club games accept a pair with no card; most tournaments do not. National bodies also set which conventions are allowed in which events, and the card helps the director check that too.

There is no single world format. Which card you use depends on where you play.

In North America, the ACBL card is the standard. It is a single sheet with the front laid out in boxes: general approach, notrump openings, major and minor openings, two-level openings, competitive bidding, slam conventions, leads and carding. The back has space for other agreements.

It uses a color code that every ACBL player knows:

• Red print marks agreements that must be alerted.
• Blue print marks agreements that are announced, such as the 1NT range or a transfer.
• Black print is not alertable.

Many players keep a filled-in card on their phone or in a club folder, and many directors expect each pair to have two identical copies, one for each opponent.

The World Bridge Federation card is used in world championships and many international events. It is a folded card with a summary on the front (general approach, notrump range, style of openings, defense to strong clubs and preempts) and more detail inside, plus an opening bids table listing each opening, its meaning, its responses and notes.

Pairs playing complex systems, such as strong club or highly artificial methods, add supplementary sheets, and some events require them to be submitted in advance.

In England, the English Bridge Union card known as the EBU 20B is the standard format, and similar cards are used in Scotland, Wales and other countries with Acol traditions. The front gives a general description, the 1NT range and responses, two-level openings, competitive methods, leads and signals; the back is a table of opening bids with their meanings and responses.

EBU rules on alerts and announcements are in the EBU's regulations book, often called the Blue Book. The card is expected to match them.

The order below follows the ACBL card, but every format covers the same ground. Write clearly, use common names (Stayman, Jacoby, RKCB 1430), and leave out what you do not play.

Write both names (and player numbers if the event uses them) at the top. Then the general approach: the system in a few words, such as "2/1 game force", "SAYC", "Standard American, 5-card majors" or "Acol, weak NT, 4-card majors". Add any warning the opponents need at once: "Forcing 1NT", "very light openings", "strong club".

This line is the most-read part of the card. Most opponents look only here and at the notrump box.

If you play a different range in different seats or vulnerabilities, write both.

For major-suit openings, list the minimum length (four or five cards) and the responses:

• 1NT response: forcing (common in 2/1), semi-forcing, or not forcing (SAYC).
• Raises: what 2♥ shows, whether 3♥ is a limit raise, and any conventional raises, such as Jacoby 2NT, Bergen raises or splinters.
• Passed-hand responses: Drury or not.

For minor-suit openings, the card asks about the minimum length of 1♣ and 1♦. In 2/1 Game Force and Standard American a 1♣ opening usually promises three clubs and a 1♦ opening four diamonds (three with exactly 4-4-3-2 shape, 4=4=3=2). A 1♣ opening that can be shorter is marked as "could be short". Then: inverted minors (a single raise forcing and a jump raise weak) or standard raises, and the meaning of a jump shift.

Each two-level opening has its own line:

Write the point range and the follow-ups, such as Ogust or a "feature ask" after a weak two. If 2♦ is something else (for example Flannery, showing both majors), write that and alert it.

This section covers competition:

• Overcalls: the range at the one and two levels, and whether a jump overcall is weak, intermediate or strong.
• 1NT overcall: usually 15-18 in direct seat, often lower in balancing seat.
• Takeout doubles: their range and style.
• Negative doubles: up to which level (often 2♠ or 3♠).
• Responsive and support doubles, if you play them.
• Two-suited overcalls: Michaels cuebid and the unusual 2NT.
• Defense to their 1NT: such as Cappelletti, DONT or Landy.
• Defense to preempts: takeout doubles, and Leaping Michaels or Lebensohl if you play them.
• Defense to strong club openings.

Slams. Write your ace-asking method: Blackwood, Roman Key Card with the 1430 or 0314 answers, Gerber over notrump, and how you handle interference (DOPI and ROPI). Note whether new suits at the four level in a slam auction are control bids.

Opening leads. The card has separate boxes for leads against suits and against notrump. For each common holding, circle the card you lead: from A K x, from K Q x, from x x x (top, middle or low), from four small cards, and your length lead: fourth best, or third and fifth best. Write "A from AK" or "K from AK", because both styles are common.

Carding. Your signals:

• Attitude: standard (high encourages) or upside-down (low encourages).
• Count: standard (high-low shows an even number) or upside-down.
• Suit preference, and when it applies.
• Discards: standard, upside-down, odd-even or Lavinthal.
• Primary signal on partner's lead: attitude or count.

This box matters to declarer in every hand you defend, so fill it in carefully. See bridge signals and opening leads for the methods.

Here is what the main entries of a plain, sensible card might look like for two club players who agree on 2/1 game force with a few common conventions. It fits on the front of an ACBL card with room to spare.

Every line is something you will use in your first few sessions. Nothing on it is exotic, and an opponent can read the whole front in a few seconds. That is the right card for a new partnership: complete on the frequent things, silent on the rare ones.

The card shows your methods in advance. Alerts warn the opponents during the auction. They work together.

The rule of thumb: when partner makes a call whose meaning the opponents may not expect, you (not the bidder) alert it, by saying "alert" and showing the alert card from the bidding box. The opponent whose turn it is can then ask what it means, and you explain the agreement. You do not explain what you think partner holds, and you do not alert your own calls in face-to-face bridge.

Announcements are a quicker form for very common agreements. In the ACBL, the most common are the 1NT range ("15 to 17") and transfers over notrump ("transfer"). The EBU also announces the 1NT range and some other common calls.

In this auction, when North opens 1NT, you (South) announce the range: "15 to 17". After your 2♥, North says "transfer": your 2♥ asks North to bid 2♠, and it shows five or more spades, not hearts. Your 3NT then offers North a choice between 3NT and 4♠. You can see what 2♥ means in every system. If West, the next to call after your 2♥, wants more detail, West may ask at West's turn, or at the end of the auction.

Experienced players read a convention card in about ten seconds, in a fixed order:

1. General approach and any warning in red.
2. 1NT range.
3. Major opening length and whether 1NT is forcing.
4. Two-level openings, especially weak twos and 2♣.
5. Leads and signals, read by declarer before the opening lead or when dummy comes down.

Write your card so those five things can be found at a glance. During the play, declarer may look at your card again before choosing how to play a suit. Defenders, too, often check declarer's side's card to understand the auction.

• The two cards do not match. If you and partner fill in separate cards, compare them. A difference in the notrump range or the lead style is a common source of director calls.
• "Standard" written everywhere. Standard means different things in different countries. Write the actual meaning.
• Out-of-date cards. You changed your 1NT range but not the card. The card is evidence; keep it current.
• Forgetting to alert. If the card shows an alertable agreement and you do not alert, the opponents may have been misled, and the director can adjust the score.
• Explaining the hand, not the agreement. "Partner probably has a weak hand" is not an explanation of an agreement.

When a misexplanation leads to a bad result, the director first checks the convention card and any system notes. If the card supports the explanation, the problem is usually partner's misbid, which is not an infraction. If the card does not, it is a misexplanation, and the score may be adjusted.

1. Start from a standard card, such as SAYC, 2/1 or Acol, and agree only the changes.
2. Keep it short. Five well-known conventions you both remember beat fifteen you half remember.
3. Agree on the boring things first: 1NT range, major length, weak twos, leads and signals. These come up on almost every board.
4. Write down what happens after interference, because that is where most misunderstandings happen.
5. Review after the session. Every misunderstanding at the table is a line to add to the card or your notes.

Practicing the system together before you play is the fastest way to find gaps. BridgeDummy's Bidding Room has a partner mode for exactly this: you and a friend bid the same boards together, each seeing only your own hand, then you see the full deal and how your contract scored. Every board where you end in the wrong place points to a gap in your card, before it costs you in a real game.

The ACBL, the WBF and the EBU each provide their standard card as a blank printable file, and several free online editors let you fill in a card on screen and print or share it. Many clubs also keep blank cards at the front desk.

Online, most platforms let a partnership store a convention card, or at least a short system summary, which the opponents can open during the auction. The principle is the same: the opponents must be able to see your methods.

A practical tip: keep a printed copy of each partnership's card in your bridge bag, with the date on it, and a digital copy you can send to a new partner before the game.