Bridge Bidding Cheat Sheet (Standard American, Free PDF)

Bridge Cheat Sheet for Beginners: 7 Opening and Response Rules

New to bridge? These seven rules cover most of the hands you will pick up. They are the Standard American opening rules, and they are the heart of any beginner bridge bidding cheat sheet.

1. Count your High Card Points: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1.
2. Open with 13 or more HCP. With 11–12, open only if the Rule of 20 says yes.
3. Open a five-card major first. 1♥ or 1♠ always shows five or more cards.
4. Open 1NT with 15–17 HCP and a balanced hand (no singleton, no void).
5. No five-card major and not a 1NT hand? Open your longer minor: 1♣ with three cards in each minor, 1♦ with four in each.
6. Open 2♣ with 22 or more HCP. It is artificial and forcing.
7. When partner opens, respond with 6+ HCP, look for an eight-card major fit first, and bid game when your side has 25 combined points.

Quick-Reference Table: Every Key Bidding Number on One Page

This table puts every number you need for Standard American bidding in one place: a one-page contract bridge cheat sheet to keep next to the card table. Prefer paper? Download the printable PDF version, which also includes the responses to 1NT and the Stayman answers.

Point thresholds are based on Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC) guidelines as published by the American Contract Bridge League and consistent with the framework of the World Bridge Federation. Individual partnerships may agree small variations. If your club plays SAYC, you can use this section as a simple SAYC cheat sheet.

Contract Bridge Basics: A 30-Second Rules Cheat Sheet

Contract bridge is played by four people in two partnerships, North–South against East–West, and each player receives 13 cards. The auction decides the contract: how many tricks your side promises to win, and which suit, if any, is trumps.

• Contract = 6 + the level you bid. 1♠ promises 7 tricks, 3NT promises 9, 4♥ promises 10.
• Suit ranking: ♣ (lowest), ♦, ♥, ♠, then notrump (highest). Every bid must be higher than the one before it.
• The auction ends when a bid is followed by three passes in a row.
• Declarer is the player on the winning side who first named the final suit (or notrump). Their partner becomes dummy and lays their cards face up.
• Game bonuses come from 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ and 5♦. That is why the point targets on this cheat sheet matter.

For the full auction rules, see bridge bidding rules. For all the rules of play, read the bridge rules guide, and for points and bonuses, use the bridge scoring chart.

How Do You Count Your Points in Bridge?

Before you can bid anything, you need to know what your hand is worth. Bridge uses a system called High Card Points, or HCP for short. It was popularised in the 1920s and is still the foundation of every bidding system in the world today.

The full deck contains exactly 40 High Card Points, so an average hand holds 10. If you pick up a hand with 13 or more HCP, you have an above-average hand and enough to open the bidding.

Distribution points come into play once you and your partner have found a trump suit:

How Many Points Do You Need to Open the Bidding?

The general rule is 13 High Card Points to open at the one level. A hand of 12 points can be opened if it has a good long suit or strong distribution. The Rule of 20 is a useful shortcut for borderline hands: add your HCP to the length of your two longest suits. If the total is 20 or more, open.

Standard American is a 5-card major system, which means an opening bid of 1♥ or 1♠ always promises at least five cards. So always open a five-card major if you have one. With two five-card suits, open the higher-ranking one. With no five-card suit, open your longer minor. If your minors are equal length, open 1♣.

For a deeper look at opening one-bids, visit the full guide to opening bids in bridge.

SAYC and 5-Card Major Cheat Sheet: The Core Agreements

Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC) is the standard bidding system published by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), and it is the system this cheat sheet follows. It is a 5-card major system. If a partner or club asks “do you play SAYC?”, these are the agreements you are signing up for:

• 5-card majors: 1♥ and 1♠ promise five or more cards, so partner can raise with three-card support.
• Strong 1NT: 15–17 HCP and a balanced hand.
• Strong 2♣: 22+ HCP, artificial and forcing.
• Weak two-bids: 2♦, 2♥ and 2♠ show a good six-card suit and 6–11 HCP.
• Core conventions: Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, Jacoby 2NT, Blackwood, Gerber over notrump openings, and takeout doubles.

For the full system, read the guide to Standard American bidding (SAYC), and for why five-card majors work, see five-card majors in bridge.

What Should You Bid When Your Partner Opens?

The first question is simple: do you have 6 points? If not, pass. If you do, you must respond. Leaving partner in a one-level opening with a six-point hand is a mistake that can cost the partnership a game.

Responding to partner’s 1♥ or 1♠ opening:

Responding to partner’s 1♣ or 1♦ opening:

With a four-card major, always respond in your major at the one level. This is called “bidding up the line” and it keeps the bidding low while searching for the best fit.

Responding to partner’s 1NT opening:

This is where Stayman and Jacoby Transfers live. See the conventions section below.

Bridge Conventions Cheat Sheet: When to Use Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, Blackwood and Gerber

These four conventions are the ones every beginner needs to know, and together they form the core of any bridge bidding conventions cheat sheet. Each has a specific trigger. Using them at the wrong time is as costly as not using them at all.

Stayman Convention Cheat Sheet

When: Partner opens 1NT. You have 8 or more points and at least one four-card major (hearts or spades).

The bid: 2♣ (artificial: it says nothing about clubs; it asks “do you have a four-card major?”)

Those three answers are your whole Stayman convention cheat sheet. For a full treatment, see the Stayman convention guide.

Jacoby Transfer Cheat Sheet

When: Partner opens 1NT. You have five or more cards in hearts or spades: at any point count from 0 upward.

Why make partner declare? Because the 1NT opener holds the stronger hand. If partner plays the contract, their strong hand is hidden from the opponents, which is a tactical advantage.

After the transfer: with a weak hand (0–7 points), pass. With an invitational hand (8–9 points), bid 2NT. With a game-forcing hand (10+ points), bid 3NT or raise to game in the major.

Keep those follow-ups in mind and you have a simple Jacoby transfer cheat sheet. Learn more at the Jacoby Transfers guide.

Blackwood Convention Cheat Sheet

When: You are in a forcing auction and want to check how many aces partner holds before bidding slam. Use it after a trump suit has been agreed.

The bid: 4NT

When not to use Blackwood: Do not use it when you have a void in a suit, because partner’s ace in that suit is useless to you. Do not use it when you are missing two aces and will be forced to stop at the five level, above game. Use Blackwood only when you expect the answer to confirm a slam.

Full details at the Blackwood convention guide.

Gerber Convention Cheat Sheet

When: Partner opens 1NT or 2NT and you want to ask for aces directly.

The bid: 4♣ (in direct response to a notrump opening)

What Do Opener’s Rebids Mean?

Opener’s second bid is the moment the picture of the hand becomes clearer. Responder now knows whether opener has a minimum, an intermediate, or a maximum opening.

After 1♥ by opener and 1♠ by responder:

How Many Points Do You Need for Game or Slam in Bridge?

These thresholds are the most-used numbers in all of bridge. You will refer to them at every table.

These are partnership totals. If you open 1NT (15–17 HCP) and partner bids 3NT, they are showing 10–12 HCP. Together you hold 25–29 points: solid game territory.

For an explanation of why these contracts earn bonuses and how scoring works, see the guide to bridge scoring.

Slam Bidding Shortcuts: Which Convention to Use

Detailed guides: Blackwood, Roman Key Card Blackwood, Gerber.

What Do You Bid When the Opponents Open First?

Defensive bidding: bidding after the opponents have already opened: follows its own rules. You are no longer just describing your hand to partner; you are also competing for the contract or making life difficult for the opponents.

The takeout double is the most important tool in defensive bidding. It says nothing about the suit the opponents opened. It says: I have a good hand, I am short in their suit, and I want you to pick the best contract for our side. Partner of the doubler must bid their best suit unless they are very strong (12+ HCP), in which case they can pass for penalties.

Worked Example: From the Deal to the Final Contract

Here is a real hand, walked through exactly as it would be bid at a club table.

1. North has 14 HCP, no five-card major and three cards in each minor, so opens the convenient minor: 1♣.
2. South has 13 HCP and four spades. The first job as responder is to bid four-card majors up the line: South responds 1♠.
3. North now knows South has four spades. North also has four spades. An eight-card fit has been found. With 14 HCP and four-card support, North raises to 2♠: a single raise showing 12–15 HCP.
4. South adds up: North showed 12–15 HCP with the raise. South has 13. Together they hold 25–28 points. That is game territory. South bids 4♠ directly.

The final contract is 4♠ played by South, who bid spades first. The partnership holds a combined 27 HCP and a solid eight-card spade fit. This is exactly the kind of hand a cheat sheet is built to help you recognise.

Where Should You Go Next?

A cheat sheet gives you the framework; the game fills in the detail. Once opening bids and simple responses feel natural, learn the responses to 1NT in full, because that auction has more moving parts than any other. If you play at a duplicate club, you will soon meet Roman Key Card Blackwood, the version of Blackwood that counts the king of trumps as a fifth “ace.”

For deeper guides on every part of the auction, visit the bridge bidding hub. Still learning the fundamentals? The guide to how to play bridge covers everything from the deal to the score.