A guide to play Min Bid 4

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1. Introductions (this page #1)


2. Bidding (this page #1,2,3,4)
---2.1 Pass
---2.2 Bid
-----2.2.1 Absolute bidding
-----2.2.2 No Trump (4NT)
-----2.2.3 Conditional bidding


3. Choosing your partner (this page #12)
---3.1 4X with the ace
---3.2 4X without the ace


4. Getting the ball rolling (page 2 #23,24)
---4.1 Partner of the bidder
---4.2 Opponent of the bidder


5. Looking out for your partner (page 2 #30)
---5.2 Bidder of the contract
---5.3 Playing against the bidder


6. Tactics



1. Introduction


Unlike normal bridge, playing min bid 4 requires certain skills that are acquired through experience. And this is precisely the reason why we (some of us) kick low level players in min 4 rooms. I feel that playing min 4 is more fun than normal bridge but it becomes sour when your partner is inexperience and uncooperative. So here I am giving a guide to players who wants to improve their min 4 skills.





Please bear in mind this summary of very important skills to play good game.

• Do not be dependent on your partner
• Read the bidder’ (and your partner’s mind) by the partner he choose and the cards he throw
• Count the cards

2. Bidding



We will start with bidding. It requires accurate judgment (acquired through experience) and is the key to win the game.

To gain the maximum probability of winning, you should only bid when you possess at least 2 ace and a couple of other picture cards i.e. min 18-20 points, and 5-6 trump cards. Of course, you can try with 4 trumps cards if you have a really strong hand i.e. 4 ace, at least 3 kings and 2 queens, as well as (preferably) the presence of ace, king and queen of your trump set. I have tried doing that and won twice.


2.1 PASS

These are examples of cases which you have minimum chance of winning and should avoid bidding, even if you possess 2-3 aces.


Case 1 Absolute “cui” cards i.e. less than 10 points




Bidding should not be considered with this sort of hand.

Case 2 Even hands







Despite the presence of several aces, your hand is too weak to play min 4. With so few (and relatively weak) trump cards, there is very high possibility that other players may possess just as many (or sometimes more) trumps as you and makes it hard for you to **** trumps.

Case 3 Strong trump cards but weak in the other suits



Avoid bidding when you have to lose more than 4 sets without your partner’s help. This point will further explained in the conditional bidding section.

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2.2 BID

Now let’s look at the cases in which you should bid.

2.2.1 Absolute bidding

This is a ‘must bid’ situation in which you stand a high chance of winning (typically 90%), regardless of the strength of your partner’s cards.

Case 1 3 types of pattern




In this hand, there’s a total of 19 points. Assuming that the other 3 players have an even distribution of spades, hearts and clubs (in most cases, they will possess at least 2-3 of each suits), you are sure to win 9 sets (6 trumps if you call king dia, 2 aces and one queen club). Typically, the probability of winning is 90% when you can win 6 sets on your own.


Case 2 uneven distribution (1)



The explanation is similar to case 1 in which you win by overriding points.

Case 3 uneven distribution (2)



This is a special case in which you have only 11 points but you still stand a high chance of winning. Given 7 trumps, assuming a) you called for ace of spades to be your partner and b) there’s an even distribution of trumps of the other 3 players. Thus, with ace and king spade will be enough to draw out queen and jack spade and hence enables you and your partner to win at a steady 9 sets (7 trumps, ace and queen hearts).

Another similar case



2.2.2 4NT

Being a responsible player, we should always make sure that we could win 9, if not at least 8 sets alone, in bidding 4NT. To increase the probability of wining, it is strongly advised not to be dependent on your partner in this bid. Many newbies have the wrong idea that when you have 4 aces you should bid for NT. It doesn’t work that way.

I only bid NT when I have the confidence that it is an absolute win such as this hand. No matter whom I call (king hearts and ace dia), I’m 100% sure that it is a winning bid.



IMPORTANT: It is a taboo to call the ace of the pattern that you do not possess. In this case, I should not call ace of clubs because I will have no way to pass to him. This holds true in the assumption that you cannot win all 10 sets on your own when you bid for 4NT.

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2.2.3 Conditional bidding

This is a type of bid, which subject you to a lot of risk because it makes you dependent on the partner. Bear in mind that it is advised to be as much independent as possible in playing min 4.

Case 1 too many unwanted cards



Generally, it is advisable not to bid when you have more than 4 cards that stand no chance of wining. In this case, these cards are 5,6,7 clubs, 2 hearts and 4 or 7 spade.

Similar cases





Case 2 3 suits but weak supporting cards



This is a very typical case of which you are heavily dependent on your partner. There is strong trump cards because 3 round of ****ing is usually enough to draw out all the trump cards. But the set back is that you MUST call ace clubs as your partner since possessing 4 clubs and spades each gives rise to a high probability that someone else have very little clubs or spades. Frequently, such hand represents an imbalance situation and gives the opponent opportunities to win by trumping clubs or spades. By calling ace of clubs and wishing that he had good hand is the only way to get rid of your unwanted club and spades.

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Case 3 Absolute winning of trumps but generally weak hand




To be continued....

[Blaspheremy]

WHOAAAAA... scscsc so cool.
sure this will help much..
=D

[rainb0ww]

Originally Posted by scscsc

IMPORTANT: It is a taboo to call the ace of the pattern that you do not possess. In this case, I should not call ace of clubs because I will have no way to pass to him.

HAHAHA who said its tabooo?
Base on my style, i often call another ace, even i dont have that suit, gagagaga.....
Let ur p card out itself HAHAHA

( since i lvl 1-now, only twice failed play like that, so u can try hahaha... its not bad, coz it helps u to throw ur useless cards).

[scscsc]

Originally Posted by rainb0w81

HAHAHA who said its tabooo?
Base on my style, i often call another ace, even i dont have that suit, gagagaga.....
Let ur p card out itself HAHAHA

( since i lvl 1-now, only twice failed play like that, so u can try hahaha... its not bad, coz it helps u to throw ur useless cards).

this is base on the assumption that you cannot win all by yourself when you bid for 4nt. if you insist on doing so given the assumption is true, there are only 2 possiblities -- either you are mad or you are cheating.

[rainb0ww]

High lvl NEVER CHEAT!!!!!!!!!!! i cheat for wat la?!?!?!? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

i didnt see ur card n u bid NT. i just read ur note.
i mean when im not bid NT, sometimes i call other suit's ACE!!!!!!!!!!
i learned it from my friend.
Pls u dont anyhow say!!!!!

[ariel_23]

ZZZZZZZZZZZ, u say until like tat is because u don have the capability to play like rain, she don cheat, she is capable, if u think cheatin or being crazy can get to lvl 106, then she even more pro, lol

[Blaspheremy]

i know rain's style a bit risky.. but she never cheating.. she just bring bad luck for me.. gagagagagagaga...

[rainb0ww]

Originally Posted by Blaspheremy

i know rain's style a bit risky.. but she never cheating.. she just bring bad luck for me.. gagagagagagaga...

HAHAHA... blas... u started it again, piakkkkkkkkkkk
Act, blas' style also a bit risky. he almost nvr call Ace trump, gagagaga... 98% always call other suit's ace.

nvm blas, they can call us pro ****, gagaga...

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3. Choosing your partner

The purpose of choosing a partner is to help you to win the game. Hence, you should always choose a partner card that would prove to be helpful.



Guidelines:

• Always choose aces and kings and sometimes queens if you have few trump cards
• Do not choose jack of the trump set as it often proves useless since 3 rounds of ****ing by the ace, king and queen is enough to draw out the jack in most games

3.1 When you have the ace of the trump cards

Case 1 Missing king





In this example, you are given two options in choosing your partner.

• King clubs
• Ace spade or ace hearts

(In our analysis, we assume that our partner has an average hand i.e. roughly 10-13 points)

Let us first examine the strength of each option. For option 1, it guarantees a winning of at least 9 sets (6 trumps, ace dia, king hearts and spade) by you and your partner. Similar situation present in option 2 (5 trumps, assuming king of clubs is not your partner, 2 ace and 2 kings).

However, on close examination, you will realize that option 1 is a safer choice while option 2 is subjected to a much turbulent probability of winning because it is dependent on the distribution of other player’s cards i.e. there must be an even distribution of hearts among the 4 players if I do not want my opponents to trump my ace and king hearts. But on the other hand, this problem may be overcome by breaking trump early since I only have 2 dia and spades each.

Option 1 has got its drawbacks too. There is the possibilities that your partner has a 4 pointer cards and king clubs is his only strong card. I have several of such experience. And usually, someone who possesses an ace will have a higher probability of possessing a good hand. Hence, this explains my choice for picking ace of hearts as my partner.

Case 2 Flush (presence of akqj)



It is pretty obvious here that you should choose between ace dia and ace spades. I would advocate the choice of former as shown because the presence of 4 spades will indicate high possibilities that someone possess very few spades.

Case 3 Missing suit

It is highly advisable that you choose the ace of the missing suit since the possibilities of someone attempting to trump your partner card will be minimized. But the condition is that you must have at least 6 trump cards with the presence of ace and king.



3.2 When you bid without the ace of the trump card

I’ll always advise you to stick to the choice of ace of the trump card.

Case 1 Imbalance cards





Again you are present with 2 options here.

• Ace of spades
• Ace of the other suit

I would strongly advise you to choose ace of spades in similar situations. It is because firstly, I don’t have strong supporting cards and my experience tells me that in such situations, it is highly possible that the ace and queen belonged to one person. To prevent losing 2 sets on trumps, be sure to choose the ace of the trump sets.

Case 2 Presence of kqj with relatively strong supportive cards

(I didn’t manage to snap any visual examples)

When you have at least 5 trumps with king, queen and jack and at least 1 other ace and 3-4 other trumps cards, you have an option between choosing ace of the trump card or other ace. It is up to your preference and judgment to make your choice here. Whatever your choice of partner card maybe, skillful playing and cooperative partner is still the overriding factor to win in the game.


To be continued....

[scscsc]

Originally Posted by rainb0w81

High lvl NEVER CHEAT!!!!!!!!!!! i cheat for wat la?!?!?!? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

i didnt see ur card n u bid NT. i just read ur note.
i mean when im not bid NT, sometimes i call other suit's ACE!!!!!!!!!!
i learned it from my friend.
Pls u dont anyhow say!!!!!

Please read word by word of what i have written. i said: YOU ARE CHEATING IF A) YOU CALLED FOR 4NT, AND B) PICKED PARTNER ACE OF WHICHEVER SUIT YOU DO NOT POSSESS, AND THAT YOU C) CANNOT WIN ALL 10 SETS ON YOUR OWN.

isnt it logical to say that. say you have 9 spades (akqj10987 which can give you 9 perfect sets) and maybe 2,3,4 hearts and 3 diamond. would you want to call ace clubs to be your partner?! if you did and passed to him successfully, it only implies that either your luck is very good or you are cheating.

and did i ever accuse you of cheating? "RAINBOW CHEATS!" did i ever say that explicitly?! i just suggest the a high probability of cheating given the above 3 conditions.

and thank you rainbow for calling me a **** during our first game.

Originally Posted by ariel_23

ZZZZZZZZZZZ, u say until like tat is because u don have the capability to play like rain, she don cheat, she is capable, if u think cheatin or being crazy can get to lvl 106, then she even more pro, lol

yes i am a **** who is incapable of playing. and yes high levels means pro oh yes i totally advocate your idea. are you happy?

[rainb0ww]

Originally Posted by scscsc

and thank you rainbow for calling me a **** during our first game.

U're welcome =)
FYI : its not our 1st game but our last game

[scscsc]

Originally Posted by rainb0w81

U're welcome =)
FYI : its not our 1st game but our last game

yes of course. i'm too **** to play with a pro like you!