basics

BASICS

THE AUCTION
Choosing Trump by picking a card is easy, simple, and uncomplicated. It is also quite arbitrary; a lot is left to chance. Another way of deciding what suit is Trump is by holding a competitive auction. Auction what? The right to pick Trump. But that right must include an agreement (or a Contract) that you going to make a certain number of tricks. Therefore, a Whist bid must deal with two things: the number of tricks you think you can make and what suit (or no suit which is No Trump) you want for Trump.
       So the first part of a bid has to be the amount of tricks you hope to make. You could make more; but if you say that you are going to make eight tricks, you have to make at least eight. If you make more than eight, good, you win. If you make less than eight, then it is not so good, you lose.
      The second part of the bid is the suit (or No Trump) that you want to play the hand in. This is said after the numerical part of the bid. Thus a Whist bid is a number followed by a suit or No Trump.
      EXAMPLES: 10 Hearts - you want to make 10 tricks with Hearts trump. 7 Clubs - you want to make seven tricks with Clubs trump. In No Trump the bid might be 5 No Trump, which is, you hope to make 5 tricks without any suit as trump.
      Also, like a real auction there will be Bidding. And every bid has to be higher than the one before. Each bid says you are going to make a certain number of tricks when the suit bid is Trump.

BOOK
Let’s look at a car auction. Does the bidding start with $1.00? No. It would take forever to get up to the value of the car which might be $7,000.00. The auctioneer looks in a Book and says: “O K folks, the bidding is to start at $3000.00.”
      In Whist, if we had to start the bidding from trick one (on up to possibly trick 13), it would be quite tedious. So when we open the Whist Book we find that the bidding begins at the 7th trick. But instead of starting the bidding with 7, we will bid 1 and add 6.
       So if you bid 3 you are saying that you will win 3 + 6 or 9 tricks. If your opponent now bids 4, he has to win 4 + 6 or 10 tricks. The first six tricks are called Book. The Declarer has to make Book plus the number that he bid. Book or the first six tricks are included in every bid. (See the Bidding Ladder.)
      Do Test I, part A.

RANK

NT NO TRUMP
SPADES
HEARTS
uDIAMONDS
CLUBS

THE SUITS ARE IN
ALPHABETICAL
ORDER.
CLUBS LOWEST,
SPADES HIGHEST.
NO TRUMP
HIGHER THAN
SPADES.

THE BIDDING ORDER
In the auction we are also bidding for trump. How to include trump in the bid? If you bid 1

and some one says 1

, which is higher? (In an auction each bid has to be higher than the preceding bid.) Obviously there has to be a hierarchy or ranking of the suits. For English speaking people the suit ranking is in alphabetical order:
Clubs | Diamonds | Hearts | Spades.
(Other languages have other names for the suits.) Clubs being the lowest and Spades the highest. Then 1

is higher than 1

.
But in Whist we played without trump. This was called No Trump. Makes sense; you wouldn't call it apples. And No Trump can be bid. (The fifth suit??) In the bidding order No Trump is at the top; higher than the four suits. (See listing on the left.)

As an analogy, consider that the cents represent the four suits and No Trump: Clubs = 10; Diamonds = 30; Hearts = 50; Spades = 70; and No Trump = 90. And the dollars represent the bidding levels.
You can bid 1

($1.70) over 1

($1.30) because Spades are higher than Diamonds. A $1.70 is higher than a $1.30.
But if there is a bid of 1

($1.50), then you cannot bid
1

($1.10), which is lower than 1

($1.50). You have to go the the next higher level and bid 2   ($2.10). $2.10 is higher than $1.30.
      You can always make a bid at a higher level. But to make a bid at the same level you have to bid a higher ranking suit or No Trump.
      No Trump ($.90) is the highest bid at any level and can be bid over Clubs

($.10); Diamonds

(.30); Hearts

($.50); or Spades

($.70).
Do Test I part B