Bridge has a lot to find out once you’ve made your way past the basic plays and conventions.
One of my favorite parts of bridge to explore is bridge terms. These are words that mean things to bridge players – and sometimes, ones that have alternate meanings far outside of bridge.
Here’s a handful of nonalphabetical bridge terms that happened to grab my interest this week, all picked at random from a metaphorical huge hat.
A Yarborough
Simply, a yarborough is a weak hand. More specifically, it’s one with nothing higher than a nine. It’s the kind of hand that you’d need a miracle to do anything with,
A Frozen Suit
A frozen suit is one that can’t be played without damage to either partnership in the game. Hence, the suit being frozen in time – and not really useful for anyone.
A Golden Fit
When you’ve got a golden fit in your hand, that means you have at least eight cards between the two of you in the same, useful suit.
A Huddle
When a huddle happens, it means that a player is taking an extended time to make their next move. It’s not illegal in play, but it’s usually worth noting by the commentator when it takes place.
Book
The term “book” means tricks above 6, but its origin is more interesting. In whist days, tricks won were stacked (almost in the same way that chess pieces are taken off the board as they fall) in a book format – and while the game changed a little, the term stuck.
A Palooka
A palooka is a (slightly insulting) term that applies to someone who is horrible, terrible or atrocious at playing bridge – and usually deliberately so. (Yes, I’ve actually heard of people who consistently played badly just to make sure they didn’t get called back. I’m not sure why anyone would, but hey.)
Pitch
This has nothing to do with baseball, of course. Pitching is just another term for discarding.
Post-Mortem
The term post-mortem refers to the analysis of a bridge game after it has taken place. I’ve always loved the term when it applies to cards – and that’s because it’s a slow, deliberate and careful dissection of a bridge game by each of its elements. Just like a real-life autopsy.
Pump
When a pump occurs, it means you’ve forced out an opponent’s trump. I guess it might have fallen out of popular use because it’s just not polite to announce you’ve “pumped the opponents.”
A Quack
The term quack combines queen and jack to mean situations where either card can be played for the exact same effect. This term has always sounded just ever-so-slightly sarcastic to me (even when it’s not meant to be): “Quack.” See?