When I first got to the game of bridge, it’s fair to say that my first true obstacle was bidding: Poker and blackjack lacked this aspect of foreseeing where your card game was going to go, and I wasn’t a regular player of other trick-taking games at the time – which means that I felt like a fish right out of water.

Now, bidding is a lot more familiar (but arguably, it’s still one of my short suits), but I’m certainly better than it used to be.

Once I got past bidding, there were a few other things I needed to get a handle on. As a boost to anyone who might be newer to the concepts found in bridge, here are 7 important concepts (other than bidding) to grasp:

1. Long and Short Suits

Some suits are long, and some suits are short. It’s not a reference to something you should tell your tailor, but instead refers to the amount of cards in each suit. How your cards end up dealt to you has a lot to do with how you play your game from there (and of course, how you bid to begin with) – and looking at long and short suits gives you a better idea of what you’ve got.

2. Honor Cards

The concept of honor cards exist in most card games: These cards are the Blue Eyes White Dragons of your card deck in bridge – and using these at the right time can either win the game or make a win near-impossible. A, K, Q and J are your honor cards: Use them very, very carefully throughout your game.

3. Ruffing

Most of the time, you’re following suit – unless you can’t, or sometimes unless you have a card in the trump suit. When you’re ruffing, it means that you’re using a card from the trump suit to win a trick (instead of following suit) and it’s a concept that you’ll see referred back to often.

4. Following Suit

The concept of following suit is one that’s made it into popular daily speech, but I don’t think a lot of people stop to think about the game of bridge when they say it. When you have the cards to do so, you’re following suit – and when you no longer have cards in that suit, the suit is void and it takes some more creative thinking about your hand.

The winner of the last trick is who gets to lead the suit, of course.

5. Void

A suit is considered void when there are no cards left in it to play – thus, when you stop following suit and have to start looking at your other cards as playable options to get to the end of the game. Of course, it’s very important to know when you’re leading up to a void suit: It can change the entire way you have to play the game from there.