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¶ Convention Card 📇
This is the convention card used by the bot, anyone playing with the bot should follow this convention card.
¶ Signals 🔣
Signals enable opponents of the declarer to communicate in order to signal their suit preference for future tricks.
During the play stage in bridge, it is common for defenders while playing cards that are either sure losers or has little effect on the game, to signal their partner about their strongest suit preference in the hope that their partner can lead a card in this suit. When done correctly signals can make a big difference for the defense.
The Bridge Champ bot supports the following signal types:
- Suit preference signal
- Honor sequence signal
- Doubleton signal
Suit preference signal
Signaled when a defender has no cards in the trick suit and cannot or doesn't want to ruff (NT contract; trick suit is the trump suit; no remaining trump cards or only lower trumps), in this case the played card is used to signal the suit preference using a simple algorithm outlined below.
For this signal we define "high" cards as (9,8,7,6), "low" cards as (2,3,4,5).
In a no-trump game, other than the trick suit there are 3 other suits, playing a "high" card from one of the suits signals that the preferred suit is the higher of the remaining two. Playing a low card from one of the suits signals preference for the lower of the remaining two suits.
In a trump game, if the trump suit is the trick suit, signal works the same way as in a no-trump game.
Otherwise, the trump suit and the declared trick suit are 2 different suits, and there are 2 remaining suits. To signal preference for one of the remaining suits, we signal with the lowest card of the other suit.
For the suit preference signal, we always signal using non-honor cards [2-9].
Honor sequence signal
Signal to your partner that you are holding a sequence of 4 or more consecutive cards in a single suit starting with an honor card.
To signal the sequence, the player discards the highest card in the sequence (must be an honor i.e. Jack or higher).
Doubleton signal
Signal that you have exactly two cards in the trick suit or a discarded suit. Can be signaled once per suit. Not allowed if the two cards include a honor card.
To signal a doubleton, the player plays the higher card of the two cards first. The signal can then be detected once the player plays the lower card. In all other cases (3+ cards) when all cards has equal power, always play the lowest card.
The bot supports both sending signals and understanding signals sent by another player.