Jack
The fourth highest-ranking card in the game of bridge, also called the knave. As early as the mid-16th century the card was known in England and throughout the Commonwealth as the knave (defined as a male servant to royalty). Although the term jack was in common usage to designate the knave, the term became more entrenched when, in the year 1864, the American cardmaker Mr. Samuel Hart published a deck of cards using the letter J for the Jack instead of Kn to designate the lowest-ranking court card because the letter K was used for the King and subsequently was some ambiguity among the card players.

Jack Denies and 10s Implies
An opening lead convention in which a lead of the Jack denies any higher honor. It is a feature or element of the conventional method for opening leads designated as Coded Nines and Tens, and it states poetically: Jack Denies, Ten Implies.

Oswald Jacoby Step Responses
The original concept is designated as Control Showing Responses (also Step Responses) to a Strong, Artificial 2 Clubs opening. These original responses should be viewed first and then the variation and/or version as suggested by Mr. Oswald Jacoby.

Jacob's Ladder - Jacobs Ladder
This particular designation is a colloquial term used to describe a bidding auction in the game of bridge, whereby the two partners bid a suit at every level until a game contract has been reached. The term Jacobs Ladder is derived from a children's song, but Jacob's Ladder is a song written / composed in 1986 by Bruce Hornsby and his brother John Hornsby. Eventually the song became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. The song is set in Birmingham, Alabama. The lyrics of the song marries the Biblical image of Jacob's Ladder to someone who rejects proselytizing evangelists, and is instead struggling to get through life one day at a time. The appropriate lyrics with the possible reference to a term in the game of bridge are as follows:

Step by step, one by one, higher and higher,
Step by step, rung by rung, climbing Jacob's Ladder.

Note: the biblical reference is recorded in the Book of Genesis 28: 10-17. The list of winners can be found on the website of District 16.

Oswald and James Jacoby Service Award
The Oswald and James Jacoby Service Award was established in 1982. It is designed to honor those volunteers who have worked diligently at the Unit level and risen to recognition at the District level after many years of outstanding service. It is District 16's premier Service Award.

The standing Awards Committee is formed from past recipients of the Oswald and James Jacoby Award. The chairman is appointed by the District President. The committee reviews information submitted on candidates nominated by Units in District 16 and chooses an outstanding individual annually. The selection is kept confidential until presentation of the award is made at the Fall Regional in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Jacoby Modern Bidding System
Opening Bids and also the Complete Structure. The concept of the Jacoby Modern evolved from the Convention Card of Mr. Oswald Jacoby and his son, Mr. James Jacoby. This particular bidding system found some favor in the bridge community during the beginning period of evolving conventions, bidding systems and newer bidding methods. Their concept is derived from the the bidding system, which is now known as Standard American. The deviations are minor, but still effective in their approach. Our thanks to Mr. Jim Loy, who has preserved this information, which is presented here for a more historical purpose.

Jacoby Modern Opening Bids
Mr. Oswald Jacoby, together with his son Mr. James Jacoby, devised these opening bids during his bridge career with certain established requirements for the bridge player, intended to become standard. However, the concept of opening a 4-card Major suit was eventually replaced with the concept of a 5-card Major suit.

Jacoby Transfers Bids - Jacoby Transfers
A conventional response method to show length in one of the Major suits.

Jacoby Transfers For The Minor Suits
This convention, originally devised by Mr. Oswald Jacoby, is used by the responder whose partner has opened the bidding with 1 No Trump, and is an extension of the Jacoby Transfer convention. The concept of this convention was created for the responder, whose holding includes a long Minor suit and, generally, very little values.

Jacoby Transfer with Stayman Combined
This convention or treatment is employed by many partnerships and has become part of the partnership agreement. The concept began when it was realized that one convention would not suffice when holding a specific distribution of 5-4 in both Major suits. The treatment also is employed by partnership agreements if the responder holds both 5-card Major suits.

Jacoby Two No Trump - Jacoby 2 No Trump - Jacoby 2 NT
Note: This conventional response method is included in the same description as the Jacoby Plus Two No Trump Response Method. This conventional method was originated by Mr. Oswald Jacoby. The concept was devised to be employed only by Major suit opening bids in conjunction with the limit raises conventional method. It is this feature, which is important for the bridge student to remember, and that this conventional method is employed in conjunction with limit raises, and not a limit raise per se.

Jacoby Plus 2 No Trump Response to a Major Suit Opening
The origin is unknown. This is a method used by several partnerships and which is designed to employ the first response of 2 No Trump after a Major suit opening by the partner. It is based on the Limit Raises convention, but with slight differences and interpretations.

Jacoby Three No Trump - Jacoby 3 No Trump - Jacoby 3 NT
Jacoby Three No Trump is part of the Jacoby Two No trump system. The concept is rather straightforward although the application is confined to an exact description of an exact holding, which means that the holding may not vary in either point count or distribution. In order to respond to a Major suit opening by partner, the responder must have 15-17 high card points, not distributional points, and a 3-3-3-4 distribution with only a 3-card support for the opening Major suit of partner. The partner, who opened, has the choice of either passing, or bidding the known Major suit fit, or initiating a slam attempt.

Jacqueline Bruce Smith Vase
The competition for the presentation of The Jacqueline Bruce Smith Vase is conducted by the East District of the Scottish Bridge Union. The competition constitutes the East District Ladies' Teams championship. Conditions include that each team may constituted up to six members, any four playing on each night without substitution. The event was first contested in the year 1977.

 

Jam
Slang: a term to designate a preempt.

Jamaica Bridge Association

Jane Johnson Club of the Year Award
This Award was instituted in 2001 in honor of Jane Johnson, who was a longtime Manager of ACBL's Club Membership Department. The recipients of the Award are clubs which demonstrate extraordinary member service. The concept of Jane Johnson is that this service plus goodwill towards newer members begin at the club level. The criteria for the Jane Johns Club of the Year Award are:

1.	The club is part of the community. Its membership does more than play.
2.	The clubs works as a family. The members are responsible for the health of the club. They share duties of directing, clean-up, scoring, partnership, hosting, etc.
3.	The club members actively promote the club through good advertising, including word of mouth, and by inviting newcomers to visit and play.
4.	The club provides services to new and needy members, plus telephone calls to missing members, assistance in transportation, welcome committee and many other features.

Jane Johnson was former manager of ACBL Club Membership Department. Jane Johnson worked on the Fourth Edition of Bridge Encyclopedia. She was a charter member and assistant manager of Parkway Village B.C. from the early 1970s through 1982. She was Editor of the Club Managers Newsletter. At NABC’s Jane Johnson held the very popular and well attended Coffee with Jane for club managers. When Jane Johnson died in the year 2000, the ACBL honored her by establishing the Jane Johnson Award, to be given annually to the ACBL employee who provided the best customer service. It was decided that the award would be dual, namely one for a staff member at Headquarters and one for a tournament director.

 

Japan Contract Bridge League
The Japan Contract Bridge League was founded in Tokyo in 1953, and incorporated in 1982 under the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture in order to promote and popularize the game of Contract Bridge throughout Japan.

Jettison
The discard of a high ranking honor, normally an Ace or a King, and particularly the discard of a blocking card. The phrase originated in England by Mr. A.E. Whitelaw in 1921.

Jettison Squeeze
A designation also for the Unblocking Squeeze. See: Entry Squeeze

Jim Donaldson Trophy
This is a trophy awarded the winners of the Canadian Open Pairs Championship games conducted annually in Canada. The first Canadian Open Pairs Championship was held in 1985. Originally Canadian Olympiad Fund games and ACBL International Fund games were used as club qualifying games along with special games held only in September at Canadian clubs. A list of these winners are also preserved and archived on this site.

J-Moscito - 2004
J-Moscito is a variation of Moscito (Major Oriented Strong Club), originally invented by Mr. Paul Marston and Mr. Stephen Burgess. This version was developed by Mr. Jari Böling (Jari Boeling) and was last revised on October 8, 2004. This revised version is based on the concept of Honeymoon Moscito authored by Mr. Peter Buchen with the titles Moscito 2001 and Moscito 2002, and as described by Mr. Richard Willey and discussions with Mr. Kurt Häggblom. This is a .pdf file, which will automatically opened by your browser. This information has also only been preserved and archived on this site in .pdf file format for future reference.

J-Moscito - 2003
J-Moscito is a variation of Moscito (Major Oriented Strong Club), originally invented by Paul Marston and Stephen Burgess. This first revised version was developed by Mr. Jari Böling (Jari Boeling) and was last revised on April 25, 2003, This original version is based on the concept of Honeymoon Moscito authored by Mr. Peter Buchen with the titles Moscito 2001 and Moscito 2002, and as described by Mr. Richard Willey and discussions with Mr. Kurt Häggblom. This is a .pdf file, which will automatically opened by your browser. This information has also only been preserved and archived on this site in .pdf file format for future reference.

J-Moscito - 2002
J-Moscito is a variation of Moscito (Major Oriented Strong Club), originally invented by Mr. Paul Marston and Mr. Stephen Burgess. This version was developed by Mr. Jari Böling (Jari Boeling) and was last revised on October 22, 2002, This original version is based on the concept of Honeymoon Moscito authored by Mr. Peter Buchen with the titles Moscito 2001 and Moscito 2002, and as described by Mr. Richard Willey and discussions with Mr. Kurt Häggblom. This is a .pdf file, which will automatically opened by your browser. This information has also only been preserved and archived on this site in .pdf file format for future reference.

Joker Bridge
A form of the game of bridge played with 52 cards and one Joker. The origins of this variation are unknown, but this form of the game was presumably devised in the early 1930s as were other variations. The player to the left of the dealer receives 14 cards. The deal of the cards is presumed to be one card in clock-wise rotation, although other forms of dealing may have been valid. After the cards have all been dealt face down on the table and before any player views his cards, the dealer selects one card from the 14 cards of the player on his left and separates it from the other 13 cards.

This card may not be viewed by any other player since it would be scored as a 100 point penalty against that pair. Following this action all players then have 13 cards and the auction begins and the contract and declarer are established. In the case that the 14th separated card is not the Joker, any player holding the Joker can play it at any time and the Joker wins any trick, even it that trick contains the Ace of trump. A unique feature of this form of bridge is the fact that the player holding the Joker is permitted to discard a non-trump on one round of trump and then afterwards play the Joker to win a second round of trump. Scoring was similar to the values normally assigned to the Major and the Minor suits. However, slam bonuses or premiums were reduced to 200 points for a small slam and 400 points for a grand slam, regardless of vulnerability. This form of bridge was quite popular, but remained a fad of the times. See also: Midget Bridge and Five Card Bridge.

John Carruthers Trophy
This Trophy is awarded to participants in the World Junior Teams.

Past Winners have been:

1991	John Carruthers, NPC, Mark Caplan, Eric Sutherland, Fred Gitelman, Geoff Hampson, Bronia Gmach, Mike Roberts
1993	John Carruthers, NPC, Geoff Hampson, Bronia Gmach, Eric Sutherland, Mike Roberts, Jeffrey Blond, Nicholas L'Ecuyer
1995	John Carruthers, NPC, Frederic Plack, Darrell Kovacz, David Levy, Jeff Blond, Eric Sutherland, Mike Robers
1997	Canada Red: Fred Gitelman & S. Windestock, NPC, Jeff Blond, David Levy, Frederic Pollack, Mike Roberts, Eric Sutherland, Darren Wolpert - Canada White: J. Gowdy, NPC, David Halasi, Colin Lee, Danny Nadler, Mike Nadler, Barry Piafsky, Ben Zeiderberg
1999	Canada 1: Johathan Steinberg, NPC, Darren Wolpert, Ben Zeidenberg, Mike Nadler, David Halasi, David Grainger, David Brower - Canada 2: Eric Sutherland, NPC, Josh Heller, Ian Boyd, Erin Anderson, Craig Barkhouse, Colin Lee, Gavin Wolpert
2001	Les Amiols, NPC, Erin Anderson, Ian Boyd, Josh Heller, Vincent Demuy, Gavin Wolpert, David Grainger
2003	Martin Hunter, NPC, Gavin Wolpert, Vincent Demuy, David Grainger, Daniel Lavee, Ian Boyd, Charles Halasi
2005	Jonathan Steinberg, NPC, Eric Kokish, Coach, Vincent Demuy, Gavin Wolpert, David Grainger, David Lavee, Tim Capes, Charles Halasi

John E. Simon Award
This award has been suspended and is temporarily inactive. Mr. John E. Simon was born in 1897 and died in 1993 of St. Louis, Missouri. He was named an ACBL Honorary Member and was Life Master #641. He donated this award for presenting the best sportsmanship at the bridge table. This award is known as the Sportsman of the Year Award.

Emma Johnston
At the age of 114, Emma Johnston was considered the oldest living American when she passed away. She was also a bride player, who could do arithmetic in her head.

John Wayne Bridge Convention
This convention was created by graduate students at Princeton in the late 1990s and early in the year 2000, but was begun years earlier by the family Miller, according to Mr. Steven Miller. The family members often played Whist, which is a card game related to bridge where the players only bid once (without naming a suit) and no hands are placed face-up. As initiated by Mr. Jeffrey Miller, the method began as a way to goad opposition (or sometimes one's partner!) into bidding high, by making statements such as John Wayne would bid 5.

Joppen No Trump - Joppe's No Trump Continuances
This information has also only been preserved and archived on this site in .pdf file format for future reference.

The first link is to the website and the second link is to Joppe's NT, which has been translated to English by Mr. Jari Böling Finnish version, published online in the year 2004, can also be found online, which has also only been preserved and archived on this site in .pdf file format for future reference.

Jordan Two No Trump - Jordan 2 No Trump
This conventional response method following an opening bid by partner of a Major suit, followed by a double by the opponent, allows the responder to convey accurate information about suit length and the amount of values held. This conventional method was devised by Mr. Alan Fraser Truscott.

Josephine
The Grand Slam Force associated in Europe with Josephine Culbertson, who published an article in The Bridge World magazine regarding this method, which was devised by her husband Mr. Ely Culbertson.

Journalist Leads - Journalist Lead
The term Journalist seems to stem from a series of articles in the respected Bridge Journal in the United States. While these leads were popularized by the Bridge Journal in the 1960s, they were described earlier by Mr. Helge Vinje of the Oslo Academic Bridge Club.

Jump
A bid at a higher level than the minimum required to be legal.

Jump Ball Defense Method
The origin of this conventional method is unknown. The concept behind this conventional method is to employ it after an opponent has opened the auction with 1 No Trump. The range of the No Trump bid should be determined and/or announced before implementing Jump Ball since the values have to be adjusted accordingly by the intervening bidder. The holding of the intervenor should be of a distributional pattern in order to justify an overcall.

Jump Bid
A call which is more than necessary to raise the previous bid and made at any point after the auction has been opened.

Jump Cuebid
A bid of a suit originally called by an opponent, but made at a higher level than necessary.

Jump Cuebid Overcalls - Non-Jump Cuebid Overcalls - Andersen's Cuebid
The origin of this defense method is unknown. It is also referred to and known as Andersen's Cuebid, and is assumed to be a reference to Mr. Ron Andersen and his various publications, one of which is titled Killing Their No Trump,

Jump IQ
See: Invisible Cuebids

Jump Overcall
A jump overcall at a higher than minimum level, as an overcall of 2 Spades or 3 Clubs over a 1 Heart opening. The significance of these Jump Overcalls falls into three categories:

1.	Weak Jump Overcalls which equal a Weak Two opening of 6-10 HCPs.
2.	Intermediate Jump Overcall which is a holding close to a minimum opening.
3.	Strong Jump Overcall which is a holding worth an opening followed by a jump.

Jump Preference
A preference at a higher than minimum level of the original suit bid by the partner. The action by one partner of a jump preference has the intention of returning partner to the original suit, which is, at the same time, encouraging and promises at least a 3-card support for that suit. For a Major suit this action shows exactly a 3-card support, but this restriction has been lifted to include a 4-card suit by many partnerships.

Jump Raise
A raise at higher than minimum level, as in the partnership sequence 1 Club - 1 Heart - 3 Hearts.

Jump Rebid
A same suit rebid at a higher than minimum level, as in the partnership sequence 1 Club - 1 Heart - 3 Clubs. A Jump Rebid can be executed either by the opener or by the responder. It is a matter of partnership agreement as to whether these jump rebids are forcing or non-forcing.

Jump Reverse
This action is purely artificial to show a singleton in an unbid suit. Although not well known or employed, various experienced bridge players use this action since a simple reverse is often viewed as 100% forcing in all partnership agreements.

Jump Shift
A jump bid in a new suit.

Junior
A bridge player under the age of 25.

Junior Bridge Program
ACBL's Junior Bridge Program provides playing and social activities for players under the age of 26 designed to develop a corps of dedicated younger players. One of the goals of the program is to produce Juniors with the skills to sustain ACBL's position in the future as a world bridge power.

Junior Camps
Every other year in odd-numbered years, the ACBL encourages participation in the summer Bridge Camp and World Junior Pairs Competition sponsored by the WBF. ACBL offers a Junior Bridge Camp in the even-numbered years.

Junior Camrose Trophy
See: The Home International Series

Junior Corps
Members of this group are ACBL's elite Junior players who are recognized as the future of the organization. Junior Corps members are charged with working together with unit officials and tournament organizers to promote bridge among young people.

Junior Master
A player holding 5 to 19.99 masterpoints holds the rank of a Junior Master.

Junior Memberships
ACBL offers a discounted membership to players under the age of 26, who are currently enrolled in school and a student membership to players under the age of 19, who have participated in the School Bridge Lesson Series Program.

Junior Month
The month of February is Junior Month in the ACBL. During this month, clubs are encouraged to run special games to benefit the ACBL Junior Program which supports activities for Junior bridge players. Participants pay an extra but minimal fee per game, which is then donated to this fund for Juniors. Clubs may conduct as many as four Junior Fund Games each month of the year.

Junior Pairs or Teams
Both members of all pairs must be under a certain age limitation, generally 25 years of age, in order to compete in the Junior Pairs or Junior Teams. It is run along the lines of an open pairs.

Junior Player of the Year
The annual Junior Masterpoint Race is determined by the number of masterpoints won by members who had not reached their 26th birthday as of December 31 of the preceding year.

Junior Team Trials
This qualification trials is the ACBL's method of selection of teams for the biennial World Junior Bridge Team Championship, inaugurated by the World Bridge Federation in 1987. The trials to select the U.S. representatives is currently held in conjunction with the Summer NABCs.

Junk
Slang: poor cards; poor honor cards; deemed valueless by the holder.