Venice Cup

Venice Cup Trophy

Verdi
See: Transfer Opening Three Bids

Verne, Jules
The author Mr. Jules Vernes is considered the master of fantastic stories, of stories about events which portended future machines and devices. In his adventure novel titles Around the World in 80 Days, first published in French with the title Le tour du monde en quatre-vingts jours, first published in 1873 he related the adventures of Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout, who attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. It is in Chapter 28, in which he describes a game of Whist being organized and played at eleven in the morning as the train had reached the dividing ridge of the waters at Bridger Pass, 7,524 feet above the level of the sea, one of the highest points attained by the track in crossing the Rocky Mountains. The Chapter 28 has been included, archived and preserved in a .pdf file format for future reference only.

Verify
To agree upon the score on a deal, session or match. All players must agree as to the correct amount of tricks won by each partnership and upon the correct score before entering the score for evaluation.

Vice Squeeze

Victoria Conventional Method
See: Two Hearts Negative Response

Victor Mitchell Trophy
This trophy honors one of the most colorful characters of the game of bridge, a champion player, philosopher and mentor to the stars. Mr. Victor Mitchell, a Grand Life Master with more than 10,000 masterpoints, won five North American championships including the Spingold in 1956 and 1959, the Life Master Men’s Pairs in 1962 and the Men’s Teams in 1962 and 1963. He was inducted into the Bridge Hall of Fame in 1996

Victory Certificates - Victory Awards
Begun by the American Contract Bridge League July 1942 all bridge players / winners at all future tournaments will be given a choice of a Victory Certificate or Victory Award, which was stamped by the American Contract Bridge League as such. The actual Victory Certificate testifies that the winner of the tournament has accepted the Victory Award in order that the value of the trophy may be donated in the winner's behalf to the cause of the war relief. The photograph below shows the presentation of the very first Victory Award, which was presented in July 1942.

Victory Points

Victory Points in Swiss Teams
In these events the scoring is done first in IMPs which are then converted to Victory Points. To receive credit for a full win, a team must win by three or more IMPs. A win by 1 or 2 IMPs constitutes a 3/4 win, with the losing team getting the other quarter of a point. However, the team winning the match receives the entire match masterpoint award.

Vienna Coup
This is the cashing of one or more winners to avoid blockage in a squeeze position. It is an unblocking play made in preparation for an Automatic Squeeze.

Vienna Relay Mini (Weak) No Trump
The Vienna Relay is a bidding system based on a weak No Trump and a forcing, but not necessarily strong 1 Club opening combined with a 1 Diamond waiting response. This version is in .pdf file format and, depending on your browser, will be automatically opened with your browser or otherwise downloaded to your computer and opened with Adobe Acrobat. Summary by Mr. Kerry Kappell.

Vienna Relay System
The Vienna Relay is a hybrid of the Vienna System and the Montreal Relay. It features a forcing but not necessarily strong 1 Club opening with a 1 Diamond waiting response. The 1 Club opening makes room for a weak 1 No Trump opening and eliminates all short Diamond openings. This version is in .pdf file format and, depending on your browser, will be automatically opened with your browser or otherwise downloaded to your computer and opened with Adobe Acrobat. Summary by Mr. Kerry Kappell.

Vienna System
Developed and promoted by Dr. Paul Stern in 1935, and which was perhaps the first conventional system to win acclaim among bridge players in the bridge international community. The foundation of the system is based on an artificial 1 Club bid for holdings of normal strength and on a 1 No Trump bid for stronger holdings. Dr. Paul Stern used the Bamberger Point Count of an Ace counting 7 points, a King counting 5 point, a Queen counting 3 points, and a Jack counting 1 point, but those adherents to this system have now revised this to the standard of the 4-3-2-1 point count.

View
Slang: to take a view is to make a decision regarding the bidding or play of a board.

Viking Club Opening Bids
These opening bids constitute a strong 1 Club relay system and was developed and devised by Mr. Glenn Groetheim of Norway, and published in his book: Viking Club, and excerpts of which may be found by clicking on the picture. Mr. Glenn Groetheim has been Norwegian champion many times and he has played in the Bermuda Bowl three times, earning a silver medal in 1993 and 2001, and a bronze medal in 1997. Mr. Glenn Groetheim has represented Norway in the Olympiad and European Championships frequently. He is also a frequent contributor to Scandinavian bridge magazines. Mr. Glenn Groetheim has played with Mr. Ulf Tundal and Mr. Geir Helgemo, his current partner is Terje Aa, with whom he has played with since 1993. He lives just outside Trondheim, Norway.

1 :		16 high card points		Any shape
1 :		11-15 high card points		Various shapes: 1. 5+ Diamonds or 2. both Minor Suits or 3. balanced holding, not 1 NT interval
1 :		11-15 high card points		5-card plus Heart suit
1 :		11-15 high card points		5-card plus Spade suit
1 NT:		10-12 high card points		Balanced shape: 1. between 10-12 high card points in 1st and 2nd Seat - not vulnerable 2. between 13-15 high card points in 3rd and 4th Seat - not vulnerable 3. between 14-16 high card points by unfavorable vulnerability
2 :		11-15 high card points		5-card plus Club suit
2 :		11-15 high card points		Distribution: 4-4-4-1 - any suit
2 :		6-10 high card points		Distribution: 6-card Heart suit
2 :		6-10 high card points		Distribution: 6-card Spade suit
2 NT:		6-10 high card points		Distribution: 5-5 plus in both Minor suits

Vinje Signals
In his book, New Ideas in Defensive Play in Bridge, Mr. Helge Vinje of the Oslo Academic Bridge Club devised a series of defensive signals, which pinpoint distributions and situations that are somewhat ambiguous in standard signaling.

Vint
Vint is a Russian card-game, similar to both bridge and whist and it is sometimes referred to as Russian Whist. Vint literally means a screw in Russian, and the name is given to the game because the four players, each in turn, propose, bid and overbid each other until one, having bid higher than the others care to follow, makes the trump, and his vis-a-vis plays as his partner.

The game developed during the latter half of the 19th century. In primitive forms, known as Siberian Vint, the value of the trick depended on the level of the contract and the trump suit. Later, this was simplified so that the level of the contract was the only thing the value of the trick depended on.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the kitty was added to the game. The highest bidder took a kitty of 4 cards to his hand and gave one card for every other player before the card play started. Towards the end of the 19th century, also the card exchange mechanism used in Skruuvi was born. The highest bidder took the kitty in his hand, gave 4 cards for his partner, who, in turn, gave one card for every other player. This enabled the declarer side arrange themselves very shaped hands, which lead to higher contracts. There are references to Vint in classical Russian literature, notably in the short stories of Anton Chekhov.

Vint has many similarities to rubber bridge: The cards have the same rank. The score of tricks is entered under the line, and points for slam, honors, and penalties for undertricks above the line. The bidding is similar to bridge, one bids the number of tricks and the trump suit or no trump.

During the progress of the bidding and declaring, opportunity is taken by the players to indicate by their calls their strength in the various suits and the high cards they hold, so that, when the playing begins, the position of the best cards and the strength of the different hands can often be fairly accurately estimated.

Unlike the game of bridge, in Vint there is no dummy, all taken tricks count toward a game, meaning that the tricks taken by the defenders as well as the tricks taken by the declarer side including overtricks, regardless of whether the contract was made or not, and the bidding ends after eight consecutive passes. Eeveryone passes twice including the player, who made the last bid. The value of a trick depends on the level of the contract. In higher contracts the value of a trick is higher.

The card play follows the standard whist formula. One must follow suit, but if unable to do so, one can play any card. The trick is won by the highest trump, if there are trumps in the trick, otherwise by the highest card of the suit led. The winner of the trick starts the next one. Points are awarded also for honours. In a no trump declaration aces count only as honors; in a suit declaration both the aces and the five next highest cards.

Violation

Virgin Islands Bridge Federation -

Vise Squeeze

Visualization

Amusing side-note: The following paragraph constitutes logically-placed words, which communicate information. Although the paragraph is visual, the reader may have difficulty in discerning the one factor, which determines that the paragraph is very unusual. The object of this training exercise is to illustrate that the brain, whether it sees or does not see, does indeed have difficulty in not only visualising something communicated, but also registering something communicated. The paragraph follows and the answer is provided at the bottom of this web page.

This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary that you would think that nothing is wrong with it at all, and, in fact, nothing is. But it is unusual. Why? If you study it and think about it, you may find out, but I am not going to assist you in any way. You must do it without any hints or coaching. No doubt, if you work at it for a bit, it will dawn on you. Who knows? Go to work and try your skill. Good luck!

Void
A holding of zero cards in any particular suit. The French word is chicane, and the word blank refers to the same situation.

Void-Showing Bids
Although Mr. Ely Culbertson originally conceived the idea, but never followed up on it, it was E.M.L. Beale of Cambridge University, England, about 1948, who took the concept to its fruition. It is the use of a jump bid, which has no natural meaning in the partnership agreement, to show a holding containing a void.

Voidwood Blackwood
A form of Roman Key Card Blackwood in which partner is asked to show Aces and/or Key Cards except in a particular suit, which has been determined to be a void. This convention is also known as Exclusion Keycard Blackwood.

Volmac Precision
This strong club system was developed by Mr. Benito Garozzo to train the Dutch Volmac group and was first used during the 1980 Olympiad in Valkenburg, The Netherlands. Thereafter this competition began formally in 1987 and was first called the Staten Bank Invitational, then the Cap Volmac World Top Tournament, and finally the Cap Gemini Pandata World Top Tournament.

Volmac Precision Opening Bids
These opening bids were devised and developed by Mr. Benito Garozzo in the year 1978. Several of the bridge players, who used this system of opening bids, which was designated as the Volmac Precision bidding system, are Mr. Anton Maas, Elly Schippers and Marijke van der Pas.

Volmac Precision Summary
A summary of the Volmac Precision System as presented by Mr. Daniel Neill. This information is also only preserved and archived on this site in a .pdf file format for future reference.

Vondracek Phenomenon or Vondracek Effect
Distribution in the game of bridge is tantamount, and on occasional deals both the partner and the responder will discover that both hold a fit of 5-3 fit in both Major suits. The partnership must then decide in which Major suit the contract should be declared for the optimal result. It has been proven by Mr. Felix Vondracek, published 1956 in a series of articles for the Bridge World, that the weaker of the two fits (or even the weakest of three) identically distributed potential trump suits offers the superior contract. The series of articles is titled The Weaker Suit For Trumps.

Von Zedtwitz Award
The von Zedtwitz Award is given annually by ACBL to a living or deceased player who made outstanding contributions to bridge either as a player or in some area outside of playing expertise. The first winner and recipient of this Award was Mr. P. Hals Sims.

Von Zedtwitz Gold Cup or Trophy

This feat was achieved by Mr. Howard Schenken in 1934, who won in 1931 and 1933 with Mr. David Burnstine and in 1934 with Mr. Richard Frey. He also won in 1941 with Mr. Merwyn Maier and in 1943 with Mr. John Crawford.

The trophy, put back into competition by the donor, was stolen in 1954In 1954 , when it was held by Mr. John Hubbel, but the trophy was stolen. The theft followed a television appearance during which Mr. John Hubbel had exhibited the trophy and given the address of his bridge club, where the cup was normally displayed. The trophy was never recovered and the present cup is an exact replica.

VoSS'N Principle - This is a .pdf file format. This principle called VoSS’N is an acronym for Void/Single/Single/None. It is mainly used when the responder has shown at least 8 cards in two specific suits and we have a known fit (one of the two suits is partner’s suit). It is also used when we open a Minor on the 1-level and partner preempts. This is mainly a feature in the Ekrens bidding system.

VP
An abbreviation for Victory Points.

VROOM Defense to 1 No Trump
This particular defense method is only for the more advanced player and more experienced partnership owing to its complexity. The summary is presented on this site with no examples or illustrations. The summary is compiled by Mr. Mohamed Abdel Bari and has been contributed by Mr. Scott Bennett Graham. The definition of the designation remains unknown.

Vu-graph or Vugraph
This is a method of displaying the bridge boards and play to the spectators or to an audience. This device promoted the interest in the game of bridge. In 1991, the ACBL commissioned Mr. Fred Gitelman, a computer programmer, to create such a device. The necessary funds were donated in the form of a grant from the estate of Mr. Peter Pender, and the final result was eventually named the PeterGraph, and which was first used in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1991.

Vulnerability
The state of being vulnerable, meaning that the scores obtained by fulfilling game contracts are adjusted to 500 points as opposed to non-vulnerable being only 300 points. The scores for the undertricks and doubled contracts are also adjusted. The state of vulnerability affects the bidding strategy to the point that the vulnerable partnership does not readily take unnecessary risks in the auction. The option of sacrificing on the side of the opponents is also much greater.

This particular designation has a history, which is not commonly known. On the fateful cruise of Mr. Sterling Vanderbilt through the Panama Canal in 1925 four gentlemen were sitting in the main cabin discussing a new scoring method for the increasingly popular game of bridge whist, auction whist, auction bridge, and they were attempting to decide the terminology after dividing the degree of daring for placing a bet, or a bid. During their discussion a young lady walked into the room, caught the gist of the conversation and the problem, and promptly offered the suggestion, "Why not call it vulnerable?" The name of this young lady remains a mystery to this day as reported by Mr. Alan Truscott on October 10, 1982.

BRIDGE; SIX HEARTS FROM A TO Z By Alan Truscott Published: October 10, 1982 If a bridge historian were offered a time machine capable of making three stops he would surely use it to solve some mysteries. He would start by sitting in on Vanderbilt's famous cruise through the Panama Canal in 1925, and he would find the name of the mysterious young woman who intruded into the men's foursome experimenting with ''a new game'' and suggested the word ''vulnerable'' to represent a partnership that was a game to the good. Vanderbilt and his friends could never remember her name. The last male survivor of this group was Francis Bacon III, who died recently in New York, but the intruder might still be alive. The traveller would find that it was the scoring rather than the contract bridge concept that was new. There had been a number of contract experiments before 1925, and Somerset Maugham, who took his bridge seriously, claims to have played contract during World War I. Going back another half century would be the appropriate next move for the time machine, to explore the murky period when whist turned into bridge. It was a primitive form of the game, admittedly, but one that included two crucial elements, a dummy and a little bidding. The traveller would have to visit Constantinople (now Instanbul), Cairo and perhaps Russia for clues. There is some evidence that the word ''bridge'' is of Russian origin, and some Tolstoy translations refer to bridge-playing. But the game was probably vint, which was a whist-like game with a little bidding but no dummy. The third stop for the time traveller would have to be the beginning of this century, when a crucial and virtually undocumented mutation occurred: bridge, sometimes called bridge whist, became auction bridge. Everyone could now take part in the bidding, which continued in commercial fashion as it does today. The authority in that period of transition was Joseph B. Elwell, later to be the victim of a celebrated murder. In his 1902 book ''Elwell on Bridge'' he described the diagramed deal. The bidding, of course, was much more abbreviated than the auction shown. The dealer, who was known as Z in those days announced ''I make it hearts,'' and that, in the absence of any doubles or redoubles, ended it. South chose hearts largely because of his honor holding in the suit - worth substantially more in the scoring of the period than the bonus for a grand slam. A modern declarer in six hearts would have a good deal to think about after a low trump lead. Let us suppose that East makes a good move by playing low, for his ten can have a value. South can draw trumps and lead a club to dummy's nine, planning to make his 12th trick in that suit. This will succeed if trumps are 3-3 and clubs no worse than 4-2 and vice versa. And if it fails, South can try for a squeeze in the minor suits. This has excellent prospects, but an even better plan is to try for a diamond ruff. If a defender scores the trump ten on the third round of diamonds, an unlikely event, that may be the only trick for the defense. South may still be able to try for a spade finesse with the idea of discarding his club loser on the spade ace. As it happens both plays succeed. In 1902 Z played for the diamond ruff and then drew trumps. He threw all dummy's clubs on the red-suit winners, coming down to four spades in dummy and a singleton club ace. In his hand he had a trump and his four black cards. East threw a spade instead of a club so Z was able to play spades, ruff the third round and make a grand slam. He did not have to bid a grand slam to score the bonus, just to make 13 tricks. West, who was known as A in those days, probably pointed out plaintively that he held the club eight - a card that would have allowed his partner to unguard clubs safely. NORTH S A 6 4 3 H 9 5 D A 4 C A J 9 4 3 WEST EAST S Q 10 5 S 9 8 7 2 H 7 6 4 H 10 3 2 D J 9 7 2 D 10 8 6 C 8 7 6 C K Q 10 SOUTH(D) S K J H A K Q J 8 D K Q 5 3 C 5 2 Neither side was vulnerable. The bidding: South West North East 1 H Pass 2 C Pass 3 D Pass 3 S Pass 4 H Pass 4 N.T. Pass 5 D Pass 5 N.T. Pass 6 H Pass Pass Pass. West led the heart four.

Vulnerability Conditions

Slang: amber = both sides vulnerable - United Kingdom.
Slang: equal = neither side vulnerable or both sides vulnerable.
Slang: favorable = non-vulnerable against vulnerable opponents.
Slang: green = non-vulnerable against vulnerable opponents - United Kingdom.
Slang: horse and horse = both sides vulnerable.
Slang: red = vulnerable against nonvulnerable opponents - United Kingdom.
Slang: red = vulnerable - in U.S.
Slang: red against red = both sides vulnerable - in U.S.
Slang: red against white = vulnerable against non-vulnerable opponents - in U.S.
Slang: unfavorable = vulnerable against non-vulnerable opponents.
Slang: white = non-vulnerable - in U.S.
Slang: white = neither side vulnerable - United Kingdom.
Slang: white against red = non-vulnerable against vulnerable opponents - in U.S.
Slang: white against white = neither side vulnerable - in U.S.

Vulnerable
Referring in rubber bridge as having scored one game. In duplicate, the vulnerability has been predetermined by the display on the particular boards to be played.

 

** Unusual paragraph: the paragraph does not contain the letter e, which is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages. The letter e is derived from the Greek letter epsilon.

 

 

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