The bridge convention card

The Laws of Duplicate Bridge do not allow secret agreements. Whatever you and your partner have agreed, explicitly or through experience, the opponents have a right to know. A regulating body (the ACBL, the EBU, the WBF and so on) can require a system card to carry that disclosure, and almost all of them do. The card saves time at the table and gives the director a written record when an explanation is disputed.

At a friendly club game nobody will throw you out for forgetting your card, but the director can limit a pair without one to simple, standard methods, and you lose the protection the card gives you when something goes wrong. In a sanctioned event the rule is enforced. The bridge rules page has the wider rules of disclosure, and duplicate bridge explains the club game the card belongs to.

Each format asks the same questions in a different order. The ACBL card squeezes everything onto one side of a letter-size sheet with checkboxes. The EBU and WBF cards give you open boxes and expect you to write the meaning of each agreement in words.

The ACBL convention card

The current ACBL card was redesigned in 2022 to match the alert procedure that took effect in January 2021. It is one portrait page. The right half describes your own openings, and the left half covers competition, defense, leads and signals. Agreements that must be alerted are printed in red, so an opponent scanning your card sees at once which of your boxes are unusual.

The WBF convention card

The World Bridge Federation card is used at world championships and, in the EBL's version, at European events. It runs to two pages. The first holds defensive and competitive bidding, opening leads and signals in order of priority, special doubles, and a system summary with boxes for the general approach, special bids that may require defense, special forcing pass sequences, important notes and psychics. The second page is a grid with one row per opening bid from 1♣ up. For each opening you tick whether it is artificial and give the minimum number of cards, the level negative doubles apply to, a description, the responses, the follow-ups and what changes in competition or after a passed hand.

The header also asks for the system's WBF category, green for natural systems, then blue, red and yellow (highly unusual methods) for increasingly artificial ones. Many events restrict which categories may be played, and highly unusual methods usually need a written defense supplied in advance.

The EBU 20B system card

English club and county players use the EBU 20B. Its sections run general description of bidding methods, 1NT openings and responses, two-level openings, other aspects of the system the opponents should note, other opening bids (each with its points, minimum length and conventional meaning), defense after the opponents open, slam conventions, competitive auctions, other conventions, opening leads with a grid of holdings, and carding methods. The EBU asks you to write what a bid means, so "2♣ Stayman, 2♦ denies a major, may be weak" beats a bare "Stayman". Computer-printed versions are accepted as long as the layout and size stay close to the official card.

Below is a complete ACBL card for two common systems. The SAYC column follows the Standard American Yellow Card as the ACBL publishes it (see the SAYC guide). The 2/1 column shows the agreements most two over one partnerships play. Treat it as a starting point and change the lines you play differently, since 2/1 pairs vary more than SAYC pairs do.

Names and overview

Write both names and the system in a few words. The overview box asks for your minimum balanced strength for opening and for responding, and which openings are forcing. The line headed "bids that may require preparation" is the one most players skip and every opponent reads. Put anything there that the opponents need to discuss before the first board, such as a weak notrump, a Multi 2♦, a 2♥ showing both majors or a forcing 1♣.

Notrump openings

Fill in the 1NT range exactly ("15-17", never "strong"). If you play a different range by seat or vulnerability, use the second line. Then tick Stayman, the transfers you play and any follow-ups such as Smolen and Texas. Say what you play when they interfere, because opponents who plan to compete over your notrump will look for it. The Stayman and Jacoby transfers guides cover the standard structure.

Majors and minors

These boxes record the agreements that separate one partnership from another. In the majors, state the length (five-card majors in every seat for most American pairs), whether 1NT is forcing, and your raises: Jacoby 2NT, splinters, Bergen if you play it, Drury for passed hands. In the minors, give the minimum length of each opening and tick inverted raises if you play them. A 1♣ opening that may hold only two cards needs announcing, so the card should say so too.

Two-level openings

Give the range of each weak two, how you respond to 2♣ (2♦ waiting or 2♦ negative), and what 2NT asks over a weak two. If 2♦ is not a weak two in diamonds (Flannery, Multi, a strong bid), it goes in red and deserves a line in the overview as well.

Doubles, overcalls and defense

Most of the left side covers what you do when the opponents open. Write how high your negative doubles go, if you play responsive and support doubles, the point range of a one-level and a two-level overcall, and the style of jump overcalls. Then your defense to their 1NT, your cuebids, your methods after their takeout double and over their preempts. A blank in any of these boxes tells the opponents you play natural methods, so leave a box empty only if that is true.

Slams, leads and carding

Tick Blackwood or Roman Key Card and say which order of responses you use, 1430 or 0314. The carding boxes are the ones declarers read most often. Say if your attitude and count signals are standard (high encourages, high-low shows an even number) or upside-down, and what your first discard means. In the lead grids you circle the card you lead from each holding. Standard practice is the top of touching honors, the top of an interior sequence (the jack from KJ10x, the 10 from K109x) and a low card from a long suit headed by one honor. The opening leads and bridge signals guides go through each choice.

The card and the alert are two halves of the same disclosure. The card is there before the auction starts, and the alert tells the opponents in the middle of the auction that a call has a meaning they might not expect. In the ACBL, the partner of the player who made the call does the alerting. The bidder never alerts his own call.

Since January 2021 the ACBL rule is broadly that natural calls are not alerted and artificial ones are, with a list of exceptions. An announcement is a short spoken explanation that replaces the alert for a few common agreements. ACBL cards have long printed alertable agreements in red and announced ones in blue.

Two more pieces complete the system. A pre-alert is said at the start of the round, before anyone looks at their cards, for methods the opponents need to prepare for, such as a strong club system, canapé openings or a system that changes with seat or vulnerability (a 1NT range that varies does not need one). A delayed alert covers some conventional calls at the four level and higher made after the first round of bidding; the declaring side explains them at the end of the auction, before the opening lead. Other countries use different procedures (the EBU also announces the 1NT range and transfers, for example), so read the local rules when you play abroad.

A good player reads your card in about thirty seconds when you sit down. The order is usually the same. First the overview line and anything printed in red, then your notrump range, then your two-level openings, then your leads and signals, which matter on every board they defend. Before a match against a pair who play Namyats or a two-suited 2♥, they will agree their own defense on the spot.

• Ask at your own turn to call. You may look at the opponents' card or ask for an explanation when it is your turn, and the partner of the player who made the call answers.
• Ask about the whole auction when you can. Asking about one call can tell your partner which part of the auction interests you, and that can give partner unauthorized information.
• The defenders ask after the auction. The opening leader may ask before leading, and the other defender after the lead is face down.
• You may not read your own card. The Laws keep players from consulting their own card during the auction and play, so a partnership that needs the card to remember its methods is in trouble.

• Two different cards. Partners who fill in their cards separately often disagree on something, and when the cards disagree the director has no clear written agreement to go on, which usually ends in a ruling of misinformation against the pair.
• Names without meanings. "Lebensohl" or "Drury" alone leaves out which version you play. Write the follow-ups, or at least the key responses.
• Blank carding boxes. Declarers read your signals more than any other part of the card. Fill them in, even if all you play is standard.
• Marking what you hope to play. A gadget on the card that one of you would forget at the table gives the opponents false information. Leave it off until you both know it.
• A card that is never updated. After a change, change both cards the same day and date them.
• Hiding the overview. A weak notrump or a conventional 2♦ belongs in the box for bids that may require preparation as well as in its own section.

Most disputes the card settles are about one question. Was the explanation wrong, or was the bid wrong? If your partner describes your agreement correctly and you simply forgot it, that is a misbid. The opponents were told the truth about your methods and are not entitled to redress. If the explanation did not match your real agreement, that is misinformation, and the director can adjust the score when it damaged the opponents. Under the Laws the director presumes a mistaken explanation unless there is evidence to the contrary, and the convention card is usually that evidence.

In the auction above the opponents have no claim, since the card shows the transfer and North described it. Had both cards been silent about 2♦, or had one card said natural, the director would most likely rule misinformation. A psychic bid, a deliberate gross misstatement of your hand, is legal provided partner has no reason to expect it. A pattern of psychs that partner seems to allow for becomes an agreement, and an undisclosed one at that.

1. 1.Start from a published card, SAYC or a standard 2/1, and agree to play it as printed.
2. 2.Change only the things you will both remember. Three agreed changes beat ten half-remembered ones.
3. 3.Fill in the card together, sitting side by side, and make two identical copies.
4. 4.Discuss the five areas that come up on almost every board first. Those are the 1NT range, the two-level openings, defense to their 1NT, leads and signals.
5. 5.Keep a supplementary sheet for continuations that do not fit on the card. Show it to opponents if they ask, but keep the card itself readable.
6. 6.After each session, look at the boards where you disagreed and update the card the same week.

If you are not sure which conventions to add first, the bridge conventions overview lists them by how often they come up, and the bridge bidding cheat sheet puts a whole standard system on one page.

Each regulator publishes its blank card. The ACBL card is a free PDF on acbl.org and is also sold in printed pads by bridge suppliers, along with plastic convention card holders that stand on the table. The EBU publishes the 20B on its website, and the WBF and EBL publish their cards for championship use. You can print any of these and fill them in by hand, which works but gets messy after the third change.

Online, Bridge Base Online lets you build a card from its own form or upload one, and RealBridge players share a link each round. For EBU online events a link to your card is required at every change of table.

Our convention card builder fills in the official layouts on screen. You choose a template (ACBL, EBU 20B or WBF) and fill in a form whose sections follow the printed card box by box, while a live preview shows the real sheet as you type. Clicking a section of the sheet jumps to its fields, suit symbols print in color, and the card saves itself as you go. Print / PDF opens a print-ready page in the card's own size, US letter for the ACBL card and A4 for the others, which you print or save as a PDF from the browser.

A free account holds one card. A paid plan (Pro or Master) holds as many as you like, shares a card with your partner by email for viewing or editing (editing needs a paid plan on both sides), keeps numbered versions you can go back to, and can publish a version to the Explore feed with tags such as 2/1 GF, Acol or Precision. Anyone can browse Explore by name, template and tag, and once signed in you can copy a published card to your list, then make an editable copy of it as the base for your own. To make yours, open the convention card builder, pick the template your club uses and start with the overview line.