The ACBL has all of the supplies you need to play competitively or at home. Go to Shop Bridge.
- Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel File
- Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Word
- Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Online
- Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Converter
Playing Cards
Practice bidding Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC). This bridge app is available for install on Android and Chrome. The autobidder is designed to follow the official ACBL pamphlet as well as the excellent Standard Bidding With SAYC by Ned Downey and Ellen Pomer. Improvements are made to the autobidder regularly. Responder with a 4+ card Major, bid that Major. If Opener also has 4 cards in that Major, you have found your 8+ Fit. (12-15 HCP) Opener will rebid that Major at the lowest level or with Inv. (15+) will jump a level. Responder with 4-4 in both Majors, bid 1H. Opener w/out 4 hearts but with 4 spades will bid 1S. W/out 4 of either Major.
Select from many great card designs, including our popular ACBL logo cards. Shop Bridge offers ensembles, two-deck sets, regular- and jumbo-face cards and more.
Convention Cards
ACBL Convention Card
You can print a blank card. You may also save the file to your computer and edit it for your personal use.
Get helpful instructions for filling out your card.
ACBL “Fat Free” Convention Car
Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel File
Download a completed card with a basic system for you.
Basic 2 over 1 Convention Card
Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Word
From Larry Cohen’s Conventional Wisdom Lite series featured in the ACBL Bridge Bulletin.
Download the completed card. To view the Conventional Wisdom Lite series, click here.
Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC)
Download this as well as full instructions for using this popular convention card.
Conventional Wisdom
How to fill out the convention card line by line with advice from ACBL editors. Click here.
Commonly Used Conventions
Explanations of how to play commonly used conventions from the Bridge Bulletin’s Bidding Toolkit series. A new convention is added each month
Convention Card Editors
Other Convention Card Editors (none of these are supported by ACBL)
How to Keep Score
ACBL Duplicate Instant Scorer and scoring for duplicate, teams and rubber bridge.
Home-Style Supplies
Baron Barclay, a website where you can get the supplies you need to score and list results for your home rubber bridge games.
SAYC is a bidding system based on 5-card majors and a strong 1NT. It is prevalent in online bridge games and derives its origins from the ACBL.
- The ACBL SAYC Convention Card (PDF)
- The ACBL SAYC System Booklet (PDF)
General Approach
The following is from the ACBL's treatise on SAYC:
- Normally open five-card majors in all seats.
- Open the higher of long suits of equal length: 5-5 or 6-6.
- Normally open 1 with 4-4 in the minors.
- Normally open 1 with 3-3 in the minors.
- Notrump openings show a balanced hand and can be made with a five-card majorsuit or a five-card minor suit.
- 1NT = 15-17
- 2NT = 20-21
- 3NT = 25-27
- Strong conventional 2 opening.
- Weak two-bids in diamonds, hearts and spades.
Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Online
| Bid | Description | Related Conventions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 opening bid | 3+ clubs, 13-22 points | Limit Raises |
| 1 opening bid | 3+ diamonds, 13-22 points | Limit Raises |
| 1 opening bid | 5+ hearts, 13-22 points | Limit Raises Jacoby 2NT Jordan 2NT |
| 1 opening bid | 5+ spades, 13-22 points | Limit Raises Jacoby 2NT Jordan 2NT |
| 1NT opening bid | Balanced, 15-17 HCP | Gerber Jacoby Transfers Stayman |
| 2 opening bid | 22+ HCP or 9+ tricks | — |
| 2// opening bids | 6-card suit, 5-11 HCP | RONF |
| 2NT opening bid | Balanced, 20-21 HCP | Gerber Jacoby Transfers Stayman |
| 3/// opening bids | 7-card suit, 5-11 HCP | — |
| 3NT opening bid | Balanced, 25-27 HCP | Jacoby Transfers Stayman |
| 4/ opening bids | 8-card suit, 5-11 HCP | — |
| 4/ opening bids | 7+ card suit, 7 tricks not vul. or 8 tricks vul. | — |
Standard Bidding At Bridge With Sayc Pdf To Excel Converter
| Bid | Description | Related Conventions |
|---|---|---|
| Takeout Doubles | Takeout for the unbid suits, OR 17+ points | — |
| Negative Doubles | Through 2 | — |
| SOS Redoubles | Redoubling for takeout after the opponents double for penalty | — |
| Bid | Description | Related Conventions |
|---|---|---|
| 4 Gerber | Asks for aces in a no-trump contract | DOPI DEPO ROPI |
| 4NT Blackwood | Asks for aces in a trump contract | DOPI DEPO ROPI |
| 5NT Grand Slam Force | Invites a grand slam with 2 of 3 top trump honors | — |
| Bid | Description | Related Conventions |
|---|---|---|
| 1-level suit overcall | 8-16 HCP, 4+ card suit | — |
| 1NT | Balanced, 15-18 HCP | Gerber Jacoby Transfers Stayman |
| Michaels Cuebid | 5-5 or longer in two suits | — |
| Unusual 2NT | 5-5 or longer in the lower two unbid suits | — |
| Weak jump overcalls | 6-card suit, 5-11 points | RONF |
| Vs. Suit | Vs. Notrump | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| xx | xx | Includes all doubletons, such as KJ, QJ, J5, and 32. The only exception is AK - lead the king. |
| AKx | AKx | — |
| KQx | KQx | — |
| QJx | QJx | — |
| JTx | JTx | — |
| JT9x | JT9x | — |
| KJTx | KJTx | — |
| KT9x | KT9x | — |
| QT9x | QT9x | — |
| xxx | xxx | Low vs. suit contracts. Top of nothing vs. no-trumps. |
| xxxx | xxxx | 4th-best vs suit contracts. Second-highest vs. no-trumps (without holding an honor). |
| xxxxx | xxxxx | 4th-best vs suit contracts. Second-highest vs. no-trumps (without holding an honor). |
- Standard attitude signals. High encourages, low discourages.
- Standard count signals. High-low shows an even # of cards, low-high shows odd.
Origins
SAYC is a bidding system created by the ACBL in the 1980s for tournament play. The intent was to offer 'Yellow Card' events in which everyone played the same system, thereby avoiding alerts and misunderstandings.
When online duplicate bridge began in the late 1990's, SAYC filled the need for a default convention card. It gained traction on OKbridge and was later adopted by Bridge Base Online. Ironically, SAYC is more popular today as the de facto system in online pickup games than the carefully standardized sit-down events which the ACBL originally envisioned.
Online adoption has led to grassroots modifications of the system, with some players defining 'SAYC Basic' vs. 'SAYC Full'. Officially, the ACBL does not make this distinction.
It is also worth noting that SAYC lacks several conventions and treatments that are popular in modern tournaments. Experienced players may consider filling some 'holes' in the system, including (but not limited to):
- A defense to 1NT, such as Cappelletti or DONT
- 1/ : 2NT as 10-12 HCP instead of 13-15 HCP
- 1/ : 3NT as 13-15 HCP instead of 15-17 HCP