Alerting
Club bridge players don’t need to know a lot about the Laws of bridge to play successfully. Once you know the hierarchy of bids and the order of play, all you need to do is call the Director for any (and every) infraction. Alerting is a little more complicated, and many of us have only learnt it from what we’ve been told around a bridge table.
Three stages of alerts
This page concentrates on alerts during the auction, but they are only one of three stages of the alert procedure. These stages are:
- The pre-alert stage before bidding starts.
Before the round starts you should draw the opponents’ attention to any unusual agreements you have which might surprise them, or to which they may need to arrange a defence. - Alerts during the auction.
Alert all conventional bids and passes below the 4-level. See below for more details. - Delayed alerts.
At the end of the auction, the declaring side should draw attention to any unusual features, particularly any unusual self-alerting calls
Alerts during the auction
The primary rule is that you need to alert any bid that conveys a meaning other than a willingness to play in the denomination named or high-card strength or length (three cards or more) there.
Two bids need to be announced – that is the bidder’s partner needs to tell opponents someting about the bid. These are:
- 1 Club – announce how many clubs the bidder must have (e.g. 1 or more, 2 or more, 3 or more) – unless your 1C is a Strong Club or Unusual.
- 1NT opening – the points range (e.g. 15-17)
Five calls are self-alerting, that is they are calls that the alerting regulations would otherwise require to be alerted that do not need alerting:
- Doubles
- Redoubles
- Cue bids of an opponent’s denomination/suit (Michaels cue bid, cue-raise)
- Any calls at the four-level or higher, except opening bids in your system
- Any 2♣ response to a 1NT opening bid in an uncontested auction
The alerting procedure
The partner of the person who has made the call that is to be alerted says “alert” and either circles the bid on the bidding pad or places the Alert card on the table when using bidding boxes. They say nothing else unless asked for an explanation.
An opponent at their turn to call can ask for an explanation by the partner of the player who has made a call at any stage of the auction, that is, it doesn’t have to be asked straight after the Alert. A full explanation must be made of what the bid means, not just the name of a convention.
A more expansive Alerting Rules Summary is also available and players after more detail should read the Alerting Regulations
Alerting Rules Summary (PDF)
Alerting Regulations (PDF from ABF Website)