Glossary of Terms Glossary of Terms | Ace of Spades | The Omnipotent one...All other cards must kneel to it. |
| Bag or Sandbag | A penalty for taking more tricks than bid. Accumulate 10 bags in a game and lose 100 points. Less than 10 per game has no penalty. |
| Bare | Having only one card of a suit. |
| Bid | The number of tricks a player/team is contracted to take. |
| Blind Nil | A bid of zero tricks before you even look at your cards. |
| Book | Occasionally used synonym for trick. |
| Break Spades | Playing the first spade of the game. A spade can not be lead until spades are broken. Spades are broken when a player is out of the suit lead, and trumps it. |
| Card Counting | Keeping track of the number of cards played in a suit. |
| Cut | To play a spade and trump a suit. |
| Double Nil | A bid of zero tricks before you even look at your cards. |
| Dump | See slough. |
| Flush Out | An attempt to bring out a card of a suit, (usually a high card) by leading a lower card of the same suit. |
| Hand | The hand is over when all cards from the deal have been discarded. |
| Long Suit | Having 4 or more cards of a suit. |
| Nil | A bid of zero tricks after you have seen your cards. |
| Overbid | A bid higher than the total number of tricks won. A team that has overbid will lose 10 times the number of their combined bid. |
| Set | A team not making their bid. A player not making their nil. Also a team bagging over the limit. |
| Short Suit | Having less than 3 cards of a suit. |
| Signal | A card played as to tip off what is left in ones hand, and how your partner should lead. (Not illegal) |
| Singleton | Having been dealt only 1 card of a suit. |
| Slough or Sluff | To play a card in a way as to avoid taking a trick. |
| Straight | Having cards of a suit in sequential order such as K, Q, J of diamonds. |
| Table talk | Signaling your teammate as to how to play or bid their cards by any means other than the act of bidding or playing your own cards. Very Illegal! |
| Trick | A round. All players play one card. |
| Trump | 1. To play a spade when a non spade card was lead. 2. Any spade. |
| Underbid | A bid less than the total number of tricks won. A sandbag is given for each trick underbid. |
| Void | Having been dealt zero cards of a suit. |
| . | (A single dot is just a lag check) |
| brb | Be right back |
| cma | Cover my a$$ |
| gga | Good game all |
| gha | Good hand all |
| ghp | Good hand pard |
| gl | Good luck |
| gla | Good luck all |
| glp | Good luck pard |
| gnp | Great nil pard |
| gsp | Great set pard |
| nbp | Nice bagging pard |
| nbu2 | Nice bagging you two |
| ndn | Nice double nil |
| ndsp | Nice double set pard |
| nhp | Nice hand pard |
| nn | Nice nil |
| ns | Nice set |
| nsp | Nice set pard |
| p | Pard or Partner |
| sp | Sorry pard |
| ty | Thank you |
| tyvm | Thank you very much |
| vnp | Very nice pard |
| wtgp | Way to go pard |