What are Compass Cards?

A pack of Compass Cards (CCs) - specially designed for teaching and learning Bridge - is a standard pack of 52 playing cards with a series of arrows on the back of each card. Each pack of CCs contains up to 20 pre-set deals that illustrate a specific Bridge topic or theme. CCs replace the traditional 'wallets' or 'boards' that you might have once learnt with, or the ones you now use to teach.

A pack of CCs contains up to 20 pre-set deals though, for clarity, I prefer the 12-deal pack. The 12 deals are represented by the 12 arrowed boxes in the top half of each card. These boxes are also printed upside-down on the bottom half of each card to ease the 'dealing' process. In each box, there is a number (1-12), an arrow and a letter.

The number refers to one of the 12 pre-set deals that are detailed in the corresponding booklet. The arrow refers to the direction in which the particular card should be dealt. The letter (N, E, S & W) refers to the dealer, i.e. the player who will commence the bidding for each numbered deal. This is pre-determined - North will always start the bidding on deal 1, East on deal 2 and so on clockwise round the table.