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L&EC - Abbreviation for Laws & Ethics Committee [English, Welsh or Scottish]

La Hire - Jack of Hearts, referring to the J, the Comrade-In-Arms from the Joan of Arc.  See History of Cards and Card Names
 

Lancelot - The colloquial term referring to the J (Jack of Clubs).  See History of Cards and Card Names
 

Landy - See Conventions

Last Round, End Of - See Law 8

Last Train - See Conventions

Late Play - See Law 15

Lavinthal - See Conventions

Law Commission - National Laws Commission - See Law 93

Bidding

Law of Total Tricks - A bidding methodology predicated on suit length, emphasizing both constructive opportunities as well as preemptive properties.  In it's most simple form, "The Law" suggests a partnership bid to equal the number of combined suit length, with adjustments based on aggregate vulnerability and other factors.  See Details and Hand Evaluation Books
 

Rubber

Laws of Contract Bridge - The set of rules for Rubber Bridge players, providing correct play and remedies where a player accidentally, carelessly or inadvertently disturbs the proper course of the game, or gains an unintentional advantage.  The offending player should graciously receive a penalty to return equity to the game. See Laws
 

Laws

Laws of Duplicate Bridge - The set of rules for Duplicate Bridge players, providing correct play and remedies where a player accidentally, carelessly or inadvertently disturbs the proper course of the game, or gains an unintentional advantage.  The offending player should graciously receive a penalty or an adjusted score awarded by the Tournament Director to return equity to the game. See Laws
 

Laws Commission Ruling - ACBL guidelines for Bridge Directors in various situations.  See Tech Files Laws Commission Ruling
 

Laws Interpretation - ACBL guidelines for Bridge Directors in various situations.  See Tech Files Laws Interpretation

Laydown - A position where all the remaining tricks are easily attainable.

Play

Laws

Lead - Referring to the first card played on a trick.  Also see Opening Leads, Passive Lead, Trump Lead, Notrump Game Doubled, Lightner Double, Fisher Double, Journalist, Active Defense, Forcing Defense, Carding,  Fourth Best or Third and Fifth leads, Coded 9 and 10 (Jack denies, 10 implies), Obvious Suit Preference, and Middle Up Down (MUD), Bottom Of Something Top Of Nothing (BOSTON).

Also see Suit Combinations (Best lead-play combinations)

During auction period - See Law 24
Misinformation affecting - See Law 47
Premature - See Law 24
Retraction of - See Law 47
Right to - See Law 44

Also see books on Leads

Lead Back - To return the same suit previously led by partner.

Lead Directing (Double, Raise) - A call that invites partner to lead a specific suit. Also see Lightner Game Double and Fisher Lead Directing Double
 

Leader - The player to the left of the declarer who makes the opening lead.

Laws

Lead Penalty -

After action in violation of obligation to pass - See Law 37
After bid of more than seven - See Law 38
After bid out of rotation - See Law 31
After call following close of auction - See Law 39
After cancellation of change of call - See Law 25
After change of call - See Law 26
After correction of insufficient bid - See Law 27
After double out of rotation - See Law 32
After redouble out of rotation - See Law 32
After unauthorized information - See Law 26
Inability to comply - See Law 59
When there is one penalty card - See Law 50
When there is more than one penalty card - See Law 51

Laws

Lead Out Of Turn - Any lead faced out of turn. 

Acceptance of - See Law 53
During auction period - See Law 24
Induced by opponent - See Law 47
Misinformation affecting - See Law 47
Opening - See Law 48  54
Procedures following - See Law 53
By declarer - See Law 55
By defender - See Law 56
Retraction of - See Law 47

Duplicate Decisions   Accepted    Opening  
Declarer   Defender    Premature  Simultaneous

Director Tech File (Declarer)   Defender

Lead Through Strength - To play through an opponents strength to partners weakness, providing a finesse opportunity.

Lead up to Weakness - similar to Leading Through Strength, the tactic of playing a suit in which the right hand opponent contains no honors.

Leap - A jump or skip bid.

Leaping Michaels - See Conventions

Leave in - In response to a partner's Takeout Double, a pass converts the call to a penalty.

Lebensohl - A comprehensive arsenal of bids designed handle several difficult auctions, including opponent overcalls to 1 Notrump, 2 level preempts (weak 2 bids), and opener reverses. See Conventions

Lefty - Referring to the Left Hand Opponent (LHO).

General

Left Hand Opponent - Referring the opponent seated to the left of one's position, commonly abbreviated LHO.

Legal - An action in accordance with the Laws of Bridge.

Leg - In Rubber Bridge, the first side to make a 100 point game; the side achieving the leg is now vulnerable.

General

Length - Referring to the number of cards a player or side holds in a suit.

Bidding

Length Points - The hand evaluation technique attributing extra value to a suit longer than 4 cards.  See Distribution Points

General

Level - The tentative bid or final contract number established during the auction.
 

Duplicate

Life Master - Life Master is the most highly sought level of bridge achievement. A Life Master is a player who has earned 300 or more recorded masterpoints, of which at least 50 must be silver, at least 25 must be gold, and at least another 25 must be red or gold. New members (as of 1/1/99) must also earn at least 50 black points as part of their total 300 points. Please note that no more than 100 masterpoints earned on the Internet may count toward the points necessary to achieve Life Master status:
 

Masterpoints	Achievement
300, w/other tournament requirements	Life Master
500	Bronze Life Master
Silver Life Master: Replace "A Life Master with 1000" with "A Life Master with (a) over 1000 masterpoints, including (b) no fewer than a combination of 200 silver, red, gold, or platinum points"	Silver Life Master
Gold Life Master: Replace "A Life Master with 2500" with "A Life Master with (a) over 2500 masterpoints including (b) no fewer than a combination of 500 silver, red, gold, or platinum points"	Gold Life Master
Diamond Life Master: Replace "A Life Master with 5000" with "A Life Master with (a) over 5000 masterpoints, including (b) no fewer than a combination of 250 gold or platinum points and (c) no fewer than a combination of 1000 silver, red, gold or platinum points."	Diamond Life Master
Emerald Life Master: Replace "A Life Master with 7500" with "A Life Master with (a) over 7500 masterpoints, including (b) no fewer than a combination of 500 gold or platinum points and (c) no fewer than a combination of 1500 silver, red, gold or platinum points."	Emerald Life Master
10000 w/other tournament requirements	Grand Life Master

Life Master Pairs - An ACBL tourney where all contestants must be Life Masters.
 

Lift - To raise the level of the auction during bidding.

Jargon

Light -
 

1.	To make a competitive bid with insufficient values
2.	A partnership agreement to make certain bidding with values less than those commonly accepted
3.	To make fewer tricks than the contract

Lightner Double - A double of opponent's high level auction, often a slam bid, to request partner to make an unusual lead.  The Lightner Double was named after Theodore Lightner in 1929.  See Details

Also see Books on Doubles
 

Lightner Game Double - A double of opponents' Notrump contract based on a long running suit, asking partner to lead their short suit without primary honors.  See Details
 

Duplicate

Limited Chart Conventions - See ACBL Limited Chart

Limit Bid - During the bidding phase, to make a restrictive bid defining the upper boundaries of one's hand.

Limit Plus Raise - A raise of partner's suit that does not have an upper point range.  See Conventions
 

Limit Raise/Jump - A call which invites partner to game.

Limit Responses - A call of either a limit raise or Notrump to invite partner to bid game.
 

Jargon

Line -
 

1.	In Rubber Bridge, the vertical scoring divider: above the line is used to count penalties, bonuses, and overtricks; below the line is reserved for tricks bid and made (20 per minor, 30 per major, 40 for first Notrump trick and 30 thereafter) toward game (100 point threshold)
2.	The methodology and rationale of bidding or play
3.	The determination of bidding by rank, as "up the line" or "down the line"

Link - An suit entry from one hand to the other which contains a menace card, while attempting a Squeeze play.

Little - An unimportant card, irrelevant to bidding and play.  The graphical representation used when illustrating cards is the letter "x".

Little Casino - The colloquial term referring to the 2 (2 of Spades), originating from the Casino card game. See  Card Names

Little Slam - To bid or make a small slam.

Live - An auction where opponents bidding have not limited their strength.

Local - Referring to a lower-level tournament game.

Jargon

Lock -
 

1.	A situation where a player becomes trapped in one hand, blocking transportation to the other hand which contains isolated winning tricks that cannot be reached.
2.	The circumstance where making a contract is certain

Laws

Logical Alternative - When a player may have received Unauthorized Information, the players should call the Director to consider whether or not the offending side's bidding or play was based on the extraneous information. 

See Law 16,  Duplicate Decisions,   Director Tech File,   More
 

General

LOL - One of several acronyms:
 

1.	An endearing term for a Little Old Lady, referring to a seemingly naive player (actually, of either sex)
2.	An Internet term for Laughing Out Loud
3.	To play a Loser On a Loser

Long - A suit with length beyond normal probabilities.

Long Cards - Cards remaining in a suit after opponent's cards have been played.

Long Hand - The player with longest trump holdings.

Long Suit - A suit with length beyond normal probabilities.  See Distribution Points

Long Suit Game Try - After opener makes a major suit bid and responder raises the suit, the opener (with 6 Losing Trick Count) may use a long suit game try based on opener's length in a side suit.  See Details.  Also see Game Try, Help Suit Game Try, Short Suit Game Try, Help Suit Game Try
 

Loose - A free-spirited player not concerned about the consequence of overbidding.

LOOT - Abbreviation for Lead Out Of Turn

General

Loser -
 

1.	An inconsequential card
2.	Negative attributes of a player's hand

Loser On Loser - The tactic of playing a losing card from both hands to the same trick, thus eliminating a round a loser during opponent's subsequent play.

Bidding

Losing Trick Count - A hand evaluation technique originally described by F. Dudley Courtenay's book "The System the Experts Play", and popularized by Ron Klinger in his book "Modern Losing Trick Count", based on counting effective losers in a trump contract. See Details

Also see Hand Evaluation Books

Loud Discussion - See Law 90

Love - The English term relating to vulnerability, as "love all" or "love score" where neither side are vulnerable (no partscore).

Jargon

Low -

Low-High Signal - See Conventions

Play

Lowest Equal First - When holding a series of cards in a suit, winning the trick with the smallest winning card over right hand opponent (dummy) often provides useful information to one's partner.  Conversely, the play of another card may inform or deceive the opponent's of one's holding as well.  See Example

Lurk - To make a pass over Right Hand Opponent's opening bid.

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