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The Rules of Bridge

Mike Gill May 10, 2011

Overview

Contract Bridge is one of the most (if not the most) complicated card games in the world. While the rules are not nearly as complex as the game itself, they are still substantially more complex than most other card games you have played. Fortunately, you only have to learn the basics to really begin playing and have an idea about the rest. Bridge is a trick-taking partnership card game played with exactly 4 players, and a single deck of cards (with the jokers removed). On each bridge hand, each player is dealt 13 cards, and it is customary (particularly when youre starting out) to sort your cards in to suits to make playing easier. The ranks of the cards in bridge are normal for trick-taking card games - A, K, Q, J, T, 9, ... 2. In bridge, as in spades, your partner sits across from you and your score and his are inseparable for the duration of the game. There are two phases to a hand of bridge (a hand is from one time the cards are dealt to the next) - the auction phase, in which both sides compete for the contract, and the play phase, in which the side which won the contract will attempt to fulll it by taking at least a certain number of tricks (described below). Because you need to understand the mechanics of how the play works to understand the auction, well cover that rst.

The play

With a few exceptions, the play in bridge is almost identical to other trick-taking games you may have played such as spades, hearts, pinochle, etc. A trick consists of each player, in clockwise order, playing a single card - the highest-ranking card that was played wins the trick. The trick is then collected by the side that won it (in tournaments each player turns the card over in front of himself). The winner of a trick then plays rst to the next trick, and so on until everyones cards are gone. During the play, each player must follow suit if he can (play a card in the suit that was played rst to that trick). If not, he may play any of the other cards in his hand (this is called discarding or pitching, although he will not be eligible to win the trick unless he is playing a trump card (called trumping or rung)). Sometimes there will be a trump suit in bridge - one suit that outranks the others. If a trump is played on a trick it will win unless a higher trump is played regardless of the ranks of the non-trump cards. Whether or not there is a trump suit will be determined during the auction phase of the hand. The main dierence between bridge and other games is that only 3 players will really be playing instead of 4. Each contract will have a declarer - one of the players on the side that won the contract. The player to the left of the declarer gets to play rst to the rst trick (called the opening lead). The partner of the declarer then places his hand face-up on the table for everyone to see - his hand is called the dummy. The declarer will choose the cards to be played from the dummy as well as from his own hand, and the player whos hand is dummy doesnt really partake in the play during that hand. The other partnership are playing defense against the declarer - each side is trying to take as many tricks as they can.

The auction

The bidding really does function like an auction. At each turn you will essentially have to exceed the previous bid or pass. The bidding continues until three players pass in a row (except if the rst three players pass - then the last person still has at least one chance to bid). Each time you bid, you will bid the number of tricks you are going to try to take beyond 6 (you always have to try to take at least 7 out of the 13 tricks), as well as the strain in which you are going to try to take them (which suit will be trumps or notrumps (NT)). The strains have a ranking order - clubs are the lowest, followed by diamonds, hearts, spades, and nally notrumps. At each turn in the auction, you must bid either a higher number of tricks than the previous bid, or bid in a higher-ranking strain (or both). For example, if someone has bid 1, you can outbid them in spades or NT at the 1-level, but if you want to bid in clubs or diamonds, youll have to bid to at least the 2-level. After the auction is over, the player in the partnership that won the auction who rst bid the nal strain becomes the declarer, and his partner becomes the dummy. The declarer then tries to take 6 + x tricks in the nal strain where x is the level of the bid. If he is successful he will receive a positive score depending on the particular contract, and if he fails he will receive a penalty depending on how many tricks he fails by. There are two other calls one can make in contract bridge: double and redouble. If an opponent bids a contract that you believe will fail, you can double. Doubling essentially raises the stakes - the penalties for failure and rewards for success of the contract are both increased. Redouble is what you might expect from its name. If you are doubled in a contract, you can redouble to further up the stakes for the success or failure of the current contract. Both doubles and redoubles are cancelled by a new bid, even a higher bid in the same strain.

The scoring basics

Much of the strategy in bridge is aected by the scoring, since not all contracts are created equal. In general, the higher the contract, the higher the score for fullling it - however, there are some contracts which receive signicant bonuses. Each strain receives a certain number of points per trick bid and made as follows: Clubs and diamonds..... 20 points per trick (bid and made) Hearts and spades ..... 30 points per trick (bid and made) Notrumps .............. 30 points per trick + 10 points (bid and made)

Any contract whose trick score totals 100 or more points is called a game contract, and receives a substantial bonus (either 300 or 500 points in tournament bridge, or being halfway to winning a rubber match in rubber bridge). Thus, to bid a game in clubs or diamonds requires a 5-level bid (5 x 20 = 100), a game in hearts or spades requires a 4-level bid (4 x 30 = 120), and a game in notrump only requires a 3-level bid (3 x 30 + 10 = 100). Any bid lower than the points required for a game is called a part-score, because youre only bidding part of the score needed for game. There are a few other bonuses one can get for making contracts. If you bid and make 12 of the 13 tricks in any strain, this is called a small slam and is worth a bonus of 500 or 750 on top of the game bonus, which you also receive. Bidding and making all 13 tricks is called a grand slam and is worth 1000 or 1500 points on top of the game bonus. Keep in mind that to receive any bonus you must bid the contract, not just take the right number of tricks. If you bid to 3 and make 12 tricks, you do not receive the game or slam bonus. Overtricks (extra tricks made in a making contract) do still count towards your score, but they only add their trick value as a bonus. Earlier when I gave variable values for bonus, they depend on a game condition called vulnerability. On each hand, each side is either vulnerable or not vulnerable. In tournaments, this is an articial condition

imposed to vary the play, and each hand is its own entity. In rubber bridge, each side is racing to get to two games, and partscores count towards your running total until one side or the other gets to 100 (then both sides start over at 0). A side that makes a game contract (100 points of tricks bid and made) becomes vulnerable. Being vulnerable increases the bonuses for making contracts, but also increases the penalties for undertricks, especially doubled.

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