BEGINNERS’ LESSONS Introduction to Bridge

Welcome ♠ Contract Bridge is the hobby of tens of

millions of people throughout the world
Teacher: Deone Menezes
Telephone: 89750 02710 ♠ Whether you play casually among friends or
Email: deonefm@gmail.com seriously in clubs and tournaments, you will
find it to be a fascinating, challenging and
enjoyable pastime.

Batch 4
Lesson 1

1 2

♠ Whist invented in 1700s.

A Brief History ♠ Evolved into Auction Bridge in
1904
Why is Bridge Popular?
♠ In 1925 rules were revised and ♠ Social engagement and entertainment
the modern scoring system
was introduced ♠ Can be easily scalable to a larger group.
♠ Contract Bridge as we know it
today was born
♠ Since the 1930s Contract
♠ Great way to meet people and make new friends
Bridge has been the most
popular card game ♠ Learn continuously and keep your mind active
♠ Nowadays it’s just called
Bridge
♠ Fascinating, intriguing and a lot of fun

It is the greatest card game ever invented! 3 4

Benefits of Playing Bridge Benefits of Playing Bridge

♠ Bridge is social game ♠ Bridge is good for the mind
♦ Helps your social network – ♦ It helps you develop logical
you meet new people and thinking, problem solving,
make new friends improves memory & improves
observation
♠ Bridge is a game for all ages ♠ Bridge brings health benefits
♦ It is a games where 3 ♦ Research has shown that playing
generations can play together bridge prevents or delays the
i.e ( grandparents / parents / onset of Alzheimer’s disease
grandchildren)

5 6

Benefits of Playing Bridge Benefits of Playing Bridge

♠ Bridge is good value for money ♠ Bridge is a great leveler
♦ Playing equipment is inexpensive & ♦ It’s the only sport where newcomerss
requires very little infrastructure could meet and play with celebritiess
& world champions.
Omar Sharif, Burt Lancaster, Margaret
♠ Bridge is great fun & bridge is Thatcher, President Dwight Eisenhower
exciting! Mahatma Gandhi all enjoyed playing bridge
♦ Bridge players are never bored, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Malcolm Forbes,
they learn to trust and to develop
Martina Navratilova, Mike Gatting and Farokh
strategies
Engineer also played bridge

7 8
 The 5 C’s of Contract Bridge The Basics
♠ Bridge is played with a deck of 52 cards

♠ The players are designated by the four

cardinal compass points, North, South,
East and West

♠ Players sitting opposite each other are a

team and work together as partners.

♠ North and South are one partnership

and East and West the other.

9 10

About the Cards

♠ There are four suits: The Basics
♣ clubs ♦ diamonds ♥ hearts and ♠ spades A game consists of several deals, each
♥s and ♠s are the Major suits. progressing through four phases
♣s and ♦s are the minor suits. Dealing.
♠ Each suit has 13 cards:
Bidding
♠ 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,J,Q,K,A
Rank
Trick taking
♠ In bridge, the deuce is the lowest card in the suit Scoring
and the Ace is the highest.

11 12

Value of the Honour Cards

Let’s Get Started – Dealing
♠ North usually deals the first hand. ♠ Add your High Card Points (HCP) together

Ace A = 4 points
♠ Players sort their cards into suits, keeping the suits
separate by color (eg. !"#$, not !#"$) King K = 3 points
Queen Q = 2 points
♠ After completing a hand, the opportunity to deal
moves around the table clockwise so that each Jack J = 1 point
person has a turn to deal out the cards.
Each suit total = points Each deal total = points

13

13 8
How many High Card Points? How many High Card Points?
 What is the Partnership looking for?

STEP 1: Find a fit – 8+ cards in the same suit

between both hands. Look for a MAJOR fit
STEP 2: Decide the level to play the contract

19 Partscore
Game
total points <25
total points 25 – 32
How many High Card Points? Slam total points 33 +

WHICH SUIT TO NAME TRUMPS?

1ST Choice - Major
2nd Choice – NT (no major fit but may have in minor
WHAT LEVEL?
Partscore(7 tricks)
Game – need 25+ HCP
GAME
3NT = 9 tricks
4Major = 10 tricks
5Minor = 11 tricks Which suit has a fit? 8+ cards between the
8
two hands

Which suit has a fit?
Rules of Bidding
NT Bids must be made according to the rank of suits:
clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades and finally
" notrump.
If 1♦ is the opening bid, the next hand to bid
# must bid at least 1#, the next hand higher than
the last bid and so on.
! If declarer were to open 1♠, the next bid would
8+ cards between the have to be 1NT or 2♣, 2♦ or 2# (or more)
two hands $ If unable to make a bid a player can pass

22

Bidding Bidding
♠ The bidding ends when three players in
succession have passed or there is no
opening bid from any player.
♠ The partnership that made the last bid is
the declaring side.
♠ The other partnership is the defending
side
♠ The player from the declaring side, who
first mentioned the trump suit, or No
Bidding at the 1-level = (6 + 1) 7 tricks Trumps, is the declarer. His partner is the
3-level = (6 + 3) 9 tricks, etc dummy. The other players are
opponents.

23 24
Trick taking ♠ the winning partnership
now needs to fulfil their
contract
♠ The number of tricks to
achieve their contract is 6
more than the level of their
bid.
1 Level = 7 tricks
2 Level = 8 tricks
3 Level = 9 tricks
4 Level = 10 tricks
5 Level = 11 tricks
6 Level = 12 tricks
7 Level = 13 tricks
25
Aims of the Game
27
Let’s look at some examples
29
Definition of some Terms
♠ A trick - A set of four cards (one
from each player) played in
clockwise order. The highest card
(usually!) wins the trick
♠ Trumps - One suit (clubs, diamonds,
hearts or spades) whose cards
outrank all the cards in the other
three suits
♠ Contract – The number of tricks
ranging from 7 upto 13 that a
partnership agrees to try to make
26
Winning of Tricks
♠ A trick containing a trump card is won by the player who played the
highest trump.
♠ A trick not containing a trump card is won by the player who played
the highest card of the suit led.
♠ The winner of each trick leads to the next trick.
♠ Note that the dummy is considered a separate “player” even though
declarer actually selects the cards.
♠ After 13 tricks have been completed, the play is over, and the hand is
scored.
28