Contents

Know more about this
(or any other) subject?

Show off your know-how at Quamut Wiki.

Learn more with these titles from Barnes & Noble

The Everything Bridge Book: Easy-to-Follow Instructions that Will Have You Playing in No Time

Bridge Player's Bible: Illustrated Strategies for Staying ahead of the Game

Previous:
Bridge Basics

Next:
How to Bid Strategically

How to Play Bridge

A hand of bridge is divided into three distinct phases, conducted in the following order:

Bidding
Playing
Scoring

Once scoring for a hand is complete, the cards are dealt again, and the process restarts with the bidding phase. Different strategies, rules, and conventions apply to each of these three phases of bridge.

Bidding Basics

After everyone receives and organizes their cards, the first phase of bridge, bidding, takes place. Bidding is the process by which players indicate the strength of their hands. A bid is an indication of how many tricks you expect you and your partner to win during the course of a hand. A trick is the play of four cards, one from each player in clockwise order.

Order of Bidding

The dealer has the first opportunity to bid, then the bidding moves clockwise around the table. When it’s your turn, you may either bid or pass, which means you give up your chance to bid. Making the first bid is called opening. Note that the dealer does not necessarily open, since she may elect to pass.

Meaning of Bids

A bid in bridge has two elements:

A number
A suit

The number of your bid is based on how many tricks in excess of six you expect your partnership to win. For example, a bid of 2 means you expect your partnership to win 8 (6 + 2) tricks. Six tricks is called book, so a bid is how many more tricks than book you expect to win.

The bid suit is the suit that will become trump if your bid wins. Being able to determine the trump suit is a significant incentive for winning the bidding. If you have lots of clubs, for example, it’s to your advantage if clubs are trump. Putting it all together, a bid of 2

means that you expect your partnership to win 8 tricks, and you want clubs to be trump.

No Trump

In bidding, there is a fifth suit called no trump. If you don’t want any suit to be trump, you simply make your bid followed by the words “no trump.” For bidding and scoring, no trump is considered higher than any of the four traditional suits. “No trump” is abbreviated by the letters NT.

Rules of Bidding

Your bid must always be higher than the previous bid. For your bid to be higher than another, it must meet at least one of the following requirements:

Your bid is for more tricks than the previous bid. For example, a bid of 3 is higher than a bid of 2.
Your bid is for the same number of tricks as the previous bid, but for a higher-ranked suit. For example, a bid of 3NT is higher than a bid of 3 since no trump outranks spades.

If you can’t or are unwilling to bid higher than the previous bid, you must pass.

How to Win the Auction

Bidding continues until three consecutive players pass. When this happens, the person who made the last bid wins the entire bid, or the auction. This winning bid is called the contract for that hand, and it determines the play of the game. For example, a winning bid of 4

means that clubs are trump for that hand and that the winning bidder’s partnership needs to win 10 tricks. Winning the required number of tricks is called making a contract; failing to do so is called getting set (for more on scoring, see “Scoring Basics,” later in this section). In the unlikely event that all four players pass without ever making a bid, the cards are reshuffled and redealt.

The Declarer, Dummy, and Defenders

Depending on who wins the bidding, your role in the remainder of the hand will be that of declarer, dummy, or defender. The declarer and the dummy are the partners whose team has won the bidding: the declarer is the person who made the first bid in the trump suit, and the other person in the winning partnership is the dummy. The defenders are the partners whose team has lost the bidding.

The following sample bidding sequence shows how the process works. In this table, bids are read from left to right, then top to bottom (South’s bid of 1 is first, and East’s second pass is last).

South	West	North	East
1	1NT	2	pass
3	pass	pass	pass

Since three players have passed in a row, the bidding ends, and the contract is the final bid of 3

. The East/West partnership has lost, so they are the defenders. To determine who the declarer is, you need to look at who made the first bid in the trump suit. In this example, spades is the trump suit. Thus, North is the declarer, since she made the first bid in this suit. The other person in the winning partnership is the dummy, who in this case is South.

When the bidding has ended and the roles have been determined, the dummy lays all his cards face up on the table. The declarer plays both her own hand and the dummy’s hand, and the dummy sits back and watches the action. Each of the defenders plays actively. Only the dummy’s cards are exposed. (Note that the term “dummy” is used for both a player and that player’s hand. In other words, the dummy’s hand is also called the dummy.)

Playing Basics

After the dummy is exposed, playing begins. The declarer’s object in this phase of bridge is to make the contract. On her turn, the declarer plays from her hand. On the dummy’s turn, the declarer plays a card from the dummy. The dummy (the person) does absolutely nothing during the play of the hand. The defenders’ object is to prevent the declarer from making the contract.

The Lead

The player to the declarer’s left plays the first card, called the lead. For example, if South is the declarer, West plays the lead. Since the player to the declarer’s left is one of the defenders, the dummy never plays the lead. The lead can be whichever card the defender chooses.

Follow Suit

After the first card is led, play moves clockwise around the table until a card from each of the four hands has been played. If possible, you must play a card of the same suit as the led card. This is called following suit. If you don’t have any cards of the led suit, you may play any card from your hand. You can play another suit (including the trump suit) only if you don’t have any cards from the led suit.

How to Win Tricks

If all players have followed suit, the highest card of the led suit wins the hand, or trick. If one or more players have trumped—that is, played a card from the trump suit—the highest trump wins the trick. A card that is neither the led suit nor the trump suit cannot win the trick. Whoever wins the trick leads the next trick. Here’s an example:

Say that South is the declarer and the contract is 3

, making spades the trump suit. West is to the declarer’s left and leads

A. North (the dummy) is next, and the declarer plays

3 from the dummy. East plays

K. Finally, South plays

2. Since all players had to follow suit, the

A wins, and West leads again.

Note that even though South may have wanted to win the trick by playing trump, South had to follow suit. Remember, the only time you don’t have to follow suit is if you don’t have any cards of the led suit.

Scoring Basics

When everyone is out of cards and all 13 tricks have been played, it’s time to score the hand. The declarer adds up the number of tricks won both by the declarer’s hand and the dummy. If the declarer makes the contract, her partnership scores. If the declarer gets set, however, the defenders’ partnership scores.

The Bridge Scorecard

A bridge scorecard is divided into two columns—one for each partnership, labeled “we” and “they.” A horizontal line runs through the middle. Scores for making your contract are written below the line; scores for overtricks and penalties (discussed later in this section) are written above the line.

Making a Contract

When you make your contract, you’re awarded points based on the number of tricks you win and the suit of your contract. The following table shows how many points you get:

	Number of Tricks Taken
Suit	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
No trump	40	70	100	130	160	190	220
Spades	30	60	90	120	150	180	210
Hearts	30	60	90	120	150	180	210
Diamonds	20	40	60	80	100	120	140
Clubs	20	40	60	80	100	120	140

For instance, if you make a contract of 2

by winning 8 tricks, you earn 60 points for that hand. Since the contract is made, the defenders score 0 points. Again, note that points for making a contract are scored below the line on the scorecard.

Overtricks

If you bid 2

but take 11 tricks instead of 8, you’ve made your contract but have 3 extra tricks. These extra tricks are called overtricks and are still counted toward your score but are scored above the line. Spade, heart, and no trump contracts score 30 points per overtrick; club and diamond contracts score 20 points per overtrick.

In the above example (bidding 2

but taking 11 tricks instead of 8), you would score 60 points below the line for making the contract and 90 points above the line for the three spade overtricks. Scores below the line contribute to the 100 points needed to win the game; scores above the line do not.

Undertricks and Penalties

Failing to make your contract and getting set results in a penalty score, which is awarded to the defenders. For every trick you fall short, called an undertrick, the defenders are awarded 50 or 100 points above the line, depending on whether or not you’re vulnerable (for an explanation of vulnerability and other nuances of scoring, see Bridge Scoring Details). If you fail to make your contract, your partnership scores 0 points for that hand.

Winning a Game

To win a game, your partnership needs to score 100 points below the line. Notice that a bid of 4

or 4

is enough to win a game, but a bid of 4

or 4

is not. This is why spades and hearts are called major suits and diamonds and clubs are called minor suits. A contract of 4 is relatively common, and it makes a significant difference whether that contract is for a major or minor suit.

Winning a Rubber

A rubber in bridge is like a match in tennis. To win a rubber, your partnership must win two games. At the end of a rubber, all your scores, both above and below the line, are totaled. Though winning a rubber is a natural place to end a session of bridge, you can continue to play for multiple rubbers if you wish.

Acknowledgments & Disclaimer

Previous:
Bridge Basics

Next:
How to Bid Strategically

Download the PDF
for just $2.95

Bridge

► Complete guide
► Handy, portable format