Bridge consists of playing all 52 cards in a round and getting as many tricks as possible. At the beginning of the round, each player announces the contract of tricks (tricks) that his or her team wishes to obtain and must make sure that this contract is fulfilled at the end of the round.
Equipment
To play Bridge, you need the following items:
-a deck of 52 cards
-two teams of two players each
-an auction card box for each player
Setup
- Players position themselves on the table so that each team is facing each other (one team is usually called North-South and the other West-East)
- Shuffle the cards
- Choose the dealer
- The dealer deals all 52 cards face down, one at a time to each player clockwise starting with the player to their left (13 cards per player)
- Group your 13 cards by suit (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs) and in descending order
- Here is the list of Bridge cards, from highest to lowest: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
Note:
⇒The cards Ace, King, Queen and Jack are called “honors”.
⇒The suits Spades and Hearts are called “Major suits”
⇒The suits Diamonds and Clubs are called “Minor suits”.
How the game is played
The bidding
Bidding is a way for both teams to announce a contract of tricks they will try to obtain at the end of a round. A bid determines the trump suit and the number of tricks a team will try to get at the end of a round OR determines a no-trump (SA) and the number of tricks a team will try to get at the end of a round.
A bid contains the number 1 through 7 and a suit or no-trump game.
-a player announces, “2 spades”. This means that the trump suit will be spades.
-A player calls “4 no-trump”. This means that there will be no trump suit.
Note:
♦ When a player announces “4 spades”, his team must obtain 6 tricks + the number attributed with the announced suit (4 spades = 4 tricks + 6 tricks = 10 announced tricks)
♦ When a player announces “3 no-trump”, his team must obtain 6 tricks + the number attributed with the announced no-trump (3 no-trump = 3 tricks + 6 tricks = 9 announced tricks)
•Auction process
1·The dealer is the first to announce a bid
2·He can choose to pass his turn (by laying down a green “pass” card) or to announce a bid (by choosing a bidding card from the bidding card box)
On this picture, you can see that the first player N (North) has passed his turn by placing the green “pass” card
3·The player to the left of the dealer is the next to announced
4·He can in turn pass or announce a bid which must be higher than the one previously announced
In this picture, the first player has announced a “1 heart” contract, the next player passes his turn. In order for the next player to announce a bid, it must be higher than the previous one. So, the third player has announced a high bid which is “2 clubs”.
5·All players take turns playing clockwise and can decide to pass or announce a bid even higher than the last one announced
6·The bidding part of the game ends when 3 players decide to pass their turn successively
7·At this moment, the bid announced last will be taken into account during the current round
Example:
A player announces “2 diamonds”, the following one announces “4 hearts”. The 3 players who follow him pass their turn. It is the “4 hearts” call that will be taken into account for the current round.
8·The team, whose announcement has been taken into account, must make the number of tricks it announced at the end of the round (this team is called “in attack”)
9·The team, whose announcement was not taken into account, will have to make sure that the other team cannot carry out its contract (this team is called “in defense”)
Remark:
√ The spade suit is the strongest of the suits, followed by hearts, diamonds and finally clubs
√ A bid must always be higher than the one announced last
In this picture you can see that the lowest bid in Bridge is the 1 club which is at the top right of the bidding cards. The bidding increases more and more to the left and ends with the highest bid, which is the 7 no-trump at the bottom left of the bidding cards.
√ Counter: A player can choose to counter an opponent’s bid when he thinks that the bid (bid) will not be fulfilled. This action multiplies the score at the end of the round by 2 if the team succeeds in fulfilling its contract
In this picture you can see that the first player has announced “pass” and the next player has announced a “5 club” bid. The third player thinks that this bid will not be feasible, so he puts down a red X card to affirm his assumption.
√ Overcounter: A player can choose to overcounter an opponent who has made a counter if he thinks his team is capable of fulfilling its contract. This action multiplies the score at the end of the round by 4 if the team succeeds in fulfilling its contract
In this picture you can see that player E (East) has countered the announcement of player N (North). Player S (South), who is N’s partner, thinks that it is perfectly possible to carry out the latter’s announcement. Therefore, S puts down the blue XX card to confirm his hypothesis.
√ Small slam: The small slam consists in making a contract with 12 tricks (example: 6 spades = 6+6 tricks)
√ Grand Slam: The Grand Slam consists of making a contract with 13 tricks, i.e. winning all the tricks during a round (example: 7 hearts=7+6 tricks)
√ The player who first announced the current contract is called the “declarer”.
Example:
The first player announced “1 diamond”.
The second player called “pass”.
The next player (the partner of the first player) called “3 diamonds
The next 3 players called “pass
The player who announced “1 diamond” will be the “declarer”
How a round is played (after the bids are announced)
1·The player to the left of the “declarer” plays first
2·He plays any card of his choice
3·The next player (declarer’s partner), called “the dead man”, will have to reveal all his cards (13 cards) on the table (when it is his turn to play)
4·At this point, it is the declarer who decides which cards “the dead man” will play
5· The player to the left of the “dead man” plays and the round ends with the declarer
The round continues like this, but must follow the following rules:
♦ The first player plays a card of his choice
♦ The following players must play in turn a card of the requested suit (a card of the same suit as the one played first)
♦ If a player does not have a card of the requested suit, he can play any card of another suit (discard a card)
♦ If a player does not have a card of the requested suit, he can cut with a card of the trump suit (if a contract with a trump suit was chosen during the bidding game)
Remark:
√ The “dead” player is no longer allowed to participate in the current round (the declarer takes care of everything)
√ It is compulsory for each player to play a card of the requested suit if he has any in his deck
√ A discarded card (a card not respecting the requested suit or not respecting the trump suit) will never be given a trick
√ When two or three players cut with a card of the trump suit, the one with the highest value wins the trick.
How to win a lift (trick)
During a round, all players take turns playing a card from their deck. This means that during a round, a team can win a trick consisting of 4 cards. Here are the rules for winning a trick:
- A team wins a trick when one of the two partner players has played a card with the highest value in the requested suit
Example: The first player plays 4 of spades, the second plays 8 of spades, the third plays 10 of spades and the last plays queen of spades. The team with the player who played the queen of spades wins the trick because it is the highest value card of the current round.
- A team wins a trick when one of the two partner players does not have a card of the requested suit in his deck and decides to cut with a card of the trump suit
Example: In the bidding game, a “2 spades” contract was taken into account (the trump suit for the current round will then be spades). The first player plays 6 of hearts, the second plays 9 of hearts, the third plays king of hearts and the fourth has no heart suit and plays 3 of spades. The team with the player who played the 3 of spades wins the trick because he cut with a card of the trump suit.
A Bridge round without trump
♦ A round of Bridge is played without trump when a player has announced a no-trump contract during the bidding game and this contract has been taken into account
♦ At this moment, a team gets a trick when the card it has played has the highest value of the requested suit (this is the only way to get a trick)
End of a Round
- A round of Bridge ends when all 52 cards have been played
- Each team counts the number of tricks it has been able to obtain during the round
- The “attacking” team checks if they have succeeded in fulfilling their contract
- The “defending” team checks if it has succeeded in making its opponent’s contract fail
The scoring at the end of a round in Bridge is done as follows:
⇒If the “declarer” team has succeeded in fulfilling its contract, it will be awarded 20 points per trick (if the announced bid is in clubs or diamonds)
⇒If the “declarer” team has succeeded in fulfilling its contract, it will be awarded 30 points per trick (if the announced bid is in spades or hearts)
⇒If the “declarer” team has succeeded in fulfilling its contract without trump, it will be awarded 40 points for the first trick and 30 points for the following tricks
Example : the declaring team has announced “3 no-trump” (3+6=9 tricks) and has succeeded in fulfilling its contract at the end of the round. The first trick counts 40 points and the remaining 8 tricks count 30 points per trick (40+8*30=280 points).
⇒If the “declaring” team has not succeeded in fulfilling its contract, the opposing team will get the points (the opposing team counts the points according to the tricks not obtained)
Example: the “declarer” team announced “5 hearts” (5+6=11 tricks) and only had 8 tricks. This means that the 3 missing tricks will be counted for the other team.
⇒If an ad has been countered, the score will be multiplied by 3 for a completed contract
⇒If an announcement has been overcountered, the score will be multiplied by 4 for a fulfilled contract
⇒If a contract has not been fulfilled and the announcement of the latter has been countered or overcontracted, the opposing team will have its score multiplied by 2 or by 4 (always according to the tricks not obtained).
End of a game
At the beginning of the game, the players decide on the score to reach. After several rounds, the team that manages to reach this score wins the game.
