Overview

• Bridge is played with a deck of 52 cards (take out the jokers).
• A game is played by four people sitting at a square table.
• The players who are sitting across from each other form a partnership.

About the Cards

There are four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. Each suit has 13 cards. In bridge, the deuce is the lowest card in the suit and the ace is the highest.

• Suit Order: (1st bid to last bid)
  • Clubs (minor suit)
  • Diamonds (minor suit)
  • Hearts (major suits)
  • Spades (major suit)
  
  
• Card Order within Suit:
  • (low) 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A (highest)

Dealing the Cards

Select a dealer. This person distributes the cards face down, in clockwise rotation one at a time, until each player at the table has a hand consisting of 13 cards. After the play of each deal is completed, the opportunity to deal moves around the table clockwise so that each person has a turn to deal out the cards.

Aim of the Game

Each partnership tries to win (or take) as many tricks as possible.

A trick contains four cards, one contributed by each player.

• The Play:   Notrump Contract
  
  
  1. One player starts by leading a card, placing it face up on the table.
  2. In clockwise rotation, each player has to follow suit, by playing a card of the same suit as the one led. Example:
     • If a heart is led, each player must play a heart if possible.
     • Only if a player doesn’t have a heart can that person discard (i.e., play a card of another suit).
  3. The highest card in the suit led wins the trick for the player who played it.
  
  
• The Play: Trump Suit Contract
  

  Having a trump suit is something like having one suit wild.

  1. The play is similar to a Notrump Contract with 1 exception.
  2. When a player can no longer follow suit:
     • a trump MAY be played, or
     • any card in any suit MAY be discarded.
  3. The winner of the trick is the player who played:
     • the highest card in the suit led (if a trump card is not played);
     • the highest trump card.

Bidding

Bidding is the language of bridge. The players, through bidding, decide whether the deal is to be played in notrump or in a particular trump suit. The dealer has the first chance to bid. If the dealer has some high cards in the hand and a preference for one suit over another (usually decided by the length of the suit), dealer makes a bid to let his partner know which suit he prefers. If the dealer doesn’t have many high cards and doesn’t want to make a bid, he says “pass.”

Bids must be made according to the following order of suits:

• Club (1st possible bid)
• Diamond (next possible bid)
• Heart (next)
• Spade (next)
• Notrump (next)

• The next hand to bid must bid at least 1 Diamond or higher.
• Each succeeding bidder must pass or bid at least 1 suit rank higher (including Notrump) than the previous bid.
• After 1 Notrump, 2 Clubs is the next possible bid.
• The possible bids go from 2 Clubs to 2 Notrump per the above suit order.
• After 2 Notrump, 3 Clubs is next.
• Bidding levels continue until level 7 so that 7 Notrump is the highest bid possible.

Bidding Objective

After the dealer makes a decision, each player in turn has an opportunity to either bid or pass. At the end of the bidding, each partnership will have decided on the suit it wants to name as trumps and if it has enough strength (high cards) to bid for the privilege of naming trumps. Or one partnership will have passed, letting the opponents pick the trump suit in return for committing to winning a certain number of tricks. The bidding ends when three players in succession say “pass.” The last bid becomes the contract that determines:

• the pair that will declare (one member makes final bid);
• how many tricks must be won by the declaring pair (the number of tricks equals: 6 (the book) + level of final bid); and
• the suit that will be trumps or notrumps (the suit named in the final bid).

Two other bids are possible: double and re-double. These bids are made to increase the positive score making a contract or the negative score for not make a contract. While learning the basics of bridge, these bids can be ignored and will not be discussed further.

Bidding Details

Think of the bidding as a pleasant conversation between friends. A bid is a number combined with a word. The word refers to the suit or notrump in which the player hopes the contract will be played. The number refers to the number of tricks the partnership is willing to commit to over the book of six.

• 1 Spade: commitment to take 6 + 1 = 7 tricks, and a suggestion of spades as the trump suit

Hand Valuation

• Value of high cards:
  • ace = 4 points
  • king = 3 points
  • queen = 2 points
  • jack = 1 point
• Value of distribution or shape of hand:
  • five-card suit = 1
  • six-card suit = 2
  • a seven-card suit = 3
  • eight-card suit = 4
• Value of distribution or shape of hand (Alternative):
  • two-card suit (doubleton) = 1
  • one-card suit (singleton) = 2
  • zero-card suit (void) = 3
• Add all points to get the hand valuation. Use only approach for value of distribution.

Contract: Final Bid

The bidding will lead to a variety of final contracts (a number and a suit or notrump). They are not equal in value since you score more for bidding and making certain contracts. They can be slams, game contracts, or part-game or partscore contracts. They can be major suit (spades or hearts) contracts, minor suit (diamonds or clubs) contracts, and notrump contracts.

Bonus Levels

• Grand Slam: largest bonus
  • 7 Clubs to 7 Notrump
  • need 37 points - summed between 2 members of partnership (on the average)
• Small Slam: next largest bonus
  • 6 Clubs to 6 Notrump
  • need 33 to 36 points
• Game: next largest bonus
  • need 26 or more points
  • 5 Clubs or Diamonds - 28 or more
  • 4 Hearts or Spades - 26 or more
  • 3 Notrump - 25 or more
• Part Scores: smallest bonus
  • Duplicate bridge:   small bonus
  • Rubber bridge:   no bonus

Guidelines for Opening the Bidding

• 0 to 12 points:   pass
• 13 or more points:   open the bidding with one of your longest suits
• 15 to 17 high-card points and a balanced hand: open 1NT (notrump)
  • balanced hand:
    • no singleton or void
    • all suits are 3, 4, or 5 cards in length
    • except, 1 2-card suit is allowable (and common)
  • some do not bid 1NT with 5-card major suit (hearts or spades)

The Role of the Responder

The partners on a bridge team have certain roles to play. The opening bidder describes his hand to his partner. The partner becomes the captain and assumes the role of deciding on the best denomination and the best level for the final contract. The partner of the opening bidder knows more about the combined strength of the two hands after hearing the opening bid and looking at his own hand.

In some cases, the roles are reversed.

Guidelines for Making the Opening Lead

• Notrump contract:

  Against notrump contracts, it is a good idea to lead your longest suit because that could be your best source of extra tricks. With a sequence, three or more cards in a row, lead the top card of the sequence. If you don’t have a sequence, lead low.

• Trump contract:

  Against trump contracts, you can still lead the top of a sequence, but you no longer need to lead your longest suit. Your opponents have a trump suit and can usually prevent you from taking tricks in your long suit. They can trump in and win the trick. Sometimes it is a good idea to lead a short suit if it isn’t the trump suit. Your partnership wants to take tricks as quickly as possible.

The Play:   Declarer, Opening Leader and Dummy

The declarer is the player who first mentions the suit that ends up being trumps for a suit contract or who first mentions notrump for a notrump contract.

The opening leader is the player to the left of the declarer who starts the play by making the opening lead, playing a card face-up on the table.

The dummy is declarer’s partner. After the opening lead, the dummy places his hand face-up on the table, and declarer calls the cards during the play for both hands.