Contract bridge , usually known simply as bridge , is a trick-taking card game of skill and chance (the relative proportions depending on the variant played). It is played by four players who form two partnerships; the partners sit opposite each other at a table. The game consists of the auction (often called bidding) and play, after which the hand is scored.
The bidding ends with a contract , which is a declaration by one partnership that their side will take at least a stated number of tricks, with a specified suit as trump or without trumps. The rules of play are similar to other trick-taking games, with the addition of the feature that one player's hand is displayed face up on the table as the "dummy".
Bridge can be played in tournaments, where two or more tables play the same deals of cards and the results are compared; this form is called duplicate bridge. Competitions in duplicate bridge range from small clubs with a handful of tables, to the World Championships and Olympiads where hundreds of tables play the same cards.
Game play
See also: Contract bridge glossaryTwo partnerships of two players each are needed to play bridge. The four players sit around a table with partners opposite one another. The compass directions are often used to refer to the four players, aligned with their seating pattern. Thus, South and North form one partnership and East and West form the other.
A session of bridge consists of several deals (also called hands or boards ). A hand is dealt, the bidding (or auction) proceeds to a conclusion and then the hand is played. Finally, the hand's result is scored.
The goal of a single deal is to achieve the highest score with given cards. The score is affected by two principal factors: the number of tricks bid in the auction, and the number of tricks taken during play. The concept of contract , which distinguishes contract bridge from its predecessors, refers to a statement by one partnership that they will take at least a certain number of tricks, with a given suit as trumps, or without trumps. The contract consists of two components: level and strain (also called denomination ). Level represents the number of tricks to be taken above the first six (referred to as the book ) — this treatment (and the requirement that the lowest possible level is one) ensures that at least a majority of the tricks must be taken by the partnership that wins the contract. Since there are 13 possible tricks, there are seven levels, numbered 1-7, corresponding to 7-13 tricks to take. Five strains are ranked, from lowest to highest, as clubs (♣), diamonds ( ♦ ), hearts ( ♥ ), spades (♠), and no trump (NT). The two lower-ranked strains (♣ and ♦ ) are called the minor suits (or minors), and the higher-ranked strains ( ♥ and ♠) are called majors.
For instance, the contract "3 hearts" is an assertion that the partnership will take nine tricks (book plus three) with hearts as the trump suit. Thus, there are 7 × 5 = 35 possible basic contracts; 1♣ being the lowest, followed by 1 ♦ etc., up to 7NT.
In the bidding stage or auction , the pairs compete to determine who proposes the highest-ranked contract, and the side that wins the bidding must then strive to fulfil that bargain by winning at least the contracted number of tricks in play if it is to obtain a score. Broadly speaking, there is an incentive to bid accurately to the optimum contract and then to play to make the contracted number of tricks (or more if good play or luck allows). If the side that wins the auction ( declaring side ) then takes the contracted number of tricks (or more), it is said to have made the contract and is awarded a score; otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated or set and points are awarded to the opponents ( defenders ).
In finding an optimum contract, it can sometimes pay to bid slightly too high with the expectation of losing points, rather than allow the opposing side to bid and make a larger score. This is known as a sacrifice , and is quite common if both sides are contesting the final contract. This aspect is more common in some forms of duplicate bridge (which is played in competitions and many clubs) in which the goal is to get a better score than any other partnership facing the same hands, by however small a margin and in whatever way possible.
Dealing
The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. In rubber bridge (or other non-duplicate games), the cards are shuffled before each deal, and the dealer deals the cards clockwise one at a time, starting with the left-hand opponent so each player receives a hand of 13 cards. The deal rotates clockwise each hand.
In duplicate bridge the hands are shuffled and dealt only once at the beginning of the session. Players do not throw their cards to the center of the table during the play but instead play them immediately in front of themselves and turn them face down at the end of the trick. At the end of the hand each player returns his hand, intact, to the correct slot in the bridge board in which it is transported to other tables so that everyone can play the same deals. The results for different players playing the same deal are then compared. This removes much of the element of chance from scores. It also means that in the case of an irregularity or dispute over a hand before the cards are returned to the board, they can be reviewed and it can be determined who played which cards in what order.
In some competitions, boards are pre-dealt prior to the competition, especially if the same hands are to be played at many locations (for example in a large national or international tournament). Sometimes computerised dealing machines are used for pre-dealing hands at large tournaments and in many clubs. As the boards arrive for play at each subsequent table, the four players take their cards from the board and should count them to ensure that there are 13 cards in their hand before looking at the cards, so that any irregularity can be corrected before the auction and play commence.
In some countries, the rules require that after the hand is played for the first time, the players write the hands down on the travelling scoresheet, which can be consulted later if the cards are accidentally mixed up. Alternatively, if the boards are pre-dealt, "curtain cards" will be supplied which have each hand printed on them, so that each player can check at the beginning of the deal that he has the right cards.
Auction
The auction determines the declaring side and the final contract. Only one of the partners of the declaring side, referred to as declarer , plays the hand, while the other becomes the dummy (i.e. doing nothing). In addition to establishing strain and level, the final contract may be doubled (by the opponents) or redoubled (by the declaring side after the opponents had already doubled), in which case the scoring of the hand is increased, whether the contract is made or defeated.
During the auction, each player makes a call in turn, which must be one of the following:
- a Bid (stating a level and a denomination)
- Double (when the last call other than pass was a bid by an opponent)
- Redouble (when the last call other than pass was a double by an opponent)
- Pass (when unwilling to make one of the three preceding calls)
( Note : although technically incorrect, the word "bid" is also often used informally in place of "call")
The auction starts with the dealer and proceeds clockwise with each player, having first evaluated their hand, making a call in order. The auction ends when three successive passes occur at some point after the dealer's first call. If all four players pass in the first round, the deal is not played (in rubber bridge the deal is not scored and the hand is redealt by the original dealer, while in duplicate the score is recorded as zero for each pair since re-dealing a hand that has been 'passed out' is prohibited by the rules).
A bid specifies a level and denomination, and ostensibly denotes a willingness to play the corresponding contract. A player wishing to bid must make a bid that is sufficient; a bid is sufficient if it specifies any denomination on a higher level than the last bid, or a higher-ranked denomination on the same level. Thus, after a bid of 3 ♥ , bids of 2♠ or 3♣ are not allowable, but 3♠ or 4 ♦ are.
A double can be made only after the opponents have made a bid. The natural meaning of a double is that the player is confident that the opponents cannot fulfil their contract, and the player is willing to risk increasing the opponents' score if they succeed in exchange for receiving a larger penalty if the opponents fail. However, in modern bridge, the double is more often used in a conventional sense, to ask partner to bid or to pass information to partner. A "redouble" can be made only after an opponent's double; it increases the points scored and the penalty for failure yet further. However a redouble is almost always conventional, and very few redoubled contracts end up being played. In practice, the double and redouble are often used systemically for other purposes, though if they are in effect for the final contract they increase the score regardless of their intended meaning. Double and redouble rema
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contract bridge: see bridge bridge, card game derived from whist , played with 52 cards by four players in two partnerships. Basic Rules The cards in contract bridge rank from ace ...
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contract bridge: see bridge bridge, card game derived from whist , played with 52 cards by four players in two partnerships. Basic Rules The cards in contract bridge rank from ace ...