Bridge Game Rules

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The Rules of Bridge

Mike Gill

May 10, 2011

1 Overview

Contract Bridge is one of the most (if not the most) complicated card games in the world. While the rulesare not nearly as complex as the game itself, they are still substantially more complex than most other cardgames you have played. Fortunately, you only have to learn the basics to really begin playing and have anidea about the rest.

Bridge is a trick-taking partnership card game played with exactly 4 players, and a single deck of cards(with the jokers removed). On each bridge hand, each player is dealt 13 cards, and it is customary (particu-larly when you’re starting out) to sort your cards in to suits to make playing easier. The ranks of the cardsin bridge are normal for trick-taking card games - A, K, Q, J, T, 9, ... 2.

In bridge, as in spades, your partner sits across from you and your score and his are inseparable for theduration of the game. There are two phases to a hand of bridge (a hand is from one time the cards aredealt to the next) - the auction phase, in which both sides compete for the contract, and the play phase, inwhich the side which won the contract will attempt to fulfill it by taking at least a certain number of tricks(described below). Because you need to understand the mechanics of how the play works to understand the

auction, we’ll cover that first.

2 The play

With a few exceptions, the play in bridge is almost identical to other trick-taking games you may have playedsuch as spades, hearts, pinochle, etc. A trick consists of each player, in clockwise order, playing a singlecard - the highest-ranking card that was played wins the trick. The trick is then collected by the side thatwon it (in tournaments each player turns the card over in front of himself). The winner of a trick then playsfirst to the next trick, and so on until everyone’s cards are gone. During the play, each player must follow

suit if he can (play a card in the suit that was played first to that trick). If not, he may play any of theother cards in his hand (this is called discarding or pitching, although he will not be eligible to win thetrick unless he is playing a trump card (called trumping or ruffing)). Sometimes there will be a trump

suit in bridge - one suit that outranks the others. If a trump is played on a trick it will win unless a highertrump is played regardless of the ranks of the non-trump cards. Whether or not there is a trump suit willbe determined during the auction phase of the hand.

The main difference between bridge and other games is that only 3 players will really be playing insteadof 4. Each contract will have a declarer - one of the players on the side that won the contract. The playerto the left of the declarer gets to play first to the first trick (called the opening lead). The partner of thedeclarer then places his hand face-up on the table for everyone to see - his hand is called the dummy. Thedeclarer will choose the cards to be played from the dummy as well as from his own hand, and the playerwho’s hand is dummy doesn’t really partake in the play during that hand. The other partnership are playingdefense against the declarer - each side is trying to take as many tricks as they can.

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3 The auction

The bidding really does function like an auction. At each turn you will essentially have to exceed the previousbid or pass. The bidding continues until three players pass in a row (except if the first three players pass- then the last person still has at least one chance to bid). Each time you bid, you will bid the number of tricks you are going to try to take beyond 6 (you always have to try to take at least 7 out of the 13 tricks), aswell as the strain in which you are going to try to take them (which suit will be trumps or notrumps (NT)).

The strains have a ranking order - clubs are the lowest, followed by diamonds, hearts, spades, and finallynotrumps. At each turn in the auction, you must bid either a higher number of tricks than the previous bid,or bid in a higher-ranking strain (or both). For example, if someone has bid 1♥, you can outbid them inspades or NT at the 1-level, but if you want to bid in clubs or diamonds, you’ll have to bid to at least the2-level.

After the auction is over, the player in the partnership that won the auction who first bid the final strainbecomes the declarer, and his partner becomes the dummy. The declarer then tries to take 6 + x tricks in

the final strain where x is the level of the bid. If he is successful he will receive a positive score dependingon the particular contract, and if he fails he will receive a penalty depending on how many tricks he fails by.

There are two other calls one can make in contract bridge: double and redouble. If an opponent bidsa contract that you believe will fail, you can double. Doubling essentially raises the stakes - the penaltiesfor failure and rewards for success of the contract are both increased. Redouble is what you might expectfrom its name. If you are doubled in a contract, you can redouble to further up the stakes for the success orfailure of the current contract. Both doubles and redoubles are cancelled by a new bid, even a higher bid inthe same strain.

4 The scoring basics

Much of the strategy in bridge is affected by the scoring, since not all contracts are created equal. In gen-

eral, the higher the contract, the higher the score for fulfilling it - however, there are some contracts whichreceive significant bonuses. Each strain receives a certain number of points per trick bid and made as follows:

Clubs and diamonds..... 20 points per trick (bid and made)Hearts and spades ..... 30 points per trick (bid and made)Notrumps .............. 30 points per trick + 10 points (bid and made)

Any contract whose trick score totals 100 or more points is called a game contract, and receives asubstantial bonus (either 300 or 500 points in tournament bridge, or being halfway to winning a rubbermatch in rubber bridge). Thus, to bid a game in clubs or diamonds requires a 5-level bid (5 x 20 = 100),a game in hearts or spades requires a 4-level bid (4 x 30 = 120), and a game in notrump only requires a

3-level bid (3 x 30 + 10 = 100). Any bid lower than the points required for a game is called a part-score,because you’re only bidding part of the score needed for game.There are a few other bonuses one can get for making contracts. If you bid and make 12 of the 13 tricks

in any strain, this is called a small slam and is worth a bonus of 500 or 750 on top of the game bonus,which you also receive. Bidding and making all 13 tricks is called a grand slam and is worth 1000 or 1500points on top of the game bonus. Keep in mind that to receive any bonus you must bid the contract, not just take the right number of tricks. If you bid to 3♠ and make 12 tricks, you do not receive the game orslam bonus. Overtricks (extra tricks made in a making contract) do still count towards your score, butthey only add their trick value as a bonus.

Earlier when I gave variable values for bonus, they depend on a game condition called vulnerability.On each hand, each side is either vulnerable or not vulnerable. In tournaments, this is an artificial condition

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imposed to vary the play, and each hand is its own entity. In rubber bridge, each side is racing to get to

two games, and partscores count towards your running total until one side or the other gets to 100 (thenboth sides start over at 0). A side that makes a game contract (100 points of tricks bid and made) becomesvulnerable. Being vulnerable increases the bonuses for making contracts, but also increases the penalties forundertricks, especially doubled.

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Bridge Game Rules