Bridge game

Bridge is a trick taking card game for four players which form two teams. The players of one team sit opposite one another. Game play is in two phases: bidding and playing.

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Dealing

The game is played with one complete deck of 52 cards. One player is the dealer, and deals 13 cards to each player. In the next round, the player left to the current dealer will be dealer.

Bidding

During the bidding, the teams bid how many tricks they think they are going to make. The team that makes the highest bid, will be playing the game, but must make the number of tricks bid to score positive. The dealer makes the first bid, after this bidding goes round clockwise. When a player has the turn to bid, he can do any of the following:

• Make a new bid. Bids consist of a number (ranging from 1 to 7) plus a suit (with 'No Trump' being an extra suit). If the bid remains the highest, the player must try to make (together with his or her partner) a number of tricks equal to 6 plus the number bid, with the suit bid as trumps (or no trump if No Trump was bid). The bid must be higher than the highest bid upto that point, with the order being decided as:
  • A bid for a higher number of tricks is always higher
  • For bids with the same number of tricks, the order (from high to low) is NT, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs

Thus, a bid of 1H (1 hearts) is beaten by a bid of 1 spades, 1 No Trump or 2 or more in any suit.

• Pass
• Double. This may only be bid if the last player who did not pass was an opponent making a bid. If that contract is played, scores will be higher (for the bidder if the contract is made, for the doubler if it fails)
• Redouble. This may only be bid if the last non-pass bid was a double by opponent. This raises the stakes again, in much the same way as the original double.

The bidding ends if either all four players pass on their first round of bidding, or if three players pass in a row after at least one non-pass bid has been made. In the first case, the game is over with neither pair scoring any points. In the second case, the last bid is the contract that is going to be made, possibly doubled or redoubled.

Bidding Systems and Conventions

A pair is allowed to try to pass information about their hands, but this is restricted in two ways:

• Information may only be passed by the bids made and the cards played, not by anything else.
• All information must be fully explained to the opponents.

Thus, one may have all kind of meanings for biddings, as long as they are told to the opponents.

The meaning of the various bids in a partnership are called that partnership's bidding system. There exist a number of different bidding systems, such as Goren?, ACOL?, [Standard American]?, [strong clubs]? etcetera.

A bid that means something different than a certain range of points and length in the suit bid and/or a willingness to play in that suit, is called a convention. Many conventions have been invented, some of the most famous are Stayman?, [Jacoby transfers]? and Blackwood?.

Playing

The player from the pair that won the bidding (that is, the pair that is going to play the contract), who was the first to make a bid in the suit of the final contract (who is thus either the player bidding the final contract or his partner), is called the declarer. His partner is called the dummy.

The first trick is started by the player to the left of the declarer. After the first card has been played, the dummy lays his cards open on the table. These cards are from then on played by the declarer, who tells the dummy which card is to be played whenever it is the dummy's turn to play on a trick.

Apart from this, the play is just like other trick-taking games - the player who made the previous trick starts the next one (if the declarer made the trick in the dummy, he has to play from the dummy on the next trick, if he made the trick in his own hand, he has to play from his own hand). Whether there is a trump and if so which, has been decided during bidding.

Duplicate Bridge

Like all other card games, the score in bridge is dependant on one's cards. To diminish this effect, and make Bridge less a game of chance and more a game of skill, in clubs and tournaments one's score is not looked at on its own, but compared to that of others who played the same deals. There are two major systems: Pairs and teams games.

Pairs games

In a pairs game, each deal is played a number of times, after which all the scores are compared. Each pair scores 2 points for each other pair that with the same hand scored less points (or had their opponents score more points), and 1 point for each other pair that scored the same number of points. These points are added over a number of games to determine the winner. Scores are usually given in percentages; 100% means that the pair scored more than any other pair on all the hands, 50% means that it scored a dead average in the tournament.

Teams games

In a teams game, a pair is part of a team of two pairs. Each deal is played twice, and the second time the other pair of the team plays the cards that were played by the opponents the first time. Of course the teams may not discuss the deals between the two plays. After each deal has been played twice, the scores per deal are compared, and a score is given depending on the total score in the two times playing. For example, if one pair scores +1000 on a deal, and their team mates score -980, then the team's score on that deal is +20.

Scoring - Rubber Bridge

In friendly play, one generally plays rubber bridge. In rubber bridge, extra points are scored for winning a rubber, which means getting to a game (100 points) twice. There are two types of points: Points below the line and points above the line. Only points below the line count towards a game.

Score for making

If the declarer makes his contract, the number bid, multiplied by a suit-dependent multiplier, is scored below the line. Any overtricks, again multiplied by the suit-dependent multiplier, are scored above the line.

The multiplier is 20 for clubs and diamonds, and 30 for hearts and spades. For No Trump, the multiplier is also 30, but with an added 10 points below the line.

Examples:
bid: 2 clubs, made 9 tricks: 40 (2x20) points below, 20 (1x20) above the line.
bid: 4 hearts, made 10 tricks: 120 (4x30) points below, 0 (0x30) above the line.
bid: 4 no trump, made 11 tricks: 130 (4x30+10) points below, 30 (1x30) above the line.

Game and Rubber

If the score of the pair below the line equals or exceeds 100 points (either at once or taken together with what already was below the line), the team is said to have scored a game, and all scores below the line are turned into scores above the line. If the team has made their second game, the rubber has ended, and the final scores are counted. The team that won the rubber scores 500 points bonus if their opponents also made a game, 700 points bonus otherwise.

Vulnerability and slam bonus

A team that has already made a game, is called vulnerable, which is of importance for the slam bonus and for the downtricks.

If a player bids and makes a bid of 6 in something, he is said to have made a small slam. This gives a bonus (above the line) of 500 points when not vulnerable, and 750 points when vulnerable. If a player bids and makes a bid of 7 in something (thus scoring all the tricks), he is said to have made a grand slam. This gives a bonus of 1000 points when not vulnerable, and 1500 points when vulnerable.

Downtricks

If a pair goes down, their opponents score points above the line. If the pair is not vulnerable, their opponents get 50 points per undertrick, if it is vulnerable 100 points per undertrick.

Doubling

If a pair is doubled, and makes their contract, they get double points for all tricks bid, while overtricks score extra - 100 points per overtrick if not vulnerable, 200 points if vulnerable. Furthermore, the pair gets 50 points bonus 'for the insult'. All these values are doubled again if the contract was redoubled. The slam bonuses are not influenced by a double, nor are the rubber bonuses - although the latter are of course influenced by the fact that there are more scores below the line, and thus games are reached faster.

If a pair is doubled and goes down, the penalty (points to the other pair) are as follows:

• If the pair is not vulnerable, 100 for the first downtrick, 200 for the second and third, and 300 for each subsequent downtrick.
• If the pair is vulnerable, 200 for the first downtrick, and 300 for each following one.

These scores are also doubled again if the contract was redoubled.

Footnote - Recent scoring changes If you read old Bridge books, you may notice some differences in the scoring rules.

The undertrick penalty when doubled, not vulnerable, used to be 100 for the first undertrick and 200 for each subsequent. This was changed because it was too easy to sacrifice against a grand slam. A vulnerable grand slam is worth 1500 (slam bonus) + 500 (game bonus) + 210 (major suit trick score) = 2210. Down 11, doubled not vulnerable, used to be 2100, a profitable sacrifice.

Also, the "insult bonus" for making a redoubled contract used to be only 50. This was changed to 100, so that playing 5 of a minor, redoubled, making an overtrick, is always worth more than an undoubled small slam.

Scoring - Duplicate Bridge

In duplicate bridge, which is what is normally played on a club or tournament, each hand is played on itself, and not as part of a rubber. This changes (and simplifies) the scoring as described above.

In duplicate bridge, if the required number of tricks for the contract has been made, the pair gets a number of points for the tricks bid and the overtricks as described above (20 per trick above 6 in clubs/diamonds, 30 per trick in hearts/spades, 30 per trick plus 10 bonus in No Trump, possibly doubled or redoubled). If the number actually bid is enough to score 100 points or more, a game has been made, which scores 300 when not vulnerable and 500 when vulnerable. If it is lower, the score is not carried over to the next hand, but there is a 'part score' bonus of 50 points.

The bonus for slam, the bonus 'for the insult' and the scores for downtricks and doubled overtricks are the same as described above.

In duplicate bridge, in every series of four deals, the vulnerabilities of 'all vulnerable', 'none vulnerable', 'vulnerable against not vulnerable' and 'not vulnerable against vulnerable' will all occur once, in a predetermined order.