BRIDGE

Bridge Rules

This is an early access version of Bridge. The game as it appears here is not final, and everything is subject to change. Please submit feedback to support@cardgames.io

Contract Bridge is the crown jewel of the Whist family, and in the eyes of many is to card games what Chess is to board games, being played by millions both as a casual leisure activity as well as a competitive pursuit in clubs and tournaments world over. The rules of Bridge are reasonably simple, allowing most people to pick it up with relative ease. However, Bridge has a depth of strategy that makes for an exceptionally high skill ceiling and a worthwhile activity to sink into.

The variation of this site is Rubber Bridge, which is one of the most common Bridge variations played casually and is where most new players start their Bridge career. This contrasts with Chicago Bridge, which is played over exactly four deals and adjusted rules that make it good when multiple tables are playing at once; and Duplicate Bridge, which aims to limit or eliminate the impact of luck, and is thus preferred for tournament play.

The terminology in Bridge differs somewhat from other common trick-taking games, so while we'll try to make the meaning of the terms we use as clear as possible it might be good to have a glossary of Bridge terms handy nearby for easy referencing. One term that may cause confusion is the use of the term "Rubber", which refers to an entire match from start to finish. In contrast, "game" refers to one of the three rounds that make up a rubber. Each game, in turn, consists of multiple hands, as is common in trick-taking games. This contrasts with most other trick-taking games on the site, where the term "game" refers to the entire match, from the first deal to the last hand played.

Objective and Preperation

The objective of Rubber Bridge is for a team to win more points than the opposing team over a series of games. Each game is played over a series of hands until one team scores 100 points 'below line', achieved through successful bids and tricks. A rubber consists of up to three games, with the first team to win two games winning the rubber.

While it's common to play several rubbers in a session, in this site's implementation a winner is declared after completing a single rubber. This means the match consists of up to three games (the rubber) to determine the winner.

The Bidding

The right to chose trump and lead the contract is chosen by auction. The dealer makes the opening bid, and the bidding then moves clockwise. Each bid consists of how many tricks over 6 in a particular trump suit the bidder intends to take with their partner, or "pass" if the player does not wish to bid. Players may also call 'double' or 'redouble', increasing the potential points won or lost. See below for details on doubles and redoubles.

When intending to bid you must always bid a higher contract than was bid previously. You can always bid more tricks in any suit, or go to a higher suit and bid as many or more tricks than the previous bid. The suits are as follows in ascending order:

1. Clubs ♣
2. Diamonds ♦
3. Hearts ♥
4. Spades ♠
5. No Trump (NT)

As such, the lowest bid possible is 1♣, indicating the intent of taking 7 tricks with a club trump suit. On the opposite end, the highest bid is 7NT which promises that your team will take all 13 tricks with no trump.

Bidding continues until there are three consequtive passes. Once everyone but one has passed the bidding ends. The person in the winning team who first mentioned the suit of the contract becomes the declarer. Their partner becomes the dummy. Note that it is not the person who had the highest bid of the auction that becomes the declarer. If Bill calls 1♠ and you later win the auction with a bid of 2♠ Bill becomes the declarer as he first mentioned "Spades" out of the two of you, even if you secured the contract of 2♠

Example: Mike opens with a bid of 1♣. Bill bids 1♥. Lisa responds with a bid of 1♠. You'd like to bid diamonds, but diamonds are a lesser suit than Spades and so you can't go back to 1♦. You thus bid 2♦. Mike passes. Bill goes straight for 3♥. Lisa could bid 3♠, or 3NT, or any bid 4 or higher. However, she doesn't trust her hand and isn't sure Mike has the cards she'd need, and so passes. Both you and Mike pass, and Bill thus wins the contract of 3♥ - Hearts are now trump, with Bill, the declarer, promising that their team takes 9 out of the 13 tricks on offer. Even if you had raised to 4♥ Bill would still have been the declarer, promising to take 10 tricks in a heart trump. Had Bill instead bid something like 4♦ you'd have become the declarer, as you first mentioned diamonds out of the two of you.

Doubles and Redoubles

If the previous bid was made by your opponent, you may call "double". Double doesn't raise the bid nor take the contract away from your opponent, but instead - if the contract isn't overbid - will icrease the points won or lost that hand - usually indicating that you believe the opponent has bid too much and will fail their contract. If they opponents do fail their contract you stand to gain a lot of points, but be warned that if the opponents do make the contract their reward will be increased as well.

A redouble can be made if the previous call by an opponent is a double, and increases the scores in play again - usually indicating that you do believe your team can make the bid and wish to cash out.

Doubles and Redoubles are only valid if the current contract is accepted. If anyone bids anything higher than what is currently being proposed the double and redouble bids become void and must be called again to affect the scoring of the new contract.

Note: On Bidding Conventions

While you can of course just bid what is in your hand, typically the bidding is where partners communicate with both each other and their opponents what is in their hands and what suits they should go for. As table talk is not allowed, a good Bridge team will coordinate what specific bids mean and what acceptable responses are - like a conversation with limited vocabulary. The bots on this site (mostly) understand and follow the Standard American Bidding system.

However, try as hard as they can the bots can't account for every rule and convention, and will generally stick to a fairly well defined script. As such, for the more experienced of you, treat the bots as beginners of Bridge. They know enough about Standard American to have some clue what is happening, but as soon as you end up in complicated bids or weird interwoven webs of calls and overcalls and transfers and responses they will get confused and are liable for starting to bid the wrong things (or just panic and pass because none of their rules apply anymore).

The play

The player to the left of the declarer leads the first trick. They may lead with any card they have in their hand, and place it at the center of the table. In much the same manner as many other trick taking game, each player must follow with a card matching the suit of the lead card, or any card if they have no cards of that suit. The highest card of the suit takes the trick, unless a trump was played. In which case, the highest trump takes the trick. That player then leads the next trick.

The Dummy

Once the first lead of the hand is played, the dummy (who is now playing) lays out their hand for all to see, typically arranged by suit vertically. From that point on the dummy becomes a bystander. The declarer plays for both players in the correct order. It's important to note that the game proceeds as if all four players are playing. The only difference is everyone can see the dummy hand, and the declarer is the one choosing what cards the dummy player plays when it is their go.

Example: You won the contract, and are the declarer. Mike leads with D13. Bill is now the Dummy, and lays out his entire hand: S2 S3 S8 D8 D10 D14 C10 C11 C12 H4 H6 H8 H9
You instruct Bill to play D14 from his hand. Lisa follows with D2, and you D3. Bill takes the trick, and you must now decide what he leads next. Under your command, The dummy leads S2, Lisa S4, You S14, and Mike S5. You take the trick, and lead the next one. This repeats until all 13 tricks have been played, with you playing from Bill's hand in his place.

Scoring and the Scorecard

Scoring in Bridge can seem a bit complex, but generally it's not too different from other similar games. Teams get score based on how many tricks they make, if they made their contract or not, and get penalties and bonuses applied as appropriate.

The Scorecard in bridge typically has four sections: Two columns marked "We" and "They" for your team and the opposing team, and two sections split horizontally in the middle of the sheet. Teams mark the points they earn for tricks "below line", and all bonuses "above line". As games get finished lines are drawn below line to seperate the scores of different games.

We've provided a lookup table to figure out how much to score each hand, but reading it might take some practice. The one term you need to know is Vulnerability. A team is vulnerable when it has won one of the three games. A vulnerable team is subject to greater bonuses or penalties for making or failing their bids.

At the conclusion of a hand, score as follows:

1. Score below the line the number of tricks taken above 6 according to the trump of the contract.
   Example: Mike and Lisa made their contract of Spades, and scored 9 tricks. They mark 90 points below line (30 x 3)

2. For each trick above the contract stated, score overtrick points above the line.
   Example: You and Bill are not vulnerable and bid 2♣, and scored 11 tricks. You mark 60 points above the line (20 x 3)

3. If your team declared and completed a slam (a bid of 6, taking 12+ tricks) or grand slam (a bid of 7, taking 13 tricks) mark the appropriate bonus above the line.
   Example: Mike and Lisa are vulnerable and declared a contract of 6♥ and took 12 tricks. They mark 750 above the line.

4. If the combined points earned below the line this game exceed 100, mark the game as won for that team and draw a line below the score that ended the game to indicate the start of the next game.

5. If any player had 4 or 5 honors in their hand (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten) in the trump suit, or four aces in a No Trump contract, mark the honor bonus above the line for said team.

1. For each trick the contract failed by, the defending team scores undertrick points above the line according to the declaring team's vulnerability.
   Example: Mike and Lisa are vulnerable and bid 3♦, but only made 7 tricks. You and Bill thus score 200 points above the line (100 x 2).
   Example 2: You and Bill are not vulnerable and bid 5NT under a doubled contract, but only made 8 tricks. Mike and Lisa thus score 800 points above the line (200 for the first missing trick, 600 for the other two)

2. If any player had 4 or 5 honors in their hand (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten) in the trump suit, or four aces in a No Trump contract, mark the honor bonus above the line for said team.

If either team wins the rubber by winning two of the three games, mark the Rubber Bonus above their line. 700 points if they won in two games (and their opponents won no games), but 500 if they won in three (and their opponents won one game).

Regarding the Honors Bonus, because it relies on luck and not skill many players will opt to ignore them for their own games. This site does score them to be true to the rules as written.

Winning the game

After each hand, see if the points earned that game below the line for the declaring team equal or exceed 100 points. If so, that team won the game. Mark the game as won and draw a line below the last score on the sheet to mark the new game. If the team in question has won two games they've won the rubber and the match is over. Otherwise, that team becomes Vulnerable and the next game begins. In any case, if the match is still ongoing dealership passes to the left, and a new hand is dealt.

Winning the match

Once either team has won two games, the rubber ends. Add any unclaimed bonuses and sum up all the points earned, both above and below line. The team that has the higher score wins. If the points are equal the team that won more games is the victor.

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