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Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game for four players who form two partnerships, or "sides". The partners on each side sit opposite one another. The game consists of two main parts – bidding (or auction) and play; the rules of play are rather simple and similar to other trick-taking games. However, the bidding and associated conventions are much more complex, and represent the true learning barrier to new players. Also, there is an immense variety of techniques in play of the hand, whose effective utilization requires learning and experience.
Introduction
Basically, bridge is a game of chance, like most other card games, so it can be played as "friendly game" among four players. However, the possibility of duplication of deals made it possible that the same cards can be played by several pairs, and the scores compared against each other, significantly reducing the factor of luck. That form is referred to as duplicate bridge and is played in tournaments, which can gather even few hundreds of players. The duplicate bridge is a mind sport, and its popularity gradually became comparable to chess.
Game play
Two partnerships of two players each are needed to play bridge. The four players sit around a table with partners opposite from 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 many deals (also called hands or boards); the game play of each deal consists of four phases: the deal, the bidding (or auction), the play of the cards, and scoring.
Aim of the game is to achieve as high numerical score as possible with given cards. The score is affected by two principal factors: number of tricks taken in play stage, and number of tricks that was bid in the auction, where the former must be higher or equal than the latter. Broadly said, the highest score is achieved when the number of tricks won is equal (or close) to the number that was bid. Thus, in the bidding stage, the pairs compete who will propose the higher number of tricks (and associated trump suit), and the side who wins the bidding must then fulfill that bargain by taking the contracted number of tricks in play. The number of tricks bid and the trump suit (or lack thereof) are referred to as a contract. If the side who won the auction has taken the contracted number of tricks (or higher), it is said to have fulfilled the contract and is awarded points; otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated and points are awarded to their oponents.
Dealing
The game is played with one complete deck of 52 cards. One of the players is the dealer. In rubber bridge (or other "friendly" games), the cards are shuffled and the dealer hands out all the cards clockwise one at a time, starting with his left-hand opponent and ending with himself, so each player receives a hand of thirteen cards. At the same time, for convenience, the dealer's partner is usually shuffling a second deck, ready for use on the following deal. The deal rotates clockwise, so the dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next.
In duplicate bridge, the hands are shuffled only once, at the beginning of the tournament, and dealt clockwise one at a time (there are also special machines for pre-dealing on large tournaments), and placed into boards. At every subsequent table, each player pulls his cards from the board and counts them, ensuring that the deal wasn't corrupted, then sorts them at will. Unlike other trick-taking games, the cards are not thrown to the middle of the table in each trick, but each player keeps his played card before himself, allowing the deal to be returned to the board unaltered.
The auction
To prepare for the play of the cards, the auction phase is used to determine several things: the trump suit, the target number of tricks, which partnership will play for the target, and which of the players in that partnership will play the hand. In addition, doubling and redoubling may occur: this represents a "raising of the stakes," and has an effect on scoring.
The dealer makes the first call, and the bidding continues clockwise until three players in a row have passed after any call. A call is any bid, a pass, a double or a redouble. (However, the word "bid" is often used informally in place of "call".)
When a player has the turn to bid, he may do any one of the following:
Pass,
Make a new bid,
Double or Redouble
A player may always pass when it is his or her turn.
A bid must include a level (number from one to seven) and denomination (also called strain) (either a suit or "no trump"), for instance "3♥". A player may bid on their turn as long as their bid is higher than the most recent bid in the auction so far. A bid is considered higher if it uses a higher level, or the same level but a higher-ranking suit. The order of denominations, from lowest to highest, is clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and no trump (NT). Thus, after a bid of 3♥, bids of 2♠ or 3♣ would be illegal, but 3♠ or 4♦ would be legal bids.
If the most recent bid was made by the opponents, and has not yet been doubled, the player may "double" that bid. If the most recent bid was made by the player's own pair, and has been doubled by an opponent but has not yet been redoubled, the player may "redouble".
The auction ends when either all four players pass initially (in which case the hand is not played or scored), or when three players pass in a row. The last bid becomes the contract, and its denomination determines whether there will be a trump suit, and if so, what it is. The pair that did not make the last bid is called the defense. The pair which did make the last bid is divided further: the player who first made a bid in the strain of the final contract becomes the declarer and his or her partner becomes the dummy. For example, suppose West was the dealer and the bidding went:
South West North East
pass 1♥ pass
1♠ pass 2♦ double
3♠ pass 4♠ pass
pass pass
Then East and West would be the defenders, and South would be the declarer (since South was the first to bid spades), and North would be the dummy, and spades would be the trump suit.
The play of the hand
The play of the hand is similar to other trick-taking games. To summarize, the play consists of thirteen tricks, each trick consisting of one card played from each of the four hands. The first card played in a trick is called the lead, and each player plays a card sequentially around the table clockwise. Any card may be selected as the lead, but the remaining hands must follow suit, (meaning, they must play a card in the same suit as the lead) unless they have no more cards of that suit, in which case any card may be played. The hand that plays the highest card in the suit of the lead wins the trick, unless any of the cards are in the trump suit, in which case the hand that plays the highest trump card wins the trick. (Aces are high in bridge, followed by Kings, then Queens, and so on: 2s are the lowest card in each suit.) The hand that wins each trick plays the lead card of the next trick, until all the cards are played.
The first lead, called the opening lead, is made by the opponent to the left of the declarer. After the opening lead is chosen, the dummy lays their entire hand face up on the table; the declarer selects cards to play out of both the dummy hand and his or her own hand (though they are still separate hands), and the defenders each choose the cards to play out of their own hands. The player who is dummy has practically no rights and must not interfere with the play; (s)he may only play cards from the dummy hand at declarer's order (so that the declarer does not have to lean over the table).
In the end, the goal for each pair is to take as many tricks as possible together (it doesn't matter which player takes them). However, the level of the contract makes a more relevant specific target: the number (level) of the contract is the number of odd tricks the declarer must take, that is, the number of tricks beyond 6. Thus, the declarer is always attempting to take at least a majority of the tricks. In the example above, the declarer must manage to take [6 (assumed) + 4 (bid)] 10 tricks, with spades as the trump suit, in order to make the contract. Success in this goal is rewarded by points in the scoring phase for the declarer's side. If the declarer fails to make the contract, the defenders are said to have set or defeated the contract, and are rewarded points for doing so.
Scoring
Main article: Bridge scoring
When the declarer makes the contract, their side will receive points for:
The contract they made,
Overtricks, and
Other bonuses
When the declarer fails to make the contract, the defending pair receives points for undertricks – the number of tricks by which declarer fell short of the goal.
Most of the bidding revolves around efforts to bid and make a game. Because of the structure of bonuses, certain bid levels are given special significance. The most important level is game, which is any contract whose trick value is 100 or more points. Game level varies by the suit, since different suits are worth different amounts in scoring. The game level for no trump is 3 (9 tricks), the game level for hearts or spades (majors) is 4 (10 tricks), and the game level for clubs or diamonds (minors) is 5 (11 tricks). Slam is any contract on level 6 or 7, and it is given very large bonuses.
There are two important variations in bridge scoring: rubber scoring and duplicate scoring. They share the most features, but differ how the total score is accumulated. In rubber bridge, points for each pair are tallied either "above the line" or "below the line". In duplicate bridge, all the points are accumulated and present a single score, expressed as a positive number (sum of trick points and bonus points) to the winning pair, and by implication, as a negative number to the opponents. Chicago" bridge is a form of friendly game which uses duplicate scoring, i.e. a set consists of four deals with different vulnerabilities, and every deal is scored as a single number.
In duplicate bridge, the same hand is played unchanged accross several (at minimum, two) tables and the results are compared using various methods, and the differences expressed in matchpoints or IMPs. They are summed up for every pair for every board they played, and the pair with highest total score becomes the winner of the tournament. Thus, even with bad cards, a pair can win the tournament if it has done better than the players who played these same pair of cards.
Historical origins
A number of card games similar to whist can be traced all the way back to the early 16th century. They were all trick-taking games with a variety of minor variations. Whist became the dominant form, and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries.
The first game known as bridge was created by two innovations. The trump suit was chosen by the dealer, or he could pass the choice to his partner; and the dealer then played both his own and his partner's hand, with the latter fully exposed. (According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word bridge is the English pronunciation of biritch, an older name of the game of unknown Middle Eastern origin; the oldest known rule book, from 1886, calls it "Biritch, or Russian Whist". The OED reports speculation that the word may come from a Turkish term bir-üç, or "one-three", supposedly referring to the one exposed and three concealed hands.) This game, known today by the retronyms bridge-whist and straight bridge, became popular in the United States and the UK in the 1890s.
In 1904, the practice caught hold of using an auction phase to determine which player would designate the trump suit and have the privilege of playing his partner's exposed hand. This variation was known as auction bridge.
The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. Vanderbilt wrote down his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had become the dominant form of the game. It has supplanted all other forms of the game, including auction bridge, so that "bridge" is now synonymous with "contract bridge".
Tournaments
Tournaments were possible because of duplicate bridge, a variation of the game where many sets of players play with the same hands. Duplicate had occasionally been used for whist matches, as early as 1857. For some reason, duplicate was not thought to be suitable for bridge, and so it wasn't until the 1920s that (auction) bridge tournaments became popular.
In 1925 when contract bridge first evolved, bridge tournaments were becoming popular, but the rules were somewhat in flux, and several different organizing bodies were involved in tournament sponsorship: the American Bridge League (formerly the American Auction Bridge League, which changed its name in 1929), the American Whist League, and the United States Bridge Federation. In 1935, the first officially recognized world championship was held. By 1937, however, the American Contract Bridge League had come to power (a union of the ABL and the USBF), and it remains the principal organizing body for bridge tournaments. In 1958, the World Bridge Federation was founded, as bridge had become an international activity.
Today, the ACBL has over 160,000 members and runs 1100 tournaments per year with 3200 officially-associated bridge clubs.
Bidding boxes and bidding screens
In tournaments, "bidding boxes" are frequently used. A bidding box is a box of cards, each bearing the name of one of the legal calls in bridge. A player wishing to make a call displays the appropriate card from the box, rather than making a verbal declaration. This prevents unauthorized information from being conveyed via voice inflection. In top national and international events, "bidding screens" are used. These are diagonal screens which are placed across the table, preventing a player from seeing his partner during the game.
Important Bridge Players
Charles Goren
Samuel Stayman
Ely Culbertson
Oswald Jacoby
Helen Sobel Smith
Easley Blackwood
Giorgio Belladonna
Benito Garozzo
Bob Hamman
Game Strategy
Bidding systems and conventions
Main articles: Bidding system, Convention (bridge)
Much complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of successfully arriving at a good final contract in the auction. This is a fundamentally difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate enough information about their hands to ultimately arrive at a makeable contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted in two ways:
Information may only be passed by the calls made and later by the cards played, and not by any other means.
The agreed-upon meaning of all information passed must be available to the opponents.
A bidding system is the typical solution to this problem: each player evaluates their hand and makes bids in order to give or request information from their partner, with the goal of eventually arriving at an ideal contract. Bids, Doubles, Redoubles, and even Passes can be either natural or conventional. A natural bid is a proposal to reach a contract in the named suit. A conventional bid is an attempt to communicate, offering and/or asking for information about the partnerships' hands, that is not intended to be a proposal for the final contract. A wide variety of bidding systems have been developed over the course of the 20th century. However, most modern systems have well-established common ground.
First of all, a fairly universal system of high card points is used to give a basic evaluation of the strength of a hand. Aces are counted as 4 points, kings as 3, queens as 2, and jacks as 1 point: the deck contains 40 points, and 26 points is considered sufficient for a partnership to bid, and make, game in a major or in no trump. In addition, the distribution of the cards in a hand into suits may also contribute to the strength of a hand and be counted as distribution points. Because 26 points is usually considered sufficient to make game, 13 points in one hand is considered sufficient to open the bidding (that is, make the first bid in the auction), by bidding 1 of a suit.
A 1NT opening bid reflects a hand that has relatively balanced suits and high cards, and usually refers to a hand with 15-17 high card points. In some systems the number of points expected from a 1NT opening bid changes, but it always refers to a relatively narrow range of points.
Opening bids of 2 or higher are reserved for two types of bids: unusually strong bids and preemptive bids. Unusually strong bids are made in order to communicate an especially high number of points; the availability of unusually strong bids allows a player with a weak hand to safely pass when their partner opens the bidding at one of a suit. Preemptive bids are often made with weak hands that especially favor a particular suit. For instance, with a hand of ♠ AK98742 ♥ 73 ♦ 42 ♣ 76, an opening bid of 3♠ is a very reasonable sacrificial bid, designed to make it difficult for the opposing team to determine a contract for themselves (which is good here, since they are likely to have the bulk of the points).
Most systems include the weak two bid convention, in which opening bids of 2♥, 2♦, or 2♠ are reserved for preemptive bids, while 2♣ is used for very strong hands. This is a first example of a conventional bid: an opening bid of 2♣ in no way suggests 2♣ as a final contract: indeed, in these systems 2♣ may be bid without any clubs.
Another common convention is the 5-card major convention, in which an opening bid of 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least 5 cards in that suit. This leads to some awkward bids, for instance, when a player has four cards in each major, and is forced to open the bidding with 1 of a 3-card minor suit.
Doubles are sometimes used in bidding conventions. A natural, or penalty double, is one used to try to gain extra points when the defenders are confident of setting the contract. The most common example of a conventional double is the takeout double of a low-level bid, implying support for the unbid suits and asking partner to choose one of them.
There are many other conventions. Some of the most famous are Stayman, Jacoby transfers and Blackwood.
Bidding systems depart from these basic ideas in varying degrees. Standard American, for instance, is a collection of conventions designed to bolster the accuracy and power of these basic ideas, while Precision Club is a highly conventional system that uses the 1♣ opening bid for strong hands (but sets the threshhold rather lower than most other systems) and requires many other changes in order to handle other situations. Many experts today use a system called 2/1 game forcing. There are even a variety of techniques used for hand evaluation. The most basic is the Milton Work point count, but this is sometimes augmented by other guidelines such as losing trick count, law of total tricks or Zar Points.
Play techniques
Terence Reese, a prolific author of bridge books, points out that there are only four ways of taking a trick by force, and two of these are very easy:
playing a high card that no one else can beat
trumping an opponent's high card
establishing long cards (the last cards in a suit will take tricks if the opponents don't have the suit and are unable to trump)
playing for the opponents' high cards to be in a particular position (if their ace is in front of your king, your king may take a trick)
Nearly all trick-taking techniques in bridge can be reduced to one of these four methods.
The optimum play of the cards can require much thought and experience, and is too complicated to describe in a short article. However, some basic ideas of probability may be considered:
Some of the most important probabilities have to do with the position of high cards.
The probability that a given opponent holds one particular card, e.g. the king: 50%
The probability that a given opponent holds two particular cards, e.g. the king and the queen: approximately 25%
The probability that a given opponent holds at least one of two particular cards, e.g. the king or the queen: approximately 75%
When developing long cards, it is important to know the likelihood that the opponents' cards in the suit are evenly divided between them. Generally speaking, if they hold an even number of cards, they are unlikely to be exactly divided; if the opponents have an odd number in the suit, the cards will probably be divided as evenly as possible. For example, if declarer and dummy have eight trumps between them, the opponents' trumps are probably (68% chance) divided 3-2 (one opponent with three trumps, the other with two) and trumps can be drawn in three rounds. If declarer is trying to play with a seven card trump suit, it is more likely that the outstanding trumps are divided 4-2 (48%) than that the cards are evenly divided 3-3 between the opponents (36%).
Basic techniques by declarer
When new to the game, a player should be familiar with these strategies for playing the hand:
trumping
crossruff
establishing long suits
finesse
holdup (mostly at NT contracts)
managing entries
drawing trumps
Advanced techniques by declarer
Someone who plays regularly in tournaments should be familiar with these concepts:
counting the hand (tracking the distibution of suits and high cards in the opponents' hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
coup
duck
dummy reversal
endplay
principle of restricted choice
safety play
squeeze
Basic techniques by defenders
opening lead
when to lead trump
Advanced techniques by defenders
avoiding an endplay or squeeze
counting the hand (tracking the distibution of suits and high cards in the unseen hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
false carding
opening lead—using information from auction
signaling
uppercut
Bridge on the Internet
There are several free and some subscription-based servers available for playing bridge on the Internet. OKBridge1 is the oldest of the Internet Bridge services; players of all standards, from beginners to world champions may be found playing there. SWAN Games2 is a more recent competitor. The American Contract Bridge League, the English Bridge Union and the Dutch Bridge Union also have Internet Bridge services. Yahoo! Games also has several online Rubber Bridge rooms.
Among the free servers, Bridge Base Online is notable for enforcing a high standard of ethics. Many world-class players may be found there.
There are many advantages to playing Bridge online:
The ability to choose when you play.
The ability to choose your opponents. In a club game, you may be forced to play against pairs that are much weaker, rude, or much stronger. Playing online, you can play against opponents of nearly equal ability.
Most servers offer an accurate player rating system. The ACBL and EBU masterpoints systems give credit for how much one has played rather than how well; most online systems have a rating system which attempts to measure one's ability without regard to the number of games played.
There are fewer restrictions on which conventions one is allowed to use.
It is easier to police cheating online, since there is an accurate record of every deal. Intentional cheating, such as calling your partner on the telephone, is easier, but there is much less unethical behavior, such as making inferences from partner's tone of voice.
A detailed record of every hand may be kept, so complaints can usually be resolved properly.
It is impossible to make an illegal play by accident, as the software won't accept a play or call which does not conform to the rules.
The main disadvantage to playing online is that bridge is a social game, and many people play because they enjoy the social atmosphere of the bridge club.
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