Bridge Card Game Rules

Bridge is one of the best known card games in the world and a cornerstone of the trick-taking family. Four people play, sitting as two partnerships. Partners sit across from each other, with an opponent on either side.

You need a standard 52-card deck without jokers and something to keep score with. A single deal takes a few minutes, while a full match, called a rubber, usually runs 30 to 90 minutes.

The aim is to win tricks together with your partner. The two sides first bid for how many tricks they think they can take and which suit will be trumps. Then the tricks are played, and the side that bid highest tries to win at least as many as it promised.

Split into two teams of two, with partners sitting opposite each other. The four places at the table are traditionally called North, East, South and West, where North and South are partners playing against East and West.

The player to the dealer's left shuffles, and the player to the dealer's right cuts. The dealer hands out the whole deck one card at a time, clockwise, so that each player ends up with 13 cards. The turn to deal passes clockwise from one deal to the next.

Sort your hand by suit (♠️ ♥️ ♦️ ♣️) and keep it hidden from the others. The ace is high, followed by king, queen, jack, 10 and down to the 2 as the lowest card.

During the bidding the suits are ranked by value. From lowest to highest: clubs ♣️, diamonds ♦️, hearts ♥️ and spades ♠️. Above every suit sits notrump, which means playing with no trump suit at all.

This order decides which bids beat which. A bid for more tricks always beats a bid for fewer. When the number of tricks is the same, the higher suit wins. So 2 spades beats 2 hearts, and 3 clubs beats 2 notrump.

Each deal opens with the bidding, also called the auction. The dealer bids first, then it moves clockwise. On your turn you choose one of these:

• Pass: you make no bid this time, but you can still bid later in the auction.
• A bid: you name a number from 1 to 7 and a trump suit or notrump, for example "2 hearts". Every bid must be higher than the one before it.
• Double: if the opponents made the last bid, you can double it, which raises both the reward and the penalty for that contract.
• Redouble: if the opponents have doubled your side's bid, you can redouble to raise the stakes further.

The number in a bid tells how many tricks over six the side promises to win. "1 club" means 7 tricks (6 plus 1) with clubs as trumps, and "7 notrump" means all 13 tricks with no trumps. Each side almost always takes at least six tricks, so only the tricks beyond six are bid for.

The auction ends when a bid is followed by three passes in a row. The last bid becomes the contract. It sets which side plays, how many tricks it must take, and what is trumps. If all four players pass straight away, the cards are gathered and the next dealer deals again.

Whichever partner first named the trump suit (or notrump) in the contract becomes the declarer.

Now the 13 tricks are played. The opponent to the declarer's left plays the first card, the opening lead. As soon as it is down, the declarer's partner lays their whole hand face up on the table. This partner is the dummy and takes no further part in the deal. The declarer decides which cards to play from both their own hand and the dummy.

Play moves clockwise. You must follow suit: if you hold a card in the suit that was led, you have to play one of them. If you have none of that suit, you may play any card, including a trump.

A trick is four cards, one from each place. It is won by the highest trump in it, or, if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner of a trick leads to the next one, and so it goes until all 13 tricks are gone.

Example: spades are trumps and the ♥️K is led. The others must play hearts if they have any. A player with no hearts can play the ♠️2, and that small trump beats the king of hearts.

Points are scored for contracts a side bids and makes. For each trick over six that was bid and won, the side scores:

• Clubs or diamonds: 20 points per trick.
• Hearts or spades: 30 points per trick.
• Notrump: 40 for the first trick and 30 for each one after that.

A doubled contract counts these points twice, and a redoubled one counts them four times.

A game is a contract worth at least 100 of these points: 3 notrump, 4 hearts or spades, or 5 clubs or diamonds. Win two games and you win a rubber, which is one full match. A side that already has a game is said to be vulnerable, which makes both the bonuses and the penalties larger.

If the declarer fails to make the contract, the side goes down, and the opponents score for every trick the side fell short. Extra tricks beyond the contract are overtricks and score a little on top. The biggest contracts carry bonuses: a small slam (12 tricks bid and won) and a grand slam (all 13).

Bridge scoring is detailed, and most players keep a score sheet. When you are starting out, it is enough to note who made their contract and count games until someone wins the rubber.

The bidding is the hardest part of bridge, and many people learn the game through a simpler version called minibridge, which skips the usual auction.

Each player counts the strength of their hand on this scale: ace 4 points, king 3, queen 2 and jack 1. There are 40 such points in the deck. Everyone says their count out loud, and the side with the most points plays the contract. The declarer is the player on that side with the higher count. They see the dummy, then decide what will be trumps (or notrump) and whether to aim for a game. The tricks are then played exactly as normal.

Minibridge lets you practise the play right away and makes the step up to full bidding much easier later.

A few pointers to get you going:

• Weigh your hand. The point scale from minibridge (ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1) is useful whatever you play. Around 12 points or more is enough to open the bidding.
• Bid your longest suit. A suit where you hold many cards usually makes a better trump than a short suit of high cards.
• Listen to your partner. Every bid says something about a hand. Use what your partner bids to find the right contract together.
• Lead safely. On defence it often pays to lead from your longest suit against a notrump contract, and to be careful about leading away from an ace and king you want to keep.
• Remember the cards. Keep track of which high cards and trumps have gone. A good memory is worth more than luck over a session.

Bridge comes in more than one form, and a few words come up often:

• Rubber bridge: the form described here, played at home with scores carried from deal to deal until a rubber is won.
• Duplicate bridge: the same hands are played at several tables, so luck of the deal counts for less and skill for more. This is the club and tournament form.
• Contract and odd tricks: the contract is the final bid. An odd trick is one trick over six, so a bid of "three" is a promise of nine tricks.
• Bidding systems: experienced partners agree in advance what different bids mean. As a beginner you do not need any system to enjoy the game.