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Bridge is a card game played by 4 players split into 2 teams. The goal of the game is to take as many tricks, or sets of 4 cards, as possible, until one team scores 100 points. Scores are tallied beneath a horizontal bar on a cross-shaped scorecard, so scoring points is called scoring “below the line." Two games must be won in order to finish a match, called a “rubber.” All points are calculated at the end of the match to determine the overall winner. To begin each round, teammates sit across from one another, and the dealer distributes 13 cards to each player. Players then arrange their cards in ascending or descending order by suit. Then, starting with the player to the left of the dealer, players take turns bidding on the number of tricks that they think their team will win. Bidding starts automatically at 6 tricks, so a bid of “1” means that the bidding player thinks their team will take 7 tricks in a round. In addition to the number of tricks, the bidding player must declare a suit to be the trump suit for the round, so a bid of “3 spades” means that the bidding team must win 9 tricks to win the round and that spades will be the highest suit. Each player at the table takes turns bidding, going clockwise. When bidding, each consecutive bid must be higher than the previous bid in either number or suit. The order of the suits, from lowest to highest, are clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, and no trump. No trump means that spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs are all equal and no single suit trumps another. Players can also bid “double,” which means that the previous bid will be worth twice as many points, or “redouble,” which means the previous bid will be worth 4 times as many points. Bids of double or redouble are ignored if another player bids afterwards. You can also say “pass,” to skip your bid. Once 3 consecutive players have passed, bidding is closed. The last player to make a legal bid before 3 passes occur becomes the winning bidder. The team that loses the bid becomes the defending team, and cannot score below the line in that round. The player to the left of the player that won the bid plays their first card. Then, the winning bidder’s partner lays their cards face up on the table and becomes the “dummy,” which means they are not playing for the round. The player that won the bid selects a card from the dummy’s hand, and players take alternating turns playing 1 card from their hand until every player has played a card. The winner of a trick is the player that played the highest card in the suit, or the highest trump card. Players must follow the opening suit unless they no longer have a card in the suit being played. The trump suit is higher than the other suits at the table, so on a bid of 1 spade, the 2 of spades would trump any heart, diamond or club, and can only be beat by playing a higher spade. The winning player in a round collects the trick and places it face-down in a pile in front of them before starting the next trick. At the end of the round, each team counts the number of tricks they’ve won to determine the score. Scoring is modified based on the winning bid. If the winning bid was in hearts or spades, each trick is worth 30 points. If the winning bid is in diamonds or clubs, each trick is worth 20 points. The first trick in no trump is worth 40 points, and every additional trick is worth 30 points. You do not get points for the first 6 tricks that you win. So if a team bids 4 hearts and successfully takes 10 tricks, they are awarded 120 points, since they get 30 points each for the 4 tricks. Points awarded for successfully reaching your opening bid are scored below the horizontal line on your scoresheet. If a team wins more tricks than they bid, any additional trick is scored above the line with the same point values. Once a team scores 100 points below the line, they win the game and an additional line is drawn underneath it to indicate that a new game is starting. Each team’s score below the line resets at 0. When a team has won a game, they are “vulnerable,” which means that the penalty for failing to reach the contract bid is doubled. When a team fails to reach the contract bid, they are penalized 50 points for each trick under the contract if they’re not vulnerable, and 100 points for each trick if they’re vulnerable. These points are scored above the line. All point values are doubled or multiplied by 4 if a bid was doubled or redoubled before the bidding closed. When 2 games are won below the line and a team completes the rubber, the winning team is awarded 500 points above the line. Then, points above and below the line are added together to determine each team’s final score. The winning team is the team with the most points. If you want to learn strategies on how to win bridge, keep reading the article!
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