How do you play bridge card game

The "dummy", which comes from the French word for silent, is the declarer's partner and places the hand face-up on the table after the "bidding" is done and the "opening lead" is made by the player on declarer's left.

The other two players are the defenders for that hand. These terms are just a few of the things you will learn during learning bridge.

If you want to know more about these bridge terms, please visit our bridge glossary. Or go to our how to play bridge tutorial in our app. When you use our tutorial, how to play bridge will become clearer and clearer as you progress. Bridge bidding. A bridge deal consists of two phases: bidding and card play. In this phase, players bid for the minimum number of tricks they think they can take to win the deal. The dealer makes the first call. He is the "opener". Then the auction proceeds clockwise.

There may be several bidding rounds. The bidding ends when three players in succession say Pass, meaning that they do not want to bid higher. The final bid becomes the "contract". A bid in bridge consists of: A number from 1 to 7 called "level". A suit spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs or "notrump" NT. The number refers to the total number of tricks six plus the number indicated in the bid one pair has contracted to make. The suit indicates the trump suit. For instance, the North-South pair has bid 4H.

It commits to making 10 tricks with hearts as trumps. If a player thinks that the last bid made by one of his opponents is too optimistic, he can double it when it is his turn to speak. This double can be redoubled by an opponent. The purpose of bidding is to relay information about the strengths and weaknesses of your hand to your partner. It will help you determine the easiest contract to make based on your respective hands.

It is therefore important to know the meaning of each bid. This is referred to as "bidding systems and conventions". Not sure to understand your partner's bid? No worries! With our bid decoder you will get the meaning of any bid, whatever your previous sequence is! This brand new interactive tool has been developed based on Funbridge AI "Argine" mimicking human behaviour since Take a look at the bid decoder now! Bridge card play. Once the bidding is over, the play begins. Here the aim is to win tricks equal to or greater than the number bid level.

The players The " declarer ": the player of the pair who first mentions the suit or notrump that becomes the final contract. Of course, it's a different story if your partner has already bid because he is signaling to you that he already has sufficient points to open. In that case he is asking you if you can support his suit or if you have another suit you'd like to introduce. In answering your partner's opening bid, you should have at least points to support his suit and if you're introducing a new suit.

On the other hand, if your partner has passed and you don't have 13 points, it may be wise for you to pass as well. As you and your partner bid back and forth, try to ascertain how many points you have as a team. For instance, if you believe that your partner's points and your points combine to total 28 or more, you should have enough to take a bid of 4. For a bid of 6, 33 points should suffice, and for a bid of 7 a "grand slam" , you should have 36 points between you.

There are numerous other point-counting conventions, but these cover some of the essentials. Of course, every rule has some exceptions, and you must also pay attention to your opponents' bidding.

You may find that they're bidding a suit that is particularly strong in your hand. Then you have to decide, based on what your partner has bid and your own points, whether it would be a better strategy to allow your opponents' bid to go through and try to set them or try to win the contract yourself and thus earn game points.

Now that you understand the rules and strategies for the auction portion of Contract Bridge, you're ready to read about playing the hand. Contract Bridge Play Once the bidding portion of Contract Bridge has been completed, the play of the hand begins. Let's look at the rules of play: The play of the hand: The player at declarer's left in the sample hand below, West will choose the card to lead to the first trick.

This is called the opening lead. Once the opening lead is made, the dummy hand, that of declarer's partner, here North , is placed on the table. The declarer's partner is now functionally out of the round, as this hand is now played by the declarer. South rearranges the dummy hand to show trumps s on the left, as illustrated here: When it is dummy's turn to play, declarer selects the card to be played and plays it or asks dummy to play what the declarer selects.

Once the opening card has been led, each player must follow suit if able. Should you be deficient in the suit led, you are free to play any other card, including trump.

High trump or highest card in the suit led wins the trick. The winner of each trick leads to the next. The first time trump is played, trump is said to be broken.

Only after trump has been broken may anyone lead with a trump -- unless they have no other suits available. Here is a sample round using the hands introduced on the first page: West begins by leading the 5. South wins East's J with the A. At tricks two and three, South cashes takes short tricks his A and K, and discovers that the defense will win a trick with the Q meaning that West threw out their J and 2, leaving the Q in reserve for later use. South continues at the fourth trick by leading the 3 to dummy's K.

South leads 3 to the dummy's K. South next leads the 10, West puts on the Q, but South trumps it in dummy with dummy's remaining trump.

Except for West's high , South will win all the tricks and the contract succeeds. Now that you've read about the bidding and playing of a hand, you'll need to learn about keeping score. Let's take a look at the Contract Bridge socring system on the next page. Now you will learn the rules of keeping score, which can take some getting used to: Scoring: After the tricks have been played, it is clear whether the declarer made the contract i.

If the contract is made, the declaring side scores according to the table below. If you make a contract of 6, it's called a small slam; a grand slam is a made contract of 7 bids. Both slams receive bonuses. If you win six or seven tricks but did not bid that number; you are not credited with a slam.

If the contract goes down, the other side scores points for undertricks, that is, the number of tricks the declaring side falls short of the contract see chart below.

Rubber Bridge scoring: When one side has scored two games, it wins the rubber. A game means points in tricks bid for and won according to the scoring table above. It's quite possible to bid and make game on a single deal: For example, 3 NT scores points, and successful contracts of 4 , 4 , 5 , and 5 also count at least points.

Alternatively, you can earn game in a series of deals whose final contracts end at a lower bidding level; these are called part-scores or partials. For example, you might bid and make 2 on one hand 40 points , and on the next hand you might bid and make 2 60 points.

The two added together equal points, enough for game. A side that has scored one game is vulnerable, so if both sides have a game both are vulnerable.

A side that hasn't scored a game yet is not vulnerable. When defenders defeat, or set, a contract, they earn greater points whenever the other side is vulnerable. Score for the winning side is also increased when the final contract is doubled or redoubled.

Note: Extra tricks overtricks made at any contract do not count toward game. Scoring above and below the line: Both sides usually keep score, either on a preprinted Bridge score pad, or else just by drawing lines in a cross. Points toward game go below the line, while all other points, including bonuses and overtricks, score above the line.

Then N-S bid 4 and made To show that a game was won, an additional line was added under that score. E-W's 40 part-score, by the way, is wiped out, E-W earn the points but both sides start fresh earning trick points toward the next game.

N-S then bid 3 but went down one vulnerable, earning E-W above the line. Finally, N-S bid and made 6 in the hand shown , scoring below the line in trick score, above the line for vulnerable small slam bonus, and more points above the line for winning a rubber two games to none. In this instance, the total rubber score is N-S 1,, E-W Below is a list of scoring for bonuses and overtricks.

Number of players: Four Object: To score points. In Auction Bridge, if you take enough tricks, you score game and slam bonuses without regard to how high the bidding ended. The cards: Regular pack card deck.

To play: The auction, procedure of play, and rules of play are already described in Contract Bridge on the first page of this article. Only the scoring changes in Auction Bridge. Scoring: Auction Bridge underwent several scoring changes, and this is the final version. A rubber ends when one side scores two games.

To do so, every player is given a card from a shuffled deck and who ever receives the highest card becomes the first dealer. Ties are broken by a repeated deal. The initial dealer shuffles the deck and the player to their right cuts it. The dealer then passes 13 cards one by one clockwise to each of the 4 players. A bid represents the number of tricks the team expects to make along with the trump suit they desire for the round.

The minimum bid is 7 tricks, while the maximum is A player can decide to double a bid made by the opposing team if they believe that they will not make the number of tricks.

By doubling a bid, the player doubles the penalty if the bid is not made but, also doubles the payout if the bid is successful. A player can redouble a bid if the bid was made by their teammate and the bid was doubled by their opponent. Redoubling quadruples the original bids payout if successful and penalty if unsuccessful. If a player passes, they decide not to make a bid, redouble or double. The auction continues to each player until all players have passed on the highest bid.

The highest bid in terms of suit ranking and number of tricks bid becomes the contract for the round. The player who made the highest bid becomes the Declarer and their team becomes the attackers while the other team becomes the defenders.

The teammate of the Declarer becomes the Dummy. The Dummy lays down their cards face up, grouped in suits, for the players to see. The Dummy does not participate in the round.

Instead, the Declarer plays for them when it is their turn. The gameplay officially begins when the Declarer lays down the lead card.

Going clockwise, the Defenders try to out rank the lead. A player must only play cards of the same suit as the lead card.