Bridge

What you need & setup

1. Form two partnerships; partners sit opposite each other (the pairs are called North-South and East-West).
2. Shuffle a standard 52-card deck and deal all 52 cards, 13 to each player.
3. Sort your hand by suit — with 13 cards, organization matters.
4. The dealer starts the auction (the bidding phase); bidding proceeds clockwise.
5. When the auction ends, the final bid becomes the contract, and play begins with the opening lead.

Turn sequence

1. Auction: starting with the dealer, each player bids, passes, or (rarely) doubles. Bidding ends after three passes in a row.
2. The last bid is the contract: it names a trump suit (or no trump) and how many tricks over six the declaring side must win.
3. The player who first bid the contract's suit for the winning side becomes declarer; the opponent to declarer's left makes the opening lead.
4. Declarer's partner then lays their whole hand face up on the table — this hand is the dummy, and declarer plays both hands.
5. Each trick: play clockwise, always following suit if you can; the highest trump wins, or the highest card of the led suit if no trump was played.
6. The winner of each trick leads the next one (declarer leads from whichever of the two hands won).
7. After all 13 tricks, compare tricks won to the contract and score the deal.

Tricks and Following Suit

Bridge is a trick-taking game at heart. One player leads a card, and the other three each play one card in clockwise order — those four cards are a trick.

You must follow suit whenever you can. If hearts are led and you hold the 10♥, you must play a heart. Only when you have none may you play something else.

The trick is won by the highest card of the led suit, unless a trump card was played — then the highest trump wins. Aces are high.

Trump and No Trump

Unlike Spades, the trump suit in Bridge is not fixed — the auction decides it fresh every deal. Any of the four suits can be trump, or the contract can be "no trump," meaning no suit beats another.

When a trump suit exists, a player who cannot follow suit may play a trump (called ruffing), and even the 2 of trumps beats an ace in a plain suit.

In a no-trump contract, tricks are always won by the highest card of the suit led — long, strong suits become very powerful.

Bidding, Simply Put

A bid names a number and a suit, like "two hearts." The number is how many tricks beyond six your side promises to win — so two hearts means eight tricks with hearts as trump. Bids range from one (7 tricks) to seven (all 13).

Each bid must be higher than the last, either in number or in suit rank (clubs lowest, then diamonds, hearts, spades, and no trump highest). The auction ends when three players pass in a row, and the last bid becomes the contract.

Bidding is also a coded conversation: partners use their bids to describe their strength and long suits to each other. Full bidding systems are genuinely deep — people study them for years — so treat this as an introduction. To start, a rough guide is to open the bidding with an above-average hand (roughly 12 or more points counting ace = 4, king = 3, queen = 2, jack = 1) and to bid suits you hold at least five of.

Declarer and Dummy

Whichever side wins the auction is the declaring side. The player on that side who first bid the contract's suit (or no trump) becomes declarer; their partner becomes dummy.

After the opening lead, dummy spreads their entire hand face up on the table and takes no further decisions. Declarer plays cards from both hands, always in proper turn.

Playing with a visible dummy is what makes Bridge special: declarer plans with 26 known cards, while defenders try to piece together the hidden hands.

Making or Defeating the Contract

The declaring side succeeds by winning at least the number of tricks the contract requires — eight tricks for a two-level contract, nine for three, and so on.

The defenders' goal is simply to win enough tricks to stop that. If a contract needs nine tricks, the defense wins by taking five.

Every trick short of the contract is an undertrick, and each one gives points to the defenders.

Scoring at a High Level

Making your contract scores points based on the level and the trump suit; higher contracts score more, and certain high contracts called games and slams earn large bonuses.

Failing the contract gives the defenders points for each undertrick instead.

Beginners do not need the full scoring table on day one. Just remember: make your contract to score, bid higher contracts for bigger rewards, and don't promise tricks you can't deliver.

Scoring & how the game ends

• Make the contract: score points per trick bid and made, with the amount depending on the trump suit or no trump.
• Overtricks (tricks beyond the contract) score a small extra amount.
• Bonuses are awarded for bidding and making high contracts, called game and slam bonuses.
• Fail the contract: defenders score points for each undertrick.
• In casual rubber play, the first side to win two games wins the rubber; club and tournament play uses duplicate scoring instead.

Winning: Win the deal by making your bid contract (or defeating the opponents'), and win the session by accumulating more points than the opposing pair.

Common variations

These are genuine regional and house-rule differences — none of them is “the one true way” to play. Agree with your table before starting.

• Rubber bridge

  The traditional home format: partnerships play deal after deal, and the first side to win two games takes the rubber and a bonus.

  Common: Home and social play.

• Duplicate bridge

  The same deals are played at multiple tables and your score is compared with other pairs who held identical cards, removing most of the luck of the deal.

  Common: Bridge clubs and tournaments worldwide.

• Chicago (four-deal bridge)

  A fixed cycle of four deals with a rotating dealer and preset vulnerability, giving a complete game in a predictable time.

  Common: Popular for home games with limited time.

• Minibridge

  A learning variant that skips the auction entirely: the strongest hand becomes declarer and simply announces a contract, letting beginners practice card play first.

  Common: Widely used for teaching newcomers.

A little history

Bridge is descended from Whist by most accounts, evolving through intermediate games before contract bridge became the standard form in the twentieth century.

It grew into one of the most organized card games in the world, with clubs and tournaments on every continent.