Contract Bridge

Players and equipment

Four players in two fixed partnerships, partners facing each other, and a standard 52-card pack, ace high. Also a scoresheet ruled with a horizontal line across the middle. That line is the game, and it is the reason bridge scoring reads strangely to everybody who has not played it.

The deal

Thirteen cards each, dealt one at a time clockwise, starting on the dealer's left. The deal rotates to the left after each hand.

Play

The auction

Starting with the dealer, each player passes or bids. A bid names a number of tricks over six and a strain: one heart contracts for seven tricks with hearts as trumps, seven no trumps for all thirteen with no trumps at all. Each bid must be higher than the last, the strains ranking clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, no trumps, so one spade beats one heart and two clubs beats one no trump.

You may instead double the opponents' bid, or redouble their double. Three passes in a row after any bid end the auction; four passes at the start throw the hand in.

The last bid is the contract. Declarer is whichever of that partnership first named its strain, which is not always the player who bid it last.

The play

The player to declarer's left leads. Dummy — declarer's partner — then lays their entire hand face up on the table and takes no further part in the hand: declarer plays both.

Follow suit if you can; otherwise play anything, trumps included. The trick goes to the highest trump in it, or the highest card of the suit led, and its winner leads to the next.

Scoring

Only the tricks bid and made go below the line, and only what is below the line counts towards a game. Everything else — overtricks, bonuses, penalties — goes above it and counts only when the rubber ends.

Tricks bid and made, below the line

Clubs or diamonds

20

Each trick over six

Hearts or spades

30

Each trick over six

No trumps

40

The first trick over six

No trumps

30

Each trick after that

Doubled or redoubled

×2, ×4

The trick score is doubled, then doubled again

100 below the line is a game, reached in one hand or across several. The line is then ruled under it and both sides start again from nothing, so a part-score the other side had is wiped with it. A side that has won a game is vulnerable, which costs more and pays more from then on. A trick taken over the contract, undoubled, is worth the same as a bid trick but goes above the line.

Above the line

Rubber, two games to none

700

Won before the opponents made one

Rubber, two games to one

500

The usual finish

Small slam

500 or 750

Twelve tricks bid and made, not vulnerable then vulnerable

Grand slam

1000 or 1500

All thirteen bid and made

Making a doubled contract

50

For the insult, on top of the doubled tricks

Doubled overtricks

100 or 200

Each, not vulnerable then vulnerable

Four trump honours in one hand

100

Any four of ace, king, queen, jack, ten

Five trump honours, or four aces at no trumps

150

In any one hand, declarer's or a defender's

Going down

Undoubled

50 or 100

Each trick short, not vulnerable then vulnerable

Doubled, not vulnerable

100

The first trick short

Doubled, not vulnerable

200

The second and the third

Doubled, not vulnerable

300

The fourth and every one after

Doubled, vulnerable

200

The first trick short

Doubled, vulnerable

300

Every one after that

Penalties are scored by the defenders, above the line, and never count towards a game. Honours are scored by whoever holds them whether they are declaring or defending, which is the one part of the scoresheet that owes nothing to skill.

A worked rubber

Alice and Cara play Ben and Dev. Five hands settle it.

Hand 1

60 below, 30 above

Alice and Cara bid two hearts and take nine tricks, one over

Hand 2

50 above to Alice and Cara

Ben and Dev bid three no trumps and take eight, one short

Hand 3

60 below, making 120 and a game

Alice and Cara bid two spades and take exactly eight

Hand 4

120 below for a game, 100 above for honours

Ben and Dev bid four spades and take ten, Dev holding the ace, king, queen and jack of spades

Hand 5

200 below, game and rubber

Alice and Cara bid three no trumps, Ben doubles, and they take ten

The double

50 and 200 above

Making a doubled contract, and one doubled overtrick vulnerable

The rubber

500 above

Two games to one

Alice and Cara

1150

320 below, 830 above

Ben and Dev

220

120 below, 100 above

The first hand puts 60 below the line, two tricks at 30, and the undoubled overtrick is 30 above. Ben and Dev going one down is 50 to Alice and Cara above the line. The third hand's 60 takes Alice and Cara to 120 below, a game: the line is ruled under it and they are vulnerable. Ben and Dev's four spades is 120 in one hand, a game of their own, with Dev's honours paid above though his side was declaring; both sides are now vulnerable at one game each. On the fifth hand three no trumps is 40 for the first trick and 30 for each of the next two, 100, doubled to 200 below the line: a game, and the rubber. The insult is 50, the overtrick doubled and vulnerable is 200, and the rubber is 500 rather than 700 because Ben and Dev won a game on the way. Both columns are added at the end, and Alice and Cara win by 930.

What this scoreboard keeps

A rubber has no fixed length and its bonuses are only settled at the end, so a single number per deal cannot describe one. This board keeps Chicago instead — four-deal bridge, the usual way to score a single table — in which every deal is paid in full as it finishes and nothing is carried above a line.

Deal 1

Enter each side's total

Nobody vulnerable

Deals 2 and 3

Enter each side's total

The dealer's side vulnerable

Deal 4

Enter each side's total

Both sides vulnerable

Game bid and made

300, or 500 vulnerable

100 or more below the line, in one deal

Part-score made

50

Anything less than a game

Trick scores, slam bonuses, doubling and penalties are exactly as above. The difference is only that the game bonus is paid on the deal that earns it rather than banked for the end, which is what makes each deal's total final.

Ending

Four deals make a round, and the higher total across them wins it. Play as many rounds as there is time for.

Tables that would rather play a rubber still can, scoring above and below the line as described: the rubber ends when one side has won two games, and the higher total of both columns takes it — which a side can occasionally do having lost both games, if what it collected above the line was large enough. The board will not keep a rubber's running total for you, because a rubber is not finished until it is finished.

Count your points before you bid

An ace is four, a king three, a queen two and a jack one, so the pack holds forty and an average hand is ten. Open the bidding with twelve or thirteen, or with eleven and a good long suit. Between them a partnership wants about twenty-five for a game in no trumps or in hearts or spades, twenty-nine for five clubs or diamonds, thirty-three for a small slam and thirty-seven for a grand.

Responding to partner

If partner opens and you hold six points or more, say something, because a pass ends the conversation. Raise their suit if you hold four cards in it, or three if it is hearts or spades; bid a suit of your own with five or more; bid one no trump with six to nine points and nothing better to say.

The finesse

Suppose dummy holds the ace and queen of a suit and your own hand holds small cards. Lead a small card towards dummy. If the player on your left plays the king, take it with the ace; if they play low, play the queen and hope the king is on your left. It works about one time in two, and it is how a declarer takes two tricks with an ace and a queen.

Draw the trumps

In a suit contract, lead trumps early until the defenders have none left, so they cannot trump your aces and kings. Count them as they go: there are thirteen, and with eight between your hand and dummy the defenders hold five, which split three and two about two times in three. The exception is when dummy needs its trumps to trump your losing cards first.

Playing a no-trump hand

Count your certain tricks before touching a card, and if they fall short, find the long suit that can supply the rest. Play that suit first, giving up the tricks you must lose while you still hold the aces in the other suits to stop the defenders running theirs. On the opening lead, if you hold the ace of the suit led and small cards, consider letting the trick go and taking the ace later, so the defender with the long suit runs out of ways to reach it.

Chicago

Four deals, with vulnerability fixed by the deal rather than earned: nobody on the first, the dealer's side on the second and third, both on the fourth. A game pays its bonus on the deal it is made, 300 or 500 vulnerable, and a part-score pays 50, as the rows above say. The club game as first played carried a part-score forward to the next deal within the four and paid 100 for one left standing after the fourth; the version this board keeps pays each deal in full.

Duplicate

The same deals are played at every table in the room and each pair is scored against the others who held the same cards, so the luck of the deal is taken out. Each deal is scored on its own: the trick score, plus 300 or 500 for a game or 50 for a part-score, with the slam bonuses and penalties as above, no rubber and no honours. Vulnerability is set by the board number.

Minibridge

Bridge without the auction, for learners. Everyone announces their points; the side with more becomes the declaring side and its stronger hand the declarer. Dummy lays their hand face up before a contract is chosen, and declarer, seeing both hands, names the trumps and whether to try for a part-score or a game. Scoring is Chicago's.

Rubber and duplicate vulnerability

In a rubber a side becomes vulnerable by winning a game and stays so until the rubber ends, so the side ahead in games plays under bigger penalties. In Chicago and duplicate, vulnerability is set before the cards are dealt, so both sides know it during the auction, and a side that is not vulnerable can bid a doubtful contract to stop a vulnerable opponent's game cheaply.

What does a bid mean in bridge?

A bid is a promise to take a number of tricks with a named trump suit, or with none. The number is counted above six, so a bid of one means seven tricks and a bid of seven means all thirteen. Bids also carry meaning between partners: an opening bid of one in a suit says you hold about twelve points or more and at least four cards in it.

What does vulnerable mean in bridge?

A side that has won a game in the current rubber is vulnerable. From then on it loses more for going down, 100 a trick instead of 50 undoubled, and gains more for slams and doubled overtricks. In Chicago and duplicate, vulnerability is fixed by the deal or board number instead of earned.

What is a slam worth?

A small slam is twelve tricks bid and made and pays 500 above the line, or 750 if you are vulnerable. A grand slam is all thirteen and pays 1000 or 1500. Both are on top of the trick score and the game. Going down in a slam scores nothing and hands the defenders a penalty, which is why a slam wants about thirty-three points between the two hands.

Who is dummy in bridge?

Declarer's partner. Once the opening lead is made, dummy puts their whole hand face up on the table and plays no further part in the hand: declarer chooses every card from both hands. Dummy may not comment on the play, but may warn declarer against leading from the wrong hand or failing to follow suit.

What is a rubber in bridge?

The best of three games. A game is 100 points below the line, reached in one hand or across several, and the first side to win two games wins the rubber and a bonus of 500, or 700 if the opponents won no game. At the end both columns are added up and the bigger total wins, so a side can win the rubber and still lose on points if the other side collected enough above the line.

What does double mean in bridge?

Saying double after an opponent's bid raises the stakes on that contract: if they make it the trick score is doubled and they collect 50 for the insult, and if they go down the penalties are much larger. A redouble by the other side doubles it again. Between partners a double of a low bid is often a signal to bid rather than a real bet.