Bridge

Full rules

1. Overview
2. The cards
3. Setup
4. The auction
5. The play
6. Vulnerability
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Bridge is a card game for four players in two fixed partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other. It is a trick-taking game: each player plays one card, the best card wins all four, and these four cards are called a trick. Each deal has 13 tricks.

Every deal has two parts. First comes the auction: both sides bid for the right to name the trump suit (or no trumps) and promise to win a certain number of tricks. The highest bid becomes the contract. Then comes the play: the side that won the auction tries to take at least as many tricks as it promised, and the other side tries to stop it. The special twist of Bridge: one partner of the bidding side, the dummy, lays all their cards face up on the table, and the other partner, the declarer, plays both hands.

These rules follow the Laws of Rubber Bridge with Chicago scoring (also called four-deal bridge): a game lasts exactly four deals, which makes it ideal for home play.

• Players: 4, in two partnerships.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, paper and pencil.

The cards

In every suit the cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. The cards have no point values – only the number of tricks counts.

For the auction, the suits also have a rank. From lowest to highest:

♣ clubs – ♦ diamonds – ♥ hearts – ♠ spades – NT (no trumps)

Clubs and diamonds are called the minor suits, hearts and spades the major suits. The word strain means a suit or no trumps.

Setup

1. Partners: everyone draws a card from the spread-out deck. The two highest cards play together against the two lowest (for equal ranks, the suit order ♠ ♥ ♦ ♣ decides). The player with the highest card deals first.
2. Seats: partners sit opposite each other. The seats are named after the compass: North and South play against East and West (N–S against E–W).
3. Shuffle and cut: the dealer shuffles; the player to the dealer's right cuts.
4. Deal: the dealer deals all 52 cards one at a time, face down, clockwise, starting with the player to the left. Everyone gets 13 cards.
5. After each deal, the turn to deal passes to the left.

The auction

The dealer speaks first, then the others in turn clockwise. When it is your turn, you make exactly one call:

• a bid,
• Pass (you don't want to bid now),
• Double, or
• Redouble.

Bids

A bid names a level from 1 to 7 and a strain, for example "two hearts" (2♥) or "three no trumps" (3NT). The level says how many tricks beyond six your side promises to win:

Each new bid must be higher than the last bid: either a higher level, or the same level in a higher-ranking strain. So the bids go up like this:

1♣ – 1♦ – 1♥ – 1♠ – 1NT – 2♣ – 2♦ – … – 7♠ – 7NT

After 2♥, for example, 2♠ or 2NT or anything at level 3 or more is allowed, but not 2♦. You may bid even if you have passed before.

Double and redouble

• Double: you may double the last bid if an opponent made it and nobody has bid since. It says "we think you won't make it" – if that bid becomes the contract, all scores for it are much larger.
• Redouble: if an opponent has doubled your side's last bid, you may redouble. This raises the stakes once more.
• A new bid cancels any double or redouble – they only count on the final contract.

End of the auction

• The auction ends when three players pass in a row after any bid. The last bid is the contract, with a double or redouble if one was made.
• If all four players pass at their first turn, the deal is passed out: nobody plays. In Chicago the same dealer shuffles and deals again, and the passed-out deal does not count.

Declarer and dummy

The side that made the last bid is the declaring side. Its declarer is the partner who first named the strain of the contract during the auction – not necessarily the one who made the last bid. The declarer's partner becomes the dummy. The other two players are the defenders.

Example: North deals. The auction goes:

North	East	South	West
1♥	1♠	2♥	2♠
4♥	Double	Pass	Pass
Pass

After East's double there are three passes, so the auction is over. The contract is 4♥ doubled for N–S: hearts are trumps and N–S must win 10 tricks. North said hearts first, so North is declarer and South is dummy.

The play

1. Opening lead: the player to the left of the declarer plays any card face up. This first card of a trick is called the lead.
2. Dummy goes down: now the dummy puts all 13 cards face up on the table, sorted into suits in columns, trumps on dummy's right. The dummy takes no further part: the declarer plays both hands, their own and dummy's, each in its proper turn. The dummy may only play the cards the declarer names.
3. Follow suit: going clockwise, each player plays one card. You must play a card of the suit that was led if you can. If you can't, you may play any card – a trump or a card of another suit.
4. Winning a trick: if the trick contains trumps, the highest trump wins. Otherwise the highest card of the suit led wins. In a no-trump contract there are no trumps, so the highest card of the suit led always wins.
5. The winner of a trick leads to the next one. If a trick is won by dummy's card, the declarer leads next from dummy.
6. Each side collects the tricks it wins face down, so you can count them at the end.

After all 13 tricks, count the declaring side's tricks and score the deal.

Vulnerability

Being vulnerable means that more is at stake: bonuses for game and slam are higher, and so are the penalties for failing. In Chicago, vulnerability follows a fixed schedule over the four deals:

Because the deal passes to the left, the sides take turns: each side is vulnerable on exactly one of deals 2 and 3.

Scoring

If the declarer makes the contract (wins at least the promised tricks), the declaring side scores trick points and bonuses. If not, the defenders score a penalty for every missing trick. Write both sides' scores in two columns ("We" and "They").

Trick points

For each trick bid and made above six:

Only the tricks you bid count as trick points; extra tricks (overtricks) are scored separately.

Game and part-score

A contract worth 100 or more trick points is a game. Without doubling, that needs 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ or 5♦. A smaller contract is a part-score.

• Part-scores add up: if your side has made part-scores earlier in the Chicago, a new part-score that brings the total to 100 completes a game.
• As soon as either side makes or completes a game, all earlier part-scores of both sides no longer count toward game.

Bonuses for making the contract

The game bonus depends on the vulnerability of the side that makes the game on that deal. Part-scores on deals 1–3 get no bonus of their own. A slam also gets the game bonus.

Overtricks

"Trick value" means 20 in ♣ ♦ and 30 in ♥ ♠ NT.

Undertricks

If the declarer falls short, the defenders score for each missing trick (undertrick):

Honours

The honours are the A, K, Q, J and 10 of trumps. Either side scores a bonus if one player – dummy included – was dealt:

• 4 of the 5 trump honours: 100.
• All 5 trump honours: 150.
• All four Aces in a no-trump contract: 150.

Claim honours after the play; vulnerability doesn't matter.

Examples

Example 1: On deal 1 (nobody vulnerable), N–S play 4♥ and take 11 tricks. Trick points: 4 × 30 = 120. That's game: +300. One overtrick: +30. N–S score 450.

Example 2: The same contract, but doubled (as in the auction above). Trick points: 4 × 60 = 240. Game bonus 300, insult 50, one doubled overtrick 100 (not vulnerable). N–S score 690. Had North taken only 9 tricks, E–W would score 100 (one undertrick, doubled, not vulnerable).

Example 3: On deal 1, E–W make 2♠ exactly: 60 trick points, a part-score. On deal 2 East deals, so E–W are vulnerable. E–W make 2♦: 40 more. 60 + 40 = 100, so the game is completed: E–W add 540 (40 + 500, vulnerable on this deal). Now any part-score N–S had made no longer counts toward game.

Winning the game

After four deals (passed-out deals don't count), add up each side's points. The side with more points wins the Chicago; the difference is the margin. Then you can draw for new partners and start the next Chicago.

Tips for beginners

This is one common, simple way to bid, not a rule – you may bid anything you like, but your partner has to understand you. Partnerships usually agree on a bidding system beforehand.

• Count high-card points (HCP): Ace 4, King 3, Queen 2, Jack 1. The whole deck has 40, an average hand 10.
• Open with 12 or more HCP. Bid your longest suit at the 1-level; with two equally long suits, bid the higher-ranking one. With 15–17 HCP and no very short suit, open 1NT.
• Answer your partner with about 6 HCP or more: show a new suit, or support partner's suit if you hold 3–4 cards in it.
• Aim for game with 25 HCP together – 3NT, 4♥ or 4♠ are the easiest games. With 33 or more, think about a slam.
• Find a trump fit: eight or more trumps between you and your partner make a good trump suit. As declarer, plan before playing to the first trick: count your sure winners in both hands.

Variants

All of these are optional – agree on them before you start.

• Rubber scoring: the traditional scoring. Trick points are written "below the line", everything else "above". A side wins a game by reaching 100 trick points, in one deal or with several part-scores; then both sides start the next game from zero. A side that has won a game is vulnerable. The first side to win two games wins the rubber and scores 700 if the opponents have no game, 500 if they have one. There is no separate bonus per game; in an unfinished rubber, a side with the only game scores 300, and a side with the only part-score in an unfinished game 100. A passed-out deal is simply skipped – the next player deals. Slam, overtrick, undertrick and honours scores are as above.
• Switched vulnerability: by agreement, on deals 2 and 3 the side not dealing is vulnerable instead of the dealer's side.