Honeymoon Bridge

Full rules

1. Overview
2. Basic terms
3. Setup
4. Drawing the hands
5. Bidding
6. Playing the tricks
7. Scoring
8. Winning the game
9. Tips for beginners
10. Variants

Overview

Honeymoon Bridge is the name for any version of Bridge for two players. In the form described here, Draw and Discard Bridge, there is no deal: the two players build their 13-card hands by taking turns at the stock, keeping one card and throwing one away each time. Then they bid for a contract, as in Bridge, and play 13 tricks with no dummy (the partner's hand that lies face up in four-player Bridge) – each player simply plays their own hand. Scoring is the same as in Rubber Bridge: the first player to win two games wins the rubber.

• Players: exactly 2.
• You need: one standard 52-card deck without jokers, paper and pencil.

Basic terms

• Trick: each player plays one card face up; the better card wins both. Each deal has 13 tricks.
• Lead: play the first card of a trick. The winner of a trick leads to the next one.
• Follow suit: play a card of the same suit as the card that was led.
• Trumps: the cards of the trump suit. Any trump beats any card of another suit.
• Contract: a promise to win a certain number of tricks with a certain trump suit, or with no trumps (NT). The player who makes the final bid is the declarer.

In every suit the cards rank from high to low: A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. For bidding, the suits rank from low to high: ♣ – ♦ – ♥ – ♠ – NT.

Setup

1. Draw cards to decide who deals first. After each deal the other player deals.
2. The dealer shuffles, the other player cuts, and the dealer puts the whole deck face down as the stock. Nothing is dealt.

Drawing the hands

The non-dealer starts; then you take turns. On your turn:

1. Look at the top card of the stock without showing it.
2. Either keep it – then look at the next card and discard it face down onto a discard pile – or reject it: discard it face down and take the next card into your hand, whatever it is.

Either way, you get one card and throw one away each turn. After 13 turns each the stock is used up: each player has 13 cards and knows the 13 cards they threw away – but not which of the other 26 cards the opponent holds.

Example: Anna looks at the top card: the 4♣. She rejects it and must take the next card, the Q♥. On his turn Ben sees the A♠, keeps it, looks at the 9♦ and has to discard it.

Bidding

Bidding works as in Bridge, with two players. The non-dealer speaks first; then you take turns. On your turn you make one call:

• Bid: a level from 1 to 7 and a strain (a suit or no trumps), e.g. "two hearts" (2♥) or "three no trumps" (3NT). The level says how many tricks over six you promise: 1 = 7 tricks, 4 = 10 tricks, 7 = all 13. Each bid must be higher than the last – a higher level, or the same level in a higher strain: 1♣ – 1♦ – 1♥ – 1♠ – 1NT – 2♣ … 7NT.
• Double the other player's last bid ("you won't make it"), or redouble after your bid was doubled. This multiplies the scores.
• Pass.

The bidding ends as soon as a player passes after a bid. The last bid, doubled or redoubled if so, is the contract, and whoever made it is the declarer. If both players pass without a bid, the cards are thrown in and the next dealer starts again.

Playing the tricks

The declarer's opponent leads to the first trick. Then:

• You must follow suit if you can. If you can't, play any card – a trump or any other card.
• The highest trump wins the trick; if none was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. In NT there are no trumps.
• The winner of a trick leads to the next.

After 13 tricks, count the declarer's tricks.

Scoring

Keep the score in two columns with a horizontal line. Trick points go below the line; everything else (bonuses, penalties) goes above.

Contract made: for each trick you bid and made above six, write below the line:

Game: a player who has 100 or more trick points below the line wins a game – in one deal or by adding up smaller contracts (part-scores). Draw a new line; both players start the next game from zero below the line. A player who has won a game is vulnerable: bonuses and penalties are higher.

Above the line:

Contract failed: the opponent writes above the line, for each trick missing (undertrick):

Honours: whoever held, at the start of play, 4 of the 5 top trumps (A K Q J 10) scores 100 above the line, all 5 scores 150; all four Aces in a NT contract score 150. This counts for either player, whoever is declarer.

Example: Neither player is vulnerable. Anna bids 4♠ and takes 11 tricks: 4 × 30 = 120 below the line – that's a game, and Anna is now vulnerable. Her overtrick scores 30 above the line. Next deal Ben bids 3NT, is doubled and takes only 8 tricks: Anna scores 100 above the line.

Winning the game

The first player to win two games wins the rubber and scores a bonus of 700 if the other player has no game, or 500 if they have one. Then add up everything above and below the line for each player: the higher total wins. If you have to stop early, a player with the only game in an unfinished rubber scores 300, and a player with the only part-score in an unfinished game 100.

Tips for beginners

• Keep long suits. A hand with a long suit is easy to bid and play – collect cards of one or two suits.
• Remember the discards. The 13 cards you threw away can't be in the other player's hand.
• Rejecting is a gamble. If you reject the top card, you must take the next one sight unseen – reject only cards you really don't want.
• Bid on your own strength. There is no partner: count your tricks, not a partner's.

Variants

All optional – agree before you play.

• Draw Bridge: the classic form. Deal 13 cards each, one at a time; the other 26 are the stock. The first 13 tricks are played at no trumps and don't count; you don't have to follow suit. The non-dealer leads to the first. After each trick the winner draws the top card of the stock and the loser the next, without showing them. When the stock is gone, both still have 13 cards: bid and play these as above. At some tables the top card of the stock is shown before each trick, or you must follow suit in the first 13 tricks.
• Double Dummy: deal four hands of 13 as in Bridge. The two players sit next to each other, each with a face-down dummy opposite. Bid on your own hand only; then the declarer's opponent leads from the hand to the declarer's left, and both dummies are turned face up. Each player plays their own hand and their dummy.
• Single Dummy: as Double Dummy, but one dummy is face up before bidding; the declarer then chooses which dummy to play with.
• Semi-exposed dummies: as Double Dummy, but each dummy is laid out as six face-down cards with a face-up card on each, plus a seventh face-up card. A face-down card is turned up at the end of the trick in which the card on top of it was played.
• Dealer bids first: at some tables the dealer starts the bidding.