Contract bridge See also: Glossary of contract bridge terms • Dealer: the player entitled to make the first call; so chosen by a draw of the cards or in duplicate bridge, so designated by the board to be played Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking game using a standard 52-card deck. It is played by • Opener: the first to make a bid four players in two competing partnerships,[1] with part- ners sitting opposite each other around a table.[2] Millions • Responder: partner of opener of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, • online and with friends at home, making it one of the Intervenor: the first of the opponents to make a call world’s most popular card games, particularly among other than pass [3][4] seniors. The World Bridge Federation is the govern- • Overcaller: the first of the opponents to make a call ing body for international competitive bridge. other than pass or double The game consists of several deals[5] each progressing • Advancer: partner of intervenor; also, partner of through four phases: dealing the cards, the auction (also overcaller referred to as bidding), playing the cards, and scoring the results.[6] However, most club and tournament play in- • Declarer: the player who first bids the denomination volves some variant of duplicate bridge, where the cards of the ultimate contract are not re-dealt on each occasion, the same deal being played by two or more different sets of players to enable • Dummy: partner of declarer comparative scoring. • First seat: the dealer • Second seat: the player next in clockwise rotation 1 Game play after the dealer • Third seat: the player next in clockwise rotation af- 1.1 Fundamentals and preliminaries ter the player in second seat • Fourth seat: the player next in clockwise rotation Scope after the player in third seat • Contract bridge has immense scope by virtue of the large Balancing seat or passout seat: the player who if he number of unique deals which are possible. The 52- passes would end the auction card deck can be distributed to the four players some • 28 [7] Opening leader: the player to the left of declarer; he 5.36×10 ways. In turn, each deal presents many op- makes the lead to the first trick tions on how it might be bid and played. • Left hand opponent (LHO): the player to one’s left Players • Right hand opponent (RHO): the player to one’s right In its most basic form, bridge is a game played by four people in two teams of competing partnerships. For pur- Contracts and objectives poses of scoring and reference, each player is identified by one of the cardinal directions and thus North and [8] Contract bridge is a trick-taking card game where on each South play against East and West. More can participate, of several deals the opposing sides first compete in a bid- either as individuals or pairs or as teams of up to six, in ding auction for the right to establish the contract for that formal tournaments or social gatherings where the gov- deal, the side winning the auction being known as the erning rules of the event are prescribed by the sponsoring declaring side. The contract is an exchange of the right host. to establish which suit, if any, is trumps for an undertak- Additional designations for each of the four players may ing to win (at least) the number of tricks specified by the be used when referring to their actions during the auction highest bid. After the contract has been established, the or play of the cards: play of the cards proceeds as in most trick-taking card 1 2 1 GAME PLAY games until all thirteen tricks have been played; at any pre-defined, depending only on the number of the board.) time during the play, one side may claim a stated number The scoring points that are won on a deal as a result of of the remaining tricks and concede the balance, if any. making a contract, and the points which are lost when Based on the actual number of tricks taken, the declar- failing to make a contract, are both significantly increased ing side will have either succeeded or failed in fulfilling for the side (partnership) that is vulnerable. Accordingly, the contract; if successful (known as making or to have whether one’s side is vulnerable affects one’s strategy for made), the declaring side scores points; if unsuccessful both bidding and play. (known as going down or being defeated), the defend- ing side scores points. The overriding objective is to win Variations the contest by accumulating more points than the oppo- nents. Although each variant of bridge has its own par- The most common contract bridge variations are rubber ticular scheme for awarding and accumulating points, all bridge and duplicate bridge. Variants within these two are based upon whether or not the contract for each deal types of contract bridge are numerous. was made or defeated and by how many tricks. See also: Rubber bridge It can sometimes be advantageous to bid a contract that one does not expect to make and to be defeated, thus los- In rubber bridge, two partnerships participate in the game ing some points, rather than allow the opposing side to at one table and the objective is to score the most points bid and make a contract which would score them an even in the play of several hands. A rubber is a 'best-of-three' greater number of points. This is known as a sacrifice, contest and is completed when one side is first to have won and is not uncommon if both sides are contesting the fi- two games. The side which has accumulated the most nal contract. points and wins the rubber may or may not be the side to have won two games. While rubber bridge is played com- Card, suit and bid rankings petitively and for stakes, it is most often played socially and with less formality than duplicate bridge. In the standard 52-card deck used in bridge, the ace is ranked highest followed by the king, queen, and jack and See also: Duplicate bridge the spot-cards from the ten down through to the two. Suit denominations also have a rank order with notrump In duplicate bridge, the cards held by each player in each being highest followed by spades, hearts, diamonds and deal are preserved so that each partnership plays the same clubs. The two lower-ranked suits (diamonds and clubs) set of hands as their East-West or North-South counter- are called the minor suits and the higher-ranked suits parts at other tables and with the scoring based upon rel- (spades and hearts) are called the major suits. ative performance, thus emphasizing skill over chance. Bidding is based on the premise that the lowest contract While duplicate is the primary form of higher levels of available to bidders starts with the proposition to take competitive bridge, it is also played socially. seven tricks, i.e. one cannot contract to make less than seven tricks. Given this, the bidding is said to start at the 1.2 Dealing one-level when contracting for a total of seven tricks, at the two-level for eight tricks and so on to the seven-level to In rubber bridge, partnerships may be self-determined or contract to take all thirteen tricks. The six tricks required decided by a cut of the cards, the two highest cut playing as the base for any bid are referred to as the “book”. against the two lowest, and the first dealer is the player Within any level of bidding (i.e. from one to seven), suit cutting the highest card. The cards are shuffled before rank establishes the bid’s rank, i.e. a bid of two diamonds each deal, and the dealer deals the cards clockwise one outranks a bid of two clubs, a bid of three spades outranks at a time, starting with the left-hand opponent, so that a bid of three hearts, a bid of three notrump outranks a each player receives a hand of thirteen cards. The deal bid of three spades. Thus, there are 35 possible basic rotates clockwise each hand. In order to save time, a sec- contracts (five at each of the seven levels); 1♣ being the ond deck, preferably distinct from the first, is employed lowest, followed by 1♦ etc., up to 7NT, the highest pos- so that as the first is being dealt, the second is being shuf- sible bid. fled by the partner of the current dealer. When shuffled, the second deck is placed to the shuffler’s right, i.e. to the Vulnerability next dealer’s left. After the play and scoring of the hand has concluded, the deal is rotated and the second deck is A key feature of bridge is the concept of vulnerability. moved by the next dealer from his left to his right, cut On each deal, each side is said to be either vulnerable by the previous dealer and dealt; the partner of the new or not vulnerable depending upon whether or not it has dealer shuffles the first deck continuing the process. If won a game in the current rubber; if it has, the side is the auction is passed out, i.e. no bids are made and only said to be vulnerable; if it has not, it is said to be not vul- four passes are called, the hands are abandoned and the nerable.