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Let's Learn to Play Bridge!!!
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You are sitting at the table, smiling (I hope) at your partner. You are the Dealer, so you have shuffled the cards and dealt them all out. You pick up your cards and count them. You have 13, just like everyone else. So, what do you do with these 13 cards? How the heck do you play this game anyhoo???
The easiest way to "get the hang" of the game, is play the game. If you have friends that already play, or that want to learn to play with you, then set up a table and deal a few hands. Or do like I did - call your local library and find a bridge club in your area and just dive into the water cold turkey!!! You will be surprised at the friendly people willing to help you along your way. Some clubs offer lessons before game times and, if you are in need of a partner, this would be a perfect way to meet others that are also interested in learning the game.
When you first sit down at the table, you will learn that ever player is assigned a direction. North and South are partners. East and West are partners. In all examples of bidding, the following diagrams will be used:
The players are positioned at the table across from their respective partner.
North = N
West = W
East = E
South = S
Bidding examples will be illustrated as follows:
N ~~~ E ~~~ S ~~~ W
Clubs = C
Diamonds = D
Hearts = H
Spades = S
No trump = NT
Pass = P
Double = Dbl
ReDouble = RD
The first thing you need to know is that in bridge, the suits are ranked. Spades are ranked the highest, followed by hearts, then diamonds, then clubs. This means that if one player makes a bid of 1 diamond, and the next player wishes to make a club bid, that player must bid at least 2 clubs, because diamonds ranks higher than clubs. A heart or a spade bid over a 1 diamond bid can still be made on the one level. Example:
N ~~~ E ~~~ S ~~~ W
1D ~~~ 2C ~~~ P ~~~ P
Because diamonds is a higher ranking suit, East was required to bid the club suit at the two level. Had East made a bid of hearts or spades, the bid could have been made at the one level.
Once a contract has been reached, and trump has been established, even the deuce in the trump suit can win over an ace in a non-trump suit.
No trump is the highest bid you can make. No trump is just like it sounds: You are not naming a suit as trump, therefore, no suit has dominance over another. In no trump, a lowly deuce, if it is the last card of a particular suit and the player holding that card is on lead, can take a trick with no threat of losing.
The final bid establishes the contract, and the player on the team that bid the contract is now the Declarer and must play the hand. The player on Declarer's left is on "lead", and is obligated to play the first card.
The first six tricks (a trick is a round of play making up four cards, one from each player) is called Book. You must make book before any additional tricks count toward your bid. Therefore, if your bid is 2 spades, you must first book (take six tricks), then take at least 2 additional tricks to make your 2 spade bid, for a total of 8 tricks. A bid of three spades would require you to take nine tricks to make your contract. Seven is the highest bid you can make in bridge. If you bid seven spades, you would have to take (That's right!!!!! You are paying attention!!! I knew you weren't really sleeping &;) ) ALL the tricks to make your bid.
As complicated as all that seems, it is really quite simple and the more you play, the clearer it will become. So, what have we learned?? Bridge is a game of communication!! So....let's learn to communicate!!
The Bidding Box
Follow this little guy!!!
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