Bridge

About Bridge

Contract Bridge is a classic partnership card game for four players, playing in two teams.

To win, you and your partner must have the highest score after the first team wins 2 “Rubbers”. A “Rubber” is a set of games, and winning two Rubbers signifies the end of a match. In Bridge, the bidding process is crucial for establishing a contract, during which you and your partner communicate to determine the optimal number of tricks and trump suit (if any) for the round. Contract points are scored by the team that wins the bid, and they score points based on their contract type if they fulfill their contract. Bonus points are awarded for “Overtricks” (winning more tricks than the contract required), but penalty “Undertrick” points are awarded to your opponents if you fail to meet your contract.

Quickfire Rules

After the cards are dealt evenly between four players, the players, in turn, can “pass” or bid the number of tricks they believe their team can win above 6 in any suit, or “No Trumps”. The bidding proceeds like an auction, each player in turn can make a higher bid than the current winning bid or “pass”. (see settings)

The player to the left of the Declarer (see Bridge Terms below) makes the opening lead. Each player then plays one card in turn, following suit if they can. If they cannot follow suit they may play any other card in their hand, including a trump card. After a trick is won by the best card played, the player who took the trick leads the first card to the next trick. The aim for the winning bidding team is to take as many tricks as to at least win their contract. The other team is trying to win enough tricks to stop them.

After the opening lead, the Dummy's (see Bridge Terms below) cards are turned face up for every player to see. The Declarer in the hand plays both their own cards and the Dummy's. If your team wins the contract, you will play both the Declarer and Dummy hands.

At the end of each round, the winning bidder's score contract points if they met or bettered their contract, or give “Undertrick” penalty points to their opponents. The “Rubber” is won by the team with the highest score after the first team wins two out of three games. The games are won when one team wins 100 contract points.

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Bridge Terms

Bid: Each player in turn can bid a number of tricks and a suit (or No Trump) they believe their partnership can win above 6. ​

Trick: Each player plays a card in turn, and the best card played wins that trick. There are 13 tricks in each hand.

Trump: Trumps are set by the winning bid unless a “No Trump” bid was made, and are elevated higher than all other cards. They can be played when a player cannot otherwise follow suit.

No Trump: A “No Trump” bid has no trump suit.

Undertricks: Penalty points awarded to your opponents if you fail to make your contract

Overtricks: Bonus points awarded to you if you take more tricks than your contract

Rubber: A Rubber is completed when one pair has won two out of three games, which are won by the first team to win 100 contract points in the game. As many hands are played in each game as necessary until a team makes that target.

Double: You may Double an opponents bid during the auction, which applies extra bonuses for winning or extra penalties for losing the contract.

Redouble: If your contract is doubled by your opponents, you may Redouble to apply even more bonuses to the score.

Penalty Double: A type of Double made during the auction when you believe your opponents will not make their bid

Takeout Double: A type of Double made during the auction to tell your partner that you are strong in your opponents unbid suits.

Vulnerable: A team becomes vulnerable in the game if they have won one game in the Rubber. Being vulnerable increases the bonus points awarded and penalty points given away. (see Scoring below)

HCP: High Card Points. Used to measure the relative strength of your hand to use as a guide for bidding. 4 points for every Ace, 3 for every King, 2 for every Queen and 1 for every Jack. A total of 40 HCPs exist in the deck.

RP: Revalued Points. Used to measure the relative strength of your hand in response to your partners bid suits. Extra points can be awarded for shortness in side suits

Side suit: A suit that is not the current trump suit.

Major Suit: Either Spades or Hearts. They are considered major because they are worth more points in trump contracts.

Minor Suit: Either Diamonds or Clubs. They are considered minor because they are worth less points in trump contracts.

Final Contract: The last bid followed by three passes. This is the contract the winning team must make.

Declarer: The player from the winning contract team who first bid the winning suit. They play the hand for their team.

Dummy: The player from the winning contract team who did not first bid the winning suit. Their cards are turned face up after the opening lead and are played by the Declarer.

Below the line: Points awarded for successfully making a contract. These points count towards winning each game.

Above the line: All bonus points awarded during the games. They count toward your total team score, but not towards winning a game. They include: Overtricks taken bonuses, Undertricks taken (penalty) bonuses, a Small Slam bonus, a Grand Slam bonuses, a Double bonus, a Redouble bonus and a Rubber bonus.

Grand Slam: Bidding for and winning all 13 tricks in a hand.

Small Slam: Bidding for and winning 12 out of 13 tricks in a hand.

How Your Partner Plays

Bidding

Your partner, and all AI players, stick to the Standard American bidding rules. If you are unfamiliar with bridge bidding, or are used to an alternative system, it's worth reading about the basic rules before you get started.

The Stayman Convention and the Jacoby Transfer are used by the AI players when responding to NT opening bids. The AI players also use the Blackwood Convention for determining how many winners the team have for Slam Bidding. It's worth reading about these conventions too if you are unfamiliar with how they work.

The basic rules for the Standard American system are listed below:

  • Hand evaluation is based on the 4-3-2-1 point count system (Ace=4, King=3, Queen=2 and Jack=1) with adjustments for the location of honors and suit distribution.
  • A hand-strength requirement of at least 12-13 points to open 1-of-a-suit.
  • Five-card majors: opening a major suit promises at least a five-card holding in that suit.
  • Weak two bids: Two Diamond, Heart or Spade openers are made with a sound six-card suit in a hand without enough overall strength to open 1 of the suit.
  • Strong two Clubs: All unbalanced hands too strong to open at the one-level are opened with an artificial 2♣ call, as well as balanced hands stronger than 21 HCP.
  • Pre-emptive opening bids: Suit openings above the two level are pre-emptive, promising a long and strong suit.
  • Limit Raises: A jump-raise of the opener's suit by responder, in the absence of opponent interference, is invitational to game.
  • Notrump openers show a balanced hand, with the following common high card point (HCP) ranges:
    • 1NT=15-17 HCP
    • 2NT=20-21 HCP
    • 3NT=25-27 HCP

General Play

  • With the opening lead, your partner will lead a card from a suit you bid during the auction (if any), a suit that was unbid by the opponents, or lead a suit they are strong in.
  • They are watching your response to their leads. If you play a low card (2-5), they assume you want them to stop running the suit, and if you play a high spot card (6-9), they assume you want them to continue.
  • They will watch your lead and try to bring that suit back for you where possible.
  • If they spot that you are void in a suit they will run that suit to give you the opportunity to trump (when there are trumps)
  • In NT contracts, they will attempt to establish winners in suits they are strongest or longest in.

How To Play

Bridge is a classic four-player partnership game using one standard deck of 52 cards.

The aim of the game is to be the partnership with the highest score at the end of the Rubber

At the end of each round, the winning bidders score contract points if they met or bettered their contract, or penalty points are awarded to their opponents if they fail. The Rubber is won when the first team wins two out of three games.

Deal

The dealer is initially chosen at random, and then moves clockwise round the table for subsequent rounds.

13 cards are dealt to each player.

Bidding

The bidding starts with the dealer and moves to their left in a clockwise rotation.

Players, in turn, can pass or bid the number of tricks they believe their team can win above 6 in a preferred trump suit or “No Trumps”

Bids are ranked low to high as follows: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and No Trump. A bid must be higher than the current winning bid. A higher ranking bid of equal numerical value will beat an lower ranking bid. (For example, a 3♠ bid will beat a 3♦ bid).

After three consecutive players say “Pass,” the bidding is over and the winning contract is set.

Players may also “Double” an opponent's bid, who may in return “Redouble”. This affects points awarded for the contract.

Play

Whoever is left of the Declarer leads a card to start. Each player must play one card in a clockwise order, following suit where they can.

The winner of each trick is the player who plays the highest card matching the suit of the first player to play, unless a Trump is played, in which case the highest Trump will win the trick.

If you cannot follow suit you may play any other card from your hand.

Scoring

This game uses traditional Rubber Bridge scoring rules.

At the end of each hand, the tricks the winning bidding team collects are totalled and compared to the bid.

Contract points are awarded based on the following table for successful contracts. These points are scored “below the line” and count towards winning a game. See the table below for total points for each trick taken (above 6) for each contract type:

Normal Dbl Rdbl
20pts40pts80pts
30pts60pts120pts
NT (1st trick)40pts80pts160pts
NT (add'l)30pts60pts120pts

Bonus points can also be won, and count towards your teams total score, but not for a game score (above the line).

One off bonus points

  • Making a doubled or redoubled contract - 50 points
  • A bonus for winning the Rubber. Winning 2 out of 2 games is worth 700 points. Winning 2 out of 3 games is worth 500 points

Overtricks and slam bonuses:

Not Vulnerable Vulnerable
♠ NT♠ NT
Overtrick20pts30pts20pts30pts
Overtrick (dbl)100pts200pts
Overtrick (rdbl)200pts400pts
Small Slam500pts750pts
Grand Slam1000pts1500pts

Undertrick penalty points (to opponents):

Not Vulnerable Vulnerable
Undertrick50pts100pts
Undertrick (1st dbl)100pts200pts
Undertrick (Add'l dbl)200pts300pts
Undertrick (1st rdbl)200pts400pts
Undertrick (Add'l rdbl)400pts600pts

The game ends when one team wins 2 out of 3 games to take the Rubber. The winners are the team with the highest total score.

Settings

Choose from the following settings (defaults shown in italics):

Sound: On, off.

Speed: Normal, fast.

Orientation: Portrait, landscape left, landscape right or landscape free.

Single click play: On, off.

AI level: Easy, medium or hard.

Allow Hints: 'yes', 'no'. This setting determines whether hints are available to the player during the bidding.

Cards: Classic or coppercod.

Deck: Choose from 18 different deck designs for coppercod, 16 for modern.

Mobile cards: Off or on. Only available on phones.

Theme: Green, merlot, dark red, light blue, black, purple, teal, pink, orange or blue

Interface

Home screen:

From the home screen you can access the following options:

  • Start new game
  • Continue game: if there is a game in progress it can be continued
  • Settings (cog icon, bottom left). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Information (question mark icon, bottom right). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Stats (trophy icon, top left)
  • Sound: Tap the speaker icon at the top right of the home screen to toggle between sound on and off
During a game

Your cards are displayed face up at the bottom of the screen, your partners are face down at the top of the screen, and your opponents’ cards are face down at the left and right. Your cards are ordered first by suit, then low to high from left to right. Your partners and opponents’ cards are ordered at random.

During play, each partnership's score for the game is shown in front of their hand. A green light is displayed next to your score to display when it is your turn to act. A bid panel is shown each round when it is your turn to bid.

When it is your turn to act, tap on a card from your hand that you want to select, and then tap it again to play the card (or tap it just once if the 'single click play' setting is turned on). You can change which cards are selected before playing by tapping on other cards.

If your team won the contract, you must make the move for your partner as well. Your partner's cards will be displayed to you even if you are the Dummy.

At the end of the hand the scores each player partnership receives are displayed, as well as the total score for each partnership for the game.

Thank you for playing Bridge!