Contract bridge

Introduction

At its core, bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt cards, which makes each deal a game of chance. This is conducive to play as a "friendly game" among four players.

Despite this, the chance can be eliminated by comparing pairs' results in identical situations. This is achievable when there are eight or more players and the deals from each table are preserved and passed to the next table, thereby duplicating them for another 4 participants to play. At the end of a competition, the scores for each deal are compared against each other, and most points are awarded to the players doing the best with each particular deal. This measures skill despite the initial chance of the deal.

This form of the game is referred to as duplicate bridge and is played in tournaments, which can gather as many as several hundred players. Duplicate bridge is a mind sport, and its popularity gradually became comparable to that of chess.

Game play

Two partnerships of two players each are needed to play bridge. The four players sit around a table with partners opposite one another. The compass directions are often used to refer to the four players, aligned with their seating pattern. Thus, South and North form one partnership and East and West form the other.

A session of bridge consists of many deals (also called hands or boards); the game play of each deal consists of four phases: the deal, the bidding (or auction), the play of the cards, and scoring.

The goal is to achieve as high a numerical score as possible with the given cards. The score is affected by two principal factors: the number of tricks bid in the auction, and the number of tricks taken during play, where the latter must be higher than or equal to the former. Broadly said, the highest score is achieved when the number of tricks won is equal to (or close to) the number that was bid, so there is incentive to the players to accurately bid the number of tricks that their hands are capable of delivering. Thus, in the bidding stage, the pairs compete to see who proposes the highest number of tricks (and associated trump suit), and the side who wins the bidding must then fulfill that bargain by taking at least the specified number of tricks in play. The number of tricks bid and the trump suit (or lack thereof) are referred to as a contract. If the side who wins the auction then takes the contracted number of tricks (or more), it is said to have fulfilled the contract and is awarded points; otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated and points are awarded to their opponents.

Dealing

The game is played with one complete deck of 52 cards. One of the players is the dealer. In rubber bridge (or other "friendly" games), the cards are shuffled and the dealer distributes all the cards clockwise one at a time, starting with his left-hand opponent and ending with himself, so each player receives a hand of thirteen cards. At the same time, for convenience, the dealer's partner usually shuffles a second deck, to be ready for use on the following deal. The deal rotates clockwise, so the dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next.

In duplicate bridge, the hands are shuffled only once, at the beginning of the tournament, and dealt clockwise one at a time (there are also special machines for pre-dealing on large tournaments), and placed into bridge boards. At each subsequent table, each player pulls his cards from the board and counts them to ensure that the deal has not been corrupted. Unlike in other trick-taking games, the players do not throw their cards to the middle of the table in each trick; instead, each player keeps his played cards before him, to allow the completed deal to be returned to the board unaltered.

The auction

To prepare for the play of the cards, the auction phase determines several things: the contract, which consists of the trump suit and the intended number of tricks; which partnership will play for the contract; and which of the players in that partnership will play the hand. In addition, doubling and redoubling may occur, which represents a "raising of the stakes" when the played hand is scored.

During the auction, each player makes a call at his turn, which consists of any one of the following:

  • Pass
  • Make a new bid
  • Double or Redouble

The auction consists of each player making a call, starting with the dealer and continuing clockwise until three players in a row have passed after any bid. (The word "bid" is also often used informally in place of "call".)

A player may always pass when it is his or her turn.

A bid specifies how many tricks the bidder believes that he can take using his hand and his partner's hand, and with which suit as trump. Any bid starts with the assumption that the bidder can make at least six tricks, called book, plus the stated number of additional tricks. So the bid includes a level (from one to seven, representing how many tricks beyond six the bidder proposes to make) and a denomination (also called strain), which is either a suit or "no trump." For instance, "3 hearts" suggests that his partnership can take nine tricks (book plus three) with hearts as the trump suit.

A player may bid at his turn as long as the bid is higher than the most recent bid. A bid is considered higher if it specifies either a higher level or the same level but with a higher-ranking suit. The denominations are ordered, from lowest to highest, as clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and no trump (NT). Thus, after a bid of 3♥, bids of 2♠ or 3♣ are illegal, but 3♠ or 4♦ are legal.

If the most recent bid was made by the opponents, a player may "double" that bid if his partner has not already done so. This essentially states that the player is so confident that the opponents cannot make their bid during play that the player is willing to double their score if they do (and the penalty if they do not). If the most recent bid was made by the player or the player's partner, and it has been doubled by an opponent but not yet redoubled by the player's partner, the player may "redouble," further increasing the potential score or penalty.

The auction ends either if all four players pass initially (in which case the hand is not played or scored) or when three players pass in a row after any bid(s) have been made. The last bid becomes the contract, and its denomination determines whether there will be a trump suit, and if so, what it is. The pair that did not win the contract is called the defense. The pair that made the last bid is divided further: the player who first made a bid in the strain of the final contract becomes the declarer and his or her partner becomes the dummy. For example, suppose West is the dealer and the bidding goes:

South West North East
  pass 1♥ pass
1♠ pass 2♦ double
3♠ pass 4♠ pass
pass pass    

Then East and West would be the defenders, South would be the declarer (since South was the first to bid spades), North would be the dummy, and spades would be the trump suit.

The play of the hand

The play of the hand is similar to other trick-taking games. To summarize, the play consists of thirteen tricks, each trick consisting of one card played from each of the four hands. The first card played in a trick is called the lead, and each player plays a card sequentially around the table clockwise. Any card may be selected as the lead, but the remaining hands must follow suit (meaning, they must play a card in the same suit as the lead), unless they have no more cards of that suit, in which case any card may be played. The hand that plays the highest card in the suit of the lead wins the trick, unless any of the cards are in the trump suit, in which case the hand that plays the highest trump card wins the trick. (Aces are high in bridge, followed by Kings, then Queens, and so on, with 2s the lowest card in each suit.) The hand that wins each trick plays the lead card of the next trick, until all the cards are played.

The first lead, called the opening lead, is made by the defender to the left of the declarer. After the opening lead is played, the dummy lays his entire hand face up on the table. The declarer is thereafter responsible for selecting cards to play from the dummy's hand at the dummy's turn, and from his own hand at his turn. The defenders each choose the cards to play from their own hands. The player who is dummy has practically no rights and must not interfere with the play; (s)he may only play cards from the dummy hand at declarer's order (so that the declarer does not have to lean over the table).

In the end, the goal for each pair is to take as many tricks as possible together (it doesn't matter which player takes them). However, the level of the contract makes a more relevant specific target: the number (level) of the contract is the number of odd tricks the declarer must take, that is, the number of tricks beyond 6. Thus, the declarer is always attempting to take at least a majority of the tricks. In the example above, the declarer must manage to take 10 tricks?6 (assumed) + 4 (bid)?with spades as trump, to make the contract. Success in this goal is rewarded by points in the scoring phase for the declarer's side. If the declarer fails to make the contract, the defenders are said to have set or defeated the contract, and are rewarded points for doing so.

Scoring

Main article: Bridge scoring

When the declarer makes the contract, the declarer's side receives points for:

  • The contract bid and made
  • Overtricks (tricks taken over the contract level)
  • Other bonuses

When the declarer fails to make the contract, the defending pair receives points for undertricks ? the number of tricks by which declarer fell short of the goal.

Most bidding revolves around efforts to bid and make a game. Because of the structure of bonuses, certain bid levels are given special significance. The most important level is game, which is any contract whose bid trick value is 100 or more points. Game level varies by the suit, since different suits are worth different amounts in scoring. The game level for no trump is 3 (9 tricks), the game level for hearts or spades (major suits) is 4 (10 tricks), and the game level for clubs or diamonds (minor suits) is 5 (11 tricks). Slam is any contract on level 6 or 7, and it is given very large bonuses.

There are two important variations in bridge scoring: rubber scoring and duplicate scoring. They share most features, but differ how the total score is accumulated. In rubber bridge, points for each pair are tallied either "above the line" or "below the line". In duplicate bridge, all the points are accumulated and present a single score, expressed as a positive number (sum of trick points and bonus points) to the winning pair, and by implication, as a negative number to the opponents. "Chicago" bridge is a form of friendly game which uses duplicate scoring, that is, a set consists of four deals with different vulnerabilities (whether a team has already made game), and every deal is scored as a single number.

In duplicate bridge, the same hand is played unchanged across two or more tables and the results are compared using various methods. The differences are expressed in matchpoints or IMPs. They are summed for every pair for every board they play, and the pair with highest total score becomes the winner of the tournament. Thus, even with bad cards, a pair can win the tournament if it has bid better and played better than the other players who played the same set of cards.

History

A number of card games similar to whist can be traced all the way back to the early 16th century. They were all trick-taking games with a variety of variations. Whist became the dominant form, and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word bridge is the English pronunciation of biritch, an older name of the game of unknown Middle Eastern origin; the oldest known rule book, from 1886, calls it "Biritch, or Russian Whist". The OED reports speculation that the word may come from a Turkish term bir-?, or "one-three", supposedly referring to the one exposed and three concealed hands.) This game, known today by the retronyms bridge-whist and straight bridge, became popular in the United States and the UK in the 1890s.

Biritch featured several significant developments from Whist: the trump suit was either chosen by the dealer, or he could pass the choice to his partner; there was a call of no trumps; and the dealer's partner laid his cards on the table as dummy to be played by the dealer. It also featured other characteristics found in modern bridge: points scored above and below the line; game was 3NT, 4H and 5D (although 8 club tricks and 15 spade tricks were needed!); the score could be doubled and redoubled; there were slam bonuses.

In 1904 auction bridge arose where the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introduced for failing to do so.

The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most significant change was that only tricks contracted for were counted below the line towards game and for slam bonuses, which resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability to make it more expensive to sacrifice to protect the lead in a rubber, and the various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced game. Vanderbilt wrote down his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge."

These days most bridge played is tournament bridge.

Tournaments

Tournaments were possible because of duplicate bridge, a variation of the game where many sets of players play with the same hands. Duplicate had occasionally been used for whist matches, as early as 1857. For some reason, duplicate was not thought to be suitable for bridge, and so it wasn't until the 1920s that (auction) bridge tournaments became popular.

In 1925 when contract bridge first evolved, bridge tournaments were becoming popular, but the rules were somewhat in flux, and several different organizing bodies were involved in tournament sponsorship: the American Bridge League (formerly the American Auction Bridge League, which changed its name in 1929), the American Whist League, and the United States Bridge Federation. In 1935, the first officially recognized world championship was held. By 1937, however, the American Contract Bridge League had come to power (a union of the ABL and the USBF), and it remains the principal organizing body for bridge tournaments in North America. In 1958, the World Bridge Federation was founded, as bridge had become an international activity.

Today, the ACBL has over 160,000 members and runs 1100 tournaments per year with 3200 officially-associated bridge clubs.

Bidding boxes and bidding screens

Bidding box Bidding box

In tournaments, "bidding boxes" are frequently used. A bidding box is a box of cards, each bearing the name of one of the legal calls in bridge. A player wishing to make a call displays the appropriate card from the box, rather than making a verbal declaration. This prevents unauthorized information from being conveyed via voice inflection. In top national and international events, "bidding screens" are used. These are diagonal screens which are placed across the table, preventing a player from seeing his partner during the game.

Important Bridge Players

Terence Reese
Charles Goren
Samuel Stayman
Ely Culbertson
Oswald Jacoby
Helen Sobel Smith
Easley Blackwood Sr.
Giorgio Belladonna
Benito Garozzo
Bob Hamman
Omar Sharif
Jeff Meckstroth
Eric Rodwell

Game Strategy

Bidding systems and conventions

Main articles: Bidding system, Convention (bridge)

Much complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of successfully arriving at a good final contract in the auction. This is a fundamentally difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate enough information about their hands to ultimately arrive at a makeable contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted in two ways:

  • Information may only be passed by the calls made and later by the cards played, and not by any other means.
  • The agreed-upon meaning of all information passed must be available to the opponents.

A bidding system is the typical solution to this problem: each player evaluates his or her own hand and makes bids to give or request information from their partner, with the goal of eventually arriving at an ideal contract. Bids, doubles, redoubles, and even passes can be either natural or conventional. A natural bid is a proposal to reach a contract in the named suit. A conventional bid is an attempt to communicate, offering and/or asking for information about the partnerships' hands, that is not intended to be a proposal for the final contract. A wide variety of bidding systems have been developed over the course of the 20th century. However, most modern systems have well-established common ground.

First of all, a fairly universal system of high card points is used to give a basic evaluation of the strength of a hand. Aces are counted as 4 points, kings as 3, queens as 2, and jacks as 1 point; therefore, the deck contains 40 points. 26 points shared between partners is considered sufficient for a partnership to bid, and make, game in a major or in no trump. In addition, the distribution of the cards in a hand into suits may also contribute to the strength of a hand and be counted as distribution points. Because 26 points is usually considered sufficient to make game, 13 points in one hand is considered sufficient to open the bidding (that is, make the first bid in the auction), by bidding 1 of a suit.

A one no trump opening bid reflects a hand that has relatively balanced suits and high cards, and usually refers to a hand with 15-17 high card points. In some systems the number of points expected from a 1NT opening bid changes, but it always refers to a relatively narrow range of points.

Opening bids of 2 or higher are reserved for two types of bids: unusually strong bids and preemptive bids. Unusually strong bids communicate an especially high number of points; the availability of unusually strong bids allows a player with a weak hand to safely pass when their partner opens the bidding at one of a suit. Preemptive bids are often made with weak hands that especially favor a particular suit. For instance, with a hand of ♠ AK98742 ♥ 73 ♦ 42 ♣ 76, an opening bid of 3♠ is a very reasonable sacrificial bid, designed to make it difficult for the opposing team to determine a contract for themselves (which is good here, since they are likely to have the bulk of the points).

Most systems include the weak two bid convention, in which opening bids of 2♥, 2♦, or 2♠ are reserved for preemptive bids, while 2♣ is used for very strong hands. This is a first example of a conventional bid: an opening bid of 2♣ in no way suggests 2♣ as a final contract: indeed, in these systems 2♣ may be bid without any clubs.

Another common convention is the 5-card major convention, in which an opening bid of 1♥ or 1♠ promises at least 5 cards in that suit. This leads to some awkward bids, for instance, when a player has four cards in each major, and is forced to open the bidding with 1 of a 3-card minor suit.

Doubles are sometimes used in bidding conventions. A natural, or penalty double, is one used to try to gain extra points when the defenders are confident of setting (defeating) the contract. The most common example of a conventional double is the takeout double of a low-level bid, implying support for the unbid suits and asking partner to choose one of them.

There are many other conventions. Some of the most famous are Stayman, Jacoby transfers and Blackwood.

Bidding systems depart from these basic ideas in varying degrees. Standard American, for instance, is a collection of conventions designed to bolster the accuracy and power of these basic ideas, while Precision Club is a highly conventional system that uses the 1♣ opening bid for strong hands (but sets the threshold rather lower than most other systems) and requires many other changes in order to handle other situations. Many experts today use a system called 2/1 game forcing. In the UK, Acol is the standard system. There are even a variety of techniques used for hand evaluation. The most basic is the Milton Work point count, but this is sometimes augmented by other guidelines such as losing trick count, law of total tricks or Zar Points.

Play techniques

Terence Reese, a prolific author of bridge books, points out that there are only four ways of taking a trick by force, and two of these are very easy:

  • playing a high card that no one else can beat
  • trumping an opponent's high card
  • establishing long cards (the last cards in a suit will take tricks if the opponents don't have the suit and are unable to trump)
  • playing for the opponents' high cards to be in a particular position (if their ace is in front of your king, your king may take a trick)

Nearly all trick-taking techniques in bridge can be reduced to one of these four methods.

The optimum play of the cards can require much thought and experience, and is too complicated to describe in a short article. However, some basic ideas of probability may be considered:

Some of the most important probabilities have to do with the position of high cards.

  • The probability that a given opponent holds one particular card, e.g. the king: 50%
  • The probability that a given opponent holds two particular cards, e.g. the king and the queen: approximately 25%
  • The probability that a given opponent holds at least one of two particular cards, e.g. the king or the queen: approximately 75%

When developing long cards, it is important to know the likelihood that the opponents' cards in the suit are evenly divided between them. Generally speaking, if they hold an even number of cards, they are unlikely to be exactly divided; if the opponents have an odd number in the suit, the cards will probably be divided as evenly as possible. For example, if declarer and dummy have eight trumps between them, the opponents' trumps are probably (68% chance) divided 3-2 (one opponent with three trumps, the other with two) and trumps can be drawn in three rounds. If declarer is trying to play with a seven card trump suit, it is more likely that the outstanding trumps are divided 4-2 (48%) than that the cards are evenly divided 3-3 between the opponents (36%).

Basic techniques by declarer

When new to the game, a player should be familiar with these strategies for playing the hand:

Advanced techniques by declarer

Someone who plays regularly in tournaments should be familiar with these concepts:

Basic techniques by defenders
  • opening lead
  • when to lead trump
Advanced techniques by defenders
  • avoiding an endplay or squeeze
  • counting the hand (tracking the distribution of suits and high cards in the unseen hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
  • false carding
  • opening lead?using information from auction
  • signaling
  • uppercut

Example

For definition of terms used in the example, see Contract bridge glossary.
  ♠ A6  
♥ KQ1053
♦ 83
♣ AJ85
♠ 10954

N

W         E

S

 ♠ KQ872
♥ 96 ♥ A2
♦ KQ9 ♦ J42
♣ K964 ♣ 1072
  ♠ J3  
♥ J874
♦ A10765
♣ Q3

The cards are dealt as in the diagram, and South is the dealer. As neither South nor West have sufficient high card strength to open the bidding, North opens with the bid of 1♥, which denotes a long suit and at least 12 high card points. East overcalls with 1♠, South supports partner's suit with 2♥, and West also supports spades with 2♠. North inserts a game try of 3♣, inviting the partner to bid the game of 4♥ with good club support and overall values, and South complies, having extra values in form of ♦A, fourth trump, and doubleton Queen of clubs. The bidding was:

West North East South
      Pass
Pass 1♥ 1♠ 2♥
2♠ 3♣ Pass 4♥
Pass Pass Pass  

In bidding, North-South were trying to investigate if their cards are worthy for making a game, which yields bonus points if bid and made. East-West were competing with spades, hoping to play a contract in spades at a low level. 4♥ is the final contract, 10 tricks being required for N-S to make with hearts as trumps.

West (left of North, who is the declarer, having been first to bid hearts) has to make the opening lead and chooses the King of spades, playing it face down. After that, South lies his cards on the table and becomes dummy; West turns his leading card face up, and the declarer makes a plan of playing: the bottom line is, since he has to concede trump ace, a spade, and a diamond, he must not lose a trick in clubs.

After a while, the declarer dictates South to play a small spade. West plays low (small card) and North takes the ♠A, gaining the lead. He proceeds by drawing trumps, leading the ♥K. West takes his Ace and cashes the ♠Q. Since he may not continue spades for fear of a ruff and discard, he plays a diamond. Declarer ducks from the table, and East scores the ♦Q. Not having anything better to do, he returns the remaining trump, taken in North's hand. North enters the dummy using ♦A, and leads ♣Q in an attempt to finesse West's King. West covers with the King, North takes the Ace, and proceeds by caching now high ♣J, then ruffs a small club with a dummy's trump. He ruffs a diamond in hand for an entry back, and ruffs the last club in dummy. Finally, he claims the remaining tricks by showing his hand, as it now contains only high trumps and there's no need to continue the play.

(The trick-by-trick notation can be also expressed using a table, but textual explanation is usually preferred, for reader's convenience. Plays of small cards or discards are not explicated, unless they were important for the outcome).

North-South have scored the required 10 tricks, and their opponents took the remaining 3. The contract is fulfilled, and North enters +620 for his side (North-South are in charge for bookkeeping in duplicate tournaments) in the traveling sheet. Every player returns his own cards into the board, and the next deal is played.

Bridge on the Internet

There are several free and some subscription-based servers available for playing bridge on the Internet. OKBridge1 is the oldest of the still-running Internet Bridge services; players of all standards, from beginners to world champions may be found playing there. SWAN Games2 is a more recent competitor. Bridge Base Online3 is mostly free, and now has a much larger membership base than either of the above. Some National Contract Bridge Organizations now offer online bridge play to their members including the English Bridge Union, the Dutch Bridge Union and the Australian Bridge Federation. MSN and Yahoo! Games have several online Rubber Bridge rooms.

There are many advantages to playing Bridge online:

  • The ability to choose when you play.
  • The ability to choose your opponents. In a club game, you may be forced to play against pairs that are much weaker, rude, or much stronger. Playing online, you can play against opponents of nearly equal ability.
  • Most servers offer an accurate player rating system. The ACBL and EBU masterpoints systems give credit for how much one has played rather than how well; most online systems have a rating system which attempts to measure one's ability without regard to the number of games played.
  • There are fewer restrictions on which conventions one is allowed to use.
  • You can not make inferences from partner's tone of voice or other cues available in real life. However, intentional cheating, such as instant messaging your partner, is easier.
  • A detailed record of every hand may be kept, to help resolve complaints.
  • It is impossible to make an illegal play by accident, as the software won't accept a play or call which does not conform to the rules.

The main disadvantage to playing online is that bridge is a social game, and many people play because they enjoy the social atmosphere of the bridge club.

Definitions of common terms

Main article: Contract bridge glossary

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