Contract bridge Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Contract bridge, more usually known as Bridge, is a trick-taking card game for four players who form two partnerships, or "sides". The partners on each side sit opposite one another. Game play is in two phases: bidding and playing.
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 minor variations. Whist became the dominant form, and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries.
In the 1890s, the innovation of allowing the dealer to choose a trump suit became popular in the United States and the UK, and the resultant game was called "bridge whist". In 1904, the concept of using an auction phase to determine which player got to designate the trump suit caught hold, and this variation was known as "auction bridge".
The modern game was the result of innovations to auction bridge made by Harold Vanderbilt. He wrote down his rules for contract bridge in 1925 and it became the dominant form of the game within a few years. It has supplanted all other forms of the game, including "auction bridge", so that "bridge" is now synonymous with "contract bridge".
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 OED reports speculation that it may come from a Turkish term, bir-ьз which translates as "one-three" and is said to refer to the fact that one hand is exposed and three are concealed.
When a player has the turn to bid, he may do any of the following:
Each bid must supersede the last preceding bid by naming a greater number of tricks in any denomination, or by naming the same number of tricks in a higher ranking denomination. The rank of the denominations in descending order is notrump, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs.
The auction ends when there have been three passes following a bid (or double or redouble). The last bid becomes the contract. The player on the partnership that made this final bid who first bid the denomination of that bid (suit or notrump) will be the declarer.
When, in a deal, all four players have passed without there being a bid, the deal is scored as a zero and the cards are passed on to the next dealer.
A pair is allowed to try to pass information about their hands, but this is restricted in two ways:
The meaning of the various bids in a partnership are called that partnership's bidding system. There exist a number of different bidding systems, such as Goren, Acol, Standard American, the Precision Club, etc.
A bid that means something different than a certain range of points and length in the suit bid and/or a willingness to play in that suit, is called a convention. There are many conventions, some of the most famous are Stayman, Jacoby transfers and Blackwood.
The decision of how high and what suit to bid is fundamental to the game, but broadly it will depend on how highly one values one's hand. There are a number of techniques used for this. The most basic is the Milton Work point count. This can be augmented by other guidelines such as losing trick count and law of total tricks.
The player from the pair that won the bidding (that is, the pair that is going to play the contract), who was the first to make a bid in the suit of the final contract (who is thus either the player bidding the final contract or his partner), is called the declarer. His partner is called the dummy.
Play to the first trick starts with the player to the left of the declarer. After the first card has been played, the dummy lays his cards open on the table. These cards are from then on played by the declarer, who tells the dummy which card is to be played whenever it is the dummy's turn to play on a trick.
Apart from this, the play is just like other trick-taking games - the player who took the previous trick leads to the next one (if the declarer took the trick in dummy, he has to play from dummy on the next trick, if he took the trick in his own hand, he has to play from his own hand). Whether there is a trump suit, and if so, which suit it is, has been decided during bidding.
Terence Reese, a prolific author of bridge books, points out that there are only four ways of taking a trick, and two of these are very easy
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.
When new to the game, a player should be familiar with these strategies for playing the hand:
Someone who plays regularly in tournaments should be familiar with these concepts:
Like all other card games, the score in bridge depends on one's cards. To diminish this effect, and increase the element of skill, in clubs and tournaments one's score is not looked at on its own, but compared to that of others who played the same deals. There are two major systems: Pairs and teams games.
In a pairs game, each deal is played a number of times, after which all the scores are compared. Each partnership scores 2 matchpoints for each other partnership that scored fewer points with the same cards, and 1 point for each partnership that scored the same number of points. These matchpoints are added to determine the winner. Scores are usually given as percentages of a theoretical maximum: 100% would mean that the partnership scored more than every other partnership on every single hand.
[Note: in the United States, scoring is 1 point for each pair beaten, and one half-point for each pair tied.]
In a teams game, two partnerships form a team of four players, which plays a match against another team. Each deal is played twice, in the following way:
Suppose Team A plays Team B. The first time a hand is played, one partnership from Team A takes the North-South cards and one partnership from Team B takes the East-West cards; when the hand is played again, it is played by the other two partnerships, but this time with Team A holding the East-West cards and Team B holding the North-South cards. Of course the teams may not discuss the deals between the two plays. After each deal has been played twice, the scores per deal are compared, and a score is given depending on the net total score from the two times the deal was played. For example, if one pair scores +1000 on a deal, and their teammates score -980, then the team's net score on that deal is +20.
One of two forms of scoring is then used to calculate the winner. At "board-a-match", each hand has equal weight; each hand is won, lost, or tied.
At IMP scoring, the difference is converted using a
scale of 0-24 IMPs (International Match Points) that compresses big
differences in score.
In friendly play, one generally plays rubber bridge. In rubber bridge, extra points are scored for winning a rubber, which means getting to a game (100 points) twice. There are two types of points: Points below the line and points above the line. Only points below the line count towards a game.
If the declarer makes his contract, the number bid, multiplied by a suit-dependent multiplier, is scored below the line. Any overtricks, again multiplied by the suit-dependent multiplier, are scored above the line.
The multiplier is 20 for clubs and diamond (the minor suits), and 30 for hearts and spades (the major suits). For No Trump, the multiplier is also 30, but with an added 10 points below the line.
Examples:
If the score of a partnership below the line equals or exceeds 100 points (either at once or taken together with what already was below the line), the partnership is said to have scored a game, and all scores below the line are turned into scores above the line. Thus making game takes five tricks in a minor suit, four in a major suit, or three in No Trump (or some combination of partial scores).
The first partnership that wins two games wins the rubber. They score a 700 point bonus if they won in two games, or 500 points if their opponents also made a game.
A partnership that has already made a game is called vulnerable, which is of importance for the slam bonus and for the downtricks.
If a player bids and makes a contract of 6 in something (i.e. wins all but one trick), he is said to have made a small slam. This gives a bonus (above the line) of 500 points when not vulnerable, and 750 points when vulnerable. If a player bids and makes a contract of 7 in something (thus scoring all the tricks), he is said to have made a grand slam. This gives a bonus of 1000 points when not vulnerable, and 1500 points when vulnerable.
If a pair goes down, their opponents score points above the line. If the pair is not vulnerable, their opponents get 50 points per undertrick, if it is vulnerable 100 points per undertrick.
If a pair is doubled, and makes their contract, they get double points for all tricks bid, while overtricks score extra - 100 points per overtrick if not vulnerable, 200 points if vulnerable. Furthermore, the pair gets 50 points bonus 'for the insult'. All these values are doubled again if the contract was redoubled. The slam bonuses are not influenced by a double, nor are the rubber bonuses - although the latter are of course influenced by the fact that there are more scores below the line, and thus games are reached faster.
If a pair is doubled and goes down, the penalty (points to the other pair) are as follows:
The undertrick penalty when doubled, not vulnerable, used to be 100 for the first undertrick and 200 for each subsequent. This was changed because it was too easy to sacrifice against a grand slam. A vulnerable grand slam is worth 1500 (slam bonus) + 500 (game bonus) + 210 (major suit trick score) = 2210. Down 11, doubled not vulnerable, used to be 2100, a profitable sacrifice.
Also, the "insult bonus" for making a redoubled contract used to be only 50. This was changed to 100, so that playing 5 of a minor, redoubled, making an overtrick, is always worth more than an undoubled small slam.
In duplicate bridge, which is what is normally played in a club or tournament, each hand is scored by itself, and not as part of a rubber. This changes (and simplifies) the scoring as described above.
In duplicate bridge, if the required number of tricks for the contract has been made, the pair gets a number of points for the tricks bid and the overtricks as described above (20 per trick above 6 in clubs/diamonds, 30 per trick in hearts/spades, 30 per trick plus 10 bonus in No Trump, possibly doubled or redoubled). If the number actually bid is enough to score 100 points or more, a game has been made, which scores 300 when not vulnerable and 500 when vulnerable. If it is lower, the score is not carried over to the next hand, but there is a 'part score' bonus of 50 points.
The bonus for slam, the bonus 'for the insult' and the scores for downtricks and doubled overtricks are the same as described above.
In duplicate bridge, in every series of four deals, the vulnerabilities of 'all vulnerable', 'none vulnerable', 'vulnerable against not vulnerable' and 'not vulnerable against vulnerable' will all occur once, in a predetermined order.
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.
There are several free and some subscription-based servers available for playing bridge on the internet. OKBridge is the oldest of the internet Bridge services; players of all standards, from beginners to world champions may be found playing there. The American Contract Bridge League, the English Bridge Union and the Dutch Bridge Union also have Internet Bridge services.
Among the free servers, Bridge Base On-line is notable for enforcing a high standard of ethics. Many world-class players may be found there.
There are many advantages to playing Bridge online:
(move this section to a separate page? and expand to include definitions)
This is an Article on Contract bridge. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Contract bridge Dealing
The game is played with one complete deck of 52 cards. One player is the dealer, and deals 13 cards to each player. In the next round, the player left of the current dealer will be dealer. For convenience, two decks are often used, so that the dealer's partner may shuffle for the next hand while the current hand is being dealt.The auction
The dealer makes the first call, and the bidding continues clockwise until three players in rotation have passed after any call. A call is any bid, a pass, a double or a redouble. (However, the word "bid" is often used informally in place of "call".)
A bid must include a number of odd tricks (from one to seven) and a denomination. Odd tricks are the tricks that a partnership proposes to take in excess of six (known as book). A denomination is any suit or notrump specified in a bid.Bidding systems and conventions
Thus, one may have all kinds of meanings for bids, as long as they are told to the opponents.The play of the hand
Techniques in the play of the hand
All trick-taking techniques in bridge can be reduced to one of these four methods.
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
Advanced techniques by declarer
Basic techniques by defenders
Advanced techniques by defenders
Duplicate Bridge
Pairs games (Matchpoint Scoring)
Team of four games
Scoring - Rubber Bridge
Score for making
bid: 2 clubs, made 9 tricks: 40 (2x20) points below, 20 (1x20) above the line.
bid: 4 hearts, made 10 tricks: 120 (4x30) points below, 0 (0x30) above the line.
bid: 4 no trump, made 11 tricks: 130 (4x30+10) points below, 30 (1x30) above the line.Game and rubber
Vulnerability and slam bonus
Undertricks
Doubling
These scores are also doubled again if the contract was redoubled.Footnote - Recent scoring changes
If you read old Bridge books, you may notice some differences in the scoring rules.Scoring - Duplicate bridge
Bidding boxes and bidding screens
Bridge on the internet
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
External links