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contract bridge: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

️Wed Jul 01 2015

Bridge (card game)
Bridge declarer play
Alternate names	Contract Bridge
Type	trick-taking
Players	4
Deck	52-card
Cards	Anglo-American
Play	Clockwise
Card rank (highest to lowest)	A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Related games	Whist, Auction bridge
Playing time	WBF tournament games = 7.5 minutes per deal
Random chance	Low - high depending on variant played
Skills required	Memory, Tactics, Communication

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game of skill and chance (the relative proportions depend on the variant played). It is played by four players who form two partnerships (sides); the partners sit opposite each other at a table. The game consists of the auction (often called bidding) and play, after which the hand is scored.

The bidding ends with a contract, which is a declaration by one partnership that their side shall take at least a stated number of tricks, with specified suit as trump or without trumps. The rules of play are similar to other trick-taking games, with addition of the feature that one player's hand is displayed face up on the table as the "dummy".

Much of bridge's popularity owes to the possibility that it can be played in tournaments of theoretically unlimited number of players; this form is referred to as duplicate bridge. Competitions in duplicate bridge range from everyday ones in numerous small clubs to World Championships and Olympiads.

Game play

See Contract bridge glossary for an explanation of unfamiliar words or phrases in this article.

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 several deals (also called hands or boards). A hand is dealt, the bidding (or auction) proceeds to a conclusion and then the hand is played. Finally the hand's result is scored.

The goal of a single deal is to achieve the highest score with 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. The concept of contract, which distinguishes contract bridge from its predecessors, refers to a statement by one partnership that they shall take at least a certain number of tricks, with given suit as trumps, or without trumps. It consists of two components: level and denomination (also called strain). Level represents the number of tricks to be taken above the first 6 (referred to as the book)—that ensures that at least a majority of the tricks must be taken by the partnership who wins the contract. Since there are 13 possible tricks, there are 7 levels, numbered 1-7, corresponding to 7-13 tricks to take. Five denominations are ranked, from lowest to highest, as clubs (♣), diamonds (♦), hearts (♥), spades (♠), and no trump (NT). For instance, the contract of "3 hearts" asserts that his partnership can take nine tricks (book plus three) with hearts as the trump suit. Thus, there are 7×5 = 35 possible basic contracts; 1♣ being the lowest, followed by 1♦ etc., up to 7NT.

In the bidding stage, the pairs compete to determine who proposes the highest-ranked contract, and the side which wins the bidding must then fulfill that bargain by taking at least the contracted quantity of tricks in play to obtain a score. Broadly speaking, there is an incentive to accurately bid to the optimum contract and then to play to make the contracted number of tricks (or more if good play or luck allows). If the side that wins the auction (declaring side) then takes the contracted number of tricks (or more), it is said to have made the contract and is awarded a score; otherwise, the contract is said to be defeated and points are awarded to the opponents (defenders).

In finding an optimum contract, it can sometimes pay to bid slightly too high and lose a small number of points, rather than allow the opposing side to bid and make a larger score. This is known as a sacrifice, and is quite common if both sides are contesting the final contract. This aspect is more common in duplicate bridge (as played in competitions and many clubs) where the goal is to get a better score than any other partnership facing the same hands, by however small a margin and in whatever way possible.

Dealing

The game is played with a standard deck of 52 cards. On each deal, one player is the dealer, who distributes the cards and also bids first. The dealer changes on each deal, usually going clockwise around the table.

In rubber bridge (or other non-duplicate games), the cards are shuffled before every game, 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 dealer's left-hand opponent will deal next. Each hand in rubber bridge is therefore random and unrelated to other hands played, and a lot of the time the score depends on the cards as well as the skill of play.

In duplicate bridge, the hands are shuffled only once, at the beginning of the session, and dealt into the same four hands of 13 cards. These deals are preserved for the entirety of the tournament. In this way, each time they are played, the results for different players will be comparable and any element of chance due to some players having better cards is eliminated. Cards in duplicate are passed around from table to table in bridge boards, plastic or metal containers that clearly mark the hands and identify which player holds which cards. The board may also contain a folded slip of paper to record each pair's scores after the deal is played; the director will record the scores from this slip, called the traveler, at the end of the tournament session. Alternatively, scores may be written on a pickup slip that is collected by a caddy and submitted to the director for recording after each round of play. In some competitions, boards are pre-dealt prior to the competition, especially if the same hands are to be played at multiple locations (for example in a large national or international tournament). There are also special machines for pre-dealing at large tournaments. As the boards arrive for play at each subsequent table, the four players pull their cards from the board and count them to ensure that there are 13 cards in their hand.

Unlike rubber bridge and most other trick-taking games, in duplicate games players do not throw their cards to the center of the table; instead, played cards are placed immediately in front of each player and turned face down once each trick has been completed. This allows each player to return his hand, intact, to the board after he has finished it, so subsequent tables can play the same deal unaltered. It also allows that in case of a review or other irregularity during the play, it is clear exactly who played which cards, and the order in which they were played.

The auction

The auction determines the declaring side and the final contract. Only one of the partners of the declaring side, referred to as declarer, will play the hand, while the other will become the dummy (i.e. doing nothing). In addition, the final contract may be doubled (by the opponents) or redoubled (by the declaring side), in which case the scoring of the hand is increased, whether the contract is made or defeated.

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

Bid (stating a level and a denomination)
Double (when the last call other than pass was a bid by an opponent)
Redouble (when the last call other than pass was a double by an opponent)
Pass (when unwilling to make one of the three preceding calls, i.e. "abstain")

(Note: although technically incorrect, the word "bid" is also often used informally in place of "call")

The auction starts with the dealer and proceeds clockwise with each player, having first evaluated their hands, making a call in order. The auction ends when 3 successive passes occur after a bid, double or redouble (or if all 4 players pass in the first round, in which case the deal is not scored).

A bid specifies a level and denomination, and ostensibly denotes a proposition to play the corresponding contract. A player wishing to bid must make a bid that is higher than the preceding bid. A bid is higher if it specifies any denomination on a higher level, or a higher-ranked denomination on the same level. Thus, after a bid of 3♥, bids of 2♠ or 3♣ are not allowable, but 3♠ or 4♦ are.

A double can be made only after the opponents have made a bid. At its simplest, this 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. However, in modern bridge, the double is often used in conventional sense, to ask partner to bid or to pass information to partner. A "redouble" can be made only following an opponents' double; it increases the points scored yet further. In practice, the redouble can also be used systemically for other purposes. Double and redouble are in effect only until the next bid, i.e. any subsequent bid invalidates them.

Once the auction ends, the last bid (together with any double or redouble that followed it) becomes the contract, and the level of this bid determines the number of tricks required to achieve the contract and its denomination determines what suit, if any, will be trumps.

It should be noted, though, that the primary purpose of the early bids is to exchange information rather than to determine the final contract. Most bids are not made with the intention to become the end contract, but to describe player's hand strength and distribution, so that the partnership can make an educated guess which contract would be the optimal one. The set of agreements between partners about meanings of each bid is referred to as a bidding system.

The pair that did not win the contract is called the defence. The pair that made the last bid is divided further: the player who first made a bid in the denomination of the final contract becomes the declarer and their partner becomes the dummy. For example, suppose West is the dealer and the bidding was:

West	North	East	South
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 (being the first to bid spades), North would be the dummy, and spades the trump suit; 10 tricks would be required by declarer (and dummy). Since East's double was invalidated by the subsequent South's 3♠ bid, it does not affect the contract.

Bidding boxes, which allow the calls to be placed using cards rather than pronounced are often used to prevent players at nearby table hearing the bidding and to avoid unintentional voice inflexions passing information to partner.

The play of the hand

The play consists of thirteen tricks, each trick consisting of one card played from each of the four hands. Aces are high in bridge, followed by kings, queens, jacks, 10s, 9s ... down to 2s, the lowest card in each suit. The first card played in a trick is called the lead, and players play a card clockwise around the table. Any card may be selected from a hand 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. If a hand contains no cards of the led suit then 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 played cards are of the trump suit, in which case the hand that plays the highest trump card wins the trick. 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/her hand face up on the table in four columns, one for each suit, with the column of the trump suit (if there is one) on the right as dummy looks at the table. The declarer is responsible for selecting cards to play from the dummy's hand and from own hand in turn. The defenders each choose the cards to play from their own hands. Dummy is allowed to prevent declarer from infringing the rules but otherwise must not interfere with the play; for example, dummy may attempt to prevent declarer from leading from the wrong hand (by stating e.g. "you won the last trick in dummy") but must not comment on opponents' actions or make suggestions as to play. In casual bridge games the dummy often does nothing, but in duplicate bridge dummy must play cards from the dummy hand at declarer's verbal instruction (eg "jack of hearts please partner"). This is a more convenient and less ambiguous method of card selection than declarer leaning over the table and touching a card.

The contract level sets up a specific target: in the example above, the declarer must manage to take 10 tricks (the assumed "book" of 6, plus 4 as bid, with spades as trumps), to make the contract and get a score. 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 (declarer has gone down), and are rewarded points for doing so.

Scoring

In the end, the goal for each pair is to make as high a score as possible. However, if the contract is made, its level is the primary factor affecting the scoring, rather than the number of tricks taken in play: for example, if the declarer takes all 13 tricks without trumps, there is still a huge score difference between the cases of contract being 1NT and 7NT. That ensures competitiveness: even if a partnership holds a majority of the high cards and the opponents have no interest in bidding, they are still encouraged to bid high in order to achieve the best possible score, which in turn often results in contracts on the verge of making.

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

Every trick bid (20 for minor suit contracts, 30 for major suit and notrump ones, with additional 10 points for notrump)
Overtricks (tricks taken over the contract level)
Bonuses for contract level
Other specific 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.

Because of the structure of bonuses, certain bid levels have 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 notrump 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). Because of attractiveness of the game bonus, much of the bidding revolves around investigating a possibility to bid a makeable game. High bonuses are also awarded for bidding and making small slam (level 6) and grand slam (level 7, i.e. all the tricks). The contracts below game level are called partial contracts or partscores.

The concept of vulnerability affects scoring and introduces a wider range of tactics in bidding and play. Every partnership is beforehand assigned one of two states: vulnerable or non-vulnerable. When a pair is vulnerable, game and slam bonuses are higher, as well as penalties for failure to make the contract. Methods for assigning vulnerability differ for duplicate (see board) and rubber bridge.

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 ranked. The resulting scores for each board are expressed in matchpoints or international match points (IMP). Regardless of the actual contract, the competitor (pair or team) with the best performance on each board gets the highest number of points for that board and vice versa. The competitor with the highest total number of points becomes the winner of the tournament. Thus, even with bad cards, a competitor can win the tournament if it has bid better and played better than the other players who played the same set of cards.

Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge

Rules of contract bridge are standardized by World Bridge Federation and published in the book Laws of Duplicate Contract Bridge. The last edition was issued in 1997 and consists of 93 laws (articles). All duplicate bridge sponsoring organizations on lower levels must apply these rules. A large portion of the laws, though, is devoted to dealing with various irregular situations, and as such it is mostly used by tournament directors (referees) as the reference book.

They do not apply to rubber bridge, which has its own set of Laws, the Laws of Contract Bridge, issued in 1993. In fact, simpler rules for dealing with irregularities are often applied by the players themselves or house rules are applied at rubber.

History

Bridge is member of the family of trick-taking games and is a development of Whist, which had become the dominant such game enjoying a loyal following for centuries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Bridge is the English pronunciation of a game called Biritch, which was also known as Russian Whist.

The oldest known Biritch rule book dates from 1886 and documents many significant bridge-like developments from whist: dealer chose the trump suit, or nominated his partner to do so; there was a call of no trumps (biritch); dealer's partner's hand became dummy; points were scored above and below the line; game was 3NT, 4H and 5D (although 8 club odd tricks and 15 spade odd tricks were needed!); the score could be doubled and redoubled; and there were slam bonuses. This game, and variants of it known as bridge^[1] and bridge-whist^[2], became popular in the United States and the UK in the 1890s despite the long established dominance of whist^[3].

In 1904 auction bridge, (also known as royal auction bridge ^[4]), was developed 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 the tricks contracted for were scored below the line towards game or a slam bonus, which resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of vulnerability, making sacrificing to protect the lead in a rubber more expensive, and the various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced game. Vanderbilt set out 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."

In the USA and Australia, most of the bridge played these days is duplicate bridge and is played at clubs, tournaments and online. In the UK, rubber bridge is still popular in both homes and clubs, as well as duplicate bridge.

Tournaments

Bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt cards, which makes it also a game of chance, or more exactly, a tactical game with inbuilt randomness, imperfect knowledge and restricted communication. The chance element is in the deal of the cards; in competitions and clubs the chance element is largely eliminated by comparing results of multiple pairs in identical situations. This is achievable when there are eight or more players, sitting at several tables, and the deals from each table are preserved and passed to the next table, thereby duplicating them for another 4 (or more) participants to play. At the end of a session, the scores for each deal are compared, and most points are awarded to the players doing the best with each particular deal. This measures skill because each player is being judged only on his ability to bid with, and play, the same cards as other players.

This form of the game is referred to as duplicate bridge and is played in clubs and 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, which it is often compared with for its complexity and mental skills required for high-level competition. Only bridge and chess are recognized as "mind sports" by the International Olympic Committee, although they were not found eligible for the main Olympic program.^[5]

The basic premise of duplicate bridge had previously been used for whist matches as early as 1857. Initially, bridge was not thought to be suitable for duplicate competition; 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.

Bidding boxes and bidding screens

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.

Game strategy

Bidding

Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of arriving at a good final contract in the auction. This is a difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate sufficient information about their hands to arrive at a makeable contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted—information may only be passed by the calls made and later by the cards played, not by other means; in addition, the agreed-upon meaning of all information passed must be available to the opponents.

Since a partnership who has freedom to bid gradually at leisure can exchange more information, and a partnership who can interfere with their opponents' bidding (or who raise the bidding level rapidly) can cause difficulties for their opponents, bidding systems are both informational and strategic. It is this mixture of information exchange and evaluation, deduction, and tactics that is at the heart of bidding in bridge.

A number of basic rules of thumb in bridge bidding and play are summarized as bridge maxims.

Bidding systems and conventions

A bidding system is a set of partnership agreements on the meanings of bids: each player evaluates their hand and their best tactics, in light of new information, and makes bids to give or request information from their partner with the goal of arriving at an ideal contract. A partnership's bidding system is usually made up of a core system, modified and complemented by specific conventions (optional customizations incorporated into the main system for handling specific bidding situations) which are pre-chosen between the partners prior to playing. The line between a well-known convention and a part of a system is not always clear-cut: some bidding systems include specified conventions by default. Bidding systems can be divided into mainly natural systems such as Acol and Standard American, and mainly artificial systems such as the Precision Club.

Bids are usually considered to be either natural or conventional (artificial). A natural bid is one where the suit and level bid is essentially passing the information "I have this suit for you", or in the case of a double "I want to raise the stakes as I don't think the opponents can make their contract". By contrast, a conventional (artificial) bid offers and/or asks for information by means of pre-agreed coded interpretations, in which some bids convey very specific information or requests which are not part of the natural meaning of the bid. Thus in response to 4NT, a 'natural' bid of 5♦ would state a preference towards a diamond suit or a desire to play the contract in 5 diamonds, whereas if the partners agree to use the common Blackwood convention, a bid of 5♦ in this situation says nothing about the diamond suit, but tells the partner that the hand in question contains exactly one ace.

Conventions are valuable in bridge because of the need to pass information beyond the simple like or dislike of a named suit, and because the limited bidding space can be used more efficiently by taking situations where a given bid will have less utility and giving that bid an artificial meaning that conveys more useful information. There are a very large number of conventions that players often choose from. Well-known conventions include Stayman (to ask for the show of any 4 card major suit in a 1NT opening hand), Jacoby transfers (a request by the weak hand for the stronger partner to bid and play the game instead), and Blackwood convention (to ask for information on aces and kings in a slam bidding situation).

The term preempt refers to a high level tactical bid by a weak hand, relying upon a long suit rather than high value cards for tricks. Pre-emptive bids serve a double purpose—they allow a player to indicate they are bidding on the basis of a long suit in an otherwise weak hand, which is important information to share, and also effectively raises the stakes before a possibly strong opposition can identify whether they have a good possibility to play the hand. Several systems include bids on weak hands with 6-, 7-, or even 8-card suits at the 2, 3 or even 4 level, as preempts.

Basic natural systems

As a rule, a natural suit bid indicates a holding or at least 4 (or more depending on the system) cards in that suit as an opening bid, or a lesser number when supporting partner; a natural NT bid indicates a balanced hand.

Most systems use a count of high card points as the basic evaluation of the strength of a hand, refining this by reference to shape and distribution if appropriate. Aces are counted as 4 points, kings as 3, queens as 2, and jacks as 1 point; therefore, the deck contains 40 points. 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. A better than average hand, containing 12 or 13 points, is usually considered sufficient to open the bidding, i.e. make the first bid in the auction. A combination of two such hands (i.e. 25 or 26 points shared between partners) is often sufficient for a partnership to bid, and generally make, game in no trumps (more may be needed for a suit game).

In natural systems, 1NT opening bid usually reflects a hand that has a relatively balanced shape (usually between 2 and 4 cards in each suit) and a limited number of high card points, somewhere between 12 and 18 (normally a 3 point range e.g. 12-14, 15-17 or 16-18).

Opening bids of 3 or higher are preemptive (tactic) bids, i.e. bids made with weak hands that especially favor a particular suit, opened at a high level in order to frustrate the opposition. A hand of ♠AK98742 ♥73 ♦42 ♣76 would be an ideal candidate for an opening bid of 3♠, designed to make it difficult for the opposing team to bid and find their optimum contract even if they have the bulk of the points.

Openings at the 2 level may be unusually strong (2NT, natural, and 2C, artificial) or preemptive depending on the system. Unusually strong bids communicate an especially high number of points (normally 20 or more) or a high trick taking potential (normally 8 or more).

Opening bids at the one level are made with hands containing 12/13 points or more which are not suitable for one of the preceding bids - with some systems (e.g. Standard American or 5-card majors) a major suit opening shows a 5-card suit (5-card major treatment, 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 suit bid, implying support for the unbid suits and asking partner to choose one of them.

Variations on the basic themes

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 also a variety of advanced 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.

Common conventions and variations within natural systems include:

Point count required for 1 NT opening bid ('weak' ~12-14, 'strong' ~16-18 or 'intermediate' ~14-16)
Whether an opening bid of 1♥ and 1♠ requires 4 or 5 cards in the suit (4 or 5 card majors)
Whether 1♣ (and sometimes 1♦) is 'natural' or 'suspect' (also called 'phony', signifying an opening hand lacking a notable heart or spade suit)
Whether opening bids at the two level (particularly 2♥ and 2♠) are 'strong' (20+ points) or 'weak' (i.e,, pre-emptive with a 6 card suit). (Note: an opening bid of 2♣ is usually played in natural systems as conventional, signifying an exceptionally strong hand)
Blackwood (either the original version or Roman Key Card)
Stayman (together with Blackwood, described as "the two most famous conventions in Bridge".^[6])
Whether the partnership will play bids of 2D, 2H and (sometimes) 2S over 1 NT as 'transfers'.
What types of cue bids the partnership will play, if any.
Whether doubling a contract at the 1, 2 and sometimes 3 level signifies a belief that the opponents contract will fail and to raise the stakes (penalty double) or an indication of strength but no biddable suit, coupled with a request that partner bid something (takeout double).
How the partnership's bidding practices will be varied if their opponents intervene or compete.
Which (if any) bids are forcing and require a response.

Within play, it is also commonly agreed what systems of opening leads, signals and discards will be played:

The opening lead signifies an agreement over how the first card to be played will be chosen,
Signals indicate how cards played within a suit are chosen— often playing a noticeably high (or low) card when this would not be expected signals encouragement to continue playing the suit, and a low (or high) card signals discouragement and a desire for partner to choose some other suit.
Discards cover the situation when a player cannot follow suit and therefore has free choice what card to play or throw away. In such circumstances the thrown away card can be used to indicate some aspect of his hand, which he would like his partner to know about, or a desire for a specific suit to be played.

Advanced bidding techniques

It is noteworthy that every bid (including 'no bid') in fact serves not one, but two purposes; it first of all confirms or passes some information to partner. It also denies by implication any other kind of hand which would have tended to support alternative bids. For example, a bid of 2NT after 1NT not only shows a balanced hand of a certain points range, but it also may deny a 5 card major suit (otherwise partner would have bid it) or even a 4 card major suit (or else partner would probably have bid Stayman).

Likewise the bid of 2H in the sequence 1NT - 2C - 2D - 2H between partners confirms 4 cards in Spades as well: he must hold at least 5 hearts to make it worth looking for a heart fit after 2D denying a 4 card major, and if he has at least 5 hearts, then his Stayman bid must have been due to having exactly 4 spades, the other major (since Stayman is not useful with anything except a 4 card major suit). ^[7] Thus an astute partner can read much more than the surface meaning, into the bidding.

Much of advanced bidding is specific agreements related to very specific situations.

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 suits (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 to the right of your king, your king may be able to 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 suits, 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

counting
- tricks
- losers
- shape of defenders hands
establishing long suits
finesse
when NOT to finesse
holdup (mostly at NT contracts)
timing
unblocking
blocking
managing entries
trumping
crossruff
when to draw trumps
when NOT to draw trumps
- ruff losers
- discard a quick loser

Advanced techniques by declarer

counting the hand (tracking the distribution of suits and high cards in the opponents' hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
duck
dummy reversal
endplay
coup
squeeze
principle of restricted choice
theory of vacant spaces
suit combinations
percentages
safety play

Basic techniques by defenders

opening lead — using information from the auction
when to lead trumps
signaling

Advanced techniques by defenders

avoiding an endplay
counting the hand (tracking the distribution of suits and high cards in the unseen hands using inferences from the bidding and play)
false carding
trump promotion
uppercut

Example

For definition of terms used in the example, see Contract bridge glossary.

	♠	J 3
♥	J 8 7 4
♦	A 10 7 6 5
♣	Q 3
♠	K Q 8 7 2	N W E S	♠	10 9 5 4
♥	A 2	♥	9 6
♦	J 4 2	♦	K Q 9
♣	10 7 2	♣	K 9 6 4
	♠	A 6
♥	K Q 10 5 3
♦	8 3
♣	A J 8 5

The cards are dealt as in the diagram, and North is the dealer. As neither North nor East have sufficient high card strength to open the bidding, they both pass, denying an opening hand. South, next in turn, opens with the bid of 1♥, which denotes a reasonable heart suit (at least 4 or 5 cards long) and at least 12 high card points. West overcalls with 1♠, North supports partner's suit with 2♥, and East also supports spades with 2♠. South inserts a game try of 3♣, inviting the partner to bid the game of 4♥ with good club support and overall values, and North 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 (ten tricks in hearts or spades, 11 tricks in clubs or diamonds), 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.

South is the declarer, having been first to bid hearts, and the player to his left, West, has to make the choice of the first card in the play, known as the opening lead. He chooses the ♠K because it is the suit both he and his partner have shown strength in, and because he has agreed with his partner that when they hold two touching honors (or adjacent honors) they will play the higher ones first (for information purposes). He plays the card face down, to give the players a chance to ask any last questions about the bidding. After that, North lies his cards on the table and becomes dummy, both the North and South hands will be controlled by the declarer. West turns his leading card face up, and the declarer studies his hand and dummy to make 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.

Tactically, if the ♣K is held by West, he will find it very hard to prevent it making a trick. However there is an almost-equal chance that it is held by East, in which case it can be 'trapped' against his Ace, and will be beaten, using a strategy known as a finesse.

After considering the cards, the declarer directs dummy (North) to play a small spade. East plays low (small card) and South takes the ♠A, gaining the lead. He proceeds by drawing trumps, leading the ♥K. West decides there is no benefit to holding back, and winning with his Ace, 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 South's hand. The trumps now accounted for, South can now execute the finesse, hopefully trapping the king as planned. He enters the dummy (i.e. makes the dummy's hand to play the next trick) with a low diamond, using dummy's ♦A to win the trick, and leads ♣Q from dummy at the next trick. East covers the queen with the King, and South takes the trick with the Ace, and proceeds by cashing the remaining master ♣J. (If East doesn't play the King, then South will gamble by playing a low club and the Queen will win anyway, the essence of a finesse). The game is now safe: South ruffs a small club with a dummy's trump, then ruffs a diamond in hand for an entry back, and ruffs the last club in dummy (sometimes described as a crossruff). Finally, he claims the remaining tricks by showing his hand, as it now contains only high trumps and there's no need to play the hand out to prove they are all winners.

(The trick-by-trick notation used above can be also expressed in tabular form, but a textual explanation is usually preferred in practice, for reader's convenience. Plays of small cards or discards are often omitted from such a description, 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. OKbridge is the oldest of the still-running Internet Bridge services; players of all standards, from beginners to world champions may be found playing there. OKbridge is a subscription based club, so it offers premium services such as customer support and ethics reviews. SWAN Games is a more recent competitor. Bridge Base Online is the most populated online bridge club in the world, as it is free to play regular games. The above online clubs offer various features such as options to earn ACBL masterpoints, play in online tournaments, compile lists of friends, purchase software to improve Bridge skills, and earn money playing Bridge. On Bridge Base Online there is also a Vugraph feature where important international events are shown for anyone interested to watch.

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. In 2001, World Bridge Federation has issued a special edition of the lawbook adapted for internet and other electronic forms of the game.

Advantages of playing bridge online are:

Flexible choice of when to play.
Choice of opponent skill level.
Player rating system that attempts to measure ability without regard to the number of games played or the number of years spent accumulating masterpoints.
Fewer restrictions on which conventions can be used.
Unauthorised information cannot be passed by tone of voice or body language.
Detailed records may be kept, to help resolve complaints.
The software prevents plays and calls that are against the laws.

Disadvantages are:

Inability to decide on bidding convention ahead of time, because partners are (usually) strangers.
A reduced social element.
Increased opportunities to cheat via external communication.
Players may leave before a hand finishes, or in the middle of an intended session.

Computer bridge

After many years of little progress, at the end of the twentieth century computer bridge made big strides forward. In 1996, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) initiated official World Championships Computer Bridge, to be held annually along with a major bridge event. The first Computer Bridge Championship took place in 1997 at the North American Bridge Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Strong bridge playing programs such as Jack (World Champion computer bridge 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006) and Wbridge5 (World Champion computer bridge 2005) probably rank among the top few thousand human pairs worldwide. A series of articles published in 2005 and 2006 in the Dutch bridge magazine IMP describes matches between Jack and seven top Dutch pairs. A total of 196 boards were played. Overall, the program Jack lost, but with a small margin (359 versus 385 imps).

Notable bridge people

Creators and early inventors, in the first half of the 20th century:

Influential players and theorists in the second half of the 20th century:

Modern world-top experts:

Bridge players in fiction:

James Bond
Hercule Poirot
Lucy Ricardo
Ethel Mertz
Norma Desmond
Lily Bart, in the novel The House of Mirth

Definitions of common terms

References

^ (Elwell 1905 and Benedict 1900)
^ (Melrose 1901)
^ (Foster 1889)
^ (Bergholt 1915)
^ Review of the Olympic programme and the recommendations on the programme of the games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008; page 8 (2002-08).
^ Bridge Lessons series, Stayman & Transfer (Deal 1), by Andrew Robson
^ Taken from Andrew Robson Bridge Lessons series, "Stayman & Transfer", deal 14

History of bridge

Foster's Whist Manual, by R.F. Foster. London, Frederick Warne and Co. with Mudie and Sons. (4th ed, 1899)
The Bridge Manual, by "John Doe" (George Cavendish Benedict). London, Mudie and Sons. (1900)
Bridge Whist, by C.J. Melrose. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. (1901)
Elwell's Advanced Bridge, by J.B. Elwell. London, George Newnes. (5th ed., 1905)
Bridge and Auction Bridge, by "Valet de Pique". London, Eveleigh Nash. (1912)
Royal Auction Bridge, by Ernest Bergholt. London, George Routledge & Sons. (1915?)
The Mad World of Bridge, by Jack Olsen. New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston. (1960)
Bridge Is My Game, by Jack Olsen with Charles Goren. New York, Doubleday. (1965)

General reading

"Turning Tricks" by David Owen. The New Yorker, Sept 17, 2007 pp.90-93.
"Card Play Tequnique or the Art of Being Lucky" by Victor Mollo and Nico Gardener

External links

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