What is Bridge?
Bridge is a stimulating and exciting card game. It can be played at home or in clubs. It is played with a partner against another partnership.
Each player is dealt 13 cards . The aim is to make as many ‘tricks’ as possible. A trick is when each player from the table plays a card and, usually the highest card wins. So if the players played the 3, 4, king and ace of hearts, the player who laid down the ace of hearts (highest card) wins the trick. Sometimes there is an exception to this when a suit is chosen as ‘trumps, So, in the previous example, if the player who played the 3 of hearts instead played the 3 of spades he or she would win the trick if spades were trumps and they had no cards in hearts to play.
Before the play, there is a ‘bidding’ stage. Here, the players in each partnership try to say how many tricks they might make and to decide which suit (if any) will be trumps. The lowest possible bid is ‘one club’ which says “I would like clubs to be trumps and I think the partnership can make 7 tricks” (add 6 to the number in the bid to find how many tricks you think can be made). The highest possible bid is ‘seven no-trumps’ which means that you think the partnership can make all thirteen tricks even without any suit as trumps. This is a very rare bid and is called a ‘Grand Slam’. Any partnership bidding and making this ‘contract’ gets a major bonus in the scoring system.
After the bidding comes the second stage -the play of the cards. Here only three of the four players are involved, two defenders and the ‘declarer’ –the player who has made the bid that decides the contract. One of the defenders leads a card in the first trick and then declarer’s partner lays his or her hand down on the table arranged into suits, this is known as the ‘dummy’. Declarer then plays from both the dummy and the cards in his or her own hand in turn.
This continues until all thirteen tricks have been played. The players then count how many tricks have been made by declarer and the defence and decide if the contract has been made or defeated. Points are awardeddeclarer or defence accordingly.
This is necessarily a brief and incomplete description. It is a little like trying to describe a game of football or tennis (or even worse, cricket!) to someone who has never seen these games. It gives no idea of the thinking processes and challenges involved. It also gives no inkling of the ‘social’ aspect of the game, that is the pleasures of having an activity which is both challenging and enjoyable within the context of a local club. If you are interested in learning more there are many ways to learn. One is to buy a simple book on the game and find three like-minded friends willing to learn. Another is to buy one of the many computer programs that enable you to learn and play. Finally, many clubs give lessons both for beginners and for people hoping to improve their game.
Like most things, taking the first step is the difficult part…….
Bridge is a stimulating and exciting card game. It can be played at home or in clubs. It is played with a partner against another partnership.
Each player is dealt 13 cards . The aim is to make as many ‘tricks’ as possible. A trick is when each player from the table plays a card and, usually the highest card wins. So if the players played the 3, 4, king and ace of hearts, the player who laid down the ace of hearts (highest card) wins the trick. Sometimes there is an exception to this when a suit is chosen as ‘trumps, So, in the previous example, if the player who played the 3 of hearts instead played the 3 of spades he or she would win the trick if spades were trumps and they had no cards in hearts to play.
Before the play, there is a ‘bidding’ stage. Here, the players in each partnership try to say how many tricks they might make and to decide which suit (if any) will be trumps. The lowest possible bid is ‘one club’ which says “I would like clubs to be trumps and I think the partnership can make 7 tricks” (add 6 to the number in the bid to find how many tricks you think can be made). The highest possible bid is ‘seven no-trumps’ which means that you think the partnership can make all thirteen tricks even without any suit as trumps. This is a very rare bid and is called a ‘Grand Slam’. Any partnership bidding and making this ‘contract’ gets a major bonus in the scoring system.
After the bidding comes the second stage -the play of the cards. Here only three of the four players are involved, two defenders and the ‘declarer’ –the player who has made the bid that decides the contract. One of the defenders leads a card in the first trick and then declarer’s partner lays his or her hand down on the table arranged into suits, this is known as the ‘dummy’. Declarer then plays from both the dummy and the cards in his or her own hand in turn.
This continues until all thirteen tricks have been played. The players then count how many tricks have been made by declarer and the defence and decide if the contract has been made or defeated. Points are awardeddeclarer or defence accordingly.
This is necessarily a brief and incomplete description. It is a little like trying to describe a game of football or tennis (or even worse, cricket!) to someone who has never seen these games. It gives no idea of the thinking processes and challenges involved. It also gives no inkling of the ‘social’ aspect of the game, that is the pleasures of having an activity which is both challenging and enjoyable within the context of a local club. If you are interested in learning more there are many ways to learn. One is to buy a simple book on the game and find three like-minded friends willing to learn. Another is to buy one of the many computer programs that enable you to learn and play. Finally, many clubs give lessons both for beginners and for people hoping to improve their game.
Like most things, taking the first step is the difficult part…….
posted by Joe Ridyard at 6:16 pm
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