Having seen Omar Sharif in many movies I became intrigued when I was told that he was a master bridge player. Joining the school ‘Bridge’ club I soon began to realize that becoming a great bridge player was not an easy task and combines many skills ranging from a good memory to an understanding of your partner.
With similar rules to whist or ‘trumps’ Bridge is a card game in two parts. All 52 cards are dealt to 4 players. The player opposite you is your partner and essentially is on your side.
Playing – I will explain how to play the game before I explain bidding, even though bidding comes first! Once a bid has been finalized and all players know how many hands the bidding team is aiming to win, the game begins.
Firstly, the player on the left of the person who first bid the winning bids trumps, plays a card. The next player then lays down his cards for all to see and becomes the dummy hand; the other player then plays cards from the dummy and his own hand when appropriate.
All players must follow the same suit as the first card that is laid. The highest card wins. However, if you no longer have any of the suit, you can ‘trump’ this card and win the hand. (The trump is selected in the initial bidding process).
Once four cards have been played, the highest card of the first suit played, or the highest trump wins the hand. The winner of the hand then starts the next hand.
Finally when all thirteen hands are played, the number of hands won are counted and compared to the initial bid to see if the bidding side has completed their contract.
Bidding – once all cards have been dealt, each player beginning with the player on the left of the dealer begin bidding. What this means is that the player will guess how many tricks they will win. As an example, if you bid 1 Club, this means that your side will win 7 tricks with clubs as trumps.
The bidding is totally reliant on the cards you have in your hand and what your opponent tells you they have. The better the hand the more tricks you are likely to win. Additionally, you can pick one of the suits to be a ‘trump’ suit, or should you have an even hand you can say that there will be no-trumps.
Strategy
Bidding is a very important part of the game. While there are millions of different ways to bid based on your strength of hand there are several general rules that most players follow.
To start bidding generally you have 13 points (Ace –4, King –3 , Queen –2, Jack –1 , void (no cards in a suit) –2). Your opponent can then reply if they have 6-7 points. (There are forty points in a game (without voids) and if you have 20 or more points together you will generally win more tricks.
If you have 16 points and an even spread of cards in all the suits, then generally you bid 1-No trump.
Additionally if you get to know your partner you can work out several schemes that help your partner to know how strong a hand you have. For example, if I bid 1 club and my partner bids 2 clubs, it generally means ‘no more bidding I can’t really go higher’.
Playing – like whist the tactics you play can make the difference between winning or losing. A good strategy to play is to try and make voids so that you can trump when your opponents play the suit you have a void in.
It is essential that you play with your partner and remember what cards have been played so that you don’t beat their winners.
Conclusion
Bridge is a relatively simple game to play but is immensely hard to master. It is a fun game that can be played with friends on a rainy day, or it is a competitive game that can be played under strict regulations.
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Mar 30th, 2001
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