Trying to find time to write a review on www.cutpricables.co.uk - they are excellent!
Trying to find time to write a review on www.cutpricables.co.uk - they are excellent!
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Bridge should come with a health warning. Something along the lines of “Warning. Psychosis alert!” Some years ago I became involved with a group of twenty somethings who were exploring the game’s every possible nuance. It nearly ruined my life.
THE FIRST DAY IN A NEW FLAT The flat wasn’t too dirty. The flatmates were friendly enough. After unpacking, I wandered into the Lounge to see what was going on. There were 4 other people in the flat and they were playing a card game. I heard strange phrases “two hearts”, “three no trumps”, “finesse”. It sounded intriguing. For two or three days, I watched and learned and when someone went off to shop, or to cook, I would play the occasional hand.
THE BASICS What is so great about this game is that all you need is a pack of cards, a pencil and paper, and three friends to play with.
Bridge is a game for four players, but it is played in two teams of two players each. All the cards are dealt out, so that each player has thirteen cards. A bidding process ensues where players declare how many “tricks” they will make (see below for definition of a trick). The winning pair (basically the pair that decides they can make the most tricks) get to “play” the contract. One of the winning pair plays, and the other member of the pair (called the “dummy”) lays their hand out face up on the table for everyone to see. Imagine the four hands now sitting at the four points of the compass. The person playing the contract is South. The dummy’s hand is North. The defenders are East and West.
South plays cards from their own hand (which stays hidden) and North’s hand (which everyone sees). West and East “defend”. Both defenders play their own hands. Play proceeds in a similar way as for whist, in a clockwise direction. West is the first person to lay a card, then South plays a card from North’s hand (the dummy’s hand), then East plays a card, and finally South plays a card from their own hand. The person playing the winning card wins the “trick” and plays the first card of the next trick.
WHICH CARD WINS? Each player must follow suit (i.e. play a card of the same suit as the first one played in that trick) if they can. If a player does not have a card of that suit, they can play any other card in their hand. If all four cards played are the same suit, the highest card played is the winning card. The card order is (from low to high) 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace. So an ace is the highest card in each suit. If a player is unable to follow suit, they may play any other card in their hand. If they play a trump card, then that will beat any non-trump cards, otherwise their card will lose. If more than one player plays a trump card, then the highest trump played wins.
WHAT ARE TRUMPS? Before play begins, the bidding process decides which suit will be trumps. Trump cards always beat non-trump cards. Obviously, no card can beat the ace of trumps.
WHAT IS A TRICK? “Trick” is the name given to the set of four cards played, one from each player. The person who plays the winning card wins the “trick”. The winner picks up the cards and sets them in a little pile. The tricks for each pair/team are stacked separately so that at the end of a round they can be counted. There are 52 cards,
and 4 cards per tricks, so there are always 13 tricks in total. Hence, someone always has to win (there can’t be a draw!).
A FEW EXAMPLE TRICKS (If Spades are trumps) 3 Hearts, 5 Hearts, Jack Hearts, 10 Hearts Jack of Hearts wins 3 Hearts, 5 Hearts, Jack Hearts, 10 Spades 10 of Spades wins 3 Hearts, 5 Hearts, Jack Hearts, Ace of Clubs Jack of Hearts wins 3 Hearts, 5 Hearts, 10 Spades, Jack Spades Jack of Spades wins
BIDDING If one pair wins with the smallest margin of 1 trick, they make 7 tricks and the other pair makes 6 tricks (since 6 + 7 = 13). Thus the number you bid refers to the number of tricks you can make over 6. So, when bidding, if I think that my team can make 7 tricks (and hence win by 1 trick) with Clubs as trumps, I bid “1 Club”. The next person looks at their cards and has to decide whether they think they can do better. If so they bid, if not they pass. Suits are bid in alphabetical order of Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts and Spades. After spades, you can also bid “No Trumps”. If you play a contract in No Trumps, then (as the name suggests), there are no trumps for that round. You can jump as many suits, or as many tricks as you like when bidding. For example, bidding 2 hearts says you will make 8 tricks with hearts as trumps. Bidding 3 No Trumps, says you will make 9 tricks if there is no trump suit.
At some point, a person bids and the other three players pass. Then the last bid is “the contract”, and the pair that made the last bid plays the contract. The first person in that pair to bid the trump suit is the one that plays, the other person is dummy and makes the tea (or pours the wine, or just sits and watches…).
DOUBLING There is one more type of bid, called a double. For example, say someone has bid four hearts (meaning “we can make ten tricks with hearts as trumps”). If one of the opposing pair thinks that the contract is unlikely to be made, then instead of making their own bid they can bid “double”. If three players then pass, the contract is “four hearts doubled”. The double means that all the points count double. If the contract is made, the winning pair scores double points. If the contract is not made, the defending pair scores double points.
If a “double” bid is made, then the leading pair has the chance to “redouble”, and if a contract is played as, for example, 4 hearts redoubled, then all the points count quadruple! In practice, this does not happen very often.
MAKING THE CONTRACT If South wins as many tricks as they said they would in the contract, then they have “made the contract”.
MINOR SUITS AND MAJOR SUITS Clubs and Diamonds are called “minor” suits. Hearts and Spades are “major” suits. Winning a contract with a major suit as trumps is worth more points than winning a contract in a minor suit.
SCORING RUBBER BRIDGE Bridge played at home is usually scored in “rubbers”. If you are learning to play with an experienced player, you don’t need to know all the ins and outs. They will do the scoring for you, and there is often a bridge score card included in packs of playing cards which summarises all the points scoring. I have laid out the scoring below because it I useful to have an idea of how the scoring works in order to become a good player.
To score, you take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns by drawing a vertical line down the middle of the page. Write the team names at the top of each side. Now draw another line horizontally half way down the page. “Game points” are written “below the line” (meaning below this horizontal line). Extras are written above the line. A “rubber” consists of two or three “games” (not the same as winning a round). To win a game, your pair must score 100 points below the line. You can only score points below the line by making a contract.
SCORING POINTS BELOW THE LINE If you bid and win to play a contact, and then play a round and make the contract, you score your contract below the line, and any extra tricks are scored above the line. Club and Diamond contracts are worth 20 points for each number bid. For example, if you bid 3 Clubs and subsequently play the contract and win 9 tricks with clubs as trumps, you score 3 x 20 = 60 points below the line. Hearts and Diamonds are worth 30 points for each number bid. A contract in No Trumps is worth the most, at 40 points for 1 No trumps, plus 30 points each for each extra number. You can see that to win a game with one round of play requires you to bid and make a contract of 5 Clubs or Diamonds (100 points), 4 Hearts or Spades (120 points) or 3 No Trumps (100 points). You don’t have to win a game in one round though. For example, you could bid and make 2 diamonds (scoring 40 points below the line), then play again and bid and make 2 hearts (scoring another 60 points below the line), to give you 100 points for the game. When one pair has won a game they are said to be “vulnerable”. A new horizontal line is drawn below all the scores and a new game starts. When one team has won two games, that is the end of a rubber. All the points are added up and the team with the most points wins.
Contract points that are won in doubled or redoubled contracts are still made below the line, so you can see that 1 heart redoubled would be 4 x 30 points = 120 points. A pair that makes this contract would make game!
VULNERABLE A pair that has won one game is said to be “vulnerable”. Vulnerability affects points scoring (see below).
SCORING POINTS ABOVE THE LINE Each trick you make over and above your contract is scored above the line. For example, you bid 3 Hearts, but win 10 tricks (i.e. you make 4 hearts). This scores 3 x 30 = 90 points below the line, and the extra trick is scored as 30 points above the line. Overtricks in doubled contracts score 100 points each, and overtricks in redoubled contracts score 200 points each. Overtricks made by a vulnerable pair are worth double these points (e.g. 200 points in doubled contracts and 400 points each in redoubled contracts).
If a pair fails to make the contract, the defenders score points above the line. They score points for every trick less than the contract. For example, if the contract is 5 clubs, but the winning bidder only made 8 tricks (2 clubs), they failed by 3 tricks. The defenders score 50 points for each trick short of the contract if the winning bidders were not vulnerable, and 100 points each if they were vulnerable. In this example, the defenders score 3 x 50 = 150 points (contract player not vulnerable), or 3 x 100 = 300 points (contract players vulnerable). The points are recorded above the line. Doubled tricks are worth 100 points for the first trick and 200 points for each subsequent trick (not vulnerable), or 200 and 300 points respectively (vulnerable). Redoubled tricks are worth 200 points for the first trick and 400 points for each subsequent trick (not vulnerable), or 400 and 600 points respectively (vulnerable).
EXTRA POINTS ABOVE THE LINE If you are the winning bidder in a suit for which you have four trump honours (e.g. 4 out of 5 of the 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace of trumps), you score an extra 100 points. If you have all 5 trump honours, you score an extra 150 points.
If you win the first two games, you score an extra 700 points. If you win two out of three games in a rubber, you score an extra 500 points.
If you make a doubled or redoubled contract you score an extra 50 points.
SLAMS If you bid and make a contract in 6 clubs, 6 diamonds, 6 hearts, 6 spades or 6 no trumps (saying that you will only lose 1 trick!), this is called a small slam and you score an extra 500 points if you’re not vulnerable, or an extra 750 points if you are vulnerable.
If you bid and make a contract in 7 clubs, 7 diamonds, 7 hearts, 7 spades or 7 no trumps (saying that you will lose no tricks at all!), this is called a grand slam and you score an extra 1000 points if you’re not vulnerable, or an extra 1500 points if you are vulnerable. as you can imagine, if pairs win a slam contract there is generally a great deal of whooping and cheering!!
BIDDING SYSTEMS The basic idea behind the bidding process is to trade information with your partner about which suits you are strong in, to try and find a match for trumps. Over the years, different bidding systems have been worked out, so that working within your pair, you can send messages to your partner about your hand by making particular bids. For example, counting up your hand with an ace as 4 points, king as 3 points, queen as 2 points, jack as 1 point, most systems expect you to have 13 or 14 points to start the bidding, and around 6 - 8 points to reply to your partner’s bid. That makes 21 to 22 points total and since there are 40 points in a pack of cards, that means you and your partner have a good chance of making a contract. As well as the number of points in your hand, distribution is also important. For example, if your hand is completely missing cards of a particular suit (called a “void”), then you may be able to trump any cards played by your opponents in that suit. Voids can be useful, so are often counted as an extra point or two. Bidding systems vary and can be quite complicated. The most common system in use is called Acol. Generally, the more points your hand is worth, the higher you can bid. It is also a good idea to bid suits which you are strong in. For example, if you hold 5 hearts and 13 points, try bidding 1 heart. Bidding systems are not hard and fast rules of Bridge, but are loose guidelines. Many pairs adapt them to suit their own styles of play. I mostly used a system called Acol, which is a good one for beginners. Most books on Bridge will give the instructions on the rudiments of bidding.
DIFFICULT? Although it sounds complicated, you really can learn to play bridge in an afternoon. However, no-one ever really truly masters this game. There are so many different bidding systems and styles of play. When you first start to play it seems really easy, but the more you play the more difficult you realise it is to play bridge well. There are some wonderful moves that seem to reflect real life so well: The art of manipulating people into playing the cards you want them to play (but making them think you want something else…) Keeping your options open as you try to work out what cards the others have in their hands; trying to remember what cards went in that last round. And how can I convey the joy of winning the last trick and making your contract by playing the 2 of clubs (when hearts are trumps), and watching the defending pair lay their ace and king of diamonds and lose? You have to play this game to love it as much as I do!
Bridge is the ultimate strategy game, and is extremely entertaining. I got so into playing Bridge, that I played 12 - 18 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months and finally had to move out of the flat and ten miles away to break the habit and get my life back. All that was nearly twenty years ago, and I haven’t played since. (But I can still hear those cards calling me…)
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION For more information about bidding systems and subtleties of play, try “Start Bridge the Easy Way” by Hugh Kelsey ISBN 0575032545 “Bidding Today” by Norman Squire ISBN 0273002074
P.S. WHAT’S A FINESSE? Imagine I am South. I am playing a contract. I have in my hand a 2 of hearts, and the dummy holds the Queen and Ace of hearts. I know that the King of hearts is either in West’s hand, or in East’s hand. I may be able to guess who has the card from the bidding (for example, did west bid hearts? did west bid high making me think she has lots of court cards?). Now, imagine that I suspect west has the king of hearts
I lead the 2 of hearts. Now what does west play? If he plays the king of hearts, I play the ace from dummy and win the trick. Then the queen of hearts in dummy’s hand is the next highest heart, so I could play that and win a second heart trick. If west doesn’t play the king and instead plays a lower heart, I play the queen from dummy’s hand and I still win two tricks, because I still have the ace winner in dummy. That is called a finesse. There are many variations, but the technique can be very useful! There’s always something new to learn. I love this game :-)
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Oh my god - you are fantastic. I've been trying to learn exactly what the game is and voila, one very interesting and informative review from you! Have an E. xx
franl 26.11.2003 01:42
Wow - great op! I've always wondered what it was about bridge... now I see!! Fran
DtOpo 24.11.2003 02:19
wonderful! but "Quite straightforward"? it took me a while to understand it...
exceptional by (3%):
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