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Hey everyone, I thought it would be about time I tell you something about the sport I do: bridge! No, it doesn't consist of building bridges, it's actually a card game. You have to play it with 4 people, who each get 13 cards. There are actually 2 versions, an easy and a difficult one. The difficult one is what I have been doing since I was 7, but it's hard to explain like this so I'm going to keep it with the easy version.
In the beautiful game of bridge, you play 2vs2; the ones opposite to each other play together (north plays with south, east plays with west).
The cards each have ranks, 2 being the lowest and ace being highest. The jack is worth 1 point, the queen 2, the king 3 and the ace 4. Everyone, starting with the person directly left from the one who dealt the cards, should start by telling their points. Suggest the hand you get looks like this: (S = spades, H = hearts, D = diamonds and C = clubs)
S AH952
H 752
D AVB8
C 6
That means you have 14 points.
Once everyone has told how many points they have, they should add up to 40 (since you have 4 colors and each contain 10 points). If not, everyone counts again. Once it checks out, the one with the most points becomes the so called "Leader". The one who sits opposit of him/her, from now on referred to as "Partner", will be the "Dummy" for this game. Once it is clear who the Leader is, the Dummy should put all his/her cards on the table so that everyone can see them. Based on that, the Leader has to make some decisions. First thing: Which color do you want to be trump? Suggest the Leader has above hand, and the Dummy looks like this:
S V873
H 4
D 962
C AB852
(which adds up to 7 points)
In this case, I think it will be wise to pick spades as trump. Generally, it is wise to pick the color in which you and your partner have most cards together. NOTE: You don't have to pick a trump, if you think you can do without it you are allowed to say that you don't want to play no-trump. So, you made the decision of making spades trump. Now you have to pick how many tricks you think you can make. You can choose between 7/9 tricks, 10/11 tricks or 12/13 tricks (NOTE: The numbers for spades and hearts (high colors) are as shown above, the numbers for clubs/diamonds (low colors) are 7/10, 11 or 12/13 and the numbers for no-trump are 7/8, 9/11 and 12/13. Yes, playing no-trump gives you more points then playing spades/hearts, which in their turn give more points then playing clubs/diamonds). The more you pick, the higher the points you receive if you make it, but if you don't make it you will be punished.
Each situation is different obviously, but in this case I think we can make 10/11 tricks. In trump, you generally count the tricks you could pick up right from the start. I count 5, namely: S AHV, D A and C A. It's highly likely you will make more tricks, but I will not go into tactics too far.
Now that you have made that decision too, it's time to start putting cards on the table. The one directly left from the leader has to start with playing. There are some rules for this, but I'm not going too deeply into tactics as said before. From then on, we start playing clockwise. So the dummy has to play the next card, then it's the other opponent's turn and then the Leader. Note that the Leader has to say what the Dummy has to do; there is a reason he/she is called dummy for the time being. Not because he/she is stupid, but because he/she has no control whatsoever anymore, all he/she has to do is play the card the leader tells him/her to. The one with the highest card in that round wins the trick. Let's say the first trick goes like this: HA H4 H3 H2. Then the one who played the ace wins the trick, and gets to play the next card. Let's say it goes like this: HK S3 H6 H5. Now it's not the king that wins trick, but the dummy, who was told to play a trump. Then the leader tells the dummy to play any card, etc.
Note that everyone keeps their own cards. If you won a trick, you put the card you played in that trick horizontally (as if the long side of the card towards you and your partner) and if you lost it, you put it vertically (as if the long side of the card towards your opponents). That way, you can easily see how many tricks you and your partner have made, if anyone has made a mistake with putting their cards in a certain way and, also, keeping your cards together so the one who comes to that table later on can play the same game. That way, you can compare your results and see who was better.
So, after 13 tricks, everyone counts how many tricks they have made and the tricks made by the leader are written down, as well as the trump that was chosen, the start and the number of points they won/lost by it. Don't forget to write who you played against, too. I will not try to explain the point system, simply because I don't know them by heart. I always use a small device in which you can fill in this data, and it will automatically tell you the number of points you scored. It's useful, modern, and you don't need a pen :P
Then you play the next game, and if you are done with all the games you wait for a signal (such as an alarm clock or something) and then you move to the next table you are told. And I think that concludes the explanation of the easy part of bridge :)
If you actually managed to have read everything I just wrote, without skipping anything, I applaud you. You either love me very much, or you seem to have interest in learning and playing bridge. If so, I recommend you to either send me a PM if you are a girl, or go to the internet and search for a bridgeclub in your area :) Good luck, and most of all, have fun!
In the beautiful game of bridge, you play 2vs2; the ones opposite to each other play together (north plays with south, east plays with west).
The cards each have ranks, 2 being the lowest and ace being highest. The jack is worth 1 point, the queen 2, the king 3 and the ace 4. Everyone, starting with the person directly left from the one who dealt the cards, should start by telling their points. Suggest the hand you get looks like this: (S = spades, H = hearts, D = diamonds and C = clubs)
S AH952
H 752
D AVB8
C 6
That means you have 14 points.
Once everyone has told how many points they have, they should add up to 40 (since you have 4 colors and each contain 10 points). If not, everyone counts again. Once it checks out, the one with the most points becomes the so called "Leader". The one who sits opposit of him/her, from now on referred to as "Partner", will be the "Dummy" for this game. Once it is clear who the Leader is, the Dummy should put all his/her cards on the table so that everyone can see them. Based on that, the Leader has to make some decisions. First thing: Which color do you want to be trump? Suggest the Leader has above hand, and the Dummy looks like this:
S V873
H 4
D 962
C AB852
(which adds up to 7 points)
In this case, I think it will be wise to pick spades as trump. Generally, it is wise to pick the color in which you and your partner have most cards together. NOTE: You don't have to pick a trump, if you think you can do without it you are allowed to say that you don't want to play no-trump. So, you made the decision of making spades trump. Now you have to pick how many tricks you think you can make. You can choose between 7/9 tricks, 10/11 tricks or 12/13 tricks (NOTE: The numbers for spades and hearts (high colors) are as shown above, the numbers for clubs/diamonds (low colors) are 7/10, 11 or 12/13 and the numbers for no-trump are 7/8, 9/11 and 12/13. Yes, playing no-trump gives you more points then playing spades/hearts, which in their turn give more points then playing clubs/diamonds). The more you pick, the higher the points you receive if you make it, but if you don't make it you will be punished.
Each situation is different obviously, but in this case I think we can make 10/11 tricks. In trump, you generally count the tricks you could pick up right from the start. I count 5, namely: S AHV, D A and C A. It's highly likely you will make more tricks, but I will not go into tactics too far.
Now that you have made that decision too, it's time to start putting cards on the table. The one directly left from the leader has to start with playing. There are some rules for this, but I'm not going too deeply into tactics as said before. From then on, we start playing clockwise. So the dummy has to play the next card, then it's the other opponent's turn and then the Leader. Note that the Leader has to say what the Dummy has to do; there is a reason he/she is called dummy for the time being. Not because he/she is stupid, but because he/she has no control whatsoever anymore, all he/she has to do is play the card the leader tells him/her to. The one with the highest card in that round wins the trick. Let's say the first trick goes like this: HA H4 H3 H2. Then the one who played the ace wins the trick, and gets to play the next card. Let's say it goes like this: HK S3 H6 H5. Now it's not the king that wins trick, but the dummy, who was told to play a trump. Then the leader tells the dummy to play any card, etc.
Note that everyone keeps their own cards. If you won a trick, you put the card you played in that trick horizontally (as if the long side of the card towards you and your partner) and if you lost it, you put it vertically (as if the long side of the card towards your opponents). That way, you can easily see how many tricks you and your partner have made, if anyone has made a mistake with putting their cards in a certain way and, also, keeping your cards together so the one who comes to that table later on can play the same game. That way, you can compare your results and see who was better.
So, after 13 tricks, everyone counts how many tricks they have made and the tricks made by the leader are written down, as well as the trump that was chosen, the start and the number of points they won/lost by it. Don't forget to write who you played against, too. I will not try to explain the point system, simply because I don't know them by heart. I always use a small device in which you can fill in this data, and it will automatically tell you the number of points you scored. It's useful, modern, and you don't need a pen :P
Then you play the next game, and if you are done with all the games you wait for a signal (such as an alarm clock or something) and then you move to the next table you are told. And I think that concludes the explanation of the easy part of bridge :)
If you actually managed to have read everything I just wrote, without skipping anything, I applaud you. You either love me very much, or you seem to have interest in learning and playing bridge. If so, I recommend you to either send me a PM if you are a girl, or go to the internet and search for a bridgeclub in your area :) Good luck, and most of all, have fun!
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