Getting Started
The basic materials needed at home are four players and two packs of cards. At a bridge club you will have instead a series of containers called boards with cards pre-dealt into four slots.
Players sit opposite their partners and are referred to by their direction in relation to one wall of the club (or home), which is usually clearly marked ‘North’.
Now they are ready to commence play, North‑South together against East‑West.
The form of contract bridge commonly played at home is called rubber bridge. In a club the cards that every person plays are placed along the edge of their side of the table and at the end of 13 rounds (called tricks) will be re-inserted in the board and passed on to the next table so that every table eventually plays the same cards. Various pairs also move to other tables according to the instructions of the director. This form of the game is called duplicate bridge.
The Deal
In a home game, the dealer is normally decided after spreading one pack face down on the table – whoever draws the highest card is the dealer and chooses which of the two packs is 'theirs'. The right to deal rotates after that in clockwise fashion for each new deal.
The 52 cards (no jokers) are shuffled by the dealer’s LHO (left-hand opponent) cut by the dealer and dealt one at a time commencing with the player on the dealer's left. The dealer's partner meanwhile shuffles the other pack, which 'belongs' to the opposing side.
At the conclusion of the deal all players should finish up with 13 cards and the dealer should receive the last card. If not, a misdeal has occurred, and the deal is repeated.
At duplicate, the dealer is clearly indicated on the board, and players remove their already dealt cards from the slots, counting them face down to check there are 13. (The deal also rotates in orderly fashion. On Board 1 North is always dealer, Board 2 East, Board 3 South etc)
The players then sort the cards into suits. The cards should be arranged in your hand in order of rank within each suit, the highest on the left. The rank of the cards, from the top, is ace‑A, king‑K, queen‑Q, jack‑J, ten‑T , 9……………2. The A, K, Q, J and T are called honours, the remainder are called pips, rags or spot cards.
The aims of the auction
- Find the right strain to play in: Once your hand is good enough to bid during the auction, you search for a suit that you and your partner have in common, and if such a trump fit is found, finish up with that suit as trumps. Or with no suit in common, you often play in notrumps.
- Find the right level: While exploring what you would like as trumps you must also describe to your partner how strong your hand is in order to reach the maximum score that the two hands combined can achieve.
You tell partner that you have a poor hand by saying 'pass' or 'no bid' when it is your turn. You can come into the bidding later, as in a real auction, after having passed. But if all four players pass, the hand is thrown in and a new hand is dealt by the next dealer. At a club, written bidding is common, or the use of bidding boxes.
The first non-pass is called the opening bid. Once an opening bid is made the bidding continues until three players in succession pass. The bid that immediately precedes the three passes is the contract.
How the auction works
Every player, starting with the dealer, and proceeding clockwise, has the opportunity to make a call. Just as in any other auction, you can pass as often as you wish and still come in later, as long as:
- the contract has not already been won by three players passing in succession
- your bid is higher than the previous bid. If your suit is higher-ranked than the last bid suit you can bid at the same level. If it is lower-ranked you have to go up a level.
Bids in notrumps rank above all suit bids. The ranking of the suits is, from top to bottom, spades, hearts, (the majors) diamonds, clubs (the minors). The lowest bid possible is the bid of 1♣, the highest is the bid of 7NT.
Since each player holds 13 cards, there are 13 possible tricks (rounds of 4 cards) to be won on every deal. The level of the final contract (e.g. 1 NT or 2♥ or 5♣) tells us how many tricks have to be made by the side that won the contract - the declaring side. Simply add 6 (called 'book') to the final level. For example, in a 4♠ contract, 10 tricks have to be made, in a 3NT contract 9 tricks.
When should the auction stop?
To assess this you need to be able to evaluate how strong your combined hands are. And the strength of a hand is mainly the sum of its high card points – HCP.
You count HCP thus:
- Ace = 4 HCP
- King = 3 HCP
- Queen = 2 HCP
- Jack = 1 HCP
- And a ten is very nice!
40 HCP (10 in each suit) are thus distributed among the 4 players on every deal. You will also learn later about other kinds of points.
This is the most widely used method for evaluating the strength of a hand. It is a convention - there are others, but this is the most popular.
The auction should only go as far as a pair’s combined
strength permits:
·
If
a pair together have 25 -32 points they
will usually be able to make game.
·
The
game contracts are:
3NT (9 tricks)
4♥ & 4♠ (10 tricks)
5♣ & 5♦ (11 tricks)
Can you understand why 3NT is a more popular game contract than 5♣ or 5♦?
If a pair together have fewer than 25 points, they work out which strain is best and then play in a partscore (= any contract below game, such as 1NT, 2♠, 3♥, 4♣).
If a pair between them have 33 - 36 points they should
bid small slam. All contracts at the
6 level are small slams, needing 12 tricks.
If a pair together hold 37- 40 points they should bid grand
slam. Contracts at the 7 level
are grand slams, requiring all 13 tricks.
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The story continues in the next post - Number 1(c). I welcome any comments you may have. You can do this via the "Post a Comment" feature at the bottom of each post, or the Contact Form in the right sidebar.
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