What is contract bridge?
Bridge is a partnership card game for four people. Every deal begins with an auction and continues with the play of the cards.
The game in one minute
Four players sit around a table. The players opposite one another are partners: North plays with South, and East plays with West. A standard 52-card pack is dealt so that everyone receives 13 cards.
Each deal has two connected stages:
1. The auction
The partnerships bid for the right to choose the contract. A contract states how many tricks one partnership promises to win and whether one suit will be trump or the deal will be played in No Trump.
2. The card play
One partnership tries to make its contract. The opponents defend and try to prevent it. All 13 tricks are played, after which the result is scored.
What is a trick?
A trick consists of one card from each player. The first card is called the lead. Everyone plays clockwise and must follow the suit led when able. The highest card of that suit normally wins, unless a trump is played. The winner of the trick leads to the next one.
What makes bridge different?
You see only your own cards during the auction, so partners communicate through legal bids. They cannot describe their hands in ordinary conversation. A good auction combines the strength and shape of two hidden hands. During play, one hand becomes visible as the dummy, but the defenders must still cooperate using the cards they choose.
Bridge therefore combines several skills: evaluating a hand, communicating with a partner, planning the play, remembering cards and drawing logical conclusions from what other players have done.
What does “contract” mean?
The final bid becomes the contract. A contract of 4♥ means the declaring partnership must win ten tricks with hearts as trump. The number four represents four tricks above the first six: 6 + 4 = 10. A contract of 3NT requires nine tricks without a trump suit.
First principle: the auction decides the target; the card play decides whether that target is reached.