Players

Bridge is a partnership game: one partnership called "East & West" play against the other partnership "North & South" usually abbreviated E & W, N & S. You don't need a compass: N is where players agree it to be—often the direction of the kitchen!

There are 4 suits: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs—the symbols frame the club name onthe web site header from left to right: these suit names are usually abbreviated S, H, D, & C. Aces are high, so the priority order within a suit is: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King and Ace. The last five in the list (known as honours) are often represented by a single letter: T, J, Q, K and A respectively.

Four people (2 pairs) is an excellent number of players for bridge: any number of pairs greater than 4 work well: even numbers of pairs (2 pairs, 4 pairs, 6 pairs…) work best.

The deal: each player is dealt 13 random cards from a single pack so the whole pack of 52 (no jokers) is distributed among the four players.

The hand: at this stage, everyone picks up their cards and keeps them to themselves. Most players sort their hand into suits (alternating red and black suits) and within that suit they sort into priority order. 

Tricks

When the deal is played each player contributes one card to each trick. At the end, there will be 13 tricks. Playing the first card is called leading.

Whoever won the previous trick of the deal leads to the next trick. The rules dictate who leads to the first trick of a deal.

North, let's say, selects a card and places it face up on the table. Play proceeds in turn, clockwise: after N then E, S & W in turn. A player who can follow suit must follow suit. If you don't have a card in the lead suit, you can play any other card in your hand.

Sometimes, one suit, called trumps, has special powers. High cards are good. Trumps are better. In any particular deal one suit may be nominated as trumps. Any card in the trump suit–even a small one– beats any card–even a big one–in another suit.

Unless a trump is played, the person who plays the highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. If any trump is played, the highest trump wins the trick. Whoever played the highest card or highest trump leads to the next trick.

It's a partnership game, so whether N or S plays the winning card, N & S both win. Similarly, if E or W plays the winning card, E & W both win. But it's still the partner who actually plays the winning card who leads to the next trick.

The original lead to the current trick is what matters. If a club is lead and you have a club you must play a club even if someone who played before you plays some other suit. If you have a card of the lead suit you must follow suit but, if you have more than one, you can choose whether to play high, medium or low.

Play continues in this way with the hand which won the previous trick choosing any remaining card to lead 

to the next trick until all 13 tricks (all 52 cards) in the deal have been played.

Minibridge Auction

In the full game of bridge a conversation—the auction—determines which suit, if any, should be trumps. Opposing partners will often have different ideas and the conversation may become competitive!

In Minibridge the auction is simpler. Each player examines their hand and evaluates it valuing honour cards only, counting 1 for each J, 2 for each Q, 3 for each K and one for each A. A bad hand might have none. The best possible hand would have 37 (4 Aces at 4 points each, 4 Kings at 3 points each, 4 Queens at 2 points each and a Jack). Realistically, hands are usually in the range of 3 to 20 points.

Starting with the dealer, players in turn announce their total of high card points. Together, they will total 40 as each of the 4 suits has ten points having one A, K, Q & J! The winners of this mini-auction are the partners with the highest combined points. If each side has 20 the cards are thrown in, shuffled and redealt.

The player in the auction-winning pair with the higher point count becomes declarer. His partner becomes dummy.  If both have the same point count, the first to announce becomes declarer.

Once it is decided who is declarer, his partner—dummy—puts all his cards on the table with the suits arranged in columns. The columns face declarer in descending priority order. It is usual to arrange the columns alternating red and black.

Declarer examines his combined resources and decides which suit he wants for trumps or if he wants to play with no trumps. If he chooses a trump suit, dummy moves the corresponding column of cards to be the rightmost column (on the left as seen by declarer).

In the play, declarer and the defence—his opponents—can make use of the knowledge that they gained in the auction of the high card strength in the closed hands.

Choosing Trumps

Tricks are made by force, by length or by trumping. By force: unless trumped, an ace of the lead suit wins the trick on which it is played. By length: unless trumped, the lead card will win a trick to which no-one can follow. By trumping: a trump, even a small one wins the trick beating any card of another suit no matter how grand (a higher trump always beats a lower one, as usual).

It will usually be best to choose for trumps a suit where declarer holds at least 8 cards in his hand and dummy’s combined. Declarer will usually to choose to play with “No Trumps” if neither hand has a short suit

Which Card to Play 

In bridge, you will always know something about the cards in other people's hands. Sometimes, you'll know quite a lot. The auction tells you something about the suits lengths and high cards in other players' hands. But here in minibridge you have fewer clues. So, usually, try and establish your own longest suit or your partner's longest suit. Everyone has at least one suit with 4 or more cards! Why the longest suit? Because once the high cards have gone on earlier tricks, length cards win tricks when no-one else can follow suit. When the other twelve cards of the suit have gone, the 2 is a high card!

If you have several honours in a sequence (like KQJ or QJT) in your long suit, it's usually best to lead one of them. Otherwise, it's usually best to lead your fourth highest. Why the fourth? So that partner gets a clue how many you have. If you lead the 2: you only had 4. If you lead some other small card and your partner can see all the lower ones (because he holds them or they are in dummy), likewise he knows you only started with 4. 

Usually, first and second hands play small cards. The third hand usually plays their highest card in the led suit. The fourth hand beats it as cheaply as possible or plays small.

Whoever won the previous trick plays the first card to the next trick. Often, it will be best to continue with partner's suit. But, especially if you have a longer suit and high cards to get in with, it may be correct to work on establishing your own. More later.

In bridge a conversation–the auction–establishes a target for the number of tricks one partnership promises to make. In minibridge, the conversation is shorter, but still declarer says if he plans to make game or just a part-score. The scoring (of which more later) provides an incentive to to contract for a game if it seems likely to make.

Having trumps makes an enormous difference to which card to play when leading and following suit. A player who can follow suit must still follow suit. But a player who can't follow suit now has to choose between discarding something useless (and so standing no chance of winning the trick) and trumping and being sure to win the trick unless a higher trump is played. Length cards will not make tricks on which someone plays a trump.