Rules

How to play Bridge

Updated October 2026 · 4 players · About 15 minutes a deal

Bridge is a card game for four players in two partnerships. Like Whist, it is played in 13 rounds, and in each round the best card wins all four. What Bridge adds is an auction before play: the players take turns saying how many rounds their side will win and which suit will be the strongest. The highest offer sets the contract, and one player then plays both of their side’s hands. Bridge is a deep game, and people study it for years. This page explains how a deal is played and scored, and gives you the first steps of the auction. It cannot teach all of Bridge, and it does not try to.

What you need

Four players in two partnerships, one 52-card deck, and a pencil and paper to keep score. Partners sit across from each other. The seats are named after the points of the compass, North, East, South and West, even when there is no compass on the table. North and South are one partnership, and East and West are the other. Play goes clockwise: North, East, South, West.

Counting card points

Each player picks up their 13 cards and counts card points. Count 4 for each ace, 3 for each king, 2 for each queen and 1 for each jack. Other cards count nothing. There are 10 points in each suit and 40 in the whole deck, so the average hand holds 10.

A hand with the ace and queen of spades, the king of hearts and the jack of clubs holds 4 + 2 + 3 + 1 = 10 points: an average hand. A hand with 14 points is stronger than average, and one with 6 is weaker.

Card points are not the points you score. Because both are called “points”, this page says card points for the count of a hand and score for what goes on the score sheet.

The count matters because partners add theirs together. As a rough guide, from the books and the teaching material (they differ a little at the edges):

These are guides, not rules. A hand with long suits can win more rounds than its points suggest, and a flat hand with the same points can win fewer. The words in the right-hand column are explained under “The auction” and “Scoring” below.

The deal

Any fair method can pick partners and the first dealer. After each deal, the job of dealer passes to the left.

1. Shuffle, and let the player on the dealer’s right cut the deck.
2. The dealer deals the whole deck, one card at a time, clockwise, until each player has 13.
3. Each player sorts their cards by suit, and counts their card points. Nobody shows their cards to anyone else.

The auction

The auction is a round of offers that picks the contract. It starts with the dealer and goes clockwise. On each turn a player may say pass, make a bid, or use one of two special calls, double and redouble (explained under “Scoring”).

What a bid says

A bid is a number from 1 to 7 and a suit, or no strongest suit, such as “one spade” or “three, no strongest suit”. It is a promise. The bidder says: my side will win this many rounds more than six, with this suit as the strongest suit. The first six rounds your side wins never count. So:

• A bid of 1 promises 7 rounds (6 + 1). A bid of 4 promises 10 rounds. A bid of 7 promises all 13.
• The suit named is the strongest suit for the deal. Any card of that suit beats any card of the other suits, even an ace. The bid can also say no strongest suit: then only the highest card of the suit that was played first can win.

Which bid is higher

Each bid must be higher than the one before it. A bid is higher if its number is bigger, or if the number is the same and the suit ranks higher. The order of the suits, from lowest to highest, is clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, and then no strongest suit. So “two hearts” beats “two diamonds” and “one, no strongest suit” beats “one spade”, but “two clubs” is needed to beat “one, no strongest suit”. This ranking is only for bids. In the play, no suit outranks another unless it is the strongest suit.

How the auction ends

The auction ends when three players in a row pass after a bid. The last bid is the contract. If all four players pass before anyone has bid, the deal is “passed out”: nobody scores, and the next dealer deals again.

Declarer, dummy and defenders

The side that made the last bid is the declaring side. Of its two players, the one who first named the suit (or no strongest suit) of the contract is the declarer, even if their partner made the last bid. The declarer’s partner is the dummy. The other two players are the defenders.

Why partners bid

Each player sees only their own 13 cards. The auction is how partners find out about each other’s hands, using nothing but the bids. They are looking for two things: enough points between them for the number of rounds they would like to promise (see the table above), and a suit they hold 8 or more cards of between them. With 8 or more, the strongest suit is usually the one both partners can use. The first bid tells partner roughly how strong the hand is and what suit it likes. Partner’s answer tells the opener whether the two hands fit.

The first steps of bidding

Players use agreed meanings for their bids, called a bidding system. The one most beginners in the United States learn is Standard American (the American Contract Bridge League publishes a card for it, the “Standard American Yellow Card”). Its opening bids are:

• Fewer than 13 points: pass. Some players open with 12, and books differ on this. If you are unsure, pass.
• 13 to 21 points: bid one of a suit, unless the next line fits your hand. With five or more hearts or spades, bid that suit. With two such suits, bid the longer, and if they are the same length, spades. Otherwise bid your longer minor suit, clubs or diamonds, which may have as few as three cards. With minor suits of the same length, bid diamonds, except with exactly three of each, when you bid clubs.
• 15 to 17 points and an even hand: bid one, no strongest suit. An even (or “balanced”) hand has no suit of fewer than two cards and no more than one suit of exactly two. With 20 or 21 points and an even hand, bid two, no strongest suit.
• 22 or more points: bid two clubs. This is an artificial bid. It does not show clubs: it says “my hand is too strong for any other opening.”
• Few points but a very long suit: there are other opening bids for these hands, and this page does not cover them.

The bidding that follows is a language of its own: the books about it are thick, and there are other systems that start differently. The British system, Acol, for example, opens one, no strongest suit, with 12 to 14 points where Standard American uses 15 to 17. Learn the play and the scoring first. Many people play Minibridge for a long time before they bid.

The play

The play is 13 rounds, and each follows the rules you may know from Whist.

1. The first card. The defender on the declarer’s left plays any card. This is the opening lead, the first card of the deal. Its suit is the starting suit for the first round.
2. The dummy goes down. After the opening lead, the dummy puts all 13 cards face up on the table, in four columns by suit, and takes no further part. The dummy may not give advice or comment. Everyone can now see the dummy, and the declarer can see both hands.
3. Everyone plays a card. Going clockwise, each player puts down one card. If you have a card of the starting suit, you must play one. If you have none, you may play any card: throwing away a card of another suit, or playing a card of the strongest suit. Playing a card of the strongest suit on a round that began in another suit is called a ruff.
4. The declarer plays the dummy’s cards. When it is the dummy’s turn, the declarer chooses which dummy card to play, and says it out loud. The declarer plays their own hand when it is their turn.
5. Who wins the round. The highest card of the strongest suit wins. If nobody played one, the highest card of the starting suit wins. A card of any other suit cannot win, even an ace. The winner puts the four cards aside in front of them and starts the next round.
6. After 13 rounds, each side counts the rounds it won.

Partners may not discuss their cards or hint. The only messages allowed are the bids and the cards played. Bridge also has detailed rules for mistakes, such as playing the wrong suit by mistake, or a bid made out of turn. They are in the official Laws of Bridge, and we do not repeat them here.

Scoring

If the declaring side wins at least as many rounds as the contract promised, the contract is made. Each round it promised is worth points, according to the strongest suit:

Rounds won beyond what the contract promised are extra rounds (card players call them overtricks), and they also score. A contract that is not made scores nothing for the declaring side, and the defenders score points for each round it fell short. The numbers for those, and everything else about scoring, depend on which form of Bridge you play.

Rubber Bridge

In rubber Bridge, the same two partnerships play deal after deal until one side has won two games. The score sheet has a line across it, with one column for each side.

• Below the line go the points for the rounds the contract promised, and only for a contract that was made. A side that reaches 100 points or more below the line has won a game. It may take several deals: 40 below the line in one deal and 60 in another is a game. Then a new game starts, and both sides’ scores below the line begin again from nothing.
• Above the line go all other points: extra rounds, bonuses and penalties.
• A part-score is a contract that, on its own, scores less than 100 below the line. A game is a contract that scores 100 or more: four hearts or four spades, five clubs or five diamonds, or three with no strongest suit.
• The side that wins two games first wins the rubber and gets a bonus: 700 if the other side has won no game, 500 if it has won one. If you stop before the rubber is finished, a side with one game scores 300, and a side with only a part-score in the unfinished game scores 100.
• Everything is then added up, above and below the line. The side with the higher total wins the rubber.

A side that has won one game is vulnerable, and the other side is not. A vulnerable side gets bigger bonuses when it succeeds and pays bigger penalties when it fails.

Double and redouble. A player may say double to say that they think the other side will not make its last bid. The side that made the bid may then redouble. Doubling doubles the points for the rounds (and for the penalties), and redoubling multiplies them by four. A made contract that was doubled also earns a bonus of 50, and 100 if it was redoubled. Any new, higher bid cancels a double. The full table of doubled and redoubled scores is long, and beginners can leave it for later.

Duplicate Bridge

In duplicate Bridge, the same deals are played at several tables, so luck of the cards is the same for everyone. Each deal is kept in a tray (a “board”), and each partnership is scored by comparing its result with the results of the other partnerships that held the same cards. It is the form played in clubs and tournaments. Scores for the rounds are the same as above. There is no rubber. Instead, each made contract scores a bonus on the spot:

• Part-score: 50.
• Game: 300 when not vulnerable, 500 when vulnerable.
• Slams: the same 500 or 750 for a small slam and 1000 or 1500 for a grand slam, on top of the game bonus.
• Penalties for a contract that fails: 50 for each round short when not vulnerable (not doubled), 100 when vulnerable.

In duplicate Bridge, which side is vulnerable is set by the number on the board, so nobody has to track games.

Minibridge: Bridge without the auction

The auction is the hardest part, so people are usually taught without it. Minibridge plays like Bridge, except that the cards decide who plays, and the declarer chooses the contract after seeing both hands. This is the version in our practice game. A deal goes like this:

1. Deal 13 cards each. Each player counts card points and says the total, starting with the dealer.
2. The partnership with more card points plays the deal. If each side has 20, deal again.
3. On that side, the player with more points is the declarer. If they have the same, the one who said the total first is. Their partner is the dummy.
4. The dummy lays all 13 cards face up.
5. The declarer looks at both hands and names the contract: a strongest suit (or none), and a goal. The goal is either a part-score, 7 rounds, or a game: 9 rounds with no strongest suit, 10 with hearts or spades, 11 with clubs or diamonds.
6. The defender on the declarer’s left plays first, and play goes on as in Bridge.

Scoring is a simpler version of duplicate scoring, with nobody vulnerable:

• A made contract scores the points in the table above for the rounds won beyond the first six. This counts every round won, extra ones too.
• It also scores a bonus: 50 for a part-score, 300 for a game. A game bonus comes from choosing a game: a part-score that happens to win 10 rounds still earns only 50.
• A contract that is not made scores nothing, and the defenders score 50 for each round it fell short.

These are the rules the English Bridge Union publishes for Minibridge. The American Contract Bridge League’s elementary school lesson manual and the Wikipedia article on Minibridge give the same ones, except that the school manual does not say what to do when each side has 20. Some groups also allow slam contracts, 12 or 13 rounds, which our practice game leaves out. Some tell the declarer only the dummy’s suit lengths before the first play, and turn the dummy face up after it, as in real Bridge. Our practice game shows the dummy first, as the English Bridge Union does. It also plays to 500 points and never leaves you as the dummy, since the dummy has no choices to make.

The advice in the English Bridge Union’s manual for teachers: try for game with 25 or more points between the two hands; make the longest suit the strongest suit if the two hands hold 8 or more cards of it; and with a long minor suit, no strongest suit needs only 9 rounds where a minor suit needs 11. Our computer declarer waits for 26 points. We tried both against our computer defenders over thousands of deals: with 25 the two choices scored about the same (a part-score a little better), and with 26 or more game scored better.

Practice a deal of Minibridge

Counting points and counting rounds is a skill, and the practice game is the quickest way to learn it. You sit South, with a computer partner against two computer opponents. Some deals you are the declarer: you see both hands, count your sure winners, and choose the strongest suit and the goal. Other deals you defend: you see the dummy and your own hand, and try to stop the contract. The Coach explains each step, tells you when a card was not needed, and answers the Hint button with one play and the reason for it.

Ideas for playing the cards

These ideas come from what teachers tell beginners. They are not rules, and good players break each of them sometimes.

As the declarer

• Count your sure winners first. A sure winner is a card that wins its round whenever you play it, because every higher card of its suit has been played or is in your two hands. An ace is one. The difference between your sure winners and the rounds you promised is what you must find in the rest of the deal.
• Where the rest comes from. Small cards of a long suit win once the other players have run out of it. A ruff in a short suit wins a round that would otherwise be lost. And you can take a chance, such as a finesse.
• A finesse is a play that works only if a missing card is in the right hand. Say you hold the ace and queen of a suit and the king is missing. You play a small card of that suit from the other hand, towards the queen, and if the defender who plays just before the queen puts down a small card, you play the queen. If that defender holds the king, the queen wins. If the king is with the other defender, who plays after the queen, it beats the queen, but you still have the ace.
• Play the strongest suit first until the other side has none, so nobody can play one of them on your winners.

As a defender

• The opening lead. Start with the top of two or three high cards in a row, or else the fourth-highest card of your longest suit.
• Count what you need. If the contract promised 10 rounds, the defenders need 4 to beat it.
• Second to play, play low. Third to play, play high.
• Win with the lowest card that wins, and do not beat a card your partner is already winning with.

Three things beginners get wrong

Mixing up card points and score

Players say “points” for both. Card points are the count of a hand, and are used before play to guess what a side can win. Score is what goes on the sheet after play. A hand with 14 card points has not scored anything.

Bidding on card points alone

Points are a guide. A hand with 12 points and a long suit can be worth more than a flat hand with 14. And points between partners only help if they are in cards that work together. Two hands holding the high cards of the same suit can waste them.

Forgetting the dummy is yours to play

As the declarer you play two hands, and you can see both. Look at them together before you play the first card: count your sure winners, decide where the other rounds will come from, and plan the order. Players who play card by card, without a plan, lose rounds they could have won.

Questions people ask

Does the dummy do anything?

No. The dummy lays the cards down, and then takes no part: the declarer chooses which dummy card to play, and the dummy may not give advice or comment. The dummy should simply keep the cards that were played in the right order.

What if all four players pass?

The deal is “passed out”. Nobody scores, and the next dealer deals.

How is Bridge different from Whist?

Whist has no auction and no dummy: the strongest suit is set by the dealer’s last card, and all four players play their own cards. Bridge sets the strongest suit (or none) by auction, and one hand is played by the partner. See how to play Whist.

What is the difference between rubber and duplicate Bridge?

Rubber Bridge is played by the same four people until one side wins two games, and the luck of the cards is part of the result. Duplicate Bridge compares results on the same cards, so the result shows who played them best. Clubs and tournaments play duplicate.

Where can I learn the rest?

A teacher, or a beginners’ class at a Bridge club, will teach the auction better than any page can. Practice the play first, with Minibridge, and add the auction when counting points and counting rounds feels natural.

Common variations

• Minibridge is described above. Some groups add slam contracts, and some tell the declarer only the dummy’s suit lengths until after the first play.
• Duplicate and rubber Bridge are described above. Rubber Bridge has several scoring variations, so agree before you start.
• Where the books differ. The number of points to open the bidding (12 or 13), the points a game needs (25 or 26), and the range for opening with no strongest suit (12 to 14 or 15 to 17) all differ between books and systems. This page gives the figures of the most common systems and says where others differ.