DEALING AND VULNERABILITY
The game will consist of four hands played in teams of two, north and south playing against east and west. Neither team is vulnerable for the first hand, the dealer's opponents are vulnerable in the second and third hands, and both sides are vulnerable in the last hand. The effects of vulnerability will be explained in the section on scoring.
BIDDING STAGE
Bidding starts with the dealer, who may choose to bid or pass. Bids are composed of a level followed by a strain. The level is the number of odd tricks (the number of tricks beyond the book of six) bid, while the strain represents the trump suit if any. Each player, in turn, either bids higher than the last bid (if there was one) or pass. A bid is higher than the previous if:
- it is of a higher level, or
- if it is of the same level but a higher strain. Notrump outranks spades, which outranks hearts, which outranks diamonds, which outranks clubs.
The allowed bids, therefore, range from one club as the lowest to seven notrump as the highest.
You may also, in lieu of bidding or passing, double your opponent's last bid or redouble your opponent's double. Note that you cannot redouble your opponent's double if they had made a bid since. The effects of doubling and redoubling will be explained in the section on scoring.
Bids, passes, doubles, and redoubles must all be bolded. I do not care about marking alertable and jump bids in any form.
If all players pass on their first opportunity, the hand is neither played nor counted as one of the four hands in the game and there will be a redeal with the same dealer. Otherwise, after three consecutive passes, the last bidder's side is awarded the contract. The bidder on that side that first bid the trump suit (or notrump, if that is applicable) is the declarer; his or her partner is the dummy. (I am not being mean—that is the actual term.)
It is not only legal, but standard, to agree on meanings and conventions for bids. If you are unfamiliar with this, my recommendation to you is to partner up with a player who is and discuss it with him or her, but American players usually learn Standard American or a system based on it (2/1 game forcing is increasing in popularity), while most British players learn Acol. For other parts of the world, generally Acol is used in Ireland and New Zealand while the rest of the world typically uses Standard American and its variants.
Discussions about exactly what bidding system and conventions to use must take place in this thread.
PLAY OF THE CARDS
The player after the declarer plays to the first trick and may play any card by bolding it. Then, the dummy or I (whichever of us is available first) will expose his or her hand to all players. Declarer must play cards for the dummy and must play a card of the same suit as the opening leader if possible; otherwise, any card from the dummy is legal. The other two players then play, following suit if able. The highest trump wins; if nobody has played trump, the highest card of the suit led wins.
The second through thirteenth tricks are led by the player who won the last trick. As before, declarer always plays for dummy. After all thirteen tricks are played (or earlier, if a side can prove that it will win or lose the rest of the tricks), the hand is scored.
Discussing card signaling follows the same rules as discussing bidding systems.
SCORING
The value of each contract is 20x points for a minor suit (clubs or diamonds) contract, 30x points for a major suit (hearts or spades) contract, and 30x + 10 points for a notrump contract. In each of these, x represents the level of the contract, so, for example, a 4NT contract is worth 30(4) + 10 = 130 points. These values are doubled for a doubled contract and quadrupled for a redoubled contract.
Each overtrick scores as follows:
| Not vulnerable | Vulnerable | |
|---|---|---|
| Undoubled (♣ or ♦) | 20 | 20 |
| Undoubled (♥, ♠, or NT) | 30 | 30 |
| Doubled | 100 | 200 |
| Redoubled | 200 | 400 |
Making a doubled contract is worth 50 points, while making a redoubled contract is worth 100 points.
The bonus for game (a contract worth 100 points or more) is 300 points when not vulnerable and 500 points when vulnerable. If you make a part score (a contract not valuable enough for game), the bonus is 50 points whether vulnerable or not.
Bonuses for slam are scored as follows:
| Not vulnerable | Vulnerable | |
|---|---|---|
| Small slam (6-level contract) | 500 | 750 |
| Grand slam (7-level contract) | 1,000 | 1,500 |
If you set your opponents' contract, you score for each undertrick as follows:
| Not vulnerable | Vulnerable | |
|---|---|---|
| Undoubled | 50 | 100 |
| Doubled (first undertrick) | 100 | 200 |
| Doubled (next two undertricks) | 200 | 300 |
| Doubled (each undertrick thereafter) | 300 | 300 |
| Redoubled (first undertrick) | 200 | 400 |
| Redoubled (next two undertricks) | 400 | 600 |
| Redoubled (each undertrick thereafter) | 600 | 600 |
The highest score after four hands wins.
A FEW OTHER THINGS
- Don't edit. Once you make a bid or play a card, it stands unless the rules don't let it—if that's the case, then make your correction in another post.
- If you go 48 hours without an action, I will prod you. After another 24 hours, I will replace you.
- Your PM will contain cards in both pictorial and textual form, with the text version nominally being a backup for the picture version. (This also goes if I am the one posting the dummy hand.) Since you are expected to keep track of what you've played, you may find it useful to copy and paste the text version of your hand (and the dummy's!) to a separate file and delete cards from it as they are played.
- If you shorthand both cards and bids, it is easier for me to tell which is which if you follow bridge literature convention of putting the suit before the rank when playing a card (C2 or ♣2, not 2C or 2♣, for the two of clubs). If you forget, don't worry—I can figure out which is which from context. Your PM will contain the characters for the card suits if you'd rather copy and paste those than abbreviate suits to their first letter.
- It helps to mark led cards (e.g. Lead: ♠A) and to update the number of tricks each side won after each trick (e.g. "Declarer has 3/9, defenders have 1 trick").
- As a rule, I'll only post as needed. If you need me for a clarification, let me know.
- And last but not least, use your common sense. Don't say anything about your hand that the other side shouldn't know about, don't hinder your partner because you want to be a jerk, etc. Play nice and play fair. I'll eject and replace players that don't.
LINKS FOR LEARNING BRIDGE
Interactive lessons (teaches Standard American; must register and be logged in to save progress)
Older downloadable version of the above (part 1 has an ACOL version)
OTHER USEFUL LINKS FOR BEGINNERS
Karen's Bridge Library (for Standard American or 2/1)
Printable cheat sheet for bidding Standard American (use A4 paper for best results)
Printable cheat sheet for bidding Acol (use A4 paper for best results)
Helpful documents from ACBL (scroll down to Bidding Toolkit for a database of many useful conventions)
PLAYERS
- North (Dealer):
- East:
- South:
- West:
North and South:
East and West:
REPLACEMENTS
