Bridge Rules for Beginners: The 12 Rules You Need Before Your First Hand

The official Laws of Duplicate Bridge run to more than 90 pages, and nobody expects a beginner to know them. What a new player does need is the small set of rules that come up in every session. If you have not read how the game fits together yet, start with How to Play Bridge and come back here. The twelve rules below are the ones that matter at the table.

Rules of the auction#

1. The dealer calls first, then clockwise. Every player must make a call in turn. Calling out of turn has a penalty in duplicate, so wait for the player on your right.
2. Each bid must be higher than the previous one. A higher level always beats a lower one. At the same level the strains rank clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, notrump. A bid that is not high enough is called an insufficient bid and has to be corrected.
3. Three passes after a bid end the auction. If nobody bids at all, the hand is passed out and scores zero for both sides.
4. You may only double an opponent's bid, and only redouble your own side's doubled bid. A double says you expect the contract to fail, or, by agreement, asks partner to bid. Doubling your partner is not allowed.
5. Your bids must mean what your partnership has agreed. You may use conventions, but in a club game any unusual agreement must be alerted to the opponents when it is made. Read about the common ones in Bridge Conventions Explained.

Rules of the play#

1. The player to the declarer's left leads first. After that, whoever wins a trick leads to the next one.
2. Follow suit if you can. Failing to follow suit when you hold a card of that suit is a revoke. In duplicate the penalty is usually one or two tricks transferred to the other side, so pay attention.
3. If you cannot follow suit, play anything. You may discard from another suit or, when there is a trump suit, play a trump to win the trick.
4. The dummy plays no part in decisions. Once the opening lead is made, the dummy lays the hand face up and only plays the card the declarer names. The dummy may not suggest plays or look at the other hands, but may try to stop the declarer from revoking.
5. Play cards face up in front of you and turn them over when the trick is complete. In duplicate you keep your own cards, pointing them towards the side that won the trick, so the deal can be returned to the board for the next table.

Rules of the room#

1. No talking about the hand while it is being played or bid. Comments, sighs and hesitations pass information to partner, and the director may adjust the score if partner acts on them. Discuss the hand after it is over.
2. Call the director, do not argue. In a club or an online game, any irregularity is settled by the director. Calling the director is normal procedure, not an accusation. Online games have a built-in equivalent, and robot games remove the problem entirely because a robot never bids out of turn.

Two things that are not rules but feel like them#

Bidding boxes. In clubs, calls are made silently by placing a card from a bidding box on the table. The "Stop" card is used before a jump bid to ask the next player to pause for about ten seconds. Online tables replace the box with buttons, so nothing to learn there.

Convention cards. Duplicate partnerships fill in a card that lists their agreements, and the opponents may look at it. Robots publish theirs too. The Shark robots play a standard, fully described system, which you can read on the Shark robot convention card.

Practise the rules where mistakes are free#

The best place to make your first revoke is a table where nothing is at stake. In Shark Bridge Game you can play against three robots, take a card back, and replay a deal. Teachers use the same tables in lessons, and if you want a guided start, the Recommended Teachers directory lists instructors who run online beginner classes.