To play bridge, four people in two partnerships are dealt 13 cards each, bid in an auction to set a contract, and then play 13 tricks to see whether the contract is made. You sit across from your partner, so North and South play against East and West, and one standard 52-card deck is used. This guide follows a single hand through five steps. If you want the rules as a short reference list instead, go to Bridge Rules for Beginners.
What you need to play bridge#
- Four players, sitting as two partnerships with partners opposite each other.
- One standard 52-card deck, with no jokers.
- A table, and a score pad if you keep score on paper.
- Bidding boxes or a printed bidding card if you have them. Online tables supply all of this for you.
Step 1: deal the cards#
The dealer shuffles and deals all 52 cards, one at a time, clockwise. Each player sorts their hand into suits. In casual games the deal rotates clockwise after each hand. In a club game the hands are pre-dealt into boards, so everyone in the room plays the same cards. That format is called duplicate bridge, and you can read how it works in What Is Duplicate Bridge.
Step 2: bid for the contract#
The dealer speaks first, and the auction moves clockwise. Each call is either a bid, a pass, a double or a redouble. A bid names a level from 1 to 7 and a strain: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades or notrump. The level promises to take that many tricks above six. So a bid of 2 hearts promises eight tricks with hearts as trumps, and 3 notrump promises nine tricks with no trump suit.
Each new bid must be higher than the last. Strains rank from low to high: clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, notrump. So 1 spade outranks 1 heart, and 2 clubs outranks 1 notrump because the level is higher. The auction ends when a bid, double or redouble is followed by three passes. That final bid is the contract. If all four players pass at the start, the hand is thrown in and the next one is dealt.
How do you know what to bid? Partners exchange information through their bids. The basic method is to count points and describe your hand step by step. Our guide to bridge bidding basics walks through point counts, opening bids and the first responses.
Step 3: find the declarer and the dummy#
The partnership that won the auction is the declaring side. Within that partnership, the player who first named the trump suit (or notrump) becomes the declarer. The declarer's partner is the dummy. The player to the declarer's left makes the opening lead. Then the dummy places all 13 cards face up on the table, sorted into suits, and takes no further part in the hand. The declarer plays both hands. The other two players are the defenders.
Step 4: play the 13 tricks#
A trick is four cards, one from each player, played clockwise. You must follow suit if you can. If you cannot follow suit, you may play any card, including a trump. The highest card of the suit led wins the trick, unless a trump was played, in which case the highest trump wins. The winner of a trick leads to the next one. A hand has 13 tricks.
The declarer's aim is to take at least the number of tricks the contract promised. The defenders try to stop that. Good play rests on a handful of techniques: drawing the trumps, setting up long suits, finessing a missing honor and counting what the other players hold. You learn them over weeks, not minutes, which is why beginners get so much out of practicing against robots. Play Bridge 4 Hands explains how a solo table with three robots works.
Which card should you lead?#
The opening lead is the only card chosen before dummy is seen. Against a notrump contract, lead the fourth best card of your longest suit, for example the 6 from K J 9 6 3, to set up your long cards. Against a suit contract, lead the top of a touching sequence such as the king from K Q J, or a suit your partner bid.
Step 5: score the hand#
Only tricks above six count. Each trick in clubs or diamonds is worth 20 points, each trick in hearts or spades is worth 30, and notrump scores 40 for the first trick and 30 for each one after. A contract worth 100 or more trick points is a game, and games earn a bonus. Contracts for 12 tricks (small slam) and 13 tricks (grand slam) earn large bonuses. If the declarer falls short, the defenders score for each undertrick instead.
Doubles and redoubles multiply the trick score and the penalties. Vulnerability, which changes from board to board in a fixed cycle in duplicate, raises both the bonuses and the penalties. You do not have to memorize the table on day one. Every online table works out the score for you, and the pattern becomes familiar after a few sessions.
A full hand from deal to score#
Here is one complete deal. South deals and nobody is vulnerable. The points are high card points: ace 4, king 3, queen 2, jack 1, as explained in How to Evaluate a Bridge Hand.
| Player | Spades | Hearts | Diamonds | Clubs | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North | 7 4 2 | A 7 3 | K 8 5 2 | A 6 3 | 11 |
| East | Q 10 | J 8 6 5 | 10 9 7 | Q J 8 2 | 6 |
| South | A 8 5 | K Q 4 | A Q 6 3 | 9 7 4 | 15 |
| West | K J 9 6 3 | 10 9 2 | J 4 | K 10 5 | 8 |
The auction. South has 15 points and a balanced hand, so South opens 1 notrump. North has 11 points and no four-card major, so the partnership holds about 26 points and North bids 3 notrump. Three passes end the auction.
| South | West | North | East |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1NT | Pass | 3NT | Pass |
| Pass | Pass |
The play. South named notrump first, so South is the declarer and North is the dummy. West leads the 6 of spades. Before playing a card, declarer counts sure tricks: the ace of spades, three hearts, three diamonds and the ace of clubs. That is eight. The ninth can come from a fourth diamond, because the missing diamonds split 3 and 2 about two times in three.
| Trick | North | East | South | West | Won by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Q | A | 6 (lead) | South |
| 2 | 3 | 5 | K (lead) | 2 | South |
| 3 | 7 | 6 | Q (lead) | 9 | South |
| 4 | A | 8 | 4 (lead) | 10 | North |
| 5 | K (lead) | 7 | 3 | 4 | North |
| 6 | 2 (lead) | 9 | Q | J | South |
| 7 | 5 | 10 | A (lead) | 3 (discard) | South |
| 8 | 8 | 2 (discard) | 6 (lead) | 5 (discard) | North |
| 9 | A (lead) | 8 | 4 | 10 | North |
| 10 | 6 (lead) | J | 7 | K | West |
| 11 to 13 | 4, 7, 3 | 10, J, Q | 5, 8, 9 | K, J, 9 (leads) | West |
Declarer took nine tricks, exactly what 3 notrump promised. An experienced declarer would hold up the ace of spades for one round, following the Rule of 7, but here the diamonds behave and it makes no difference. The score. Three notrump is 40 for the first trick and 30 for each of the next two, 100 trick points in all. That is a game, so North and South add a 300 bonus when not vulnerable and score 400. With only eight tricks, East and West would have scored 50 for one undertrick.
Bridge words you will hear#
- Trick: four cards, one from each player. The highest card of the suit led wins, unless a trump is played.
- Trump: the suit named in the contract. A trump beats any card of another suit.
- Notrump: a contract with no trump suit.
- Contract: the final bid, a promise to take that many tricks above six.
- Declarer: the player of the side that won the auction who first named the strain of the contract. Declarer plays both hands.
- Dummy: declarer's partner, whose hand is laid face up after the opening lead.
- Defenders: the two players trying to defeat the contract.
- Opening lead: the first card of the play, made by the player on declarer's left.
- Follow suit: play a card of the suit led when you hold one.
- Game: a contract worth 100 or more trick points, such as 3 notrump or 4 hearts.
- Undertrick: each trick declarer falls short by, which scores for the defenders.
Where to play your first hands#
The quickest way to learn is to play a lot of hands with patient partners. Shark Bridge Game lets you play a full table with three robots at any hour and see how the robots would have played. When you are ready for real competition, Online Bridge Club runs ACBL-sanctioned robot games where you earn Masterpoints. If you prefer a person to explain the hands, the weekly Play & Learn games pair a game with a teacher who reviews the boards after each round.
Next steps: keep Bridge Rules for Beginners open as a reference for the table procedures, read Bridge Conventions Explained when your partner first mentions Stayman, and follow the four-week beginner plan to your first club game.