Bridge is an exciting, popular partnership trick-taking game. It is played with a standard 52 card deck. There are 4 players consisting of two teams; each player sits opposite their partner.
The game starts with each team at zero, and the object of the game is to win the best of 3 games. Each game consist of a player reaching 100 points before his opponent.
Points are scored by bidding for and winning tricks, which in this game are called books.
For a successful contract, the score below the line for each trick (in excess of 6) bid and made is as follows:
If trumps are Clubs or Diamonds, 20 per trick
If trumps are Hearts or Spades, 30 per trick
If there are No Trumps, 40 for the first trick, and 30 for each subsequent trick.
I added an option of a short game which ends when one team reaches 100 points, winning one game.
The dealer begins the auction, and the turn to speak passes clockwise. At each turn a player may either:
make a bid, which must be higher than the previous bid if any;
say "double", if the previous bid was by an opponent, and has not already been doubled;
say "redouble", if the previous bid was by one's own side and has been doubled by an opponent, but not yet redoubled; pass, by saying "no bid" or "pass". This indicates that the player does not wish to bid, double or redouble at that turn, but a player who has passed is still allowed to bid, double or redouble at a later turn. NB. Either "no bid" or "pass" is permissible, but you should stick to one term or the other.
If all four players pass on their first turn to speak the hand is said to be passed out. The cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals.
If anyone bids, then the auction continues until there are three passes in succession, and then stops. After three consecutive passes, the last bid becomes the contract. The team who made the final bid will now try to make the contract. The first player of this team who mentioned the denomination (suit or no trumps) of the contract becomes the declarer. The declarer's partner is known as the dummy.
Overtricks are 100 points.
Undertricks are 50 points.
Overtricks and Undertricks are counted and tracked, however, they have no bearing on the outcome of the game.
If you are playing the standard game, whoever wins the best 2 out of three games is the winner. The winner of each game is the person who scores 100 points first.
If you are playing a quick game then whoever scores 100 points first wins.
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