If you want to play among friends a game that is for any one of the most intellectual card games that are,the bridge is for you.
This game, whose origins go back to the 16th century, was recognized as a sport in 1999 by the International Olympic Committee. It is true that bridge is popular all over the world, on all continents and above all, it is organized as a federation. The licensees participate in competitions as we would for football or basketball for example. This game, which arouses the interest of thousands of fans, is accessible to everyone.
That is why we have decided to present it to you today. Learn the rules with us and then you can do it freely, at home or in a club, it’s up to you.
How is a Bridge table ?
Bridge is a game played by four people around the table. The players are grouped into teams of two. It is said that there is Team “North South” and “East West” depending on the position of the players on the table who must be opposite each other if they are part of the same team.
The card game used is a classic 52-card game. The value of the Cards is classic The Ace being the best card and the 2 being the least strong. Hearts and spades are major cards and clubs and diamonds are minor cards.
The objective at the Bridge
The bridge players will have two very different objectives depending on the status they will have in each round :
- If you are part of the team that announced the biggest contract, then your goal is to achieve as many folds as possible, at least enough to complete your contract.
- If you are part of the other team, the goal is also to win as many folds as possible but with the objective of “dropping” the opposing team, that is to say, not fulfilling their contract.
Now let’s see what a contract is.
The contract and the bridge auction
A bridge contract is a forecast of winning bids by a team. In reality, the contract is called the final auction, the one that will have to be respected by one of the teams.
The auctions take place in the phase that follows the distribution of the cards, so they are considered. Individual players may outbid if they think their team can do better than the previous bid announced by the opposing team.
An auction consists of a number from 1 to 7 and a colour. In reality, the numbers from 1 to 7 mean the number of folds that the team pledges to make after it is won 6 folds. This means that a player who announces a bid of 2 commits to have his team win 8 folds (2 announced + the base 6).
Colors come into play as there are major and minor ones. The color will become the asset that will be used to cut if needed. If you say “No Trump”, then no color is indicated. The bids in ascending order of power are therefore 1 clubs, 1 tile, 1 Heart, 1 Spade, 1 No Trump, 2 clubs, and so on.
The player who makes the most important bid becomes the declaring player, his teammate becomes the dead player.
The course of a game of Bridge
The cards are then distributed, followed by an auction session to finalize the contract. At the end of the contract, the party can begin. The first card will be posed by the player who is to the left of the declaring, it is called the start.
The dead man will put his cards face-up on the table for the declarant to dispose of. Then the dead man won’t do anything during the tour. You now understand better where the name “the Dead” comes from. So the declarant chooses one of the death cards. It’ll be like this every turn.
Players place a card in turn, clockwise. At each fold, it is the one who puts the best card that wins and takes it from the table to bring it on his stack of cards in an orderly way so that the count is facilitated at the end of the game.
Note that the first card of each fold is the one that determines the color that players must respect for the fold. At the end of the game, we count how many folds the declaring team has won in order to know if the contract has been fulfilled.