Becoming Familiar With “Bridge” The Card Game
Brief overview of “Bridge Card Game”
The card game Bridge is a brilliant, yet exciting card game to play in any social atmosphere. There are different types of Bridge card game with different variations of rules. The Bridge card game is derived from the Russian Whist or Biritch, which means announcer. During the game Bridge players will announce or indicate their auctions throughout the game. Unparalleled to many card games, Bridge is one of the most fascinating card games played. The challenges of playing Bridge helps to improve a variety of variables in playing the game.
Since Bridge is a rather complex game, it takes articulation and a sharp mind to be a successful player, but don’t let that deter you. The most successful players today started with little to no knowledge of how to play the game. Playing Bridge makes people more social, eager to learn and use great tactics that will help handle every situation differently when playing the card game. The different types of Bridge games that can be played are Rubber Bridge, most commonly known; Contract Bridge, Duplicate Bridge, Chicago Bridge and Honeymoon Bridge.
Honeymoon Bridge is the only Bridge game which can be played with only two players.
Bridge has a standing reputation for one of the best card games and continues to increase in popularity, with Contract Bridge being the most popular. Bridge is commonly played with four players who will pair into partnerships. It is also played with the standard deck of 52 cards. Although there aren’t many games similar to Bridge, one that can be compared is not really mentioned but popular in Russia, called Preferans.
How to play Bridge:
Players sitting across from each other will form a North-South, East-West partnership in order to play Bridge. Each deal in Bridge will consist of a set three part deal. The three part deal will include the auction or bidding, in which the four players will bid in a clockwise manner describing their hands. The second part of the deal is the play, which means the partners that wins the bidding auction can fulfill their contract by using certain tactics that are necessary to win. The last part of the deal is scoring the win.
Often for beginners, learning the play part of Bridge, gives new players a better understanding of the bidding aspect of Bridge. It will certainly help player become a successful bidder as well.
In Bridge there are four card suits. The suits rank from highest to lowest with spades the highest, orderly followed by hearts, diamonds and clubs being the lowest in rank. The ranks of the suits are solely for bidding purposes. In play all suits are deemed equal, unless one suit is named trumps. In that case, the trumps suit will automatically win over the other three suits.
The card of each suit is also ranked from highest to lowest with (ace) being the highest and (two) being the lowest. The main object in playing Bridge is to win tricks for your side. A trick consists of one card from each player placed on the table in a clockwise play around the table. There are 13 tricks to be won in a deal and the first card played is known as the lead. After the lead card is play the following player must oblige by playing the same suit of cards, if possible. If the trick contains no Trump card, then the highest card wins the trick.
After four cards are played the trick is complete. In the game of Bridge there is a declarer and a dummy. The bidding strongly determines who the declarer will be, which suit will be the trump suit and ultimately the number of tricks the declarer must win. The player to the left of the declarer always makes the first lead, also known as the opening lead. The hand that’s held by the declarer’s partner is displayed face up for everyone playing to see. This hand is known as the dummy and is generally not played by the participant who held it in the game.
The dummy is played by the declarer, with their own hand, alternatively playing both hands on their respective and proper turns. All hands should be arranged into suits with the highest cards leading each suit down to the lowest card. Bridge is definitely a fun and skillful game that anyone can enjoy. With eagerness to learn great methods for playing, anyone can become a successful Bridge player.
