How to Play Bridge: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Bridge is a card game for four players in two partnerships, played with a standard 52-card deck. Each deal has two parts: an auction, where the partnerships bid for the right to name the trump suit and promise a number of tricks, and the play, where declarer tries to win those tricks while the other side defends.

That is the whole game in two sentences. The rest of this page walks you through each step in the order it happens at the table, then follows one full hand from the shuffle to the score, so you can see how the pieces fit together.

You need very little:

• Four players. You sit opposite your partner. The two players on your left and right are your opponents, and they are partners of each other.
• One standard deck of 52 cards, no jokers. Many players use two decks and shuffle one while the other is dealt, which saves time.
• A score pad and a pen, or an app that keeps score for you.
• A square table, so each player has a side. Seats are named after the compass: North, East, South and West. North and South are partners, and so are East and West.

At a club you will also see bidding boxes (cards printed with every call, so nobody speaks the auction aloud) and duplicate boards that hold each hand. You do not need either at home.

If you only have three players, you cannot play real bridge. There are three-hand variants, but the standard game needs four. If you are on your own, you can still learn: BridgeDummy's MiniBridge course teaches the play of the cards without any bidding at all, and the robots fill the other three seats.

Before the first deal, players draw cards to choose partners and the first dealer. After that, the deal moves one seat to the left (clockwise) each hand.

1. The player to the dealer's left shuffles. The player to the dealer's right cuts the deck.
2. The dealer gives one card at a time, face down, clockwise, starting with the player on the left.
3. Every player ends with 13 cards.
4. Nobody looks at another player's cards. You pick up your own hand and sort it by suit.

Most players sort with the colors alternating (spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds, for example), so you do not mix up a black suit with a red one. Then you count your strength, which brings us to the auction.

The auction decides two things: which suit will be trumps (or no trumps at all, called notrump), and how many tricks the winning side promises to take.

The dealer calls first, and the turn goes clockwise. On your turn you make one of four calls:

• A bid: a number from 1 to 7 plus a strain, such as 1♥ or 3NT. The number is how many tricks you promise above six. A bid of 1♥ promises 7 tricks with hearts as trumps; 4♠ promises 10 tricks with spades as trumps.
• Pass: you do not want to bid now.
• Double: on an opponent's bid. It raises the stakes if they fail, and in practice it often asks partner to bid.
• Redouble: after an opponent doubles your side's bid.

Each bid must be higher than the one before. A higher number always beats a lower one. At the same number, the strains rank from low to high like this:

So 1♠ beats 1♥, and 2♣ beats 1NT. The auction ends when three players pass in a row after a bid. The last bid becomes the contract. If all four players pass at the start, the hand is thrown in and the next dealer deals again.

How do you decide what to bid? Most players count high card points: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1. The deck holds 40 points. With 12 or more points you usually open the bidding. Partner answers, and together you look for a suit in which you hold eight or more cards between you, called a fit. You can read more in high card points and bridge bidding basics.

Once the contract is set, the cards are played in 13 tricks. A trick is four cards, one from each player, in clockwise order.

1. The opening lead. The player on declarer's left leads the first card, face up.
2. Dummy comes down. Declarer's partner, called dummy, lays all 13 cards face up on the table, sorted in suits, with the trump suit on dummy's right (declarer's left). From now on, declarer plays both hands. Dummy takes no further part in the play.
3. Follow suit. Each player must play a card of the suit that was led if they have one. If you have none, you may play any card: a trump (called ruffing) or a card from another suit (a discard).
4. Winning a trick. The highest trump wins the trick. If no trump was played, the highest card of the suit led wins. Aces are high, twos are low.
5. The next lead. Whoever won the trick leads to the next one.

The two players against declarer are the defenders. They work together to take enough tricks to defeat the contract. Defense is often harder than declarer play because each defender sees only one hand plus dummy, so partners pass information to each other with the cards they choose to play, called signals.

If declarer makes the contract, declarer's side scores points. If declarer falls short, the defenders score points for every trick declarer is short, called an undertrick.

The basics:

• Trick points. Each trick above six that you bid and make is worth 20 in clubs or diamonds (the minors), 30 in hearts or spades (the majors), and 40 for the first notrump trick and 30 for each one after.
• Game. A contract worth 100 trick points or more is a game: 3NT, 4♥, 4♠, 5♣ or 5♦. Games earn a large bonus. Anything smaller is a part score.
• Slams. Bidding and making 12 tricks is a small slam, all 13 is a grand slam. Both earn extra bonuses.
• Vulnerability. On some deals a side is vulnerable. Vulnerable bonuses are bigger, and so are vulnerable penalties.

Scoring has a few forms: rubber bridge at home, Chicago, and duplicate at clubs. The trick values are the same in all of them; the bonuses differ a little. The full rules are in bridge scoring, and BridgeDummy's free bridge score calculator gives you the score of any contract, made or down, in one click.

Here is one full deal. You are South and you are the dealer. Neither side is vulnerable.

Counting the hands. South has 19 high card points and five spades. North has 8 points and four spades. West has 10 points and East has 3. That adds up to 40, as it always must.

The auction. You open 1♠ because you have more than 12 points and a five-card suit. West passes. North has four spades and a weak hand, so North shows support with a simple raise to 2♠, about 6 to 9 points (see what 2♠ means in every system). East passes. You know the side has at least eight spades and about 25 or more points between the two hands, enough for game, so you bid 4♠. Everyone passes. The contract is 4♠, and you are declarer. You need 10 tricks.

The opening lead. West, on your left, leads the ♥Q, the top of a solid sequence. North puts the dummy down.

Making a plan. Before you play a card from dummy, count your sure winners:

• Spades: five tricks (the A, K, Q, J and 10 are all in your two hands).
• Hearts: the ♥A and ♥K, two tricks.
• Diamonds: the ♦A and ♦K, two tricks.

That makes nine. You need one more, and the only place left is clubs, where dummy holds the ♣K. You also count your losers: one heart and up to three clubs. If you lose three clubs and a heart, you go down.

The play. Win the heart lead with the ♥A. Play the ♠A and the ♠K: both opponents follow twice, so their trumps are gone. Now lead a small club from your hand toward dummy's ♣K. West holds the ♣A. If West plays it, the ♣K becomes a winner later. If West plays low, you play the ♣K and it wins at once. Either way you lose only two clubs and one heart: ten tricks.

The score. You bid four spades and made exactly ten tricks. Four tricks above six in spades is 4 x 30 = 120 trick points, which is a game. At duplicate scoring you add the non-vulnerable game bonus of 300, so the score is 420 to North-South.

Can I talk about my hand? No. You may only communicate through your calls and the cards you play. Remarks, faces and pauses that carry meaning are not allowed.

Can I look at the last trick? You can look at it until your side plays to the next trick. After that, the tricks are turned down and stay down.

Who keeps the tricks? In home games, one member of each side collects that side's tricks in a pile. At duplicate, each player keeps their own cards and turns them face down in front of them, pointing toward the side that won the trick.

What happens if nobody bids? The hand is passed out. In home games you deal again; at duplicate, the score is zero for both sides.

Bridge has a reputation for being hard, but the order you learn it in makes a big difference. Most teachers follow a path like this:

1. The play of the cards first. Learn to count tricks and follow suit before you bid. MiniBridge, a short version of the game with no auction, is built for this stage.
2. Opening bids and responses. Learn when to open, which suit to open, and how partner raises or bids a new suit.
3. Notrump bidding. The 1NT opening and its standard follow-ups, such as Stayman and Jacoby transfers.
4. Declarer technique. Drawing trumps, ruffing in dummy, setting up a long suit, finessing.
5. Defense. Opening leads, second hand low, third hand high, signals.
6. Competitive bidding. Overcalls and takeout doubles.

Our bridge lessons for beginners follow this order in 26 short lessons, starting with players and partners.

When you are ready to play real hands, the Bridge for Fun tables let you sit down with friends for casual, unrated games. When you want to work on one decision at a time, BridgeDummy's lead and bidding puzzles put you in the South seat, deal the hidden hands many times to fit the auction, and show you how each choice scores.