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Bridge

Bridge today enjoys an exalted position, though it was not always so. The attitude toward card games has varied considerably through the ages. Originally they were identified with games of chance, and as such were looked upon by large sections of humanity as instruments of the devil. It took generations to break down the resistance, and today Contract Bridge, the illustrious offspring of Whist, is characterized by men of letters, among them Somerset Maugham, as "the most entertaining game that the art of man has ever devised."

An intellectual pastime requiring no stake, and one which has been reduced largely to a contest of matching wits, Contract Bridge enjoys a prodigious following. It is now the game of the masses as well as those o f higher estate. It is the game which provided an escape from the grim realities to those in command of our armed forces during the tense hours immediately preceding the Normandy invasion. It is the game which many schools are including in their curricula as a course in logic.

Contract Bridge is divided into two major parts: (1) the bidding; (2) the play. The bidding takes place at the beginning. During the bidding there is an auction to determine the right to name the final trump. The active participants at the Bridge table are always four players, but they do not play individually, for two of them are pitted against the two players sitting in the opposite direction, each partner facing the other partner. The partners share in the responsibility for anything done by either member of the partnership. All gains are credited to both members of the partnership, and all losses are charged in the same manner.

Partnerships are chosen by drawing cards. A deck of cards is spread face down on the table and each player draws one card. The two players drawing the high cards become partners. They sit facing each other and play against the other two. If two cards of the same denomination are drawn, the higher is determined by the rank of the suits: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds and Clubs.

The player who cuts the highest card becomes the dealer and has the choice of seats and cards. Remember, Contract Bridge should be played with two decks with different backs, and while one partner deals, his partner should shuffle the other deck for the next dealer and place the deck to his own right so that it will be readily available for the next dealer.

The dealer presents the cards to his right-hand opponent for the cut. The cut is merely the process of lifting off a portion of the deck and placing it on the table toward the dealer, just beside the bottom portion. However, each portion must contain at least four cards. That is to say, the player making the cut must remove at least four cards or at most forty-eight. The dealer then completes the cut by placing the bottom portion on top of the portion which the cutter has removed. The dealer then deals thirteen cards to each player, one at a time in a clockwise direction, that is, to his left. Each player then picks up his thirteen cards. This distribution of the cards is known as the deal.

After the cards have been dealt, there is a period during which the bidding takes place. This bidding is known as the auction. When a player makes a bid, he offers to win a certain number of tricks. When a player makes the highest bid, he and his partner win the contract, and we may for purposes of identification refer to them as the contracting side. They have just contracted to win the number of tricks specified in their final bid.

Then comes the play period. One of the contracting players is called the declarer. He might be considered the active partner. The other member is called the dummy. The declarer is always that member of the partnership who first mentioned the trump suit in which the hand is to be played (not necessarily the last bidder).

When the bidding ends, the player to the left of the declarer places one of his thirteen cards face up on the table. This is known as the opening lead, which inaugurates the play of the hand. The opening leader is not restricted in his choice. He may choose any one of his thirteen cards. And it will do no harm to repeat that all players must follow suit if they can. If these players hold more than one card in the suit led, they may choose to play on any particular trick any one of the cards held. They need not beat any card played to the trick, unless they choose to do so. If a player cannot follow suit, he may play any card in his hand without restriction. He need not trump, but he may if he so desires.

After the opening lead, the partner of the declarer spreads his thirteen cards upon the table, and this hand becomes the dummy. The declarer chooses each and every card that is to be played from dummy. He plays both his hand and the dummy hand, but the defending players play their own hands. The cards are played to each trick in the player's proper turn. No card may be played out of turn. When each player has played, there will be four cards on the table, and these are called a trick. Of the four cards played to the trick, one card will have winning rank and will capture that trick. The player whose card has captured the trick has the right to lead to the next trick; and the same process is continued until all thirteen cards have been played.

It has been pointed out that the winner of each trick must lead to the next trick and that play always proceeds in a clockwise direction. A player may not put down his card until it is his turn to play. It might be profitable to repeat at this time the follow-suit rule, which provides as follows: Whereas the leader to each trick has his own complete choice as to which card to play, the other three players are restricted in their choice. They must follow suit if possible-that is to say, they must play cards of the same suit as the card which the leader played. They may play high cards or low cards at their own discretion, but they must follow suit if able to do so. However, if a player has no cards of that suit, he is at liberty to play any card he chooses.

We have previously made a brief reference to the dummy (declarer's partner). After the opening lead dummy spreads his hand (13 cards), arranged in suits, face up on the board before him. Thereafter he remains silent-dumb. Declarer indicates what card he is to play whenever it becomes dummy's turn to play. However, declarer must observe all the rules in regard to dummy's hand, just as he does with his own. The dummy must play in proper turn (though the cards are actually selected by declarer); the dummy must follow suit, if possible; and, when a trick is won in dummy, the lead to the next trick must come from dummy's hand.

Winning Tricks by Using Trumps ( Ruffing )

It has been pointed out that one of the distinctive features of the game of Bridge is that in many hands a suit in due course becomes chosen as the trump suit and enjoys a certain superiority over the others. Every card of the trump suit is vested with a superior trick-taking power. It is known as the ruffing power (or trumping power), which a player may exercise whenever he is unable to follow suit.

A player who has no cards of the suit which has been led may ruff, or trump, by playing any card of the trump suit. If he is the only one who has played a trump, he wins the trick regardless of the size of his trump. In other words, the Deuce of trumps will capture the Ace of some other suit, provided the player who produces the Deuce of trumps has no more of the suit which has been led.

If more than one player uses a trump on any particular trick, the player who contributes the highest trump wins the trick. In other words, a trump can be captured by a higher-ranking trump. When a trump is led, the other three players must follow suit if they are able to. In other words, the follow-suit rule applies to trumps as well as to the other suits.

Remember that a player may not ruff if he is able to follow suit. Remember, too, that when a player is unable to follow suit he is not compelled to ruff. He may, if he chooses, make a discard (play a card of some other suit). But a discard can never win a trick.

The game is not always played with a trump suit. The player who makes the highest bid may announce that the hand is to be played without a trump, or, as we more commonly refer to it, at no trump. In such case, play proceeds without any trump suit. No suit enjoys ruffing power, and each trick is won by the player who produces the highest card of the suit which has been led to that trick.

Charles H. Goren. Charles H. Goren's Contract Bridge for Beginners: A Simple Concise Guide for the Novice. Simon & Schuster. 6/1/1971.

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