Contract bridge

Dealer: the player entitled to make the rst call; so

chosen by a draw of the cards or in duplicate bridge,
so designated by the board to be played

See also: Glossary of contract bridge terms

Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking
game using a standard 52-card deck. It is played by
four players in two competing partnerships,[1] with partners sitting opposite each other around a table.[2] Millions
of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments,
online and with friends at home, making it one of the
worlds most popular card games, particularly among
seniors.[3][4] The World Bridge Federation is the governing body for international competitive bridge.

Opener: the rst to make a bid

Responder: partner of opener
Intervenor: the rst of the opponents to make a call
other than pass
Overcaller: the rst of the opponents to make a call
other than pass or double

The game consists of several deals[5] each progressing

through four phases: dealing the cards, the auction (also
referred to as bidding), playing the cards, and scoring the
results.[6] However, most club and tournament play involves some variant of duplicate bridge, where the cards
are not re-dealt on each occasion, the same deal being
played by two or more dierent sets of players to enable
comparative scoring.

Advancer: partner of intervenor; also, partner of

overcaller
Declarer: the player who rst bids the denomination
of the ultimate contract
Dummy: partner of declarer
First seat: the dealer
Second seat: the player next in clockwise rotation
after the dealer

Game play

1.1

Third seat: the player next in clockwise rotation after the player in second seat

Fundamentals and preliminaries

Fourth seat: the player next in clockwise rotation

after the player in third seat

Scope

Balancing seat or passout seat: the player who if he

passes would end the auction

Contract bridge has immense scope by virtue of the large

number of unique deals which are possible. The 52card deck can be distributed to the four players some
5.361028 ways.[7] In turn, each deal presents many options on how it might be bid and played.

Opening leader: the player to the left of declarer; he

makes the lead to the rst trick
Left hand opponent (LHO): the player to ones left

Players

Right hand opponent (RHO): the player to ones

right

In its most basic form, bridge is a game played by four

people in two teams of competing partnerships. For purposes of scoring and reference, each player is identied
by one of the cardinal directions and thus North and
South play against East and West.[8] More can participate,
either as individuals or pairs or as teams of up to six, in
formal tournaments or social gatherings where the governing rules of the event are prescribed by the sponsoring
host.

Contracts and objectives

Contract bridge is a trick-taking card game where on each

of several deals the opposing sides rst compete in a bidding auction for the right to establish the contract for that
deal, the side winning the auction being known as the
declaring side. The contract is an exchange of the right
to establish which suit, if any, is trumps for an undertakAdditional designations for each of the four players may ing to win (at least) the number of tricks specied by the
be used when referring to their actions during the auction highest bid. After the contract has been established, the
or play of the cards:
play of the cards proceeds as in most trick-taking card
1

GAME PLAY

games until all thirteen tricks have been played; at any pre-dened, depending only on the number of the board.)
time during the play, one side may claim a stated number The scoring points that are won on a deal as a result of
of the remaining tricks and concede the balance, if any. making a contract, and the points which are lost when
Based on the actual number of tricks taken, the declar- failing to make a contract, are both signicantly increased
ing side will have either succeeded or failed in fullling for the side (partnership) that is vulnerable. Accordingly,
the contract; if successful (known as making or to have whether ones side is vulnerable aects ones strategy for
made), the declaring side scores points; if unsuccessful both bidding and play.
(known as going down or being defeated), the defending side scores points. The overriding objective is to win
the contest by accumulating more points than the opponents. Although each variant of bridge has its own particular scheme for awarding and accumulating points, all
are based upon whether or not the contract for each deal
was made or defeated and by how many tricks.
It can sometimes be advantageous to bid a contract that
one does not expect to make and to be defeated, thus losing some points, rather than allow the opposing side to
bid and make a contract which would score them an even
greater number of points. This is known as a sacrice,
and is not uncommon if both sides are contesting the nal contract.
Card, suit and bid rankings
In the standard 52-card deck used in bridge, the ace is
ranked highest followed by the king, queen, and jack and
the spot-cards from the ten down through to the two.
Suit denominations also have a rank order with notrump
being highest followed by spades, hearts, diamonds and
clubs. The two lower-ranked suits (diamonds and clubs)
are called the minor suits and the higher-ranked suits
(spades and hearts) are called the major suits.

Variations
The most common contract bridge variations are rubber
bridge and duplicate bridge. Variants within these two
types of contract bridge are numerous.
See also: Rubber bridge
In rubber bridge, two partnerships participate in the game
at one table and the objective is to score the most points
in the play of several hands. A rubber is a 'best-of-three'
contest and is completed when one side is rst to have won
two games. The side which has accumulated the most
points and wins the rubber may or may not be the side to
have won two games. While rubber bridge is played competitively and for stakes, it is most often played socially
and with less formality than duplicate bridge.
See also: Duplicate bridge

In duplicate bridge, the cards held by each player in each

deal are preserved so that each partnership plays the same
set of hands as their East-West or North-South counterparts at other tables and with the scoring based upon relative performance, thus emphasizing skill over chance.
Bidding is based on the premise that the lowest contract While duplicate is the primary form of higher levels of
available to bidders starts with the proposition to take competitive bridge, it is also played socially.
seven tricks, i.e. one cannot contract to make less than
seven tricks. Given this, the bidding is said to start at the 1.2 Dealing
one-level when contracting for a total of seven tricks, at
the two-level for eight tricks and so on to the seven-level to In rubber bridge, partnerships may be self-determined or
contract to take all thirteen tricks. The six tricks required decided by a cut of the cards, the two highest cut playing
as the base for any bid are referred to as the book.
against the two lowest, and the rst dealer is the player
Within any level of bidding (i.e. from one to seven), suit
rank establishes the bids rank, i.e. a bid of two diamonds
outranks a bid of two clubs, a bid of three spades outranks
a bid of three hearts, a bid of three notrump outranks a
bid of three spades. Thus, there are 35 possible basic
contracts (ve at each of the seven levels); 1 being the
lowest, followed by 1 etc., up to 7NT, the highest possible bid.
Vulnerability
A key feature of bridge is the concept of vulnerability.
On each deal, each side is said to be either vulnerable
or not vulnerable depending upon whether or not it has
won a game in the current rubber; if it has, the side is
said to be vulnerable; if it has not, it is said to be not vulnerable. (In duplicate play, the sides vulnerabilities are

cutting the highest card. The cards are shued before

each deal, and the dealer deals the cards clockwise one
at a time, starting with the left-hand opponent, so that
each player receives a hand of thirteen cards. The deal
rotates clockwise each hand. In order to save time, a second deck, preferably distinct from the rst, is employed
so that as the rst is being dealt, the second is being shufed by the partner of the current dealer. When shued,
the second deck is placed to the shuers right, i.e. to the
next dealers left. After the play and scoring of the hand
has concluded, the deal is rotated and the second deck is
moved by the next dealer from his left to his right, cut
by the previous dealer and dealt; the partner of the new
dealer shues the rst deck continuing the process. If
the auction is passed out, i.e. no bids are made and only
four passes are called, the hands are abandoned and the
turn to deal passes in rotation.[9]

1.3

Auction or bidding

3
ment play.[10] As the boards arrive for play at each subsequent table, the four players take their cards from the
board and should count them to ensure that there are 13
cards in their hand before looking at the cards, so that any
irregularity can be corrected before the auction and play
commence.
In some countries, the rules require that after the hand is
played for the rst time, the players write the hands down
on the traveling scoresheet, which can be consulted later
if the cards are accidentally mixed up. Alternatively, if
the boards are pre-dealt, curtain cards may be supplied
which have each hand printed on them, so that each player
can check at the beginning of the deal that he has the right
cards. Pre-dealt hands also have the advantage that, at the
end of the session, diagrams of each deal can be made
available to the players for later analysis.

1.3 Auction or bidding

See also: Hand evaluation, Bidding system and Bridge
conventions

Rectangular aluminum board

In duplicate bridge, the hands are shued and dealt only

once, at the beginning of the session. Players do not play
their cards to the centre of the table during the play but
instead play them immediately in front of themselves and
turn them face down at the end of each trick. The direction that each face down card is pointed indicates which
side won each trick, so that at the end of the hand, the
number of tricks taken by each side can be determined.
At the end of the hand each player returns his hand, intact,
to the correct slot in a bridge board such as that shown at
right in which it is transported to other tables so that everyone can play the same deals. The results for dierent
players playing the same deal are then compared. This removes much of the element of chance from scores. It also
means that in the case of an irregularity or dispute over a
hand before the cards are returned to the board, they can
be reviewed and it can be determined who played which
cards in what order.
In some competitions, boards are pre-dealt prior to the
competition, especially if the same hands are to be played
at many locations (for example in a large national or international tournament). Sometimes mechanical dealing
machines are used for pre-dealing hands at large tournaments and in many clubs. Even for boards dealt or assembled manually, computer software is often used to
generate the random distributions of hands. Before the
widespread availability of computers, printed books of
random deals could be purchased. In the past it was common for uninteresting hands to be eliminated or replaced,
but this practice is now prohibited in sanctioned tourna-

The auction is a bidding process undertaken within strict

procedural and ethical protocols to determine the declaring side and the nal contract. The contract is an undertaking to win at least the specied number of odd
tricks[11] in the declared denomination.[12] Each partnership works jointly by means of various 'calls to secure
a contract at the highest level deemed advisable by them
given their card holdings. A call[13] is limited to a vocabulary of 38 words or phrases consisting of:
a Bid which states a level and a denomination; given
7 levels of bidding and 5 denominations, there are
35 possible bids
Double, when the previous call other than pass was
a bid by an opponent
Redouble, when the previous call other than pass was
a double by an opponent
Pass, when unwilling or unable to make one of the
three preceding calls
In social games, the players may make their calls orally;
otherwise, players use a bidding box containing cards for
each possible call and place the respective card face up
on the table in front of their position.
The auction starts with the dealer and proceeds clockwise
with each player, having rst evaluated their hand, making a call in order. During the auction, each bid must be
'sucient', i.e. it must be higher than its predecessor. A
bid is sucient if it species any denomination at a higher
level than the last bid, or a higher-ranked[14] denomination at the same level. Thus, after a bid of 3, bids of 2
or 3 are not sucient, but 3 or 4 are.

The auction continues until there are three consecutive

passes not including the dealers rst call. The partnership which makes the last bid then becomes the "declaring
side" and is said to have 'won' the auction. The player on
the declaring side who, during the auction, rst stated the
denomination of the nal bid becomes "declarer, the declarers partner becomes the "dummy, and the opposing
side become the defenders. The defender to the left of
declarer must make the opening lead.
In addition to establishing the level and denomination of
the nal contract,[15] the nal contract may be doubled
(by the opponents) or redoubled (by the declaring side
after the opponents had already doubled), in which case
the score for the hand is increased, whether the contract
is made or defeated.
If all four players pass in the rst round, the deal is not
played; in rubber bridge the deal is not scored and the
turn to deal passes to the next player, while in duplicate
the score is recorded as zero for each pair and returned to
the board.
1.3.1

Strategy

The purpose of some early bids may be to exchange information rather than to set the nal contract. For most
players, many calls (bids, doubles and redoubles, and
sometimes even passes) are not made with the intention
that they become the nal contract, but to describe the
strength and distribution of the players hand, so that the
partnership can reach an informed conclusion on their
best contract, and/or to obstruct the opponents bidding.
The set of agreements used by a partnership about the
meaning of each call is referred to as a bidding system,
full details of which must be made available to the opponents; 'secret' systems are not allowed. An opponent can
ask the bidders partner to explain the meaning of the call.
1.3.2

Example

In the example at left, West was the dealer and rst to bid.
The bidding proceeded as shown with South becoming
the declarer in a 4 contract, being the rst to bid spades.
East-West become the defenders and West becomes the
opening leader, North becomes the dummy and spades
the trump suit. Ten tricks are required by North-South,
the book plus the 4-level bid. Since Easts double of 2
was cancelled by the subsequent Souths 3 bid, it does
not aect the contract.

GAME PLAY

assumed book of six, plus four as bid, with spades as

trumps), to make the contract and get a positive score.
Success in this goal is rewarded by points in the scoring
phase for the declarers side. If the declarer fails to make
the contract, the defenders are said to have set or defeated
the contract (declarer has gone down), and are awarded
points for doing so.
To begin play, the defender on the declarers left makes
the opening lead. In more formal play, the opening leader
does so by rst placing the card face down on the table to aord his partner an opportunity to ask questions
about the auction, then faces it when partner has no further questions. This practice also allows the defender to
return the card to his hand without penalty if the lead is
not his to make.
The dummy then spreads his hand on the table with each
suit in a column from highest to lowest facing the declarer, customarily with any trump suit on declarers left
and the colors of the suits alternating. The rules of play
are similar to other trick-taking games, except that the
declarer directs the play of cards from the dummy in addition to playing cards from his own hand. Dummy is allowed to try to prevent declarer from infringing the rules,
but otherwise must not interfere with the play; for example, dummy may attempt to prevent declarer from leading
from the wrong hand (by stating, e.g., you won the last
trick in dummy) but must not comment on opponents
actions or make suggestions as to play.
The hands play clockwise around the table, and each hand
must follow suit (that is, play a card of the suit lead to
the trick) if able. A hand that cannot follow suit may either ru (play a trump) if there is a trump suit or slu
(play a card of any other suit). The hand that plays either
the highest trump or, in a trick that contains no trumps,
the highest card of the suit led to the trick (1) wins the
trick for its side and (2) proceeds to lead to the next trick.
The play continues until all thirteen tricks are played. The
declarer or a defender may claim the rest of the tricks
by showing his hand and stating how he will take them.
In rubber bridge, one player typically gathers the tricks for
each side. In duplicate bridge, each player retains the card
played from his hand to each trick and lays it on the table
turned in the direction of the side that won the trick, thus
keeping the hands separate to return them to the board at
the end of play.
If upon reviewing dummy after the opening lead, declarer
assesses that he does not have enough tricks immediately
available to make his contract, he can try to develop additional tricks through a variety of methods. These include:

See also: Opening lead

losing tricks to the defenders high cards in order

to promote the remaining cards of that suit in his
hand.

The contract level sets a specic target: in the example

above, the declarer must attempt to win ten tricks (the

running out long suits after the defenders cards in

that suit are exhausted, to force defenders to discard
useful cards.

1.4

Play of the cards

5
the "nesse", in which a low card is led toward a high
card in the hope of trapping a high card held by the
defender who must play in between.
in trump contracts, the declarer may attempt to
cover losers in his hand by trumping them in
dummy, while also taking care to draw out the defenders trumps if necessary.
cutting communications between the two defenders,
for instance by allowing them to win early tricks in a
suit until they are unable to use the suit as an entry.
more advanced techniques include the "squeeze
play" in which a defender is forced to choose which
card to discard before declarer has to make his own
discard choice.

1.5

Defense

Defense is the play of the cards by the non-declaring partnership, with the goal of preventing the opponents achieving their contract. Bridge writer Edwin B. Kantar wrote
There is no question that defense is the most dicult
aspect of playing bridge.[16]
Of particular importance is the rst defensive move, the
opening lead made by the player sitting left of the declarer. There is an extensive bridge literature on the
choice of opening leads. As play proceeds, defending
partners can try to convey information about their hands
through various systems of signals. A higher card discarded on a trick might, for example, encourage partner
to continue leading that suit, whereas a lower card would
be discouraging.

Every odd trick bid and made, known as contract

points
Each overtrick, i.e. each trick taken over the contract level, known as overtrick points
Bonus points dependent upon the game variant being played for certain contract levels including partgame, game, small slam and grand slam contracts as
well as for winning the rubber
Bonus points in some game variants for making a
doubled or redoubled contract
Bonus points in some game variants for holding four
or more honors in one hand
When the declarer fails to make the contract, the defending side receives points for undertricks the number of
tricks by which declarer fell short of the goal.
The various bonus structures give certain bid levels special signicance. For example, if the declarer takes all
thirteen tricks in a notrump contract, there is a large
score dierence between contracts of 1NT and 7NT. The
bonuses available for contracting at higher levels ensures
competitiveness in the auction. The most important level
is game, which is any contract whose bid trick value is
100 or more points. Game level varies by suit, since different suits are worth dierent amounts in scoring. The
game level for notrump is three, the game level for hearts
or spades (the major suits) is four, and the game level
for clubs or diamonds (the minor suits) is ve. Because
of the value of the game bonus, much of the bidding
revolves around investigating the possibility of making
game. Additional bonuses are awarded for bidding and
making small slam (level 6, i.e. 12 tricks) and grand slam
(level 7, i.e. all 13 tricks) contracts.

Good defense is particularly dependent upon partnership

agreements and eective cooperation between the partners. As a result, longer-term partnerships tend to de- The concept of vulnerability aects scoring and introduces a wider range of tactics in bidding and play. Every
velop the most eective defensive play.
partnership is in one of two states: vulnerable or nonvulnerable, either by virtue of their previous deals in rubber bridge or as predetermined by the board in duplicate
1.6 Scoring
bridge. When a pair is vulnerable, game and slam bonuses
are higher, as are penalties for failure to make the conMain article: Bridge scoring
tract. Finally, doubling and redoubling also has a signicant eect on scoring, especially for vulnerable contract
When play ends, the score is determined by comparing which are either defeated or which win overtricks.
the number of tricks won by the declaring side to the number required to satisfy the contract. The available scoring While the scoring of individual hands in rubber and
points for the declaring side are dependent upon both the duplicate bridge share many features, the accumulation
level and strain of the contract and are awarded to them of scores over several hands diers signicantlly. See
only when the contract is 'made', i.e. at least the con- bridge scoring for details and examples.
tracted for number of tricks are won. If the declaring
side fails to take the required number of tricks, defending
side receives points instead for setting (or defeating) 2 Rules
the contract.
When the declarer makes the contract, the declarers side The rules of the game are referred to as the 'Laws as proreceives points for:
mulgated by various bridge organizations.

2.1

HISTORY

Laws of duplicate bridge

Main article: Laws of Duplicate Bridge

The ocial rules of duplicate bridge are promulgated by
the World Bridge Federation (WBF) as the International
Code of Laws of Duplicate Bridge, 2007.[17] The Laws
Committee of the WBF, composed of world experts, updates the Laws every 10 years; it also issues a Laws Commentary advising on interpretations it has rendered.
In addition to the basic rules of play, there are many additional rules covering playing conditions and the rectication of irregularities which are primarily for use by
tournament directors who act as referees and have overall control of procedures during competitions. In addition, some details of procedure are left to the discretion
of the zonal bridge organisation for tournaments under
their aegis and some (for example, the choice of movement) to the sponsoring organisation (e.g. the club).
The zonal organisations of the WBF also publish editions of the Laws. For example, the American Contract Bridge League publishes Laws of Duplicate Bridge,
2008,[18] Laws of Contract Bridge, 2003[19] and additional supporting documentation including: Director Decisions, Tech Files and Casebook (appeals from national
bridge championships).[20]

2.2

Rules of rubber bridge

Bridge club at Shimer College, 1942.

Biritch, or Russian Whist by John Collinson. It and his

subsequent letter to The Saturday Review dated May 28,
1906, document the origin of Biritch as from the Russian community in Constantinople[24] and having some
features in common with Solo Whist. The game had
many signicant bridge-like developments: dealer chose
the trump suit, or nominated his partner to do so; there
was a call of notrumps (biritch); dealers partners hand
became dummy; points were scored above and below
the line; game was 3NT, 4H and 5D (although 8 club
odd tricks and 15 spade odd tricks were needed); the
score could be doubled and redoubled; and there were
slam bonuses. This game, and variants of it known as
bridge[25] and bridge-whist,[26] became popular in the
United States and the UK in the 1890s despite the longestablished dominance of whist.[27]

There are no universally accepted rules for rubber bridge

promulgated by bridge governing bodies; instead local
In 1904 auction bridge was developed, in which the playrules such as The Laws of Contract Bridge as published by
ers bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and
the American Contract Bridge League constitute the rules
declarer. The object became to make at least as many
[21]
for those wishing to abide by a published standard.
tricks as were contracted for and penalties were introThe majority of rules mirror those of duplicate bridge in duced for failing to do so.
the bidding and play and dier primarily in procedures
The modern game of contract bridge was the result of
for dealing and scoring.
innovations to the scoring of auction bridge made by
Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most signicant change was that only the tricks contracted for were
2.3 Laws of online play
scored below the line toward game or a slam bonus, a
In 2001, the World Bridge Federation promulgated a set change that resulted in bidding becoming much more
challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept
of Laws for online play.[22]
of vulnerability, making sacrices to protect the lead
in a rubber more expensive. The various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced and interesting game.
3 History
Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years
contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of the game
Main article: History of contract bridge
that bridge became synonymous with contract bridge.
Bridge is a member of the family of trick-taking games In the USA, most of the bridge played today is duplicate
and is a development of Whist, which had become the bridge, which is played at clubs, in tournaments and ondominant such game enjoying a loyal following for cen- line. In the UK, rubber bridge is still popular in both
turies. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, homes and clubs, as is duplicate bridge. The number of
Bridge is the English pronunciation of a game called people playing contract bridge has declined since its peak
Biritch, which was also known as Russian Whist.
in the 1940s, when a survey found it was played in 44%
The oldest known Biritch rule book[23] dated 1886 is of US households. The game is still played, especially

4.1

Bidding boxes and bidding screens

amongst retirees, and in 2005 the ACBL estimated there the Laws (each ten years, next in 2017) and conduct world
were 25 million players in the US.[28]
championships.[30]

Tournaments

Bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt

cards, which makes it also a game of chance, or more exactly, a tactical game with inbuilt randomness, imperfect
knowledge and restricted communication. The chance
element is in the deal of the cards; in competitions and
clubs the chance element is largely eliminated by comparing results of multiple pairs in identical situations. This
is achievable when there are eight or more players, sitting
at two or more tables, and the deals from each table are
preserved and passed to the next table, thereby duplicating them for the next table of participants to play. At the
end of a session, the scores for each deal are compared,
and the most points are awarded to the players doing the
best with each particular deal. This measures skill because each player is being judged only on the ability to bid
with, and play, the same cards as other players. However
very often even the most skillful play will only succeed
some of the time, and the skilled player may be unlucky
because an alternative, less expert play achieves a better
result. But in the long run the expert player will score
better.

4.1 Bidding boxes and bidding screens

Bidding box

In tournaments, "bidding boxes" are frequently used, as

noted above. In top national and international events,
"bidding screens" are used. These are placed diagonally
across the table, preventing partners from seeing each
other during the game; often the screen is removed after the auction is complete.

This form of the game is referred to as duplicate bridge

and is played in clubs and tournaments, which can gather
as many as several hundred players. Duplicate bridge is a 5 Game strategy
mind sport, and its popularity gradually became comparable to that of chess, with which it is often compared for
its complexity and the mental skills required for high-level 5.1 Bidding
competition. Bridge and chess are the only mind sports
recognized by the International Olympic Committee, al- Main articles: Bidding system and Bridge convention
though they were not found eligible for the main Olympic
program.[29]
Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the diculty of arriving at a good nal contract in the auction.
The basic premise of duplicate bridge had previously
been used for whist matches as early as 1857. Initially, This is a dicult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate sucient information
bridge was not thought to be suitable for duplicate competition; it wasn't until the 1920s that (auction) bridge about their hands to arrive at a makeable contract, but the
information they can exchange is restricted information
tournaments became popular.
may be passed only by the calls made and later by the
In 1925 when contract bridge rst evolved, bridge tourna- cards played, not by other means; in addition, the agreedments were becoming popular, but the rules were some- upon meaning of each call and play must be available to
what in ux, and several dierent organizing bodies the opponents.
were involved in tournament sponsorship: the American
Bridge League (formerly the American Auction Bridge Since a partnership that has freedom to bid gradually at
League, which changed its name in 1929), the American leisure can exchange more information, and since a partWhist League, and the United States Bridge Association. nership that can interfere with the opponents bidding (as
In 1935, the rst ocially recognized world champi- by raising the bidding level rapidly) can cause diculonship was held. By 1937, however, the American Con- ties for their opponents, bidding systems are both infortract Bridge League had come to power (a union of the mational and strategic. It is this mixture of information
ABL and the USBA), and it remains the principal orga- exchange and evaluation, deduction, and tactics that is at
nizing body for bridge tournaments in North America. In the heart of bidding in bridge.
1958, the World Bridge Federation was founded to pro- A number of basic rules of thumb in bridge bidding and
mote bridge world-wide, coordinate periodic revision to play are summarized as bridge maxims.

8
5.1.1

5 GAME STRATEGY
Bidding systems and conventions

A bidding system is a set of partnership agreements on

the meanings of bids. A partnerships bidding system is
usually made up of a core system, modied and complemented by specic conventions (optional customizations incorporated into the main system for handling specic bidding situations) which are pre-chosen between the
partners prior to play. The line between a well-known
convention and a part of a system is not always clear-cut:
some bidding systems include specied conventions by
default. Bidding systems can be divided into mainly natural systems such as Acol and Standard American, and
mainly articial systems such as the Precision Club and
Strong Diamond (see Strong Diamond).
Calls are usually considered to be either natural or conventional (articial). A natural bid is one in which the
suit and level bid is essentially passing the information I
have some cards in this suit and (usually) some high cards
in my hand"; a natural double says in eect I don't think
the opponents can make their contract, so I want to raise
the stakes. By contrast, a conventional (articial) call offers and/or asks for information by means of pre-agreed
coded interpretations, in which some calls convey very
specic information or requests that are not part of the
natural meaning of the call. Thus in response to 4NT, a
'natural' bid of 5 would state a preference towards a diamond suit or a desire to play the contract in 5 diamonds,
whereas if the partners have agreed to use the common
Blackwood convention, a bid of 5 in the same situation would say nothing about the diamond suit, but tell
the partner that the hand in question contains exactly one
ace.
Conventions are valuable in bridge because of the need to
pass information beyond a simple like or dislike of a particular suit, and because the limited bidding space can be
used more eciently by taking situations in which a given
call will have less utility, because the information it would
convey is not valuable or because the desire to convey that
information would arise only rarely, and giving that call
an articial meaning that conveys more useful (or more
frequently useful) information. There are a very large
number of conventions from which players can choose;
many books have been written detailing bidding conventions. Well-known conventions include Stayman (to ask
for the showing of any 4 card major suit in a 1NT openers
hand), Jacoby transfers (a request by the weak hand for
the stronger partner to bid a particular suit rst, and therefore to become the declarer), and the Blackwood convention (to ask for information on the number of aces and
kings held, used in slam bidding situations).

substantial bidding room before a possibly strong opposing pair can identify whether they have a good possibility to play the hand, or in what suit or at what level they
should do so. Several systems include the use of opening
bids or other early bids with weak hands including long
(usually six to eight card) suits at the 2, 3 or even 4 or 5
levels as preempts.
5.1.2 Basic natural systems
As a rule, a natural suit bid indicates a holding of at least
four (or more, depending on the situation and the system) cards in that suit as an opening bid, or a lesser number when supporting partner; a natural NT bid indicates
a balanced hand.
Most systems use a count of high card points as the basic
evaluation of the strength of a hand, rening this by reference to shape and distribution if appropriate. In the most
commonly used point count system, aces are counted as 4
points, kings as 3, queens as 2, and jacks as 1 point; therefore, the deck contains 40 points. In addition, the distribution of the cards in a hand into suits may also contribute
to the strength of a hand and be counted as distribution
points. A better than average hand, containing 12 or 13
points, is usually considered sucient to open the bidding, i.e., to make the rst bid in the auction. A combination of two such hands (i.e., 25 or 26 points shared between partners) is often sucient for a partnership to bid,
and generally to make, game in a major suit or notrump
(more are usually needed for a minor suit game, as the
level is higher).
In natural systems, a 1NT opening bid usually reects a
hand that has a relatively balanced shape (usually between
two and four (or less often ve) cards in each suit) and a
sharply limited number of high card points, usually somewhere between 12 and 18 the most common ranges use
a span of exactly three points, (e.g., 12-14, 15-17 or 1618), but some systems use a 4 point range, usually 15-18.

Opening bids of 3 or higher are preemptive bids, i.e., bids

made with weak hands that especially favor a particular
suit, opened at a high level in order to dene the hands
value quickly and to frustrate the opposition. For example, a hand of KQJ9872 7 42 763 would
be a candidate for an opening bid of 3, designed to
make it dicult for the opposing team to bid and nd
their optimum contract even if they have the bulk of the
points, as it is nearly valueless unless spades are trumps,
it contains good enough spades that the penalty for being
set should not be higher than the value of an opponent
game, and the high card weakness makes it more likely
The term preempt refers to a high level tactical bid by a that the opponents have enough strength to make game
weak hand, relying upon a long suit rather than high-value themselves.
cards for tricks. Preemptive bids serve a double purpose Openings at the 2 level are either unusually strong (2NT,
they allow players to indicate they are bidding on the natural, and 2, articial) or preemptive, depending on
basis of a long suit in an otherwise weak hand, which is the system. Unusually strong bids communicate an espeimportant information to share, and they also consume cially high number of points (normally 20 or more) or a

5.1

Bidding

high trick-taking potential (normally 8 or more).

Opening bids at the one level are made with hands containing 1213 points or more and which are not suitable
for one of the preceding bids. Using Standard American with 5-card majors, opening hearts or spades usually
promises a 5-card suit. Partnerships who agree to play
5-card majors open a minor suit with 4-card majors and
then bid their major suit at the next opportunity. This
means that an opening bid of 1 or 1 will sometimes
be made with only 3 cards in that suit.
Doubles are sometimes given conventional meanings in
otherwise mostly natural systems. A natural, or penalty
double, is one used to try to gain extra points when the defenders are condent of setting (defeating) the contract.
The most common example of a conventional double is
the takeout double of a low-level suit bid, implying support for the unbid suits or the unbid major suits and asking
partner to choose one of them.
5.1.3

Variations on the basic themes

Bidding systems depart from these basic ideas in varying degrees. Standard American, for instance, is a collection of conventions designed to bolster the accuracy
and power of these basic ideas, while Precision Club is a
system that uses the 1 opening bid for all or almost all
strong hands (but sets the threshold for strong rather
lower than most other systems usually 16 high card
points) and may include other articial calls to handle
other situations (but it may contain natural calls as well).
Many experts today use a system called 2/1 game forcing (enunciated as two over one game forcing), which
amongst other features adds some complexity to the treatment of the one notrump response as used in Standard
American. In the UK, Acol is the most common system;
its main features are a weak one notrump opening with
12-14 high card points and several variations for 2-level
openings.

9
opening hand lacking a notable heart or spade suit
Whether opening bids at the two level are 'strong'
(20+ points) or 'weak' (i.e., pre-emptive with a 6
card suit). (Note: an opening bid of 2 is usually
played in otherwise natural systems as conventional,
signifying any exceptionally strong hand)
Blackwood (either the original version or Roman Key
Card)
Stayman (together with Blackwood, described as
the two most famous conventions in Bridge.[31] )
Whether the partnership will play Jacoby transfers
(bids of 2 and 2 over 1NT or 3 and 3 over
2NT respectively require the 1NT or 2NT bidder to
rebid 2 and 2 or 3 and 3), minor suit transfers (bids of 2 and either 2NT or 3 over 1NT
respectively require the 1NT bidder to bid 3 and
3) and Texas transfers (bids of 4 and 4 respectively require the 1NT, or 2NT bidder to rebid 4
and 4)
What types of cue bids (e.g. rebidding the opponents
suit) the partnership will play, if any.
Whether doubling a contract at the 1, 2 and sometimes higher levels signies a belief that the opponents contract will fail and a desire to raise the
stakes (a penalty double), or an indication of strength
but no biddable suit coupled with a request that partner bid something (a takeout double).
Whether doubling or overcalling over opponents
1NT is natural or conventional. Most common articial agreement is Cappelletti, where 2 is a transfer to be passed or corrected to a major, 2 means
both majors and a major shows that suit plus a minor.
How the partnerships bidding practices will be varied if their opponents intervene or compete.

There are also a variety of advanced techniques used for

hand evaluation. The most basic is the Milton Work
Which (if any) bids are forcing and require a repoint count, (the 4-3-2-1 system detailed above) but this
sponse.
is sometimes modied in various ways, or either augmented or replaced by other approaches such as losing
trick count, honor point count, law of total tricks, or Zar Within play, it is also commonly agreed what systems of
opening leads, signals and discards will be played:
Points.
Common conventions and variations within natural systems include:
Point count required for 1 NT opening bid ('mini'
10-12, 'weak' 12-14, 'strong' 15-17 or 16-18)
Whether an opening bid of 1 and 1 requires a
minimum of 4 or 5 cards in the suit (4 or 5 card
majors)
Whether 1 (and sometimes 1) is 'natural' or 'suspect' (also called 'phoney' or 'short'), signifying an

Conventions for the opening lead govern how the

rst card to be played will be chosen and what it will
mean,
Signals indicate how cards played within a suit are
chosen for example, playing a noticeably high card
when this would not be expected can signal encouragement to continue playing the suit, and a low card
can signal discouragement and a desire for partner to
choose some other suit. (Some partnerships use reverse signals, meaning that a noticeably high card

10

5.1.4

EXAMPLE

discourages that suit and a noticeably low card en- bidding. Alternatively, many partnerships play this same
courages that suit, thus not wasting a potentially bidding sequence as Crawling Stayman by which the
useful intermediate card in the suit of interest.)
responder shows a weak hand (less than eight high card
points) with shortness in diamonds but at least four hearts
Discards cover the situation when a defender cannot and four spades; the opening bidder may correct to spades
follow suit and therefore has free choice what card if that appears to be the better contract.
to play or throw away. In such circumstances the
thrown-away card can be used to indicate some as- The situations detailed here are extremely simple exampect of the hand, or a desire for a specic suit to be ples; many instances of advanced bidding involve specic
agreements related to very specic situations and subtle
played.
inferences regarding entire sequences of calls.
Count signals cover the situation when a defender is
following suit (usually to a suit that the declarer has
led). In such circumstances the order in which a de- 5.2 Play techniques
fender plays his spot cards will indicate whether an
even or odd number of cards was originally held in Main article: List of play techniques (bridge)
that suit. This can help the other defender count out
the entire original distribution of the cards in that
Terence Reese, a prolic author of bridge books, points
suit. It is sometimes critical to know this when deout that there are only four ways of taking a trick by force,
fending.
two of which are very easy:
Suit preference signals cover the situation where a
defender is returning a suit which will be rued by
playing a high card that no one else can beat
his partner. If he plays a high card he is showing an
trumping an opponents high card
entry in the higher side suit and vice versa. There are
some other situations where this tool may be used.
establishing long suits (the last cards in a suit will
take tricks if the opponents don't have the suit and
Surrogate signals cover the situation when it is critiare unable to trump)
cal to show length in a side suit and it will be too late
if defenders wait till that suit is played. Then, the
playing for the opponents high cards to be in a parplay in the rst declarer played suit is a count signal
ticular position (if their ace is to the right of your
regarding the critical suit and not the trump suit itking, your king may be able to take a trick, espeself. In fact, any signal made about a suit in another
cially if, when that suit is led, the player to your right
suit might be called as such.
has to play their card before you do)
Advanced bidding techniques

Nearly all trick-taking techniques in bridge can be reduced to one of these four methods. The optimum play
Every call (including pass, also sometimes called no of the cards can require much thought and experience and
bid) serves two purposes. It conrms or passes some in- is the subject of whole books on bridge.
formation to a partner, and also denies by implication any
other kind of hand which would have tended to support an
alternative call. For example, a bid of 2NT immediately
after partners 1NT not only shows a balanced hand of 6 Example
a certain point range, but also would almost always deny
possession of a ve-card major suit (otherwise the player The cards are dealt as shown in the bridge hand diagram;
would have bid it) or even a four card major suit (in that North is the dealer and starts the auction which proceeds
case, the player would probably have used the Stayman as shown in the bidding table.
convention).
As neither North nor East have sucient strength to open
Likewise, in some partnerships the bid of 2 in the sequence 1NT - 2 - 2 - 2 between partners (opponents
passing throughout) explicitly shows ve hearts but also
conrms four cards in spades: the bidder must hold at
least ve hearts to make it worth looking for a heart t
after 2 denied a four card major, and with at least ve
hearts, a Stayman bid must have been justied by having exactly four spades, the other major (since Stayman
(as used by this partnership) is not useful with anything
except a four card major suit).[32] Thus an astute partner
can read much more than the surface meaning into the

the bidding, they each pass, denying such strength. South,

next in turn, opens with the bid of 1, which denotes
a reasonable heart suit (at least 4 or 5 cards long, depending on the bidding system) and at least 12 high card
points. On this hand, South has 14 high card points. West
overcalls with 1, since he has a long spade suit of reasonable quality and 10 high card points (an overcall can
be made on a hand that is not quite strong enough for
an opening bid). North supports partners suit with 2,
showing heart support and about 6-8 points. East supports spades with 2. South inserts a game try of 3,

11
inviting the partner to bid the game of 4 with good club
support and overall values. North complies, as North is at
the higher end of the range for his 2 bid, and has a fourth
trump (the 2 bid promised only three), and the doubleton queen of clubs to t with partners strength there.
(North could instead have bid 3, indicating not enough
strength for game, asking South to pass and so play 3.)

from Souths hand and the queen will win anyway, this
being the essence of the nesse). The game is now safe:
South rus a small club with a dummys trump, then rus
a diamond in hand for an entry back, and rus the last club
in dummy (sometimes described as a crossru). Finally,
South claims the remaining tricks by showing his or her
hand, as it now contains only high trumps and theres no
In the auction, North-South are trying to investigate need to play the hand out to prove they are all winners.
whether their cards are sucient to make a game (ten (The trick-by-trick notation used above can be also extricks in hearts or spades, 11 tricks in clubs or diamonds), pressed in tabular form, but a textual explanation is usuwhich yields bonus points if bid and made. East-West are ally preferred in practice, for readers convenience. Plays
competing in spades, hoping to play a contract in spades of small cards or discards are often omitted from such a
at a low level. 4 is the nal contract, 10 tricks being description, unless they were important for the outcome).
required for N-S to make with hearts as trump.
North-South score the required 10 tricks, and their oppoSouth is the declarer, having been rst to bid hearts, and
the player to Souths left, West, has to choose the rst
card in the play, known as the opening lead. West chooses
the spade king because spades is the suit the partnership
has shown strength in, and because they have agreed that
when they hold two touching honors (or adjacent honors)
they will play the higher one rst. West plays the card
face down, to give their partner and the declarer (but not
dummy) a chance to ask any last questions about the bidding or to object if they believe West is not the correct
hand to lead. After that, Norths cards are laid on the table
and North becomes dummy, as both the North and South
hands will be controlled by the declarer. West turns the
lead card face up, and the declarer studies the two hands
to make a plan for the play. On this hand, the trump ace, a
spade, and a diamond trick must be lost, so declarer must
not lose a trick in clubs.
If the K is held by West, South will nd it very hard
to prevent it making a trick (unless West leads a club).
However, there is an almost-equal chance that it is held
by East, in which case it can be 'trapped' against the ace,
and will be beaten, using a tactic known as a nesse.

nents take the remaining three. The contract is fullled,

and North enters the pair numbers, the contract, and the
score of +420 for the winning side (North is in charge of
bookkeeping in duplicate tournaments) on the traveling
sheet. North asks East to check the score entered on the
traveller. All players return their own cards to the board,
and the next deal is played.
On the prior hand, it is quite possible that the K is held
by West. For example, by swapping the K and A between the defending hands. Then the 4 contract would
fail by one trick (unless West had led a club early in the
play). However the failure of the contract would not mean
that 4 is a bad contract on this hand. The contract depends on the club nesse working, or a mis-defense. The
bonus points awarded for making a game contract far outweigh the penalty for going one o, so it is best strategy
in the long run to bid game contracts such as this one.

Similarly, there is a minuscule chance that the K is

in the west hand, but the west hand has no other clubs.
In that case, declarer can succeed by simply cashing the
A, felling the K and setting up the Q as a winner.
However the chance of this is far lower than the simple
After considering the cards, the declarer directs dummy chance of approximately 50% that East started with the
(North) to play a small spade. East plays low (small card) K. Therefore the superior percentage play is to take the
and South takes the A, gaining the lead. (South may club nesse, as described above.
also elect to duck, but for the purpose of this example, let
us assume South wins the A at trick 1). South proceeds
by drawing trump, leading the K. West decides there
7 Computer bridge
is no benet to holding back, and so wins the trick with
the ace, and then cashes the Q. For fear of conceding
a ru and discard, West plays the 2 instead of another Main article: Computer bridge
spade. Declarer plays low from the table, and East scores
the Q. Not having anything better to do, East returns
the remaining trump, taken in Souths hand. The trumps
now accounted for, South can now execute the nesse, 7.1 User-based play
perhaps trapping the king as planned. South enters the
dummy (i.e. wins a trick in the dummys hand) by leading After many years of little progress, computer bridge
a low diamond, using dummys A to win the trick, and made great progress at the end of the 20th century. In
leads the Q from dummy to the next trick. East covers 1996, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) inithe queen with the king, and South takes the trick with the tiated ocial World Championships Computer Bridge,
ace, and proceeds by cashing the remaining master J. (If to be held annually along with a major bridge event.
East doesn't play the king, then South will play a low club The rst Computer Bridge Championship took place in
1997 at the North American Bridge Championships in

12

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

COMPUTER BRIDGE

Australian Bridge Federation. MSN and Yahoo! Games

have several online rubber bridge rooms. In 2001, World
Bridge Federation issued a special edition of the lawbook
adapted for internet and other electronic forms of the
game.

Strong bridge playing programs such as Jack (World

Champion in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2009),
Wbridge5 (World Champion in 2005, 2007 and 2008),
RoboBridge[33] and many-time nalist Bridge Baron,
would probably rank among the top few thousand human Advantages of online play include:
pairs worldwide. A series of articles published in 2005
and 2006 in the Dutch bridge magazine IMP describes
The software prevents improper plays and calls, such
matches between Jack and seven top Dutch pairs. A toas insucient bids, revokes (failure to follow suit
tal of 196 boards were played. Overall, the program Jack
when able), and actions out of turn.
lost, but by a small margin (359 versus 385 imps).
Unauthorised information cannot be passed by tone
of voice or body language (but can much more easily
7.2 Internet-based play
be passed by external communication).
There are several free and subscription-based services
available for playing bridge on the internet. For example:
OKbridge is the oldest of the still-running internet bridge services: was established as a commercial enterprise in 1994, but the program started to
be used interactively in August 1990 on players of
all standards. Beginners to world class may be found
playing there.[35] OKbridge is a subscription-based
club, with services such as customer support and
ethics reviews.
[34]

The subscription-based online Bridge Club Live

(BCL),[36] founded in 1994. Calling itself the
friendliest Bridge club of the world, BCL organizes
annual 46 day meetings, in a dierent country each
year, to get its members together.
SWAN Games[37] was founded April, 2000. In
March 2004, announced a partnership to provide internet services to SBF members and is a competitor
in subscription-based online bridge clubs.[35]
Bridge Base Online (BBO) is the most active online bridge club in the world, with more than 100
000 daily connections and 500 000 hands played
each day.[35] in part because it is free to play regular games and volunteer-run tournaments.

Detailed records are kept which can aid partners to

review and improve their bidding and play.
Hands can be easily be analysed for best play (double
dummy) afterwards.
Can play with partners far away - or across town.
No need to assemble 4 people in one place.
Faster play - no shifting chairs or waiting for shues.
Player rating systems may attempt to measure ability
without regard to the number of games played or the
number of years spent accumulating masterpoints.
Fewer restrictions on the conventions that are permitted compared to club tourneys.
Easy to nd opponents for practice in bidding and
playing.
You will meet bridge players from every country and
time zone.
Flexibility when to play (24/7), and choice of opponent skill level.
Choice of individual, pairs, or team competitions.

Fun to watch famous bridge stars play live as well

These and other sites oer various features, such as opas well-known personalities such as Bill Gates and
portunities to earn ACBL masterpoints, to play in onWarren Buett (who used to appear regularly on
line tournaments, to compile lists of friends, and to earn
OKBridge in set games)
money playing Bridge. Bridge Base Online also has a
Vugraph feature showing tournaments from around the
There are also a number of disadvantages:
world for anyone interested to watch live. As well as written commentaries from top level players, voice commen Inability to decide on bidding convention ahead of
taries have been incorporated since mid-2011. Software
time when partners are strangers.
and hardware has been tested in 2011 in order to have
digital cameras recognize the cards being played, which
A reduced social element.
will avoid human error or delay.
Some national contract bridge organizations now oer
online bridge play to their members, including the English Bridge Union, the Dutch Bridge Federation and the

Players may leave before a hand nishes, or in the

middle of a planned session, either intentionally or
because of connection diculties.

10.1

Notes

13

Tournaments are usually shorter online. A common [15] Barbara Seagram; Linda Lee (June 2008). Beginning
Bridge. Master Point Press. pp. 7. ISBN 978-1-897106length is 12 boards(deals). Online services support many
33-4. Retrieved 20 August 2010.
simultaneous tournaments. When you nish one tournament, another will start soon.
Some online services like BBO have apps for Android and
iPhone.

[16] Kantar, Edwin B. Introduction to Defenders Play, Melvin

Powers Wiltshire Book Company, 1968. Introduction
[17] World Bridge Federation Laws of Duplicate Bridge.
Worldbridge.org. Retrieved 2011-11-05.

Card games related to bridge

See also

[18] ACBL Laws of Duplicate Bridge, 2008. Requirements for

convention charts, alerts, and other laws are also available
at the ACBL website.
[19] ACBL Laws of Contract Bridge, 2003.

10
10.1

References
Notes

[20] A cross-referenced listing including documentation is

available at the BridgeHands website.
[21] Laws of Contract Bridge, ACBL ocial site.

[1] Reese, Terence (1980). Bridge. Teach Yourself Books.

Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-32438-4., page 1.
[2] In face-to-face games, a convenient table size is from 32
to 40 inches (80 to 100 centimeters) square or a round
table allowing each player to reach to the center of the
table during the play of the cards. In online computer play,
players from anywhere in the world sit at a virtual table.
[3] USA Today: Billionaires bank on bridge to trump poker
[4] New York Times: At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid
Old Age
[5] The terms deal, hand and board may be used interchangeably in bridge literature. More accurately, a hand is one
players holding of 13 cards, a deal is the four hands in one
allocation of 52 cards; a board is a term more applicable
to duplicate bridge and refers to a deal.
[6] Kantar, Eddie (2006). Bridge for Dummies, 2nd Edition.
Wiley Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-471-92426-5., page
11.
[7] Manley et al. (2011), p. 579. This number is expressed
as 53.6 octillion.
[8] Francis et al. 2001, p. 81. See COMPASS POINTS.
[9] Law 22(a) of the Laws of Contract Bridge, ACBL ocial
site.
[10] Computers Deals at the BridgeHands web site. See also
Computer-Dealt Hands at the ACBL website.
[11] Odd tricks refers to the tricks beyond the rst six. Accordingly, the number of odd tricks bid can range from 1
to 7 inclusive.
[12] Denomination refers to one of the suits (spades, hearts,
diamonds or clubs) or to notrump.
[13] Although both are technically incorrect, the word bid
is often used informally in place of call and suit may
occasionally imply inclusion of notrump
[14] Notrump ranking the highest, followed by spades, hearts,
diamonds, and clubs.

[22] World Bridge Federation Laws of Electronic Bridge, 2001

for online play.
[23] Alternate source for Biritch, or Russian Whist by John
Collinson, 1886. Pagat.com. Retrieved 2011-11-05.
[24] Depaulis, Thierry; Fuchs, Jac (SepOct 2003). First Steps
of Bridge in the West: Collinsons 'Biritch'. The PlayingCard, Vol. 32, No. 2.pp. 67-76.
[25] (Elwell 1905 and Benedict 1900)
[26] (Melrose 1901)
[27] (Foster 1889)
[28] Turning Tricks The rise and fall of contract bridge The
New Yorker, September 17, 2007
[29] Review of the Olympic programme and the recommendations on the programme of the games of the XXIX
Olympiad, Beijing 2008; page 8. October 2011.
[30] Francis et al. 2001, p. 576. See WORLD BRIDGE FEDERATION (WBF).
[31] Bridge Lessons series, Stayman & Transfer (Deal 1), by
Andrew Robson
[32] Taken from Andrew Robson Bridge Lessons series, Stayman & Transfer, deal 14
[33] RoboBridge. RoboBridge. 2011-10-22. Retrieved
2011-11-05.
[34] OKbridge website
[35] Manley et al. (2011), p. 597
[36] Bridge Club Live website
[37] Swan Games website

14

10.2

12

Bibliography

Francis, Henry G., Editor-in-Chief; Truscott, Alan

F., Executive Editor; Francis, Dorthy A., Editor,
Sixth Edition (2001). The Ocial Encyclopedia of
Bridge (6th ed.). Memphis, TN: American Contract Bridge League. ISBN 0-943855-44-6. OCLC
49606900.
Manley, Brent, Editor; Horton, Mark, Co-Editor;
Greenberg-Yarbro, Tracey, Co-Editor; Rigal,
Barry, Co-Editor (2011). The Ocial Encyclopedia of Bridge (7th ed.). Horn Lake, MS: American
Contract Bridge League. ISBN 978-0-939460-991.

11

Further reading

Further information: List of bridge books

12

External links

American Contract Bridge League (ACBL)

New Zealand
(NZCBA)

Contract

Bridge

World Bridge Federation (WBF)

Association

EXTERNAL LINKS

15

13
13.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Contract bridge Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract%20bridge?oldid=646850742 Contributors:
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Sharkb, Dueori, Kevin, Rdhs100, Aliza250, EJSawyer, SmackBot, FocalPoint, KnowledgeOfSelf, Nickst, Hardyplants, Jcbarr, Drkarthi,
Gilliam, Chris the speller, Thumperward, Jerome Charles Potts, Portnadler, Sgt Pinback, NYKevin, Can't sleep, clown will eat me,
HoodedMan, Terryeo, Dreadstar, Timothy N. Hill, Maelnuneb, Jason S. Klepp, SashatoBot, BillFlis, PRRfan, Zapvet, Atakdoug, Mguppy,
ALife, StuHarris, Colonel Warden, BPeppers1168, PKYip, ErWenn, Hyperman 42, JoannaSerah, Valoem, FabV, Owen214, Dewatf,
Patrick Berry, Insanephantom, Dgw, Chmee2, JAWolf, Cydebot, Bkessler23, O. Harris, Ryan, Kjs50, Punainen Nrtti, Abtract, Jono4174,
Satori Son, Thijs!bot, Cekatlow, Nadav1, Smile a While, Escarbot, Jhall1, Gioto, Just Chilling, JAnDbot, Leuko, Bpmullins, DRHagen,
Bencherlite, Magioladitis, P64, Martino bridge, EdwardLockhart, Craw-daddy, Mirrorstone, Virginia Dutch, K5s1, MikeLHenderson,
Bluejak, DGG, Daredevle, CommonsDelinker, DBlomgren, Trusilver, Ali, Carena sez, Katalaveno, Nemo bis, Boskoman, Eljamin,
Mbbradford, Golemarch, Yecril, VolkovBot, Butwhatdoiknow, WOSlinker, TXiKiBoT, Serg!o, Leafyplant, CanOfWorms, Busaccsb,
AlleborgoBot, Newbyguesses, Macdonald-ross, SieBot, J0nchan, RJaguar3, Akeyes233, Mam711, Quantumcat, Bede735, Varange2,
Mbbn, Spazure, Langus-TxT, Bridge expert, Runner5k, Pinkadelica, ClueBot, The Thing That Should Not Be, EoGuy, Anti.Exams,
Brewcrewer, Martinwardle, TheRedPenOfDoom, Hans Adler, CowboySpartan, Lysterbird, XLinkBot, Neilrob, Maudemiller, Dakota
Blue Richards, Addbot, RPHv, Severian596, Fieldday-sunday, Kgendler, Jim10701, Schmausschmaus, LinkFA-Bot, Celina030310,
Newfraferz87, Ehrenkater, Tide rolls, Lmao kid, Zorrobot, Krenakarore, CComly, Luckas-bot, Yobot, Themfromspace, Ptbotgourou,
Keith MapMan, Cyanoa Crylate, Pcap, TomTrottier, Yottamol, ONaNcle, AnomieBOT, Piano non troppo, Tom87020, Materialscientist,
Brendankyle, Wispity, LilHelpa, Xqbot, Marvinlf, Eudemis, Sora1995, Viwawanomics, I am ironbatman, FrescoBot, Bridgeblogging,
Hobsonlane, Aliotra, Kivgaen, Newwhist, Burkeas, Utility Monster, Crusoe8181, Lotje, Jerd10, Wintonian, Ankemeny, Poradevils,
EmausBot, John of Reading, Denisegatcurtin, JaeDyWolf, Thecheesykid, Mz7, Werieth, Charlne Bourgeois, ZroBot, Jsitarz, Hmccasla,
Cabegirl09, Anir1uph, Paul Hau, Kilopi, Orange Suede Sofa, Leewilliams23, Special Cases, Autodidact1, ClueBot NG, LazyJob,
Joefromrandb, Chester Markel, Helpful Pixie Bot, Kevlarsen, Zzyxzaa26, John plaut, JZCL, Rjeng2000, Batard0, BattyBot, Victor Yus,
Davidjolloyd, ChrisGualtieri, Danb3434, Dexbot, FoCuSandLeArN, Lemnaminor, I am One of Many, Hessmike, Vitani III, Quenhitran,
Anshuman1991, Jan Aasen, Cookwald II and Anonymous: 329

13.2

Images

File:Board,_duplicate_bridge_(1).png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Board%2C_duplicate_bridge_

%281%29.png License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Maikking using
CommonsHelper. Original artist: Original uploader was Radius at en.wikipedia, Created 2005-01-06 by Ray Spalding.
File:Bridge_declarer.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Bridge_declarer.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here. Original artist: Original uploader was TerriersFan at en.wikipedia
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
File:Encheres_bridge.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Encheres_bridge.jpg License: Public domain
Contributors: Own work Original artist: Jastrow
File:Nuvola_apps_kpdf2.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Nuvola_apps_kpdf2.png License: LGPL
Contributors: Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:IngerAlHaosului using CommonsHelper. Original artist:
Original uploader was Equazcion at en.wikipedia
File:Shimer_College_bridge_club_1942.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Shimer_College_bridge_
club_1942.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: 1942 yearbook of Shimer College Original artist: Shimer College

13.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0