Contract Bridge

Contract Bridge 5,6/10 1546 votes

Contract bridge, rubber, duplicate, bridge game Features: live opponents, game rooms, rankings, extensive stats, user profiles, contact lists, private messaging, game records, support for mobile devices. Free online games, play against live opponents.

Playing Bridge online against the computer is where most people start with BridgeDoctor - when you play Bridge against the computer you can practise at your own pace.

Play Contract Bridge Online - Against The Computer Playing Bridge online against the computer is where most people start with BridgeDoctor - when you play Bridge against the computer you can practise at your own pace. Once you have logged in, from the main page on Bridge Doctor, click on the PLAY link then select 'Play against the computer'. Bridge - Bridge - How to play contract bridge: The standard 52-card deck is used. The suits ranking downward in order are spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs; and the cards ranking. 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, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge. Contract Bridge free download - Bridge It, Bridge Card Game, Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far, and many more programs.

Once you have logged in, from the main page on Bridge Doctor, click on the PLAY link then select 'Play against the computer'.

The Bridge Table and three other players will display. Your Bridge cards are at the bottom of the screen (a red triangle/arrow will point to your hand of cards when it is your turn). To bid, just click on the bidding panel in the bottom right of the screen.

The Bridge Bidding continues until three players choose 'No Bid'.

When it is your turn to play, yours or your partner's Bridge hand, just click on the card you wish to play (the red arrow will indicate when it is your turn to play a card and which hand to play from).

The Bridge game continues until all cards are played.

SOLO BRIDGE GAME MENU
At any time during the Bridge game you may click on one of the menu items along the top of the screen:

Leave Table - returns to the main BridgeDoctor menu

Help - basic instructions for the SOLO Bridge game

Settings - to change the Bridge bidding system from American Standard to ACOL

Redeal - the current hands will be dealt again with exactly the same cards again. This allows you to replay a hand as many times as you like - a great way to learn Bridge.

Auction - displays the bidding window after the game has started (click on the link and hold the mouse button down).

Contract bridgewin

Trick - while playing the game displays the last hand
(click on the link and hold the mouse button down).

Deal - deals a fresh set of cards

Bridge
  • The bridge games
  • How to play contract bridge
  • The development of the game
  • Duplicate and tournament bridge
  • Strategy of contract bridge
    • Slam bidding
  • Bridge problems
Please select which sections you would like to print:
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Join Britannica's Publishing Partner Program and our community of experts to gain a global audience for your work! Albert H. MoreheadSee All Contributors
Writer and editor. Bridge editor, the New York Times, 1935-63. Author of Hoyle's Rules of Games and The Complete Guide to WInning Poker, among others.

Bridge, card game derived from whist, through the earlier variants bridge whist and auction bridge. The essential features of all bridge games, as of whist, are that four persons play, two against two as partners; a standard 52-card deck of playing cards is dealt out one at a time, clockwise around the table, so that each player holds 13 cards; and the object of play is to win tricks, each trick consisting of one card played by each player. Another feature is that one suit may be designated the trump suit (i.e., any card in that suit may take any card of the other suits), but the methods of designating the trump suit (or of determining that a deal will be played without trumps) differ in the various bridge games, as explained below.

Since about 1896 bridge whist, auction bridge, and contract bridge have successively been the principal intellectual card games of the English-speaking countries. The third game of the series, contract bridge, spread throughout the world and in some respects constituted a social phenomenon unparalleled in the history of games. In addition to millions of casual players worldwide, there exist numerous national federations affiliated with the World Bridge Federation (WBF), which organizes international tournaments for more-serious competitors. Its largest affiliated member is the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) with nearly 160,000 members.

The arrival of personal computers and the Internet opened up new opportunities for instruction and play. In addition to being a venue for casual play, some Internet sites host tournaments recognized by ACBL and WBF at which participants can earn international master points.

The bridge games

Contract Bridge

The first game of the series was originally called, simply, bridge, but it is now called bridge whist to distinguish it from the two later games. Upon its introduction to New York in 1893 and to London in 1894, it almost immediately supplanted whist in the card rooms of men’s clubs, and before 1900 it was the favourite diversion of fashionable mixed gatherings. Bridge whist was itself supplanted with almost equal rapidity by auction bridge, which was introduced in England about 1904 and which became, from 1907 to 1928, the most universally popular card game theretofore known. Auction bridge had at least 15 million adherents when it was supplanted by contract bridge about 1930 and began to die out.

Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Bridge whist

In bridge, as in whist, there are four players in two partnerships, each player being dealt 13 cards. But in whist there is always a trump suit, determined by turning up the last card dealt to the dealer, and each player holds and plays his own hand. The principal innovations of bridge whist were: selection of the trump suit by the dealer or the dealer’s partner after they saw their hands; the option of playing at no trump; the exposed dummy (the hand of dealer’s partner), which was played by the dealer; a different method of scoring; and the right to double (the scoring values).

Contract Bridge Bidding

In bridge whist, after the cards were dealt, the dealer could make the declaration (name any suit as trump, or decide to play without any trump), or he could transfer this duty to his partner. Before leading, the player on the dealer’s left (eldest hand) could double or could pass that privilege to his partner; and if either doubled, dealer or his partner could redouble, and so the redoubling might continue indefinitely (except that many clubs placed a limit upon the number of redoubles).

The player on the dealer’s left then led. Dealer’s partner, called the dummy, placed his entire hand faceup on the table in front of him, and dealer played both his own cards and dummy’s, from each hand in proper turn. Otherwise play was as at whist.

The side that won the majority of the tricks scored, for each odd trick (trick over six): if spades were trumps, 2 points; clubs, 4; diamonds, 6; hearts, 8; no trump, 12; these values doubled and redoubled as previously determined. The first side thus to score 30 or more points won game, and a fresh game was begun. The first side to win two games won rubber and received a 100-point bonus. Other bonuses, which did not count toward game, were awarded for a side holding three or more honours (ace, king, queen, jack, and 10) of the trump suit or, at no-trump declarations, three or more aces; for making slams (12 or 13 tricks won); and for chicane (a player’s holding no card of the trump suit).

Auction bridge

The essential features added by auction bridge were that all four players bid for the right to name the trump suit and that the high bidder or his partner (not necessarily the dealer) became declarer and played the dummy’s hand. In other respects the procedure at auction bridge underwent constant and frequent change.

Contract bridge

Contract Bridge Online

In its mechanics, contract bridge differs from auction bridge only in the scoring. At auction bridge, declarer’s side scores toward game each odd trick that it wins, whether or not it contracted to win such a trick. At contract bridge, the odd tricks won by declarer cannot be scored toward game unless declarer’s side previously contracted to win those tricks. Values of tricks, penalties, and premiums are higher in contract bridge than in auction bridge, and large bonuses are awarded for bidding and making slam contracts. See belowScoring.

Contract Bridge Games Free

Quick Facts

Government Definition Of Bridge Contract

related topics