How to Play Contract Bridge

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Contract Bridge is a four-player trick-taking card game played in two partnerships. Partners sit opposite each other and work together throughout every hand, combining a bidding phase to establish a contract with a play phase to win or defeat it. The interplay between deduction, communication through bidding, and precise card play gives the game a depth that few card games match.

Bridge is played in homes, clubs, and international tournaments across the world. It rewards long study but is genuinely playable after a single evening's instruction, which explains why it has held its place as one of the most widely played partnership card games for nearly a century.

A little history

Contract Bridge evolved from Whist via a sequence of games including Bridge Whist and Auction Bridge. The specific form known as Contract Bridge, in which only tricks bid count towards game, was codified in the late 1920s; Harold Stirling Vanderbilt is widely credited with drafting the first formal scoring table in 1925 during a sea voyage, and the game spread rapidly through clubs and homes throughout the 1930s. Its earlier antecedents in Whist stretch back to seventeenth-century England, though the precise chain of development through the intermediate forms is not fully documented.

Setting up

1. Seat four players at a table, with partners sitting directly opposite each other. Partners are traditionally referred to as North-South and East-West.
2. Determine the first dealer by agreement or by each player drawing a card; highest card deals. The deal passes clockwise after each hand.
3. The dealer shuffles the pack thoroughly. The player to the dealer's right cuts the deck.
4. The dealer distributes all 52 cards one at a time clockwise, face down, beginning with the player to the left. Each player receives exactly 13 cards.
5. Players sort their hands by suit. Set up a scorepad divided into two columns, one for each partnership.

How to play

1. THE AUCTION. Starting with the dealer and proceeding clockwise, each player makes a call. A call is either a bid, a pass, a double, or a redouble.
2. A bid names a number of odd tricks (1 through 7) and a denomination: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, or No Trump. A bid of '2 Hearts' means the partnership contracts to win at least 8 tricks (6 odd tricks + 2 bid) with Hearts as trumps.
3. Each bid must be higher than the last. Denominations rank: Clubs (lowest), Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, No Trump (highest). A higher number always outranks a lower one regardless of suit.
4. A player may Pass at any turn without making a bid. Three consecutive passes after at least one bid ends the auction.
5. A player may Double the most recent opposing bid, increasing the scoring stakes. The opposing side may then Redouble, increasing stakes further. Any subsequent bid cancels the double or redouble.
6. If all four players pass on the first round, the hand is thrown in and the deal passes to the next dealer.
7. ESTABLISHING THE CONTRACT. The final bid becomes the contract. The partnership that made the final bid are the Declarer's side. The player in that partnership who first named the trump suit (or No Trump) becomes the Declarer.
8. THE OPENING LEAD AND DUMMY. The player to Declarer's left makes the opening lead by placing any card face up on the table. Declarer's partner (Dummy) then lays all 13 cards face up on the table, sorted by suit. Dummy takes no further part in play; Declarer plays both hands.
9. PLAYING TRICKS. Play proceeds clockwise. Each player must follow suit if possible. If unable to follow suit, a player may play any card including a trump. The trick is won by the highest trump played, or if no trump was played, by the highest card of the suit led. Aces rank highest, then K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2.
10. The player who wins a trick leads to the next trick. Declarer plays a card from Dummy by stating which card is to be played; Dummy does not make choices.
11. Play continues until all 13 tricks are complete. Declarer's side counts how many tricks they have won.
12. SCORING. If Declarer's side wins at least as many tricks as the contract required, they have made the contract and score points below the line. If they fall short by even one trick, they have gone down and the defenders score penalty points above the line. See the Winning section for exact figures.

Winning and scoring

Scores are divided into 'above the line' (bonuses and penalties) and 'below the line' (trick points that count toward game). A partnership wins a game by scoring 100 or more points below the line. The first partnership to win two games wins the rubber and scores a bonus of 700 points if the opponents have won no game, or 500 points if the opponents have won one game.

Trick points scored below the line: in Clubs or Diamonds (minor suits) each odd trick bid and made scores 20 points. In Hearts or Spades (major suits) each odd trick scores 30 points. In No Trump the first odd trick scores 40 points and each subsequent one 30 points. A doubled contract scores double these trick points; a redoubled contract scores four times the basic trick points. Overtricks (tricks made beyond the contract) score above the line at set rates. Undertricks score penalty points to the defenders: 50 per trick if not vulnerable, 100 per trick if vulnerable, rising steeply when doubled or redoubled. A side that has won one game is 'vulnerable', which increases both bonuses and penalties. Slam bonuses apply for bidding and making 12 tricks (small slam: 500 not vulnerable, 750 vulnerable) or all 13 tricks (grand slam: 1000 not vulnerable, 1500 vulnerable).

The fine points

Revoke (failure to follow suit when able) is the most common dispute. A revoke is established once the offending player or their partner plays to the next trick. If established, the penalty is two tricks transferred to the non-offending side; if the revoke was on the last trick, only one trick is transferred. A revoke must be corrected before it is established simply by substituting the correct card, with the card played in error becoming a penalty card. A penalty card must be played at the first legal opportunity.

Lead out of turn is also common. If Declarer leads from the wrong hand, the defenders may accept the lead or require it to be retracted. If a defender leads out of turn, Declarer may accept the lead, or may require the correct defender to lead any suit Declarer names, or may treat it as a penalty card. Bidding disputes, including a call out of rotation, require the auction to be reopened from the point of irregularity under standard laws; the offending player's subsequent call options are restricted. When in doubt at a club or home game, restoring the status quo as closely as possible and applying the nearest standard penalty is the accepted approach.

How to win more often

• Count your points before bidding. Add 4 for an Ace, 3 for a King, 2 for a Queen, 1 for a Jack. An opening bid typically requires 12 or more high-card points; with fewer, pass unless your hand is unusually distributional.
• Support your partner's suit with three or more cards before introducing your own long suit. Finding an eight-card fit between the two hands is the primary goal of the auction.
• As Declarer, plan the play before touching a card from Dummy. Count your certain winners, identify where extra tricks must come from, and consider the order in which you need to play the suits.
• Draw trumps early unless you need Dummy's trumps to ruff losers. Leaving trumps in the opponents' hands allows them to disrupt your side-suit winners.
• As a defender, use the opening lead to communicate with your partner. Leading the top of a sequence (K from K-Q-J) or fourth-highest from your longest suit are standard agreements that give partner vital information from the first card.

Variations

Duplicate Bridge

The most widely played competitive form. Rather than reshuffling after each hand, the cards are preserved in boards and the same deals are played at multiple tables. Partnerships compare scores on identical hands against other partnerships who held the same cards, removing the luck of the deal from the final result. Duplicate is the standard format for club play and all major tournaments.

Chicago Bridge (Four-Deal Bridge)

A format designed for social play without the need to complete a full rubber. Four deals are played in a set, with vulnerability predetermined by deal number: neither side is vulnerable on deal one, the dealer's side on deal two, the non-dealer's side on deal three, and both sides on deal four. Points are totalled at the end of the four deals and the highest score wins. Chicago is well suited to groups where players may join or leave between sets.

Minibridge

A simplified introductory version that removes the bidding phase entirely. After the deal, players count their high-card points aloud, and the partnership with the higher combined total becomes Declarer's side. The player in that partnership with more points becomes Declarer and announces the contract based on the combined point count before Dummy is revealed. Minibridge lets newcomers focus entirely on trick play before tackling the complexities of bidding.

Rubber Bridge

The classic home form of the game, played to the completion of a rubber as described in the main rules above. Rubber Bridge allows genuine card memory and table feel to accumulate across a session because the same players and partnerships remain throughout. It differs from Duplicate in that a player who holds consistently strong cards will score more, making it the more social and less purely skill-based format of the two.

Contract Bridge: frequently asked questions