"The Play"
The opening lead
Declarer plays both their own and dummy’s hand. More is to, at the bare minimum, win the number of rounds they estimated in the bidding. The opposition are trying to stop the Declarer achieving this goal.
Tricks
In Bridge, a round where each player plays one card is called a ‘Trick’, so we will be referring to them as ‘Tricks’ from now on.
In the ‘Play’ phase, you must follow suit if you can. If you cannot follow suit then play a low value card of another suit.
Watch this game and then play it later
*Audio- turn your sound on to hear commentary
Instant Progress Quiz - Check the correct answer
Exercise: Your contract is 3NT and North is declarer
North’s Hand – Declarer in this Game
- ♠ A J
- ♥ A K 7 5
- ♦ J 5 2
- ♣ Q T 2
South’s Hand – DummyThe declarer’s partner is called the dummy, and after the opening lead has been made by the opposition dummy lays all their cards on the table face up.
That is the end of this game for dummy and they have no more to play in this game.
Declarer now plays … More laid on the table for this game
- ♠ K T 8 5
- ♥ T 4 3
- ♦ T 8 3
- ♣ K 3
Answer: East leads KD next to play is Dummy, then West and finally North
Play a Game of Bridge
- Your partner opens 1C
- You bid 1D
- Partner bids 1S
- You bid 3NTThis if its bid in the opening position means the opener has 25+ points and a balanced hand. As a sign off bid it means game in No Trumps.
The bid means you have contracted to win at least 9 tricks with no trump suit.
The leading or first card played det… More - Three consecutive passes and the bidding is finished
- The game is divided into two phases – ‘Bidding’ and ‘Play’
- You don’t know the bidding rules yet, so in the ‘Bidding’ phase use the ? on the bidding table to display the suggested bid
- Then click the suggested bid on the bidding pad and it will appear on the bidding table
- Bidding ends when 3 players in a row choose to Pass (p)
- In the ‘Play’ phase, you must follow suit eg. if the first card in a round is a diamond then you must play a diamond if you can
- If you can’t follow suit then play a low card from another suit
Glossary
refers to the playing of the cards part of the game
this is the player who has won the auction and whose partnership has made the highest bid, they get to play their own hand plus their partners hand
after winning the contractThe final suit and level of bidding sets the number of tricks and the trump suit for the game.This is called the contract. The partnership that wins the bidding can earn the points if they succeed in getting the number of tricks they contracted.
The number … More this player participates in the bidding with partner but when the card playing happens they put their cards face up on the table and their partner gets to play them
the partnership that don’t win the auction and whose job it is is to try and win as many tricks from declarer as possible
when individual players are entering bids into the bidding pad on the table
is the first card played to a game and it is always the opposition who lost the auction who have this opportunity
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