Lesson 4 of 17
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010 – The Ranking of Bridge Bids

010

The Rank of Suits in a Bridge Game

During the bidding of a hand of bridge, players can’t make a bid unless their bid is higher than the previous bid. When you play Bridge, two factors determine whether your bid is legal – the suit you’re bidding and how many tricks you’re bidding for in that suit.
Beginners Bridge Lesson – What Is The Highest Ranking Suit
  • Spades
  • Hearts
  • Diamonds
  • Clubs

The suits are listed above in descending order:NoTrump (NT) is the highest, but is not a suit: Spades is the highest ranking suit in Bridge, followed by hearts, then by diamonds, and the lowest ranking suit is clubs

The importance of suit rank is to do with winning the bidding for a contract and it is used to decide which bids take precedence over others. Succeeding bids must be at a higher level . Spades is the highest ranking suit followed by Hearts next Diamonds and the lowest ranked suit is Clubs.
All bids after the opening bid have to be of a higher ranking suit, or a higher level. For example, a bid of 1 Club (1C) is superseded by a bid of 1 Diamond (1D) or 1 Heart (1H) or 1 Spade (1S) or 1 No Trump (1NT); equally, a bid of 2D is superseded by 2H or 2S or 2NT; and so on. 2C is higher than 1H: a lower ranking suit has to be bid at a higher level. The auction ends after 3 passes (you cannot re-enter the bidding)
To bid a minor suit you should have at least four cards in that suit, to rebid it you need five cards.

Clubs Diamonds Hearts Spades NoTrump
1C
Lowest Bid
1D 1H 1S 1NT
Highest 1 level bid
2C 2D 2H 2S 2NT
3C 3D 3H 3S 3NT
4C 4D 4H 4S 4NT
5C 5D 5H 5S 5NT
6C 6D 6H 6S 6NT
7C 7D 7H 7S 7NT
Highest Bid
Table 1. The rank order of Bridge suits ,  The lowest bid 1C is on the left top corner  across to the highest bid at the 1 level, then down to 2C  with the highest bid being 7NT in the right hand bottom corner





Instant Progress Quiz – Check the correct answer



  3S

   3NT

   3C

   3H

Responses