Contract bridge or bridge as it is also known as is a game about trick taking and is played with the standard deck of 52 playing cards. Four players can play this game with two competing partnerships, where partners sit opposite to one another around a table. Many people across the country and around the world play this game with friends sitting in a club or at home with family. For the purpose of scoring and reference each player is marked by one of the points of compass and thus South and North play against West and East. It consists of many deals each moving forward through 4 phases: dealing of the cards, the auction, playing the hand and scoring the results. Dealing with the cards and scoring results are part of procedural activities while auction and playing the hand are two actively competitive segments of the game.
Dealing:
Partnerships are actually determined by self or by cuts of cards the two highest cut playing against the two lowest; the first dealer is the player cutting the highest card. Cards are dealt clockwise, one at a time and face down starting on the dealer`s left so that each player receives thirteen cards. In duplicate bridge the dealer is predetermined by the board. The board also contains the four hands which have been dealt and placed in the board prior to commencement of the game; these hands are not reused over the course of the event.
Auction or Bidding:
The process of bidding starts with the dealer and also rotates around the table in a clockwise direction with each player making a call. The main purpose of course is to find out which partnership will contract to take more tricks given a particular trump suit or with no trump.
The partnership that makes for highest final bid is called declaring side and is also said to have won the contract. During the auction, the player on declaring side first stated the suit ultimately becoming trumps (or first stated no-trump if that is the final strain) is referred to as the declarer)
Playing:
The rules used for contract bridge is similar to some of the other trick games that are quite popular as well. There are some other additional features as well like the hand of declarer partner is displayed face up on the table after the opening lead to the left of the declarer has been made by the member of the defending side. The hand that is displayed is referred to as Dummy and is played by declarer.
Scoring:
After all the thirteen have been played with the score is calculated by comparing the original number of tricks taken by the declaring partnerships with what is proposed in the awarding points and contracts accordingly. For the declaring side, the available scoring side are dependent upon both the strain and level of the contract and are also awarded to them only when the contract is made which is at least the contracted for number of tricks are won by them; failure to do so results in the defending side`s receiving points instead and they are said to have `defeated` the contract. Individual scores of several hands are accumulated to determine the overall game score.
