Poker (Gin, Bridge)

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How to play Poker, Gin and Bridge

Poker

Rule Download

A4 printable rules for Poker

Introduction

Poker is a card game that exists in countless variants, some of which are introduce below. Typically, there are a number of dealing and betting rounds, at the end of which the player with the highest hand wins the game.

Just as there are many variations of the game itself, there are many ways to bet, and to play a set of games. While it’s perfectly possible to play individual games for cash, it’s also possible to play tournaments to determine a winner, whether or not gambling is involved.

The game involves a strong element of luck, but over the course of many games played, statistics, combinatorics, bluffing, and psychology become more and more important.

Gameplay and ranking of hands

In casual play, the right to deal a hand typically rotates among the players and is marked by a token called a dealer button (or buck). Alternatively, a dedicated dealer handles the cards for each hand, but the button (typically a white plastic disk) is rotated clockwise among the players to indicate a nominal dealer to determine the order of betting. The cards are dealt clockwise around the poker table, one at a time.

One or more players are usually required to make forced bets, usually either an ante or a blind bet (sometimes both). The dealer shuffles the cards, the player on the chair to his or her right cuts, and the dealer deals the appropriate number of cards to the players one at a time, beginning with the player to his or her left. Cards may be dealt either face-up or face-down, depending on the variant of poker being played. After the initial deal, the first of what may be several betting rounds begins. Between rounds, the players‘ hands develop in some way, often by being dealt additional cards or replacing cards previously dealt. At the end of each round, all bets are gathered into the central pot.

At any time during a betting round, if one player bets, no opponents choose to call (match) the bet, and all opponents instead fold, the hand ends immediately, the bettor is awarded the pot, no cards are required to be shown, and the next hand begins. This is what makes bluffing possible. Bluffing is a primary feature of poker, one that distinguishes it from other vying games and from other games that make use of poker hand rankings.

At the end of the last betting round, if more than one player remains, there is a showdown, in which the players reveal their previously hidden cards and evaluate their hands. The player with the best hand according to the poker variant being played wins the pot. A poker hand comprises five cards; in variants where a player has more than five cards available to them, only the best five-card combination counts.

The ranking of the individual cards, from high to low, is: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The raking of hands, from high to low, is as follows.

Five of a kind

Hand that contains five cards of one rank, such as five queens; only possible when using wild cards.

Royal flush

An ace-high straight flush, the highest hand in many poker games.

Straight flush

Hand that contains five cards of sequential rank, all of the same suit. Each straight flush is ranked by the rank of its highest-ranking card.

Four of a kind

Hand that contains four cards of one rank and one card of another rank (the kicker). Each four of a kind is ranked first by the rank of its quadruplet, and then by the rank of its kicker.

Full house

Hand that contains three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank. Each full house is ranked first by the rank of its triplet, and then by the rank of its pair.

Flush

Hand that contains five cards all of the same suit, but not all of sequential rank. Each flush is ranked first by the rank of its highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its second highestranking card, then by the rank of its third highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its fourth highest-ranking card, and finally by the rank of its lowest-ranking card.

Straight

Hand that contains five cards of sequential rank, not all of the same suit. Each straight is ranked by the rank of its highest-ranking card. Under high rules (the highest hand wins), an ace can rank either high (as in A♦ K♣ Q♣ J♦ 10♠, an ace-high straight) or low (as in 5♣ 4♦ 3♥ 2♥ A♠, a five-high straight), but cannot simultaneously rank both high and low (so Q♠ K♠ A♣ 2♥ 3♦ is an ace-high hand).

Three of a kind

Hand that contains three cards of one rank and two cards of two other ranks (the kickers). Each three of a kind is ranked first by the rank of its triplet, then by the rank of its highestranking kicker, and finally by the rank of its lowest-ranking kicker.

Two pair

Hand that contains two cards of one rank, two cards of another rank and one card of a third rank (the kicker). Each two pair is ranked first by the rank of its highest-ranking pair, then by the rank of its lowest-ranking pair, and finally by the rank of its kicker.

One pair

Hand that contains two cards of one rank and three cards of three other ranks (the kickers). Each one pair is ranked first by the rank of its pair, then by the rank of its highest-ranking kicker, then by the rank of its second highest-ranking kicker, and finally by the rank of its lowest-ranking kicker.

High card

None of the above, i.e. a hand that does not fall into any other category. Each high card hand is ranked first by the rank of its highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its second highestranking card, then by the rank of its third highest-ranking card, then by the rank of its fourth highest-ranking card, and finally by the rank of its lowest-ranking card.

Texas hold ‘em

Following a shuffle of the cards, play begins with each player being dealt two cards face down, with the player in the small blind receiving the first card and the player in the button seat receiving the last card dealt. (As in most poker games, the deck is a standard 52-card deck containing no jokers.) These cards are the players‘ hole or pocket cards. These are the only cards each player will receive individually, and they will (possibly) be revealed only at the showdown, making Texas hold ‘em a closed poker game.

The hand begins with a „pre-flop“ betting round, beginning with the player to the left of the big blind (or the player to the left of the dealer, if no blinds are used) and continuing clockwise. A round of betting continues until every player has folded, put in all of their chips, or matched the amount put in by all other active players. See betting for a detailed account. Note that the blinds are considered „live“ in the pre-flop betting round, meaning that they are counted toward the amount that the blind player must contribute. If all players call around to the player in the big blind position, that player may either check or raise.

After the pre-flop betting round, assuming there remain at least two players taking part in the hand, the dealer deals a flop: three face-up community cards. The flop is followed by a second betting round. This and all subsequent betting rounds begin with the player to the dealer‘s left and continue clockwise.

After the flop betting round ends, a single community card (called the turn or fourth street) is dealt, followed by a third betting round. A final single community card (called the river or fifth street) is then dealt, followed by a fourth betting round and the showdown, if necessary. In the third and fourth betting rounds, the stakes double.

In all casinos, the dealer will burn a card before the flop, turn, and river. Because of this burn, players who are betting cannot see the back of the next community card to come. This is done for traditional reasons, to avoid any possibility of a player knowing in advance the next card to be dealt due to its being marked.

The showdown: If a player bets and all other players fold, then the remaining player is awarded the pot and is not required to show their hole cards. If two or more players remain after the final betting round, a showdown occurs. On the showdown, each player plays the best poker hand they can make from the seven cards comprising their two-hole cards and the five community cards. A player may use both of their own two hole cards, only one, or none at all, to form their final five-card hand. If the five community cards form the player‘s best hand, then the player is said to be playing the board and can only hope to split the pot, because each other player can also use the same five cards to construct the same hand.

If the best hand is shared by more than one player, then the pot is split equally among them, with any extra chips going to the first players after the button in clockwise order. It is common for players to have closely valued, but not identically ranked hands. Nevertheless, one must be careful in determining the best hand; if the hand involves fewer than five cards, (such as two pair or three of a kind), then kickers are used to settle ties (see the second example below). The card‘s numerical rank is of sole importance; suit values are irrelevant in hold ‘em.

Various betting structures exist for Texas hold ‘em. Normally, it is played using small and big blind bets— forced bets by two players. Antes (forced contributions by all players) may be used in addition to blinds, particularly in later stages of tournament play. A dealer button is used to represent the player in the dealer position; the dealer button rotates clockwise after each hand, changing the position of the dealer and blinds. The small blind is posted by the player to the left of the dealer and is usually equal to half of the big blind. The big blind, posted by the player to the left of the small blind, is equal to the minimum bet. In tournament poker, the blind/ante structure periodically increases as the tournament progresses. After one round of betting is done, the next betting round will start by the person in the small blind.

When only two players remain, special ‚head-to-head‘ or ‚heads up‘ rules are enforced and the blinds are posted differently. In this case, the person with the dealer button posts the small blind, while his/her opponent places the big blind. The dealer acts first before the flop. After the flop, the dealer acts last and continues to do so for the remainder of the hand.

The three most common variations of hold ‘em are limit hold ‘em, no-limit hold ‘em, and potlimit hold‘em. In limit hold ‘em, bets and raises during the first two rounds of betting (preflop and flop) must be equal to the big blind; this amount is called the small bet. In the next two rounds of betting (turn and river), bets and raises must be equal to twice the big blind; this amount is called the big bet. In no-limit hold ‘em, players may bet or raise any amount over the minimum raise up to all of the chips the player has at the table (called an all-in bet). The minimum raise is equal to the size of the previous bet or raise. If someone wishes to re-raise, they must raise at least the amount of the previous raise. If a raise or re-raise is all-in and does not equal the size of the previous raise (or half the size in some casinos), the initial raiser cannot re-raise again (in case there are other players also still in the game). In pot-limit hold ‘em, the maximum raise is the current size of the pot (including the amount needed to call).

Omaha

Omaha hold ‘em is similar to Texas hold ‘em, but each player is dealt four cards and must make their best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards.

In North America, the term „Omaha“ can refer to several poker games. The original game is also commonly known as „Omaha high“. A high-low split version called „Omaha Hi-Lo“, or sometimes „Omaha eight-or-better“ or „Omaha/8“, is also played. In Europe, „Omaha“ still typically refers to the high version of the game, usually played pot-limit.

In Omaha/8, each player makes a separate five-card high hand and five-card ace-to-five low hand (eight-high or lower to qualify), and the pot is split between the high and low (which may be the same player). Each player can play any two of their four hole cards to make their high hand, and any two of their four hole cards to make their low hand. If there is no qualifying low hand, the high hand wins (scoops) the whole pot.

Seven-card stud

Seven-card stud, also known as Seven-Toed Pete or Down-The-River is one of the most popular poker variants in home games across the United States, and in casinos in the eastern part of the country. Two to eight players is common, though eight may require special rules for the last cards dealt if no players fold. With experienced players who fold often, even playing with nine players is possible.

Rules: The game begins with each player being dealt two cards face down and one card face up. The player with the lowest-ranking upcard pays the bring-in, and betting proceeds after that in normal clockwise order. The bring-in is considered an open, so the next player in turn may not check. If two players have equally ranked low cards, suit may be used to break the tie and assign the bring-in (see high card by suit). If there is no bring-in, then the first betting round begins with the player showing the highest-ranking upcard, who may check. In this case, suit is not used to break ties. If two players have the same high upcard, the one first in clockwise rotation from the dealer acts first.

After the first betting round, another upcard is dealt to each player (after a burn card, and starting at the dealer‘s left as will all subsequent rounds), followed by a second betting round beginning with the player whose upcards make the best poker hand. Since fewer than five cards are face up, this means no straights, flushes, or full houses will count for this purpose. On this and all subsequent betting rounds, the player whose face-up cards make the best poker hand will act first, and may check or bet up to the game‘s limit.

The second round is followed by a third upcard and betting round, a fourth upcard and betting round, and finally a downcard, a fifth betting round, and showdown if necessary. Sevencard stud can be summarized therefore as „two down, four up, one down“. Upon showdown, each player makes the best five-card poker hand they can out of the seven cards they were dealt.

Seven cards to eight players plus four burn cards makes 60 cards, and there are only 52 in the deck. In most games this is not a problem because several players will have folded in early betting rounds. If the deck does become exhausted during play, previously-dealt burn cards can be used when only a few cards are needed to complete the deal. If even those are not sufficient, then on the final round instead of dealing a downcard to each player, a single community card is dealt to the center of the table, and is shared by everyone. Discarded cards from a folded hand are not reused.

Variants

There are several variations of 7 Card Stud Poker in which each player is dealt a set number of cards. Not all of these variations can be found at poker rooms but they can be fun to play at home.

• „Down the River“ is the basic variation of 7 Card Stud Poker.
• „Mississippi“ removes the betting round between fourth and fifth streets, making only four betting rounds. This game also deals the fourth and fifth cards face up. This makes the game more closely resemble Texas Hold ‘em by having the same betting structure and the same number of down and up cards.
• Another is „roll your own“, in which four rounds of two cards each are dealt down, and each player must „roll“ one card to face up, followed by a round of betting. Except for the first round, the card rolled may or may not be from the round just dealt.
• „Queens and after“: in this variant, all Queens are wild, and so is whatever card that is dealt face up that follows the Queen. All cards of that kind are now wild, both showing and in the hole. The fun part is that if another Queen is dealt face-up, the wild card will change to whatever follows this Queen. The former card is no longer wild.
• „Baseball“: in this variant 3s and 9s are wild, and a 4 dealt face up gets an extra card.
• „Low Chicago“: Low spade in the hole gets half the pot. Similarly, „High Chicago“ means high spade instead of low. Just „Chicago“ can mean either.
• „Acey Ducey“: aces and twos are wild. • One-eyed Jacks or Suicide King can be specified as wild. • Razz is a lowball form of Seven Card Stud, with the objective being to get the lowest hand possible.
• In the variation called „Seven-Card Stud High-Low“, the pot is split between the holder of the highest and lowest hand if the low hand is topped by at least an 8. Alternative names to this variation are Seven Card Stud/8 and Seven Card Stud Split.

Five-card draw

Five-card draw (also known as a Cantrell draw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker.

Play begins with each player being dealt five cards, one at a time, all face down. The remaining deck is placed aside, often protected by placing a chip or other marker on it. Players pick up the cards and hold them in their hands, being careful to keep them concealed from the other players, then a round of betting occurs.

The first betting round begins with the player to the left of the big blind, and subsequent rounds begin with the player to the dealer‘s left. Instead of small and big blinds, antes may be used, and in this case, the first betting round begins with the player to the dealer‘s left, and the second round begins with the player who opened the first round.

If more than one player remains after the first round, the „draw“ phase begins. Each player specifies how many of their cards they wish to replace and discards them. The deck is retrieved, and each player is dealt in turn from the deck the same number of cards they discarded so that each player again has five cards.

A second „after the draw“ betting round occurs beginning with the player to the dealer‘s left or else beginning with the player who opened the first round (the latter is common when antes are used instead of blinds). This is followed by a showdown, if more than one player remains, in which the player with the best hand wins the pot.

Gin

Rule Download

A4 printable rules for Gin

Basics and object of the game

Gin, or gin rummy, is a two-player card game, played with a standard 52-card pack of cards, ranking from high to low: King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace.

The players’ objective is to score points and reach an agreed number of points or more, usually 100 or more, before their opponent does.

The basic game strategy is to improve one‘s hand by forming melds and eliminating deadwood. Gin has two types of meld: Sets of 3 or 4 cards sharing the same rank, e.g. 8♥ 8♦ 8♠; and runs of 3 or more cards in sequence, of the same suit, such as 3♥ 4♥ 5♥ or more. Deadwood cards are those not in any meld. Aces are considered low—they can form a set with other aces but only the low end of runs (A♠ 2♠ 3♠ is a legal run but Q♠ K♠ A♠ is not). A player can form any combination of melds within their hand; all sets, all runs, or some sets and some runs.

The deadwood count is the sum of the point values of the deadwood cards—aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and others according to their numerical values. Intersecting melds are not allowed; if a player has a three-card set and a three-card run sharing a common card, only one of the melds counts, and the other two cards count as deadwood. For example; within the five cards 7♣ 7♠ 7♦ 8♦ 9♦, the seven of diamonds can be included in the set (7♣ 7♠ 7♦) or included in the run (7♦ 8♦ 9♦ ), but it cannot be included in both.

Dealing

Dealership alternates from round to round, with the first dealer chosen by any agreed upon method. The dealer deals 10 cards to each player one at a time starting with their opponent, and then places the next card in the deck face up. This begins the discard pile. The face down pile is known as the stock pile.

Gameplay

On the first turn of the round, the non-dealing player has first option of taking the upcard on the discard pile or passing. If the non-dealing player takes the upcard, they must then discard a different card to the discard pile. The player acting second can take the top card from the pile of their choice. However, if the non-dealing player passes the upcard, the dealer is given the opportunity to take the upcard or pass. If the dealer also passes, the non-dealing player must draw from the stock pile, then the next turn and after, players can draw from the pile of their choice.

On each subsequent turn, a player must draw either the (face-up) top card of the discard pile, or the (face-down) top card from the stock pile, and discard one card from their hand onto the discard pile.

Players alternate taking turns until one player ends the round by knocking, going Gin, or until only two cards remain in the stock pile, in which case the round ends in a draw and no points are awarded. The game ends when a player reaches 100 or more points (or another established amount). In tournament rules the game is usually played in best of five with 250 points per game.

Knocking

In standard gin, only a player with 10 or fewer points of deadwood may knock. Knocking with 0 points of deadwood is known as going Gin or having a Gin hand, while knocking with deadwood points is known as going down.

To knock, the knocking player discards as usual, announces knocking (generally by simply placing a discard face down), and the hand is laid out with the melds clearly indicated and deadwood separated. The other („defending“) player is then entitled to lay out any melds in their hand and can then lay off any of their remaining deadwood cards that fit into the knocking player‘s melds, provided that the knocking player does not have a gin hand.

For example, the knocking player has a meld of three Kings. The defending player‘s deadwood has a king. The player can lay off that king, reducing the deadwood count by ten. The knocking player can never lay off their deadwood into the defending player‘s melds. Once a player knocks or declares gin the round is over and scores are tallied, players cannot draw.

The knocking player then subtracts their deadwood points from the defending player‘s deadwood points. The result is the number of points the knocking player receives. An undercut occurs if a player knocks and the defending player‘s deadwood points are less than or equal to the knocking player‘s. In this case the defending player receives an undercut bonus (usually 25 points) plus the difference in deadwood points. If the defending player has less or equal deadwood to the knocking player‘s deadwood after laying off any of their deadwood, then it is still a valid undercut.

Gin

If all 10 cards in a player‘s hand fit into melds and thereby the player has no deadwood, they can choose to go Gin in which case the round ends and the player going Gin receives a Gin bonus of 25 points (or another established amount) plus any deadwood points in the opponent‘s hand. The defending opponent can only lay out their melds and cannot lay off any deadwood into the melds of an opponent that has declared Gin. A player can go Gin with a hand of three or fewer melds as long as all cards fit into a meld. Players can also have an 11 card gin, as follows.

Big Gin

Gin hands normally consist of 10 cards. However, if a player chooses to draw so that 11 cards fit into melds, they can declare Big Gin in which case the player receives a Big Gin bonus of 31 points (or another established amount, 50 being also common) plus any deadwood in the opponent‘s hand.

Scoring

Aces are scored at 1 point, face cards at 10, and all other cards are scored at their numerical values. The number of points awarded for bonuses may vary from region to region. No matter what the bonus amounts are, points are scored in Gin for the following:

Knock points

After a player knocks, and the layoffs are made, the knocking player receives a score equal to the difference between the two hands. For example, if a player knocks with 8, and the defender has 10 deadwood points in their hand after laying off, the knocking player receives 2 points for the hand. If a player is able to knock before any cards are accepted, it is considered a misdeal.

Gin bonus

After going gin, a player receives a bonus of 25 points plus the entire count of deadwood in the opponent‘s hand. There is no chance to lay off when a player goes gin.

Undercut (or underknocking)

Occurs when the defending player has a deadwood count lower than or equal to that of the knocking player (this can occur either naturally or by laying off after a knock). In this case, the defender scores an undercut bonus of 25 points plus the difference in deadwood in the knocking player‘s hand. (In some rule sets, the bonus is only 10 or 20 points, or is not awarded in case of a tie.)

Game bonus

Once a player has acquired 500 points (or some other agreed-upon number) the game is over, and that player receives a game bonus of 100 points (or another agreed-upon number).

Line bonus or box bonus

Added at the end of the game. For every hand a player won during the game, 25 points is added to their score.

Big gin

Prior to knocking, if all 11 cards in a player‘s hand form a legal gin, the player can retain the extra card as part of their hand, and is awarded 31 points plus entire count of deadwood in their opponent‘s hand.

Shutout bonus

If a game is completed with the winner having won every hand, the points for each hand are doubled before adding the line bonus.

Bridge

Rule Download

A4 printable rules for Bridge

Introduction

Contract bridge consists of a number of deals, each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players, and then the players ‘’call’’ (or ‘’bid’’) in an auction seeking to take the contract, specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners endeavor to exchange information about their hands, including overall strength and distribution of the suits. The cards are then played, the declaring side trying to fulfill the contract, and the defenders trying to stop the declaring side from achieving its goal. The deal is scored based on the number of tricks taken, the contract, and various other factors which depend to some extent on the variation of the game being played.

Rubber bridge is the most popular variation for casual play, but most club and tournament play involves some variant of duplicate bridge, in which the cards are not re-dealt on each occasion, but the same deal is played by two or more sets of players (or „tables“) to enable comparative scoring.

Rules

Each player is dealt thirteen cards from a standard 52-card deck. A trick starts when a player leads, i.e. plays the first card. The leader to the first trick is determined by the auction; the leader to each subsequent trick is the player who won the preceding trick. Each player, in a clockwise order, plays one card on the trick. Players must play a card of the same suit as the original card led, unless they have none (said to be „void“), in which case they may play any card.

The player who played the highest-ranked card wins the trick. Within a suit, the ace is ranked highest followed by the king, queen, and jack, and then the ten through to the two. In a deal where the auction has determined that there is no trump suit, the trick must be won by a card of the suit led. However, in a deal where there is a trump suit, cards of that suit are superior in rank to any of the cards of any other suit. If one or more players plays a trump to a trick when void in the suit led, the highest trump wins. For example, if the trump suit is spades and a player is void in the suit led and plays a spade card, they win the trick if no other player plays a higher spade. If a trump suit is led, the usual rule for trick-taking applies.

Unlike its predecessor whist, the goal of bridge is not simply to take the most tricks in a deal. Instead, the goal is to successfully estimate how many tricks one‘s partnership can take. To illustrate this, the simpler partnership trick-taking game of spades has a similar mechanism: the usual trick-taking rules apply with the trump suit being spades, but in the beginning of the game, players bid or estimate how many tricks they can win, and the number of tricks bid by both players in a partnership are added. If a partnership takes at least that many number of tricks, they receive points for the round; otherwise, they receive penalty points.

Setup and dealing

The four players sit in two partnerships with players sitting opposite their partners. A cardinal direction is assigned to each seat, so that one partnership sits in North and South, while the other sits in West and East. The cards may be freshly dealt or, in duplicate bridge games, pre-dealt.

In rubber bridge, each player draws a card at the start of the game with the player who drew the highest cards dealing first. The second highest card becomes the dealer‘s partner and takes the chair on the opposite side of the table. They play against the other two. The deck is shuffled and cut, usually by the player to the left of the dealer, before dealing. Players take turns to deal, in a clockwise order. The dealer deals the cards clockwise, one card at a time. Rubber bridge may be played with two packs of cards and whilst one pack is being dealt, the dealer‘s partner shuffles the other pack. After shuffling the pack is placed on the right ready for the next dealer. Before dealing, the next dealer passes the cards to the previous dealer who cuts them.

In duplicate bridge, the cards are pre-dealt, either by hand or by a computerized dealing machine, in order to allow for competitive scoring. Once dealt, the cards are placed in a device called a „board“, having slots designated for each player‘s cardinal direction seating position. After a deal has been played, players return their cards to the appropriate slot in the board, ready to be played by the next table.

Auction

The dealer opens the auction and can make the first call, and the auction proceeds clockwise. When it is their turn to call, a player may pass – but can enter into the bidding later – or bid a contract, specifying the level of their contract and either the trump suit or no trump (the denomination), provided that it is higher than the last bid by any player, including their partner. All bids promise to take a number of tricks in excess of six, so a bid must be between one (seven tricks) and seven (thirteen tricks). A bid is higher than another bid if either the level is greater (e.g., 2♣ over 1NT) or the denomination is higher, with the order being in ascending order: ♣,♦,♥,♠, and NT (no trump). Calls may be made orally, or with a bidding box.

If the last bid was by the opposing partnership, one may also double the opponents‘ bid, increasing the penalties for undertricks, but also increasing the reward for making the contract. Doubling does not carry to future bids by the opponents unless future bids are doubled again. A player on the opposing partnership being doubled may also redouble, which increases the penalties and rewards further. Players may not see their partner‘s hand during the auction, only their own. There exist many bidding conventions that assign agreed meanings to various calls to assist players in reaching an optimal contract (or obstruct the opponents).

The auction ends when, after a player bids, doubles, or redoubles, every other player has passed, in which case the action proceeds to the play; or every player has passed and no bid has been made, in which case the round is considered to be „passed out“ and not played.

Play

The player from the declaring side who first bid the denomination named in the final contract becomes declarer. The player left to the declarer leads to the first trick. Dummy then lays his or her cards face up on the table, organized in columns by suit. Play proceeds clockwise, with each player required to follow suit if possible. Tricks are won by the highest trump, or if there were none played, the highest card of the led suit. The player who won the previous trick leads to the next trick. The declarer has control of the dummy‘s cards and tells his partner which card to play at dummy‘s turn. There also exist conventions that communicate further information between defenders about their hands during the play.

At any time, a player may claim, stating that their side will win a specific number of the remaining tricks. The claiming player lays his cards down on the table and explains the order in which he intends to play the remaining cards. The opponents can either accept the claim and the round is scored accordingly, or dispute the claim. If the claim is disputed, play continues with the claiming player‘s cards face up in rubber games, or in duplicate games, play ceases and the tournament director is called to adjudicate the hand.

Scoring

At the end of the hand, points are awarded to the declaring side if they make the contract, or else to the defenders. Partnerships can be vulnerable, increasing the rewards for making the contract, but also increasing the penalties for undertricks. In rubber bridge, if a side has won 100 contract points, they have won a game and are vulnerable for the remaining rounds, but in duplicate bridge, vulnerability is predetermined based on the number of each board.

If the declaring side makes their contract, they receive points for odd tricks, or tricks bid and made in excess of six. In both rubber and duplicate bridge, the declaring side is awarded 20 points per odd trick for a contract in clubs or diamonds, and 30 points per odd trick for a contract in hearts or spades. For a contract in notrump, the declaring side is awarded 40 points for the first odd trick and 30 points for the remaining odd tricks. Contract points are doubled or quadrupled if the contract is respectively doubled or redoubled.

In rubber bridge, a partnership wins one game once it has accumulated 100 contract points; excess contract points do not carry over to the next game. A partnership that wins two games wins the rubber, receiving a bonus of 500 points if the opponents have won a game, and 700 points if they have not.

Overtricks score the same number of points per odd trick, although their doubled and redoubled values differ. Bonuses vary between the two bridge variations both in score and in type (for example, rubber bridge awards a bonus for holding a certain combination of high cards), although some are common between the two.

A larger bonus is awarded if the declaring side makes a small slam or grand slam, a contract of 12 or 13 tricks respectively. If the declaring side is not vulnerable, a small slam gets 500 points, and a grand slam 1000 points. If the declaring side is vulnerable, a small slam is 750 points and a grand slam is 1,500.

In rubber bridge, the rubber finishes when a partnership has won two games, but the partnership receiving the most overall points wins the rubber. Duplicate bridge is scored comparatively, meaning that the score for the hand is compared to other tables playing the same cards and match points are scored according to the comparative results: usually either „matchpoint scoring“, where each partnership receives 2 points (or 1 point) for each pair that they beat, and 1 point (or 1⁄2 point) for each tie; or IMPs (international matchpoint) scoring, where the number of IMPs varies (but less than proportionately) with the points difference between the teams.

Undertricks are scored in both variations as follows:

Laws of bridge

Duplicate bridge

The official rules of duplicate bridge are promulgated by the World Bridge Federation (WBF) as „The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017“. The Laws Committee of the WBF, composed of world experts, updates the Laws every 10 years; it also issues a Laws Commentary advising on interpretations it has rendered.

In addition to the basic rules of play, there are many additional rules covering playing conditions and the rectification of irregularities, which are primarily for use by tournament directors who act as referees and have overall control of procedures during competitions. But various details of procedure are left to the discretion of the zonal bridge organisation for tournaments under their aegis and some (for example, the choice of movement) to the sponsoring organisation (for example, the club).

Some zonal organisations of the WBF also publish editions of the Laws. For example, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) publishes the Laws of Duplicate Bridge and additional documentation for club and tournament directors.

Rubber bridge

There are no universally accepted rules for rubber bridge, but some zonal organisations have published their own. An example for those wishing to abide by a published standard is The Laws of Rubber Bridge as published by the American Contract Bridge League.

The majority of rules mirror those of duplicate bridge in the bidding and play and differ primarily in procedures for dealing and scoring.