Bridge

Bridge (especially contract bridge) is a card game for four people. Two players sitting opposite each other form a partnership that plays and scores together. French cards (52 hands, without jokers) are used.

The aim of the game is to win as many tricks as possible. In the first phase (the bidding), a kind of auction is held to determine which pair must take how many tricks and whether there is a trump suit. After a pair has prevailed with an announcement of the number of tricks and trump suit, the cards are played in the second phase. The main aim is for one side to reach at least their announced number of tricks; the other side must prevent this if possible. A special feature of bridge is that only one player (the declarer) from the side that has won the bidding plays in the lead, while his partner lays his cards face up on the table after the first lead by the opponent on the left and deals his cards at the instruction of the declarer. Today, bridge is understood to be the modern contract bridge variant, which has become established worldwide since the 1930s and has largely replaced its predecessors such as whist or auction or plafond bridge. Bridge is not only played as rubber bridge (free game, the cards are reshuffled and dealt for each game) in private circles, but often in the form of tournaments. In a tournament, the same deals are played on several tables.