Rubber Bridge - Playing Rubber Bridge

Playing Rubber Bridge

Rubber bridge is usually played with a standard deck of 52 cards (though two decks are often supplied in bridge sets, only one is used in the game).

From high to low, the cards are ranked A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Suits are ranked Spades (♠), Hearts (♥), Diamonds (♦), Clubs (♣). Four players play in partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other. Gameplay rotates clockwise around the table.

At the beginning of a rubber the players cut to decide partnerships and who deals the first hand. A deck is spread face down on the table and each player takes a card (but not one from the ends). The player with the highest card deals the first hand. The player who drew the second highest card plays with the dealer against the other two players.

Some rules have suggested the use of two packs to choose from but is generally disregarded and absent from most published rules of the game. Where two decks are specified in the rules, the dealer selects a deck and passes it to the player on his left to be shuffled. The deck is then passed to player to right of the dealer to be cut. Dealer's partner shuffles the second deck during the deal to speed things up.

Starting with the player to his left, the dealer deals 13 cards to each player, one at a time. The deal rotates clockwise after each hand.

The contract to be played is determined by an auction in which the players bid for the number of tricks they will make and the trump suit or no trumps. A bid consists of the number of tricks above 6 you need to make and the denomination; e.g. "1♣" is 7 tricks with clubs as trumps, "3NT" is 9 tricks with no trump suit. The dealer bids first. At their turn players may either: pass, bid to make a higher contract, "double" an opponent's contract (which increases the penalties for failing to make the contract or the points for making the contract) or "redouble" their side's doubled contract which doubles the points again. A player may bid again after they have passed. The auction ends when any bid is followed by three consecutive passes. If all four players pass the hand is passed in and the deal rotates.

Once the contract has been decided, the player of the winning pair who mentioned the denomination of the contract becomes declarer. The opening lead is made by the player on declarer's left. Declarer’s partner then lays down their hand face up on the table as dummy, with the trump suit on their right. Declarer plays both his and dummy's cards. Each player, in turn, plays a card to the trick and they must play a card of the suit led if they have one. A player who has no cards of the suit led may play any card either discarding or trumping. A trick is won by the highest card of the suit led unless trumps are played, when the highest trump wins. The winner of the trick leads to the next trick.