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Bridge

Bridge is a fun and challenging game to be enjoyed by players of all ages. 247 Bridge is the perfect game for beginners and experts alike, as there are always ? buttons along the way to help you play the game if you are confused, or you can turn these off to play the expert game of bridge you know and love!

Bridge is played with one full set of cards. Four players are required for bridge (lucky for you, we've created amazing artificial intelligence so you can play any time at your computer!). Bridge is a game of partnerships, so the player across the table is your partner, and the players to the right and left are on the opposing team.

Bridge is made up of two main parts. Initially the bidding process and then the game play. Suits are ranked in Bridge from Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, to Clubs, the lowest. This is important in the bidding process and scoring. During the bidding process, players are determining how many tricks they can take with a single suit (or no suit - NT) as Trump. Trump means a card of that suit will always win the trick (if it is the highest of that trump suit played within that trick). If you bid, it is assumed your team will win 6 + the number of tricks bid. So, if you bid 1 Spade, you are saying you think your team can win 7 tricks during the hand with Spades as the trump suit. Obviously you don't know what your teammate has so there is a bit of back and forth and guessing involved, but that's where the fun is! If you don't think you can up your teammate or opponent's bid, just pass. Three passes in a row means a bid is complete and the computer will tell you who wins the bid and with what bid. Doubling is a way to let your opponent know you don't think they can win the amount of the bid they have set during the bidding process. You are upping the ante by doubling the points. A Redouble is used when an opponent doubles your partner and you Redouble, stating you definitely can win that hand with those tricks. A double or redouble is wiped from the board whenever another bid is made after it. There are many complicated ways to determine how to bid which we will not go into here, but you are welcome to research as the internet has a plethora of sites to learn from.

The game play portion of Bridge is where the hand is played out. One hand will always be flipped so you can see the cards. If your team won the bid, you will be playing your teammate's hand. Otherwise, you will see one of your opponent's hands. If your team has won the bid, the goal is to take that many tricks by playing high cards or trump cards. If your team did not win the bid, your goal is to stop the other team from meeting their bid by winning your own tricks. Once the hand is completed either the bidding team will have won or lost and the points will be tallied up accordingly. Only the winning bid team will be allowed to make points towards their game score if they succeed in meeting or exceeding their bet. All other points are tallied in the bonus section of the board. A game is won when a team reaches 100 game points. The bridge match is best two out of three. At the point where a team wins two of the games, all the scores, including the game and bonus scores, are added up to determine the winner.

Bridge Strategy

  • The player across the table is your teammate. Try to play off their bids to get the most number of points!
  • Try a counting strategy when bidding. A=4,K=3,Q=2,J=1,Empty Suits=3,1 card suits=2, and 2 card suits=1.
  • If you have less than 13 points, don't bid! Always pass!
  • With a balanced hand and 16-18 points, feel free to bid 1 No Trump.
  • If your hand is not eligible for this 1 NT bid, and you have 13 or more points, open a bid with your strongest suit.

Bridge News

Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: The games on this website are using PLAY (fake) money. No payouts will be awarded, there are no "winnings", as all games represented by 247 Games LLC are free to play. Play strictly for fun.