Bridge Rule Variations and Conventions
The rules of play in contract bridge are the same almost everywhere: follow suit, trump wins, the dummy goes face up. What changes from table to table is how the score is kept and which bidding agreements partners use. This page covers the common choices and says which ones you can turn on in our free Bridge game.
Chicago (Our Standard)
Chicago, sometimes called four-deal bridge, was invented for clubs where players changed tables often. A match is exactly four deals. Vulnerability is fixed by the deal number: nobody on the first deal, the dealer's side on the second and third, and both sides on the fourth. Each contract earns its trick score plus a game bonus (300 or 500) or a part-score bonus (50).
How our Chicago differs from the book: in the classic version, part scores carry over from one deal to the next and can add up to a game, and a part score left over after deal four earns 100. We score every deal on its own instead, the way duplicate bridge does, because it is easier to follow. The totals come out very close.
Rubber Bridge (House Rule)
Rubber bridge is the traditional home game, and you can choose it in Settings → House rules. The score sheet has a line across the middle. Points for tricks you bid and make go below the line and count toward game, which is 100 points. They can add up over several deals: 2♠ (60) one deal and 2♦ (40) later make a game. When either side makes a game, both sides' part scores start again from zero.
A side that has won a game is vulnerable. The first side to win two games wins the rubber and a bonus of 700 if the other side has no game, or 500 if it has one. Overtricks, slam bonuses, penalties and the bonus for making a doubled contract go above the line and count only in the final total. There are no 300/500 game bonuses or 50 part-score bonuses on each deal in rubber bridge.
In our game a passed-out deal is redealt by the next dealer in rubber bridge, and by the same dealer in Chicago.
Honors
In rubber bridge, a player holding four of the five top trumps (A, K, Q, J, 10) scores 100 above the line, all five scores 150, and all four aces in a notrump contract also score 150. The honors count even for a defender. Many home games skip them, and duplicate bridge never uses them. Our game does not score honors.
Duplicate Bridge
In clubs and tournaments, the same deals are played at several tables, and you are compared with the other pairs who held your cards. Luck of the deal disappears; skill is all that is left. The scoring of each deal is the same as our Chicago scoring. Our Replay This Deal button and deal numbers give you a taste of it: play the same cards again and see if you can do better.
Popular Conventions We Left Out
A convention is a bid with an agreed, artificial meaning. Our computer partner uses only Stayman, the strong 2♣ and takeout doubles, to keep the system easy to follow. These are the ones you are most likely to meet elsewhere:
- Jacoby transfers: over 1NT, 2♦ asks partner to bid 2♥ and 2♥ asks for 2♠, so the strong hand becomes declarer.
- Blackwood (4NT): asks partner how many aces they hold before bidding a slam. Our game bids slams on points alone.
- Weak two-bids and preempts: 2♦, 2♥ or 2♠ with a good six-card suit and 5–10 points, and three-level openings with seven cards, to get in the opponents' way.
- Negative doubles: after partner opens and the next player overcalls, many players use double to show the unbid suits instead of for penalty. We treat that double as penalty, the older style.
- Two-over-one game forcing: a popular modern system where a new suit at the two level commits the partnership to game.
- Jacoby 2NT and splinter bids: ways to show a strong raise of partner's major.
- Cue bids, Michaels and the Unusual 2NT: special overcalls showing two suits at once.
- Lead and signal agreements such as "upside-down" signals and count signals.
Other Rules We Simplified
- Revokes and penalty cards: at a real table, failing to follow suit when you could is penalized. Our game simply won't let you play a wrong card.
- Claims: real players can claim with a few words of explanation, and opponents may object. Our Claim the Rest button appears only when every remaining trick is certain.
- Seating and the first dealer: real games cut the cards to choose partners and the first dealer. Here you always sit South with North as your partner, and you deal first.
- Insufficient bids and calls out of turn carry penalties in the official laws. Our bidding box only offers legal calls.
Trying Other Partnership Games
If you enjoy partnerships but want something lighter, try Whist, Bridge's ancestor with no bidding, or Spades, where you bid only the number of tricks. For the full rules of our game, see How to Play Bridge.