Rules for Bidding in Bridge
Contract bridge is a two-person team strategy card game that originated in the 1920s. Bidding is the opening act of taking turns to announce how many "books" or "tricks" of four cards you think your team can take and picking a trump suit.
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Counting Points
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The first step before bidding is to count the points in your hand as a guideline to what you should bid: jacks are one point, queens are two, kings are three, aces are four. Add one point for any suit with only two cards, two points for one card of a suit and three if you have no cards in a suit.
Announcing a Bid
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The dealer is always the first to bid and bidding continues clockwise. A player may either pass or make a higher bid than the previous players. The order of suits is clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades and no trump, which is a bid meaning no suit will trump or outdo another.
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Opening Bid Guidelines
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If the points in your hand fall in the 13 to 20 range, open with a bid of one followed by your strongest suit. If you have more than 21 points, it's probably good to start with a bid of two. If you have more than six cards in a suit, you may open with a bid of three in that suit.
Contract Guidelines
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The contract goes to the team that makes the last bid before all other players pass. Use information from your partner's bids to find out what contract you may be able to achieve. The contract winner plays first with the partner laying down his or her cards as the "dummy" hand.
Double and Redouble
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A bid of double after an opponent bids indicates a challenge that will increase the penalty if the other team doesn't make their bid. Responding with a redouble means that team believes they will make their bid and wants to up the reward for winning.
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