How to Play Honeymoon Bridge

Honeymoon Bridge is a fairly simple card game for 2 players. It is a variation of the standard game of Bridge which is played with 4 players. Typically, Honeymoon Bridge is played in two phases with as many rounds as it takes for someone to earn 100 points.

Instructions

Phase One

1. Deal out the cards until each player has a total of 13 cards in his hand. The remaining cards are set to the side and used as the draw pile.

2. Lead a card, starting with the player opposite the dealer. You must follow suit. If you are unable to follow suit, you must throw off (there is currently no trump).

3. Swipe the trick from the table if you've won the trick.

4. Draw a card from the draw pile if you've won the trick. The second player will draw the next card.

5. Continue to play like this until 13 tricks have been played in total. Here's the key: You are trying to make the best possible hand to bid on throughout this phase so pay attention to what has been played, and try to stack your hand appropriately.

Phase Two

1. Bid your hand, starting with the player opposite the dealer. Your bid will reflect the number of tricks you plan on taking in excess of 6. This would mean a bid of 1 would actually be a bid of 7. From there, each consecutive bid must be higher than the next. And since suits are also included in your bid, they will also be used to reflect a higher bid. Suits are ranked from low to high as follows: Clubs, Diamonds, Spades, Hearts and No Trump. A bid of 1 Club can be "outbid" with a bid of 1 Diamond, 1 Spade, 1 Heart and 1 No Trump as well as 2 Clubs, 2 Diamonds and on up.

2. Continue to bid between the two of you for three rounds of bidding, each bid being higher than the last. The highest bid will indicate trump, and play will now continue.

3. Lead a card, starting with the highest bidder (maker of trump). You must follow suit when possible. If you are unable to do so, you may either play trump or throw off (play any unwanted card from your hand). Highest suited card will win the trick. If a trump has been played, the highest trump card will take the trick. Winner of the trick will lead the next card.

4. Continue to play your hands until no cards remain.

Scoring

1. Count out the tricks you've won. If you've called trump, you must take at least the number of tricks bid in excess of 6. This means you must take 7 tricks if you've bid 1, 8 tricks if you've bid 2, 9 tricks if you've bid 3 and so on.

2. Earn 20 points for each trick you've won in excess of 6 if the suit of trump was Clubs or Diamonds.

3. Earn 30 points for each trick you've won in excess of 6 if the suit of trump was Spades or Hearts.

4. Earn 40 points for the first trick and 30 for each additional in excess of 6 if there was "no trump."

5. Score no points if you were not the maker of trump, and the bidder made his "contract." If the opposite were to happen, you would score as listed above.

6. Win the game of Honeymoon Bridge by being the first player to hit 100 points.

Tips & Warnings

• Usually, people will play 3 rounds of Honeymoon Bridge, with the winner taking the best of the 3 (winning 2 of the 3 rounds).