Bridge is a mind sport where players must use logic, strategize, and communicate with their partner.

Various trick-taking games can be played with 2 or 6 players, but "Bridge" is played only with 4 players. The four players are named North, East, South, and West. North-South makes a pair, and East-West makes another.

You need a deck of 52 cards with 4 suits (symbols) to play bridge.. There are 13 cards in each suit. Suits are called ♠ Spades, ♥ Hearts, ♦ Diamonds, and ♣ Clubs.

The highest card in each suit is the Ace, followed by the King, the Queen, and the Jack, we call them honors. Low cards ranked from 10 to 2 are called "spot cards".

The dealer distributes all cards among 4 players card by card. When no cards are left, each player has 13 cards – we call it a "hand". 

We call one game of bridge a deal or a board.

Each deal has 2 parts: the bidding and the card play. In the bidding, players offer contracts to determine a trump or no trump contract and the number of tricks the winning partnership needs to win in the card play. In card play, players compete to win tricks. There are 13 tricks in game and the goal is to win as many tricks as possible. 

When the card play finishes, players count their tricks and score the contract. Each contract has its value for making or a penalty if not. Who wins depends on the scoring method. You can play at home and simply add up the score for each pair. But more interesting is to play tournaments and compare the score with other players. Players hold the same cards as others in the tournaments so there is no relevance to what cards you hold. The result depends purely on your skills.

A trick is a set of 4 cards, one from each player's hand, placed face up on the table.

 There are 13 tricks in one deal.

Players play the cards one after another in a clockwise direction. We call the first card the opening lead.

Players must follow the suit of the first card led in each trick. They do not have to play a higher one if they wish not to. The highest card in the suit wins the trick.

The player who wins the trick leads into the next one.

If a player cannot follow the suit, he can play any card from his hand, but cannot win the trick, unless there are trumps in the game.

Players can choose one of the suits as trumps in the bidding. If a player cannot follow the suit, (s)he can play a trump to win the trick. Playing a trump is not obligatory, unless trumps are led.

If other players play a trump too, the highest trump card wins.

Players can choose to play without trumps. In that case, only the highest card in the suit led wins the trick.

The contract determines the type of the game (trumps or no-trumps) and the contract level.

The contract level determines the number of tricks the declaring side has to win in the card play.

There are 7 levels of the contract. The first 6 out of 13 tricks (lower half) are called the "book". To get the number of tricks needed to make the contract you add 6 to the level of the contract. The 1^st level is the lowest and the declaring side commits to win 7 tricks (6+1), the 7^th level is the highest and the declaring side must win all 13 tricks (6+7).

Players offer contracts one after another, we call it making a "bid". In order to offer a contract, players have to bid a higher contract than the previous one. For this purpose, suits are ranked with clubs ♣ as lowest, diamonds ♦, hearts ♥, spades ♠, and No-Trump contract is the highest on all levels.

♣ and ♦ are called minor suits
♥ and ♠ are called Major suits

The bidding ends when 3 players pass consequently, except in the first round where each player has the right to make a bid. The last bid becomes the final contract.

The player of the partnership who offered the type of contract (trumps, NT) first becomes the "declarer", his partner is the "dummy". The opponents are called "defenders".

The first phase of the game is called the "bidding". Players exchange information about their hands and set up a contract that can bring them the highest reward. The pair that offers the highest contract wins the bidding. They become the declaring side and the other pair becomes defenders.

The dealer starts the bidding. Players offer the contracts in a clockwise direction. If a player doesn't want to make a bid, (s)he can pass and let other players compete. The bidding continues until 3 players in a row pass. The last bid before 3 consecutive passes becomes the final contract.

Players can choose to double the contract. If the final contract is doubled, it increases the rewards and penalties. Double can be used for strategic reasons too because it is not counted if players make another bid. If the opponents double, you can redouble. Redoubling the final contract raises the stakes, but you can redouble to pass information about your hand to your partner. That all depends on the partnership agreements.

You must have a strategy to find the best possible contract for your side. Each bid can have a specific meaning and provide necessary information about your hand. Each pair can have its own strategy, we call it the bidding system. 

Bidding systems can be simple or very complicated. It purely depends on you which system and agreements you choose. But, all the agreements in bridge must be shared and explained to the opponents if they ask. In competitions, players must have their convention card filled to describe the most common bids.

MM Bridge Academy offers several bidding systems based on the difficulty. Learning the bidding system is similar to learning a foreign language. It is wise to start with an easier style and build your knowledge. It is crucial to play the same system with your partner otherwise you will not understand each other.

The bid with a specific meaning must be "alerted". The partner must alert the bid to notify the opponents that the bid is artificial and has a specific meaning. The player on turn can ask the meaning, but you can wait and ask for the whole bidding at any stage of the game, including the card play.

You must use a "stop" card when you skip one or more levels. The following player must wait for a while not give information about his hand by hesitation. You can find more about it in the rules of bridge.