Welcome to the world of Bridge! Bridge is a captivating, strategic card game played by millions of people worldwide. Players must use their logic and cooperate as a team to achieve the best score. Before we look at how the game is played, let us understand what it is and who you need to play it with.

Bridge is strictly a game for four players.

• The players form two partnerships (teams of two).
• Partners sit opposite each other.
• To make communication easy, players are named after the four cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West.
• North and South form one team (N-S pair).
• East and West form the opposing team (E-W pair).

Your partner is your closest ally. In Bridge, you win together, and you lose together.

At this table, Nicolas and Sarah form a team – N-S pair. Wendy and Eddie play together and form the E-W pair.

Bridge uses a standard pack of 52 cards. There are no jokers.

The deck is divided into four suits. Suits have an official rank or importance in the game, from highest to lowest:

1. ♠ Spades (Highest suit)
2. ♥ Hearts
3. ♦ Diamonds
4. ♣ Clubs (Lowest suit)

There are 13 cards within each suit. The cards are ranked from the Ace, the highest, to the 2, the lowest. We divide them into two groups based on their ability to win tricks.

• High Cards (Honors): Ace (A), King (K), Queen (Q), Jack (J), sometimes 10
• Spot Cards: (10), 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

Before the game starts, one player shuffles the cards and distributes all of them among 4 players, one by one. We call this player "the Dealer". Each player will have 13 cards.

Every card game has its strategy for sorting out the cards. In Bridge, we sort the cards by suit and, within each suit, by rank. This way, we have a better overview of our cards. This layout of your hand makes it easier to follow the rules and choose the best strategy. You should always see all your cards.

Now that you know the components, let us look at how a hand is actually played. Bridge is a trick-taking game.

At the start of the game, all 52 cards are dealt out. Each of the four players receives 13 cards.

A "trick" consists of four cards – one played by each player at the table, moving in a clockwise direction. Since everyone has 13 cards, one game of Bridge consists of exactly 13 tricks.

1. The lead: One player starts by placing a card face-up on the table. Place the card in front of you so it is clear who played which card. This is called "leading" to the trick.
2. Following Suit: The other three players must play a card in clockwise order. There is one golden rule: You must follow suit if you can. If a Spade is led, you must play a Spade if you have one in your hand. Yet, you can choose which card of the suit led you play (you don't have to play a higher card).
3. Discarding: If you do not have a card of the suit led, you may play any card from another suit. This is called a discard. A discarded card cannot win the trick, even if it is a higher rank.

• The highest card of the suit that was led wins the trick.
• In our example, the first lead was ♥5. West plays a higher card ♥8, and North plays even higher ♥J. East cannot follow the suit and must discard. Although Q is higher than J, it does not win the trick. The ♥J wins the trick because it is the highest card in the suit led.
• Once a trick is complete, the cards are turned face down.
• Regardless of which player wins the trick, the whole pair wins or loses.
• The pair that won the trick places the card vertically in front of them.
• The pair that lost the trick places the card horizontally.
• Future cards are placed on top of each other, so we keep the order in which they were played. That may prevent disputes at the end of who won the tricks.

• The player who won the last trick leads first to the next one.
• The first lead may be in any suit.
• The player on lead cannot consult with his partner about what to play. He must decide on his/her own.
• The trick continues the same way as the first one.
• The game finishes after 13 tricks have been played.

When all cards have been played, players count how many tricks they won and compare with others. If everyone agrees on the result, you can score the game based on the type of bridge you play.