Rubber Bridge for Beginners

If you have never played, begin with these two.

Your First Deal#

Bridge is a game for four, played in two partnerships, with one ordinary pack of 52 cards. You sit South. North is your partner and sits opposite; East and West are the opponents. All three are played by the app.

Every deal has the same two halves:

• The auction. The four players take turns to bid, competing for the right to name trumps. The side that bids highest wins the auction and must then take the number of tricks it promised.
• The play. Thirteen tricks are played out, four cards to a trick. One side is trying to make the contract; the other is trying to defeat it.

Then the result is scored, the cards are gathered, and the next deal begins. A rubber is the match: the first side to win two games wins it, along with a large bonus.

To get going: tap Play Rubber Bridge. When it is your turn to call, the bidding panel appears at the bottom. If you have no idea what to bid, tap the 💡 button and the engine will choose for you and explain why — you can do that on every call of your first few deals and simply watch what happens. When the play starts, your legal cards light up; everything else is dimmed, so you cannot make an illegal play by accident.

Nothing you do is unrecoverable. Undo takes back a card, Replay Hand deals the same cards again unscored, and Analysis shows you afterwards exactly where the tricks went.

What You Are Looking At#

The table screen keeps the same furniture throughout a deal:

• The status bar under the title shows the dealer, the vulnerability and whose turn it is. Tap it to open the auction and contract recap.
• The four seats. Your hand is along the bottom. Your partner is opposite, the opponents left and right. A seat's badge lights up when it is that seat's turn.
• The centre of the table holds the trick in progress. Under it, two counters — WE and THEY — show tricks won so far this deal.
• The bidding panel occupies the lower half during the auction: the auction so far in a four-column grid, then the level, strain and Pass/Double buttons.
• The pill row above your hand carries the tools that apply right now — Undo, Bidding, Last trick, Hint, and Claim or Concede when they are available.
• The ≡ menu at the top right opens the scorepad, the auction recap, and the way back home. Leaving the table does not abandon the deal; Resume on the home screen brings you back to it.

When your side wins the auction you play both hands of the partnership — your own and dummy's — even on the deals where North is technically the declarer. When the opponents win it, you defend with the South cards alone.