IBridgeCards let you play random hands of bridge card game with your iMac, it is not an on-line game, does not need an internet connection. Its bidding system is simple natural system. New landing page without the login box. Provides help or assistance for emergency housing, utility, and burial situations.

• Bridge Cards

OBJECTIVE OF CONTRACT BRIDGE: The objective of the game is to score points by making bids, or by defeating the opposing players’ bid. The team with the most points wins.

• With a bold logo, these playing cards ensure you’re a winner no matter how you play. Set of two decks in a Tiffany Blue® box Tiffany Travel logo and metallic silver foil edge 3.4”L x 2.5”W each.
• Sixteen Different Bridge Playing Card Sets are Available, Each with Two Matching Decks of Bridge Cards, Bridge Score Pads, and Bridge Tallies. These Elegant Bridge Playing Card Sets are in Stock for Fast Shipment.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 players

NUMBER OF CARDS: standard 52-card

RANK OF CARDS: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2

RANK OF SUITS: Spades (High), Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs.

TYPE OF GAME: Trick-Taking

AUDIENCE: Adult

How to deal

Bridge is a card game consisting of 4 players with 2 opposing pairs. Each player is referred to by a cardinal point of the compass – North, East, South and West. North and South are team mates as are East and West. Team mates sit opposite each other at the table. Each player is dealt 13 cards from a deck of 52 cards, dealt in a clockwise rotation, where the hand starts to the left of the dealer, making the deal equal. Players should sort their cards by suit; spades (highest), hearts, diamonds and clubs (lowest) and rank; A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Please note, in terms of suits, the ranking is present in bidding only, where in play all of the suits are equal.

How to play

The aim of the game, and method to win, is by making winning tricks. Each player is required to play a card, where the highest card, taking into account suit and rank, wins the trick. As each player has 13 cards, there are 13 tricks to be won in each deal. Players must follow the same suit in play as the ‘lead’ (person who plays first) has played. So, if the lead has placed a heart, and your hand contains hearts, you must place one down. If, however, you don’t have any hearts, you may play any other suit.

Another method to winning tricks is to win with a trump suit, so when you have no cards remaining in the suit that’s played, you may play the trump and win the trick. The trump suit ‘trumps’ all of the other suits, meaning it cannot be outranked. For example, if clubs are the trumps, three players place down a heart, and one places a club, the one who places a club has one the trick. If multiple players play a trump, the winning trick is determined by the player with the highest rank.

A game of bridge is won by the first team/pair to reach a score of 100 or more points for successful contracts. Generally, the score is kept on a piece of paper which is split into two columns titled ‘WE’ and ‘THEY’, with a horizontal line placed halfway down the page. Successful contract scores are written below the line and get totalled towards winning the game, whereas trick bonuses (overtricks) or penalties (undertricks) are written above the line and don’t count towards the total score.

How to bid

The Dealer must start the bidding, opting to bid or pass. A bid is made up of 2 parts, the number of tricks you think you’ll make and the trump suit you’d do it in. For instance, 2 Spades means I will make 8 tricks with Spades as trumps (the first 6 tricks are taken for granted in the bid, so a bid of 2 mean 6+2 = 8.) whereas a bid of 4 Hearts means you think you’ll make 10 (6+4) tricks with Hearts as trumps. Finally, 3 No Trumps means you’ll make 9 (6+3) tricks with no trump suit at all. Once the dealer has bid or passed, the person to his/her left can then bid or pass and so on. Every player at the table is entitled to bid in turn until a bid is followed by 3 passes; the hand will then be played in the last-mentioned suit, or NoTrumps, this is called the contract.

The two pairs at the table will compete to determine the contract. The highest bidder will get the contract e.g. player one bids 2 spades, player two bids 3 hearts, player three bids 4 spades, and there are then 3 passes. Player three gets the contract with the highest bid (4 spades). The final bid locks the partnership into winning a particular number of tricks. For example, 4 spades is equal to 10 tricks (out of 13) where spades is the trump card.

Scoring

Each bid must be higher than the previous one, this is where we remind ourselves of the ranking order: spades (highest), hearts, diamonds and clubs (lowest) and rank; A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Spades and hearts are often referred to as the majors where they score 30 per trick. On the other hand, diamonds and clubs are the minors, and score 20 per trick. NoTrumps are the highest scoring, bringing in 40 for the first trick, and 30 thereafter.

Bridge cards are one of two standard sizes of playing card – the other being Poker cards. Bridge cards measure 3.5 inches tall and 2.25 inches wide (88.9mm x 56mm). This is slightly narrower than Poker cards which measure 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches (88.9mm x 63.5mm).

Why Are Bridge Cards Smaller?

In many card games, participants are only required to hold a few cards at once. That’s normally not too difficult, even for a child or someone with small hands.

But in bridge, and other similar games, you need to hold a hand of thirteen cards. The wider the cards, the harder it is to hold them all in such a way that you can see them and pick one out at will. The reduced width of bridge cards (about a quarter of an inch narrower than poker cards) helps people to hold them easier.

By being easier to hold, there is a reduced risk that someone will drop and accidentally reveal a card. This is especially important in a tournament situation where one incident could have a significant impact on the result.

Can You Use Poker Cards For Bridge?

You can in a pinch, but it’s not ideal. The larger card size makes it difficult to hold the entire hand. It is also worth noting that some duplicate boards and wallets will only fit bridge cards and may not have enough room for poker cards.

For this reason, you’re unlikely to want to use poker cards in a bridge club or tournament. In your own home you can use whichever size you have to hand.

What Games Use Bridge Cards?

Typically, bridge cards are used when the player needs to hold more cards (bridge, whist, hearts, etc.) while poker cards are used when you hold fewer.

In terms of popularity, you are more likely to use bridge cards than poker cards. For example, many casinos don’t use poker cards for poker; they use bridge cards. If you went in to play Blackjack, however, it’s more likely that you’ll be using poker cards.

What Can You Do If You Can’t Hold a Full Thirteen Cards?

Playing bridge is difficult if you cannot comfortably hold thirteen cards. Luckily, there’s a solution: bridge hand holders can be bought to hold the cards for you without displaying them to your neighbours. Perfect for small children or those with arthritis!

Why Do Some Bridge Cards Have Barcodes At The Top?

Most cards used in bridge clubs and at tournaments have bar codes at the top to enable automated card dealing machines, such as duplimate, to track the hands that have been dealt. This functionality enables the machines to create print-outs of boards for use at the end of a session or tournament.

These barcodes also enable dealing machines to create specific deals that have been designed in advance (as opposed to just dealing random hands). This can be highly useful in a teaching scenario when a teacher may, for example, want to provide many tables of students with the same hand to play.

This functionality is also useful in competitions. For example, clubs can take part in Simultaneous tournaments where players in many clubs play the same boards and compare results. This is also useful in larger competitions, where a club may want to hold several smaller sessions with each one using the same set of boards.

Do Bridge Cards Come With Jokers?

Bridge Cards

Despite the fact that bridge doesn’t use jokers, many standard-sized packs will come with them. However, this is less likely if you buy a gift set that is specifically labelled as being for bridge. If you want to use your cards for more than just bridge it is wise to check what the pack contains before you order.