BRIDGE , a See also:

• GAME

The See also:

• SCORE (O.E. scor, from sceran, to cut, notch, cf. " shear ")

The game consists of 30 points made by tricks alone. When one side has won two See also:

• GAMES, CLASSICAL

After the deal is completed, the dealer makes the trump or no-trump (sans atout) declaration, or passes the choice to his partner without remark. If the dealer's partner make the declaration out of his turn, the adversary on the dealer's left may, without consultation, claim a fresh deal. If an adversary make a declaration, the dealer may claim a fresh deal or disregard the declaration. Then after the declaration, either adversary may See also:

• DOUBLE
• DOUBLE (from the Mid. Eng. duble, the form which gives the present pronunciation, through the Old Er. duble, from Lat. duplus, twice as much)

As the deal is a See also:

• GREAT

A king unguarded is worth less than a queen quarded; a queen is not fully guarded unless accompanied by three more cards; if guarded by one small card it is worth a knave guarded. An ace also loses in value by being See also:

• SOLE (Solea)

Six clubs with three honours or five with four honours should be declared. Spades are practically only declared with a weak hand; with only a king in the hand a suit of five spades should be declared as a defensive measure. With nothing above a ten a suit of two or three spades can be declared, though even with the weakest hands a suit offive clubs or of six red cards will probably prove less expensive. Declarations by Dummy.—From the fact that the See also:

• CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

Declaring to the score is often overdone; an ordinary weak no-trump declaration carries with it small chances of three by tricks unless dummy holds a no-trump hand. Doubling. Practically the leader only doubles a no-trump declaration when he holds what is probably an established suit of seven cards or a suit which can be established with the loss of one trick and he has good cards of re-entry. Seven cards of a suit including the ace, king and queen make a sound double without any other card of value in the hand, or six cards including king, queen and knave with two aces in other suits. Doubling by the third hand is universally understood to mean that the player has a very strong suit which he can establish. In response to the double his partner, according to different conventions, leads either a heart or his own shortest suit as the one most likely to be the third player's strongest. Under the short suit See also:

• CONVENTION (Lat. conventio, an assembly or agreement, from convenire, to come together)
• CONVENTION, THE NATIONAL

It must be further taken into See also:

• ACCOUNT
• ACCOUNT (through O. Fr. acont, Late Lat. comptum, cornputare, to calculate)

The suit should not be so full of possible tenaces as to make it disadvantageous to open it. As regards the play of the cards in a suit, it is not the object to make tricks See also:

• EARLY
• EARLY, JUBAL ANDERSON (1816-1894)

With a suit declaration, if there is no chance of letting the weak hand make a trump by ruffing, it will generally be the dealer's aimto discard the losing cards in the declaring hand either to high cards or to the cards of an established suit in the other hand, sometimes after the adverse trumps have been taken out, but often before there being no See also:

• TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
• TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
• TIME, STANDARD

In other cases the player should lead a small card; according to the usual convention, the See also:

• FOURTH

It is clear that, if the adversaries See also:

• SIGNAL

The 2 points that take the score from 4 to 6 are worth 4, or perhaps 5, average points; and the 2 points that take the score from 6 to 8 are worth I point. When approaching game it is an advantage to make a declaration that may just take the player out, and, in a smaller degree, one that will not exactly take the adversaries out. When the score is 24 to 22 against the dealer, hearts and clubs are See also:

• HALF

When the first card has been led, dummy's hand is exposed, never before the lead. The game is 30: the player wins the rubber who is the first to win two games. Fifty points are scored for each game won, and fifty more for the rubber. Sometimes three games are played without reference to a rubber, fifty points being scored for a game won. No tricks score towards game except those which a player wins in his own deal; the value of tricks won in other deals is scored above the line with honours, slam and chicane. At the end of the rubber the totals are added up, and the points won or lost are adjusted thus. Suppose A is credited with 212, B with 290, and C with 312, then A owes 78 to B and too to C ; B owes 22 to C. Dummy Bridge.—The player who cuts the lowest card takes dummy. Dummy deals the first hand of all. The player who takes dummy always looks at his own hand first, when he deals for himself or for dummy; he can either declare trumps or " leave it " to dummy. Dummy's declaration is compulsory, as in three-handed bridge. When the dealer deals for dummy, the player on the dealer's left must not look at his cards till either the dealer has declared trumps or, the declaration having been left to dummy, his own partner has led a card.

The latter can double, but his partner can only double without seeing his hand. The dealer can only redouble on his own hand. When the player of dummy deals for himself, the player on his right hand looks at dummy's hand if the 'declaration is passed, the positions and restrictions of his partner and himself being reversed. If the player of dummy declares from his own hand, the game proceeds as in ordinary bridge, except that dummy's hand is not looked at till permission to play has been given. When the player on dummy's right deals, dummy's partner may look at dummy's hand to decide if he will double, but he may not look at his own till a card has been led by dummy. In another form of dummy bridge two hands are exposed whenever dummy's adversaries deal, but the game is unsuited for many players, as in every other hand the game is one of double-dummy. Misery Bridge.—This is a form of bridge adapted for two players. The non-dealer has the dummy, whilst the dealer is allowed to strengthen his hand by discarding four or fewer cards and taking an equal number from the fourth packet dealt; the See also:

• REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

The dealer makes the declaration or passes it to his dummy to make by the same rules as in three-handed or dummy bridge. The objection to this is that, since the opponent does not see the dealer's dummy, he has no chance of checking an erroneous declaration. This could be avoided by not allowing the dealer the option of passing. See also:

• AUCTION

As regards the essential feature of auction bridge, the competitive declaration, it is impossible here to discuss the intricacies involved. It entails, clearly, much reliance on a good partner, since the various rounds of bidding enable good players to draw inferences as to where the cards See also:

• LIE, JONAS LAURITZ EDEMIL (1833—1908)
• LIE, MARIUS SOPHUS (1842–1899)