Editing Contract bridge (section)

{{Short description|Card game}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}

{{Infobox card game
| title         = Contract bridge
| subtitle      =
| image_link    = Bridge-Großschlemm.JPG
| image_size    = 320px
| image_caption = Bridge declarer play
| alt_names     = Bridge
| type          = Trick-taking
| players       = 4
| play          = Clockwise
| card_rank     = A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
| ages          =
| num_cards     = 52
| deck          = [[French deck|French]]
| origin        =
| related       = [[Whist]], [[Auction Bridge]], [[Rubber Bridge]], [[Duplicate Bridge]]
| playing_time  = [[World Bridge Federation|WBF]] tournament games = {{frac|7|1|2}} minutes per deal
| random_chance = Very low to moderate (depending on variant played)
| skills        = [[wikt:tactics|tactics]], communication, [[memory]], [[probability]]
| footnotes     =
}}
'''Contract bridge''', or simply '''bridge''', is a [[trick-taking game|trick-taking]] [[card game]] using a [[standard 52-card deck]]. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two [[Team game|competing partnerships]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reese |first=Terence |title=Bridge |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |year=1980 |isbn=0-340-32438-4 |series=Teach Yourself Books |page=1 |author-link=Terence Reese}}</ref> with partners sitting opposite each other around a table.{{Efn|In face-to-face games, a convenient table size is {{convert|32|to|40|in|cm|-1}} square<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bridge Tables |url=http://www.kardwell.com/bridge-tables.html |access-date=31 August 2019 |website=Kardwell International}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Furniture |url=http://www.baronbarclay.com/category/stakmore-furniture |access-date=31 August 2019 |website=Baron Barclay Bridge Supply}}</ref> or a similarly-sized round table allowing each player to reach to the center of the table during the play of the cards. In online computer play, players from anywhere in the world sit at a virtual table.}} Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, [[bridge tournaments|tournaments]], online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular [[card game]]s, particularly among [[Old Age|seniors]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Martha T. Moore |date=19 December 2005 |title=Billionaires bank on bridge to trump poker |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-12-19-bridge-schools_x.htm |access-date=29 March 2016 |website=USA Today}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=22 May 2009 |title=At the Bridge Table, Clues to a Lucid Old Age |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/health/research/22brain.html |access-date=29 March 2016 |website=The New York Times}}</ref> The [[World Bridge Federation]] (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level.

The game consists of a number of {{gcb|deal|deals}},{{Efn|The terms deal, hand, and board may be used interchangeably in bridge literature. More accurately, a {{gcb|hand}} is one player's holding of 13 cards; a {{gcb|deal}} is the four hands in one allocation of 52 cards; a [[Board (bridge)|board]] is a term more applicable to [[duplicate bridge]] and refers to a deal.}} each progressing through four phases. The cards are {{gcb|deal|dealt}} to the players; then the players ''call'' (or ''bid'') in an {{gcb|auction}} seeking to take the {{gcb|contract}}, specifying how many tricks the partnership receiving the contract (the declaring side) needs to take to receive points for the deal. During the auction, partners use their bids to exchange information about their hands, including overall strength and distribution of the suits; no other means of conveying or implying any information is permitted. The cards are then [[#Play of the cards|played]], the {{gcb|declaring side}} trying to fulfill the contract, and the {{gcb|defenders}} trying to stop the declaring side from achieving its goal. The deal is [[Bridge scoring|scored]] based on the number of tricks taken, the contract, and various other factors which depend to some extent on the variation of the game being played.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kantar |first=Eddie |url=https://archive.org/details/bridgefordummies00kant_261 |title=Bridge for Dummies |publisher=Wiley Publishing, Inc. |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-471-92426-5 |edition=2nd |page=[https://archive.org/details/bridgefordummies00kant_261/page/n166 11] |author-link=Eddie Kantar |url-access=limited}}</ref>

[[Rubber bridge]] is the most popular variation for casual play, but most club and tournament play involves some variant of [[duplicate bridge]], where the cards are not re-dealt on each occasion, but the same deal is played by two or more sets of players (or "tables") to enable comparative scoring.

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