Players and Equipment

Bridge is a game for 4 players in 2 partnerships. It is generally played on a square or circular table. Partners sit opposite each other. If the two teams are the red and blue teams, then around the table it would go red, blue, red, blue. It is common to refer to the partnerships by compass directions. One team is North-South, and the other team is East-West.

Bridge is played with a standard 52 card deck, without jokers. There are 4 Suits ♠, ♥, ♦, ♣: Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs. In each suit there are 13 different cards: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two. The short representation for each is: A, K, Q, J, T, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Note the T for Ten. At the beginning of a hand the cards are shuffled and all are dealt out. Everyone gets 13 cards. The hand should be sorted into suits. The cards in a suit should be sorted from high to low. A full deal would look like this:

This is an over the table view. When you start a hand of bridge, you can only see your own hand.

Now that you have your hand, you're ready to start playing tricks