Welcome to the World of Call Bridge

Hey there! I’m here to introduce you to an exciting card game called Call Bridge. In this game, four players compete against each other to win tricks and earn points. The best part? There are no partnerships in this game, so it’s every player for themselves! Let me walk you through the basics.

How to Set Up the Game

First things first, we need to choose a dealer. It’s a random selection, so everyone has a fair chance at the beginning. From there, the dealer position will rotate clockwise after each round. Once the dealer is chosen, they shuffle the deck of 52 cards and deal out 13 cards to each player, moving counterclockwise. Take a moment to look at your hand and strategize – the bidding round is up next!

Understanding Card Rankings and Trumps

Hey there! Let’s talk about Call Bridge, a card game where we rank cards from high to low: Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2. Now, unlike other games, the trump suit in Call Bridge never changes. It’s always spades!

Bidding

Once the hands are dealt, it’s time for bidding. The bidding starts with the player to the right of the dealer and goes counterclockwise around the table. Each player predicts how many tricks they can win this round. Everyone needs to say at least 2 tricks but can go all the way up to 12. You don’t have to outbid the previous player. You can choose any number you want. The catch is, if you make a bid, you have to win those tricks to score points. If you fail, you’ll get penalized!

Gameplay

Now that the bids are in, we can start the game. It all begins with the player sitting to the right of the dealer, and then it goes counterclockwise from there.

When it’s their turn, any card in the leading player’s hand can be used to start a trick. The other players must follow suit if they can, and if not, they need to try and beat the highest trump card that was played. And if they can’t do either, they can play any card they want.

The trick is won by either playing the highest trump card or, if there are no trumps in play, the highest card of the suit that was led. The winner of the trick gets to lead the next one.

SCORING

Once all the tricks have been played, it’s time to tally up the scores.

If a player successfully completes their bid and scores points equal to or more than the number of tricks they bid, they will get the number of tricks they bid during the bidding round, not the number of tricks they actually scored.

If I’m not able to make my bid, I’ll end up losing points. The number of points I lose will be the same as the number I bid during the bidding round.

Now, bids of 8 or more tricks are extra special. We call them bonus bids. If I successfully make a bonus bid, I’ll score a whopping 13 points! But there’s a catch: I can only win the number of tricks I bid or one more. If I win less or two or more over my bid, I’ll be unsuccessful and lose the same number of points as my bid. For example, if I bid 10 tricks, I’ll be successful if I win 10 or 11 tricks. Any other number will make me unsuccessful.

THE END OF THE GAME

The game concludes when a player reaches or surpasses a predetermined number of points. But here’s the twist: if multiple players reach the goal in the same round, the player with the highest overall total wins. It’s a race to the finish!