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Suit Contracts

A trump suit is a way of winning a trick in Bridge and in other trick taking games. The trump suit can be either spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs and is decided by the bidding (also called 'auction'). Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a trump suit these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits.

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What is a trump suit?

Trump Suits

In the auction (bidding) if the final or highest bid is in either clubs, diamonds hearts or spades, that suit becomes the trump suit for the duration of that game. The contract can then be referred to as a suit contract.

When the highest bid is not a suit

If the highest bid is 'No Trump', then the contract is a No Trump contract, this is covered in the next lesson

When to ruff using a trump card

When you are playing to a card led by another player if your hand has cards in that suit, you must follow suit (not doing so involves strict penalties in a Bridge Club). If you have no cards left in the suit led then you should, if you can, play a trump card which will win the trick unless a subsequent player plays a trump card of higher value. This means that, for the duration of the game (thirteen tricks) that playing any card in the trump suit when others have played cards from different suits will win the trick.

Playing against the 60SecondBridge computer

The 60SecondBridge game engine will not let you play a trump card if you still hold cards in the suit led to the current trick.

Instant Progress Quiz

Check the correct answer/s

A trump suit... - from this Lesson

is decided by the suit bid highest bid

is decided by the Opening bid

means that the highest card played in a trick always wins

has a lower rank at the same level as a notrump contract

means that a very low trump card cannot be over ruffed

Practice Game for this lesson