After the bidding is finished the players enter the second phase of the game called ‘The Play’. This consists of 13 rounds where each player plays one card each in a clockwise order.
The person who plays the first card is one of the opponents who did not win the ‘auction’ (the bidding). Each of the pairs is aiming to win as many rounds as possible.
The pair who win the auction are called the ‘Declarer’ and ‘Dummy’ and the other pair are called the opponents or opposition. The aim of the Declarer is who, at the bare minimum, wins the number of rounds they estimated in the bidding. The opposition are trying to stop the Declarer achieving this goal.
In Bridge, a round where each player plays one card is called a ‘Trick’, so we will be referring to them as ‘Tricks’ from now on.
In the ‘Play’ phase, you must follow suit if you can. If you cannot follow suit then play a low value card of another suit.
NEXT: Your first real Bridge Game
