Euchre or eucre ( / ˈ juː k ər / YU -kər ) is a trick-taking card game commonly played in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, and the Midwestern United States. It is played with a deck of 24, 25, 28, or 32 standard playing cards. There are normally four players, two on each team, although there are variations for two to nine players.
106-562: Euchre emerged in the United States in the early 19th century. There are several theories regarding its origin, but the most likely is that it is derived from an old Alsatian game called Jucker or Juckerspiel . Euchre was responsible for introducing the joker into the modern deck of cards, first appearing in Euchre packs in the 1850s. Euchre has a large number of variants and has been described as "an excellent social game". Eucre
212-449: A 19th-century Rhineland game, also shares the feature of having two Jacks as the top trumps, but is a three-hand game played with 10-card hands and a 32-card Skat pack. Bester Bube also employs two Jacks as top trumps and a 5-card hand, but is a member of the Rams group in which players may drop out if they do not think their hand is strong enough. There appears to be no equivalent of
318-418: A card at the start of the game; the player who draws the highest card deals first. The second highest card becomes the dealer's partner and takes the chair on the opposite side of the table. They play against the other two. The deck is shuffled and cut, usually by the player to the left of the dealer, before dealing. Players take turns to deal, in clockwise order. The dealer deals the cards clockwise, one card at
424-422: A certain combination of high cards), although some are common between the two. A larger bonus is awarded if the declaring side makes a small slam or grand slam, a contract of 12 or 13 tricks respectively. If the declaring side is not vulnerable, a small slam gets 500 points, and a grand slam 1000 points. If the declaring side is vulnerable, a small slam is 750 points and a grand slam is 1,500. In rubber bridge,
530-437: A club again unless spades are again named as trump during a subsequent hand. A player who fixes the trump suit may announce "alone" and play without the aid of a partner. The partner's hand cards are laid face down and the partner takes no part in the game. Play is as before: the eldest leads and players must follow suit if able, otherwise may play any card. The first team to score the target number of points (5, 7 or 10) wins
636-542: A common expression in German card games; "cards away" from Karten weg or Kart' ab , an expression in games from the Palatinate/Saarland region for the same announcement, "bridge" possibly from Pritsche , a plank bed, hence a place of safety. The earliest known treatise is a 1839 lost book called Game of Euchre and Its Laws , by an unknown author. The earliest surviving rules appeared in 1844, in which there
742-509: A confused memory of Écarté , which then developed into Euchre. Yet another theory is that Euchre may have been introduced to America by immigrants from the counties of Cornwall or Devon in southwest England, where it remains a hugely popular game. Euchre was introduced into Devon in turn by French prisoners of The Napoleonic Wars , imprisoned in Dartmoor Prison between 1805 and 1816. American prisoners were also housed there after
848-400: A contract in hearts or spades. For a contract in notrump, the declaring side is awarded 40 points for the first odd trick and 30 points for the remaining odd tricks. Contract points are doubled or quadrupled if the contract is respectively doubled or redoubled. In rubber bridge, a partnership wins one game once it has accumulated 100 contract points; excess contract points do not carry over to
954-507: A game called "La Triomphe" in one of his works. Also Juan Luis Vives , in his Linguae latinae exercitio (Exercise in the Latin language) of 1539 has a dialogue on card games, where the characters play 'Triumphus hispanicus' (Spanish Triumph). Bridge departed from whist with the creation of "Biritch" in the 19th century and evolved through the late 19th and early 20th centuries to form the present game. The first rule book for bridge, dated 1886,
1060-422: A good final contract in the auction (or deciding to let the opponents declare the contract). This is a difficult problem: the two players in a partnership must try to communicate enough information about their hands to arrive at a makeable contract, but the information they can exchange is restricted – information may be passed only by the calls made and later by the cards played, not by other means; in addition,
1166-483: A line; if they lose, they add a line and the winners erase a line. There is another version of Bauer played in the Saarland which is a four-handed, plain trick, partnership game. This time 8 cards are dealt to each player clockwise in two packets of 4, trumps being chosen by forehand after the first packet has been dealt. It employs a 32-card, French-suited Skat pack and there are 2 Jacks ( Bauern ) as top trumps:
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#17327801566191272-458: A meaning that reflects the call; a natural bid intuitively showing hand or suit strength based on the level or suit of the bid, and a natural double expressing that the player believes that the opposing partnership will not make their contract. By contrast, a conventional (artificial) call offers and/or asks for information by means of pre-agreed coded interpretations, in which some calls convey very specific information or requests that are not part of
1378-562: A new game to him, in the Rhineland region. The game also appears in an 1874 book of poetry in the dialect of the Hunsrück region of Germany in 1874 and in an article in a Palatinate newspaper that same year as played socially by ordinary folk alongside Tarock . No complete rules have been found, but Martin and Lienhart (1899) describe Jucker as a "card game in which the Bauer [Jack]
1484-399: A player bids, doubles, or redoubles, every other player has passed, in which case the action proceeds to the play; or every player has passed and no bid has been made, in which case the round is considered to be "passed out" and not played. The player from the declaring side who first bid the denomination named in the final contract becomes declarer. The player left to the declarer leads to
1590-567: A published standard is The Laws of Rubber Bridge as published by the American Contract Bridge League. The majority of rules mirror those of duplicate bridge in the bidding and play and differ primarily in procedures for dealing and scoring. In 2001, the WBF promulgated a set of laws for online play. Bridge is a game of skill played with randomly dealt cards, which makes it also a game of chance , or more exactly,
1696-425: A second packet making the hands up to 5 cards. The next card is turned as a potential trump. Often, it is customary to offer a cut of the deck to the player on the dealer's right before passing out the cards. The process of making trump is as follows: As soon as someone makes trump (instead of passing) that player's team become the makers and their opponents are the defenders. Should either opponent order it up or
1802-411: A suit, the ace is ranked highest followed by the king, queen and jack and then the ten through to the two. In a deal where the auction has determined that there is no trump suit, the trick must be won by a card of the suit led. In a deal with a trump suit, cards of that suit are superior in rank to any of the cards of any other suit. If one or more players plays a trump to a trick when void in the suit led,
1908-409: A tactical game with inbuilt randomness, imperfect knowledge and restricted communication. The chance element is in the deal of the cards; in duplicate bridge some of the chance element is eliminated by comparing results of multiple pairs in identical situations. This is achievable when there are eight or more players, sitting at two or more tables, and the deals from each table are preserved and passed to
2014-466: A time. Normally, rubber bridge is played with two packs of cards and whilst one pack is being dealt, the dealer's partner shuffles the other pack. After shuffling the pack is placed on the right ready for the next dealer. Before dealing, the next dealer passes the cards to the previous dealer who cuts them. In duplicate bridge the cards are pre-dealt, either by hand or by a computerized dealing machine, in order to allow for competitive scoring. Once dealt,
2120-585: A variant called "Euchre with the Joker" in which the blank card ranked above all the rest. It must have been in use even earlier, since the term "Best Bower" appears in a satirical 1861 piece about the American Civil War. Later, the Joker was embellished with a motif and specifically intended for use as the top trump. It was later transferred to the game of Poker and initially called the Mistigris. In
2226-489: A very large number of conventions from which players can choose; many books have been written detailing bidding conventions. Well-known conventions include Stayman (to ask the opening 1NT bidder to show any four-card major suit), Jacoby transfers (a request by (usually) the weak hand for the partner to bid a particular suit first, and therefore to become the declarer), and the Blackwood convention (to ask for information on
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#17327801566192332-639: Is Biritch, or Russian Whist written by John Collinson, an English financier working in Ottoman Constantinople . It and his subsequent letter to The Saturday Review dated 28 May 1906, document the origin of Biritch as being the Russian community in Constantinople. The word biritch is thought to be a transliteration of the Russian word Бирюч (бирчий, бирич), an occupation of a diplomatic clerk or an announcer. Another theory
2438-510: Is "march", which is the literal translation of Marsch , itself an abbreviation of Durchmarsch and the German for a slam in many card games. Other words or phrases that reflect a German origin are: "maker" from Macher , short for Spielmacher i.e. "game maker", the person who determines the type of game to be played; "euchred" from gejuckert ; "having a dog from every county" from aus jedem Dorf ein Köter i.e. "a mongrel from every village",
2544-460: Is a four-player game using a pack of 25 cards with a joker and four suits comprising AKQJT9. Card ranking is as per the 1844 rules with the exception that the top trump is the Benny or Best Bower represented by the joker or ♠ 2. Deal and play are clockwise. The first dealer can be chosen by any random method. The dealer shuffles and deals each player a packet of 2 or 3 cards in any order and then
2650-564: Is assigned to each seat, so that one partnership sits in North and South, while the other sits in West and East. The cards may be freshly dealt or, in duplicate bridge games, pre-dealt. All that is needed in basic games are the cards and a method of keeping score, but there is often other equipment on the table, such as a board containing the cards to be played (in duplicate bridge), bidding boxes , or screens . In rubber bridge each player draws
2756-468: Is at the heart of bidding in bridge. A number of basic rules of thumb in bridge bidding and play are summarized as bridge maxims . A bidding system is a set of partnership agreements on the meanings of bids. A partnership's bidding system is usually made up of a core system, modified and complemented by specific conventions (optional customizations incorporated into the main system for handling specific bidding situations) which are pre-chosen between
2862-599: Is briefly mentioned as early as 1810, being played in a gaming house alongside all fours , loo , cribbage , and whist . In 1829, uker was being played with bowers on a steamboat in the American Midwest. The earliest written rules appeared in 1844. The mode of play and terminology of Euchre have resulted in several theories which suggest that it has an origin in Spanish Trionfo, French Ecarté or Triomphe , or Alsatian Jucker. An early American theory
2968-535: Is no Joker. 32 cards are used. The Right Bower , the trump Jack, is the "commanding card" with the Left Bower , the Jack of the same color, as the second-highest card. According to Parlett, the Joker was added to a 32-card pack in the 1850s specifically for the game of Euchre and is first mentioned in a set of rules in 1868 where it turns out to be a blank specimen card not intended for actual play. This gave rise to
3074-419: Is no difference in score between a 1 ♠ and a 7 ♠ final bid, as the bonus for rubber, small slam or grand slam depends on the number of tricks taken rather than the number of tricks bid. The modern game of contract bridge was the result of innovations to the scoring of auction bridge by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt and others. The most significant change was that only the tricks contracted for were scored below
3180-526: Is played in clubs and tournaments, which can gather as many as several hundred players. Duplicate bridge is a mind sport , and its popularity gradually became comparable to that of chess , with which it is often compared for its complexity and the mental skills required for high-level competition. Bridge and chess are the only "mind sports" recognized by the International Olympic Committee , although they were not found eligible for
3286-510: Is played slightly differently in North America and there are numerous variations. The following account is a summary of the typical rules for the four-hand game. Four players play in two teams, the partners sitting opposite one another. A 24-card pack is used with cards ranking as before with a right bower and left bower as the top two cards of the trump suit. A pack of 32 cards (AKQJ10987) or 28 cards (no 7s) may also be used, but 24 cards
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3392-653: Is still played as a social game in the US Midwest, the Canadian province of Ontario, Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain, especially Cornwall. The earliest surviving rules were published in America by Thomas Mathews in his 1844 work, The Whist Player's Hand-book , in which a four-hand version of Euchre is described right at the end. The following is a summary: Euchre is played by two to five persons, but most often by two or four. A 32-card French-suited Piquet pack
3498-552: Is that British soldiers invented the game bridge while serving in the Crimean War , and named it after the Galata Bridge , which they crossed on their way to a coffeehouse to play cards. Biritch had many significant bridge-like developments: dealer chose the trump suit, or nominated his partner to do so; there was a call of "no trumps" ( biritch ); dealer's partner's hand became dummy; points were scored above and below
3604-399: Is the standard. Deal and play are clockwise. The face-down pack is spread on the table and players draw a card each. The players with the two lowest cards playing together against the others and the player with the lowest card dealing first. For this purpose only, suits are irrelevant, aces rank low and jacks rank immediately below the queens. The dealer then shuffles the pack and offers it to
3710-448: Is used and cards rank in the trump suit as follows: Right Bower (trump knave ), Left Bower (knave of same color), A > K > Q > 10 > 9 > 8 > 7. The side suits rank in their natural order . Deal and play are clockwise. The pack is shuffled and four cards distributed. The players with two higher cards become partners and play the other two. The dealer deals five cards each in packets of two and three and turns
3816-639: Is worth more than the Ace" and a Marsch was to take all five tricks in Jucker. Rausch (1908) states that Juckerspiel was widespread in Alsace and e Marsch mache means to take all the tricks and that the Bauer is the highest card. Modern sources state that the game was played in the Rhineland and the South Hessian region. Jucker has been suggested as the ancestor of the popular American game, Euchre, on
3922-458: The Marsch . Contract Bridge Contract bridge , or simply bridge , is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck . In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships , with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments , online and with friends at home, making it one of
4028-482: The War of 1812 . Card game historian David Parlett believes that Euchre is derived from an eighteenth-century Alsatian card game named Jucker or Juckerspiel, pronounced "yooker". Clues to a possible German origin are the names of the trump Jacks. Bower is phonetically identical with the German word Bauer which normally means farmer, but also refers to the Jack in playing cards. Another word probably derived from German
4134-431: The 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 played , the declaring side trying to fulfill
4240-532: The "canard" of a link with Ecarté pointing out that the two games emerged at roughly the same time and that Ecarté is a two-handed game in which Jacks are not the top trumps. David Parlett , an expert on the history of card games, goes further and argues that, "on linguistic grounds alone there can be no doubt as to [Euchre's] origin in the Alsatian game of Juckerspiel as brought to America by German immigrants." Not only are Jucker and Euchre phonetically alike, but
4346-702: The American Whist League, and the United States Bridge Association. In 1935, the first officially recognized world championship was held. In 1958, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) was founded to promote bridge worldwide, coordinate periodic revision to the Laws (each ten years, next in 2027) and conduct world championships. In tournaments, " bidding boxes " are frequently used, as noted above. These avoid
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4452-422: The Laws every 10 years; it also issues a Laws Commentary advising on interpretations it has rendered. In addition to the basic rules of play, there are many additional rules covering playing conditions and the rectification of irregularities, which are primarily for use by tournament directors who act as referees and have overall control of procedures during competitions. But various details of procedure are left to
4558-457: The US. Bridge is a four-player partnership trick-taking game with thirteen tricks per deal. The dominant variations of the game are rubber bridge , more common in social play; and duplicate bridge , which enables comparative scoring in tournament play. Each player is dealt thirteen cards from a standard 52-card deck. A trick starts when a player leads (i.e., plays the first card). The leader to
4664-477: The agreed-upon meaning of each call and play must be available to the opponents. Since a partnership that has freedom to bid gradually at leisure can exchange more information, and since a partnership that can interfere with the opponents' bidding (as by raising the bidding level rapidly) can cause difficulties for their opponents, bidding systems are both informational and strategic. It is this mixture of information exchange and evaluation, deduction, and tactics that
4770-470: The basis of chronology, linguistics and mode of play. 19th century American sources show that eucre was being played as early as 1810 and that by 1829, as uker , it was played with Bowers as early as 1829 in the American Mid-West, and that Euchre was invented in America during the 1820s from the mixing of Écarté with ideas from German card games by German immigrants. Bumppo (1999) refutes
4876-416: The bidding later – or bid a contract, specifying the level of their contract and either the trump suit or no trump (the denomination), provided that it is higher than the last bid by any player, including their partner. All bids promise to take a number of tricks in excess of six, so a bid must be between one (seven tricks) and seven (thirteen tricks). A bid is higher than another bid if either
4982-535: 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. Bridge is a member of the family of trick-taking games and is a derivative of whist , which had become the dominant such game and enjoyed a loyal following for centuries. The idea of a trick-taking, 52-card game has its first documented origins in Italy and France. The French physician and author Rabelais (1493–1553) mentions
5088-448: The cards are placed in a device called a "board" , having slots designated for each player's cardinal direction seating position. After a deal has been played, players return their cards to the appropriate slot in the board, ready to be played by the next table. The dealer opens the auction and can make the first call, and the auction proceeds clockwise. When it is their turn to call, a player may pass – but can enter into
5194-503: The cards are thrown in and the next dealer deals. If anyone orders up, the dealer picks up the upcard and discards a card in return. The dealer's partner may bid "assist", in which case the dealer takes up trump and they become the makers. A player confident of taking 5 tricks single-handed may say "cards away" to the partner and play alone against the opponents. The eldest leads to the first trick . Players must follow suit if able; otherwise may play any card. The highest trump takes
5300-414: The center of the table and its top card flipped. The eldest hand opens the bidding by passing (saying "pass") or accepting the suit of the upcard as trump by saying: "I order it up" (or "pick it up"). If the eldest passes, the second hand, the dealer's partner, may pass or accept by saying: "I assist" (or "I'll help you"). If the second hand passes, the third hand may pass or accept. If the first three pass,
5406-434: The closest relative of Juckerspiel is a variant of Bauer , or Bauern , played in the Hunsrück , uses 32 French-suited cards and is a six-handed, two-team game in which there are two Jacks as top trumps: the trump Jack and the Jack of the same colour. Like Jucker , players receive 5 cards each and there is a bonus for a slam, known as a Durch (short for German Durchmarsch , means "marching through", taking all tricks). If
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#17327801566195512-416: The concept of bidding into an auction , where partnerships compete to take a contract , specifying how many tricks they will need to take in order to receive points, and also specifying the trump suit (or no trump , meaning that there will be no trump suit). Players take turns to call in a clockwise order: each player in turn either passes, doubles – which increases the penalties for not making
5618-625: The contract for their partnership. In the example auction below, the east–west pair secures the contract of 6 ♠ ; the auction concludes when there have been three successive passes. Note that six tricks are added to contract values, so the six-level contract is a contract of twelve tricks. In practice, establishing a contract without enough information on the other partner's hand is difficult, so there exist many bidding systems assigning meanings to bids, with common ones including Standard American , Acol , and 2/1 game forcing . Contrast with Spades, where players only have to bid their own hand. After
5724-437: The contract is decided, and the first lead is made, the declarer's partner (dummy) lays their cards face up on the table, and the declarer plays the dummy's cards as well as their own. The opposing partnership is called the defenders , and their goal is to stop the declarer from fulfilling his contract. Once all the cards have been played, the hand is scored: if the declaring side makes their contract, they receive points based on
5830-429: The contract specified by the opposing partnership's last bid, but also increases the reward for making it – or redoubles, or states a contract that their partnership will adopt, which must be higher than the previous highest bid (if any). Eventually, the player who bid the highest contract – which is determined by the contract's level as well as the trump suit or no trump – wins
5936-412: The contract, and the defenders trying to stop the declaring side from achieving its goal. The deal is 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. Rubber bridge is the most popular variation for casual play, but most club and tournament play involves some variant of duplicate bridge , where
6042-467: The cut card is a Jack, it determines the trump suit unless superseded later. Players are dealt five cards each from a skat pack and, if trumps have not already been decided, the top card of the skat is turned for trump. If it is a Jack, it determines trumps even if the cut card was a Jack. If it is a Jack, the bottom card of the skat is turned and, if it is the same suit, dealer may exchange with it. If not, players are asked in turn if they will play with
6148-399: The dealer may accept the turnup by discarding a card (called "taking it up") or turn it down by placing the upcard, face up, half under the kitty (called "turning it down"). If the dealer acquires the top card, either by being ordered to pick it up or choosing to pick it up, it becomes part of the dealer's hand. It is left in place until played, and the dealer discards a card to the bottom of
6254-482: The dealer take it up, the suit of the upcard becomes trump. The dealer picks it up and discards a card face down. Note that the dealer's partner cannot make trumps and play with the dealer, but can only pass or play alone by turning it down. This does not apply to the second choice in which the player may choose any suit. If the upcard is the Benny, the dealer must announce trumps before picking up their own hand cards and
6360-427: The dealer's team are the makers (a "blind shout"). Before the first trick any player may announce they are going "alone", whereupon the partner of the lone player puts their cards face down on the table and drops out of that hand. A maker and a defender may both go alone in which case it is one against one. Play and scoring are as in the 1844 rules, except that: The following rule variations are recorded: Euchre
6466-766: The discretion of the zonal bridge organisation for tournaments under their aegis and some (for example, the choice of movement ) to the sponsoring organisation (for example, the club). Some zonal organisations of the WBF also publish editions of the Laws. For example, the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) publishes the Laws of Duplicate Bridge and additional documentation for club and tournament directors. There are no universally accepted rules for rubber bridge, but some zonal organisations have published their own. An example for those wishing to abide by
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#17327801566196572-407: The first trick is determined by the auction; the leader to each subsequent trick is the player who won the preceding trick. Each player, in clockwise order, plays one card on the trick. Players must play a card of the same suit as the original card led, unless they have none (said to be "void"), in which case they may play any card. The player who played the highest-ranked card wins the trick. Within
6678-559: The first trick. Dummy then lays his or her cards face-up on the table, organized in columns by suit. Play proceeds clockwise, with each player required to follow suit if possible. Tricks are won by the highest trump, or if there were none played, the highest card of the led suit. The player who won the previous trick leads to the next trick. The declarer has control of the dummy's cards and tells his partner which card to play at dummy's turn. There also exist conventions that communicate further information between defenders about their hands during
6784-473: The game is considered cheating. Unacceptable table talk may include code words, secret gestures, bidding out of turn or suggesting what the partner should play. Depending on the local rules, such infringements may incur a penalty. A player who does not follow suit when able has revoked . Sometimes this is called "reneging" but, strictly speaking, a renege refers to a situation in other card games when you may legally not follow suit when you can. If discovered,
6890-479: The game that "bridge" became synonymous with "contract bridge". The form of bridge mostly played in clubs, tournaments and online is duplicate bridge . The number of people playing contract bridge has declined since its peak in the 1940s, when a survey found it was played in 44% of US households. The game is still widely played, especially amongst retirees, and in 2005 the ACBL estimated there were 25 million players in
6996-401: The game. In Columbus, the target is 10. Scores can be kept by using two otherwise unused cards as markers, with each team often using cards of the same color. Scoring begins using one card face up, covered by the other card face down. Upon winning points, the top card is moved to reveal the appropriate number of suit symbols on the bottom card. After all points are revealed on the lower card,
7102-466: The highest trump wins. For example, if the trump suit is spades and a player is void in the suit led and plays a spade card, they win the trick if no other player plays a higher spade. If a trump suit is led, the usual rule for trick-taking applies. Unlike its predecessor, whist , the goal of bridge is not simply to take the most tricks in a deal. Instead, the goal is to successfully estimate how many tricks one's partnership can take. To illustrate this,
7208-420: The kitty, face down. If no one orders up the top card and the dealer chooses not to take it up, each player is then given the opportunity, in turn, to pass again or call a different suit as trump. If no trump is selected, the hand is discarded and the deal passes to the left. When trumps are chosen, the trump jack becomes the top card or right bower. The jack of the same color is the second-highest trump, known as
7314-476: The late 19th century, Euchre was regarded as the national card game of the United States. It has since declined in popularity, although it retains a strong following in regions such as the Midwestern United States. Euchre has also been described as Canada's national card game. With the rise of 20th century games such as Contract Bridge and Spades , Euchre has declined in popularity, though it
7420-399: The left bower. Example: Spades are trump. In this case, the trump cards rank as follows (highest first): The J ♣ effectively becomes a spade during the playing of this hand. This expands the suit of spades to the seven cards above and reduces the suit of clubs by one card, its jack being seconded to the trump suit. Once the hand is over, the J ♣ ceases to be a spade and becomes
7526-453: The level is greater (e.g., 2 ♣ over 1NT) or the denomination is higher, with the order being in ascending (or alphabetical) order: ♣ , ♦ , ♥ , ♠ , and NT (no trump). Calls may be made orally or with a bidding box. If the last bid was by the opposing partnership, one may also double the opponents' bid, increasing the penalties for undertricks, but also increasing the reward for making the contract. Doubling does not carry to future bids by
7632-496: The level of the contract, with some trump suits being worth more points than others and no trump being the highest, as well as bonus points for overtricks . If the declarer fails to fulfill the contract, the defenders receive points depending on the declaring side's undertricks (the number of tricks short of the contract) and whether the contract was doubled by the defenders. The four players sit in two partnerships with players sitting opposite their partners. A cardinal direction
7738-424: The line toward game or a slam bonus, a change that resulted in bidding becoming much more challenging and interesting. Also new was the concept of "vulnerability", making sacrifices to protect the lead in a rubber more expensive. The various scores were adjusted to produce a more balanced and interesting game. Vanderbilt set out his rules in 1925, and within a few years contract bridge had so supplanted other forms of
7844-503: The line; game was 3NT, 4 ♥ and 5 ♦ (although 8 club odd tricks and 15 spade odd tricks were needed); the score could be doubled and redoubled; and there were slam bonuses. It has some features in common with solo whist . This game, and variants of it known as "bridge" and " bridge whist ", became popular in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1890s despite the long-established dominance of whist. Its breakthrough
7950-621: The main Olympic program. In October 2017 the British High Court ruled against the English Bridge Union, finding that Bridge is not a sport under a definition of sport as involving physical activity, but did not rule on the "broad, somewhat philosophical question" as to whether or not bridge is a sport. The basic premise of duplicate bridge had previously been used for whist matches as early as 1857. Initially, bridge
8056-450: The natural meaning of the call. Thus in response to 4NT, a 'natural' bid of 5 ♦ would state a preference towards a diamond suit or a desire to play in five diamonds, whereas if the partners have agreed to use the common Blackwood convention , a bid of 5 ♦ in the same situation would say nothing about the diamond suit, but would tell the partner that the hand in question contains exactly one ace. Conventions are valuable in bridge because of
8162-472: The need to pass information beyond a simple like or dislike of a particular suit, and because the limited bidding space can be used more efficiently by adopting a conventional (artificial) meaning for a given call where a natural meaning has less utility, because the information it conveys is not valuable or because the desire to convey that information arises only rarely. The conventional meaning conveys more useful (or more frequently useful) information. There are
8268-483: The next for trump. The eldest hand (to the left of the dealer) opens the auction and may either 'order it up' (= accept the turnup as trump) or 'turn it down' (= pass ), in which case the next player in turn has the same options and so on. The team that order it up are the 'makers'. If all pass, the dealer does not exchange , and another round of bidding begins with eldest who may make trump of any other suit. If all pass again and dealer does not want to make trump,
8374-407: The next game. A partnership that wins two games wins the rubber, receiving a bonus of 500 points if the opponents have won a game, and 700 points if they have not. Overtricks score the same number of points per odd trick, although their doubled and redoubled values differ. Bonuses vary between the two bridge variations both in score and in type (for example, rubber bridge awards a bonus for holding
8480-432: The next table, thereby duplicating them for the other table(s) of players. At the end of a session, the scores for each deal are compared, and the most points are awarded to the players doing the best with each particular deal. This measures relative skill (but still with an element of luck) because each pair or team is being judged only on the ability to bid with, and play, the same cards as other players. Duplicate bridge
8586-442: The number of IMPs varies (but less than proportionately) with the points difference between the teams. Undertricks are scored in both variations as follows: The rules of the game are referred to as the laws as promulgated by various bridge organizations. The official rules of duplicate bridge are promulgated by the WBF as "The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017". The Laws Committee of the WBF, composed of world experts, updates
8692-452: The number of suit symbols showing and adding them to the 5 when the cards are crossed. In Canada and Michigan, it is common for each team to use two 5 s of the same color to keep score, with one team red and the other black. The 5 s are usually referred to as "counting cards" in this situation. Euchre does not require silence as in some other games; some table talk is acceptable. However, communicating with one's partner to influence
8798-445: The opponents unless future bids are doubled again. A player on the opposing partnership being doubled may also redouble , which increases the penalties and rewards further. Players may not see their partner's hand during the auction, only their own. There exist many bidding conventions that assign agreed meanings to various calls to assist players in reaching an optimal contract (or obstruct the opponents). The auction ends when, after
8904-408: The opposing team is awarded two points or two points are deducted from the offending team. Euchre terminology varies greatly from region to region and is highly colloquial. Some examples include: The following North American rule variations are recorded: Jucker (card game) Jucker , also known as Juckerspiel ("game of Jucker") or Juckern ("playing Jucker"), is a card game that
9010-528: The partners prior to play. The line between a well-known convention and a part of a system is not always clear-cut: some bidding systems include specified conventions by default. Bidding systems can be divided into mainly natural systems such as Acol and Standard American , and mainly artificial systems such as the Precision Club and Polish Club . Calls are usually considered to be either natural or conventional (artificial). A natural call carries
9116-488: The play. At any time, a player may claim , stating that their side will win a specific number of the remaining tricks. The claiming player lays his cards down on the table and explains the order in which he intends to play the remaining cards. The opponents can either accept the claim and the round is scored accordingly, or dispute the claim. If the claim is disputed, play continues with the claiming player's cards face up in rubber games, or in duplicate games, play ceases and
9222-464: The possibility of players at other tables hearing any spoken bids. The bidding cards are laid out in sequence as the auction progresses. Although it is not a formal rule, many clubs adopt a protocol that the bidding cards stay revealed until the first playing card is tabled, after which point the bidding cards are put away. Bidding pads are an alternative to bidding boxes. A bidding pad is a block of 100mm square tear-off sheets. Players write their bids on
9328-399: The remaining rounds, but in duplicate bridge, vulnerability is predetermined based on the number of each board. If the declaring side makes their contract, they receive points for odd tricks , or tricks bid and made in excess of six. In both rubber and duplicate bridge, the declaring side is awarded 20 points per odd trick for a contract in clubs or diamonds, and 30 points per odd trick for
9434-401: The right for cutting. Five cards are dealt in two rounds. In the first, the dealer may deal either 2 or 3 cards each, in turn and in clockwise order beginning with the eldest hand. This is followed by a second round to bring each player's hand to 5 cards. Whichever system is used initially, it must not subsequently be changed. The remaining four cards, called the kitty , are placed face down in
9540-551: The rubber finishes when a partnership has won two games, but the partnership receiving the most overall points wins the rubber. Duplicate bridge is scored comparatively, meaning that the score for the hand is compared to other tables playing the same cards and match points are scored according to the comparative results: usually either "matchpoint scoring", where each partnership receives 2 points (or 1 point) for each pair that they beat, and 1 point (or 1 ⁄ 2 point) for each tie; or IMPs (international matchpoint) scoring, where
9646-449: The simpler partnership trick-taking game of spades has a similar mechanism: the usual trick-taking rules apply with the trump suit being spades, but in the beginning of the game, players bid or estimate how many tricks they can win, and the number of tricks bid by both players in a partnership are added. If a partnership takes at least that many tricks, they receive points for the round; otherwise, they lose penalty points. Bridge extends
9752-453: The team earns a Brot ("loaf" or "roll"; translation: "bread") or Schrööm . The equivalent of a going alone is Karten weg ("cards away") which is announced by a player who intends to take every trick. The partner's cards are set aside and the player wanting to "make a march" (" einen Durchmarsch machen ") leads off. Winning earns an extra Brot . The game is sometimes played with a shortened pack of 20 cards or by two teams of 3. Reunion ,
9858-682: The terms Bauer and Marsch have been imported into Euchre as 'Bower' and 'march'. His conclusion is that Euchre derives from the Alsatian game of Jucker which, in turn, is descended from Triomphe or French Ruff , probably via Bête . Recently, members of the International Playing Card Society identified two games, still being played today in the region north of Alsace in the area of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) in Germany, that could be descendants of Juckerspiel: Bauer and Hunsrücker Bauern . Possibly
9964-534: The top card is flipped over, adding pips on both cards to indicate the score. In Columbus, score is kept with a 4 and a 6 . A variation of scorekeeping in Western New York and Ontario involves each side using the 2 and 3 of one suit. Scoring starts with counting the symbols on the cards, for points 1 to 4; at 5, the cards are turned over and crossed. Crossing the cards indicates 5 points. Points 6 to 9 are counted similarly by counting
10070-400: The top sheet. When the first trick is complete the sheet is torn off and discarded. In top national and international events, " bidding screens " are used. These are placed diagonally across the table, preventing partners from seeing each other during the game; often the screen is removed after the auction is complete. Much of the complexity in bridge arises from the difficulty of arriving at
10176-414: The tournament director is called to adjudicate the hand. At the end of the hand, points are awarded to the declaring side if they make the contract, or else to the defenders. Partnerships can be vulnerable , increasing the rewards for making the contract, but also increasing the penalties for undertricks. In rubber bridge, if a side has won 100 contract points, they have won a game and are vulnerable for
10282-416: The trick or the highest card of the led suit if no trumps were played. The trick winner leads to the next trick. The makers must take at least 3 tricks to win and score 1 point. Otherwise they are euchred , i.e. have lost and their opponents score 2 points. Winning all 5 tricks is a march which earns 2 points. Announcing "cards away" and winning all 5 tricks alone scores 4 points. Points are tallied using
10388-447: The trump Jack or Dicke ("fat one") and the Jack of the same suit colour or Linke ("left one"). Forehand leads with a trump (sometimes optional). Suit must be followed, but players may play any card if unable to follow. Teams start with eight points and aim to be first to zero, one point being deducted to the winners of a deal if they declared trumps. If the declarers lose, they add a point and their opponents deduct one. On reaching zero,
10494-415: The turnup suit. If any player says yes, the dealer may exchange with it. If no-one wants to play with the turnup suit, it is turned over again and players are asked if they will play with another suit. If all pass, the cards are redealt. This process is similar to that used in Euchre. Teams start with five lines marked on a slate ( Striche ) and play for the best of five tricks. If the declarers win, they erase
10600-486: The unused Deuce and Trey cards, or counters . Game is 5 points. The following terms were used by Mathews. Many continue to be used today: In Britain, euchre is played in southwestern England, especially Cornwall , Devon and Guernsey , as well as in coastal East Anglia . A key feature is that a joker, called the Benny , is the highest trump. The following is a summary of modern British rules by John McLeod , supplemented by other sources where indicated. Euchre
10706-417: The world's most popular card games , particularly among seniors . 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 deals , each progressing through four phases. The cards are dealt to the players; then the players call (or bid ) in an auction seeking to take
10812-426: Was its acceptance in 1894 by Lord Brougham at London's Portland Club . In 1904, auction bridge was developed, in which the players bid in a competitive auction to decide the contract and declarer. The object became to make at least as many tricks as were contracted for, and penalties were introduced for failing to do so. Auction bridge bidding beyond winning the auction is pointless. If taking all 13 tricks, there
10918-607: Was not thought to be suitable for duplicate competition; it was not until the 1920s that (auction) bridge tournaments became popular. In 1925 when contract bridge first evolved, bridge tournaments were becoming popular, but the rules were somewhat in flux, and several different organizing bodies were involved in tournament sponsorship: the American Bridge League (formerly the American Auction Bridge League , which changed its name in 1929),
11024-576: Was popular in the Alsace and Palatinate regions on either side of the modern Franco-German border. It is believed to be the ancestor of Euchre and may have given its name to the playing card known as the Joker . The earliest known reference to the game occurs in 1792 in a German dictionary, as Juckern , where it is described as "a game with cards" and assigned to the Palatinate region. By 1848 it
11130-401: Was that Euchre was brought into the United States by the German settlers of Pennsylvania , and from that region it was disseminated throughout the nation. The 1864 edition of The American Hoyle disputes its alleged German heritage, tracing the game's origin to Pennsylvania itself in the 1820s. It goes on to surmise that a "rich German farmer's daughter" had visited Philadelphia and carried home
11236-471: Was well known enough for Spindler to mention it in his Vergißmeinnicht ("Forget-me-Not"), in which a young man gambles his time away in pubs playing various games including Jucker ( [er] juckert ). In Erckmann-Chatrian 's 1864 novel L'ami Fritz , set in Alsace , there are frequent references in French to playing the game of youker as far back as the 1830s. In 1856, Hackländer recounts playing Juckern,
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