Bridge

Version 1.0.0 · The contract table · Catalogue 40

Thirteen tricks. One thoughtful plan. This is declarer practice with three set contracts and no bidding.

Your objective

You are South, the declarer. North is your partner, called dummy, and you choose the cards for both hands. East and West form the defence and play automatically. The aim is to take at least the number of tricks required by South’s contract.

A trick consists of one card from each of the four hands. Each deal uses a complete, unique 52-card deck, thirteen cards per seat, and continues through all thirteen tricks. The page opens on the first authored deal.

The three contracts

A contract number counts tricks above the first six: 1NT means seven total tricks, not one. Likewise, 3NT means nine and 4♥ means ten. These contracts and deals are already set; there is no auction or trump-selection step.

The exact play rules

Press See opening lead to let West lead the authored first card. Dummy remains hidden until that lead is played. North’s cards then appear, and you choose a legal card from dummy. Clockwise order continues North, East, South, West, repeating around the table from whichever hand led.

You must follow the led suit if the hand on turn has any cards of that suit. If that hand has none, any of its cards may be played. There is no requirement to trump when void. In a no-trump contract, the highest card of the led suit wins the trick. In the hearts contract, the highest heart wins if any hearts were played; otherwise the highest card of the led suit wins.

Within every suit the order is A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, from high to low. A card from another non-trump suit cannot win the trick just because it has a high rank.

The hand that wins leads the next trick. North–South count as one side: a trick won by dummy counts toward your contract just as a trick won by South does. After the four cards are played, the game names the winner and pauses. Press Next trick when you are ready. There is no claim or automatic finish before thirteen tricks.

Reading the table

The strip above the table names the contract, deal and number of tricks your side has taken out of the target. North sits at the top, South at the bottom, West on the left and East on the right. The defenders show only their remaining card counts during play.

The status names Dummy to play or Your hand to play. Only legal cards in that hand are enabled; the other hand stays disabled. Dummy groups cards by suit. In 4♥ its hearts are first on your left, which is dummy’s right when facing you. South’s cards wrap into two rows on a narrow phone.

The middle shows the current four-card trick, with its winning card highlighted when complete. The thirteen circles below the table record tricks: gold belongs to North–South and slate to the defence. Scroll down to see the final result, teaching idea and all-hands view after the hand.

Touch, mouse and keyboard

Tap or click a highlighted legal card to play it. There is no second confirmation: the card leaves that hand and appears in the current trick. Wait while a defender plays. Use Next trick after a completed trick to continue.

With a physical keyboard, use Tab to reach an enabled card or action button and press Enter or Space to activate it. Disabled cards are not available to play. When the game is embedded, click or tap inside its frame before using physical keys so the input belongs to the game.

There are no special letter shortcuts, drag controls or timed decisions. You can leave a completed trick on display while planning the next one.

A worked first trick

In Count your winners, press See opening lead. West puts K♦ on the table and North’s cards are exposed. Dummy holds A♦, 6♦ and 5♦, so it must play a diamond. Choose A♦.

East follows with its legal diamond automatically. South also has diamonds, so choose a diamond such as 3♦. The ace is the highest diamond, and this is a no-trump hand: North wins. Your side’s trick count becomes one.

Press Next trick. North leads, because North won; you do not automatically return to South. You may now lead any North card. The contract still needs six more tricks from the twelve remaining. This example shows why the next leader matters as much as which side won.

Planning a hand

Before choosing from dummy, count winners you can take immediately. Notice the highest cards held between North and South, then look for a suit that can provide extra tricks after a defender’s higher card is removed.

In the first deal, the ace of diamonds protects the opening suit. Giving up the ace of clubs may let your club honours become winners later. In the second deal, consider playing South’s queen and jack of clubs before dummy’s ace and king, keeping a small club as a connection between the hands.

In 4♥, draw the defenders’ trumps with high hearts before cashing side-suit winners that might otherwise be ruffed. Keep asking which hand will win the trick and what that hand can lead next. The game gives one short teaching idea after every completed deal.

The defence is a deterministic beginner practice heuristic. It sees only its own hand, public dummy, current trick, completed public tricks and trump. It does not see South’s private hand or the other defender’s private cards. It is repeatable practice defence, not expert or tournament-strength opposition.

Results, retry and available settings

After all thirteen tricks, the result says Made X of Y needed if your side reached the target. If it did not, it says Down N · X of Y needed. Extra tricks are shown in the total; this edition does not calculate duplicate or rubber scoring.

The teaching idea appears beneath the result. Show all starting hands reveals the original thirteen cards at each seat, useful for reviewing what happened. This view is available only after the hand ends.

Retry this deal clears the current attempt and repeats the same complete deal, opening lead and deterministic defence. Next deal advances through 01, 02 and 03, then returns to 01. Both buttons also work during a hand and begin a fresh attempt immediately. The three deals are the available content; there is no difficulty selector, bidding mode, generated deal library or bot-strength setting.

Session-only progress

Cards, trick counts and results last only in the live page. Reloading, closing and reopening, or reconnecting an embedded game begins a fresh session on the first deal. Retry and Next deliberately replace the current attempt. There are no accounts, saved hands or score history.

Use Full guide to open these instructions in a separate tab while leaving your game open. Removing and later reinserting an embedded game also starts a fresh page; it does not resume the removed hand.

Install and play offline

Open the standalone game online over HTTPS, or localhost for local use. Choose Install game if your browser supports an install prompt. Otherwise follow the displayed browser instructions for installing the page or adding it to your home screen. On iPhone and iPad, that generally uses Safari’s Share → Add to Home Screen.

After the first complete online visit has cached the game, its three deals, local assets and this guide can open offline. The cache stores the application files, not the current hand. A first visit on another device, or after clearing browser storage, needs a connection again.

An embedded game does not register its own service worker. Its Install control asks the host page to handle installation; if the host leaves it unhandled, instructions explain how to open and install the standalone game. Browser support and exact installation wording vary.

If something seems wrong

Original content and limits

All three deals, opening leads, teaching text, SVG cards, table artwork and interface code are original. Traditional play rules were checked against the ACBL learning material at ACBL Learn. No deal corpus or card-image collection was imported.

This release preserves exactly those three accepted authored deals and their practice defence. It includes no auction, bidding conventions, duplicate/rubber scoring, claim solver, multiplayer, stronger bot mode or saved progress.