Bidding in Bridge: Finding the Right Contract

1. What is the purpose of the auction?
Now that you know how the play works, it’s time to look at what happens before the cards are played: the bidding. Its purpose is simple to state yet full of consequences: to determine which partnership will be on offense, how many tricks they believe they can take, whether there will be a trump suit, and if so, which one.
During this phase, the four players speak in turn until they reach a contract – a final combination of a number of tricks promised and a denomination (a suit or No-Trump). One side will then be declarer’s side, trying to fulfill the contract, while the other side will defend and try to defeat it.

2. How does a bid work?
A bid has two elements: a level (a number) and a denomination (No-Trump, Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, or Clubs). For example, “3♦️” is a bid.
The level is not the total number of tricks, but the number of tricks above six that your side commits to winning at minimum. So “3♦️” means you commit to winning 6 + 3 = 9 tricks, with Diamonds as trump.
The lowest level is 1, which means committing to at least 7 tricks out of 13. The highest level is 7, which corresponds to taking all 13 tricks.
To make a bid, you should believe that you and your partner have a reasonable chance of winning more than half of the tricks. You never have to bid – you may always say Pass if you think you cannot win enough tricks.
Bidding proceeds clockwise from the dealer, and ends as soon as three consecutive players pass. The last bid then becomes the final contract.

3. Order of suits, majors, minors, and a full example
To allow overcalls and higher bids, the suits follow a fixed ranking:
Clubs < Diamonds < Hearts < Spades < No-Trump.
Hearts and Spades are the major suits, while Clubs and Diamonds are the minor suits.
Each new bid must be higher than the previous one—either by raising the level, or by choosing a higher-ranking suit at the same level.
For example, after “1♥️”, you may still bid “1♠️” or “1NT”, or jump to “2” in any higher denomination.

The example in the video illustrates this: Freda, the dealer, starts with “1♥️”. Prince overcalls with “2♦️”. David (Freda’s partner) raises to “2♥️”. The Lobster passes. Freda continues with “3♥️”. After three consecutive passes, the final contract is 3♥️:

Freda and David are on offense and must take at least 9 tricks with Hearts as trump. Freda, who named Hearts first, becomes the declarer; David becomes the dummy; and Prince and the Lobster defend against the contract.
The next videos will explain how to decide what to bid… and why bridge players are so often encouraged to aim high!