Bridge: Card poker game

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Bridge

Modern Bridge, more precisely Contract Bridge, but the ‘Contract’ has for long been dropped, was developed out of Auction Bridge and introduced to card players in the early 1920s. It took firm root quickly, and made rapid progress, to become the most popular game in the whole history of card-playing. To-day, half a century after its debut, it is played by millions, rich and poor, from peers to peasants, and it has attracted to itself a vast literature in most European languages.
Bridge is played by four players, two playing in partnership against the other two, and with a standard pack of fifty-two cards. The cards rank in the order Ace (high) to 2 (low), and the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten of a suit are known as the honor cards. The suits rank in the order Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs; the Spade and Heart suits are known as the major suits: the Diamond and Club suits as the minor suits. Although only one pack of cards is necessary, it is customary to use two, of different design or colour, and while one is being dealt the other is shuffled by the partner of the dealer, in readiness for the next dealer.
To determine partners, a pack is spread-eagled on the table. The four players draw cards from it, and the two who draw the two highest cards play in partnership against the other two. If two poker players draw cards of equal rank, precedence is determined by the rank of the suits. The player who draws the highest card has choice of seats and cards, and deals first. Thereafter the deal passes round the table clockwise. His partner sits opposite to him; the other two partners sit one on each side of him.
It is convenient to divide the game into two periods. The bidding, during which the two partnerships compare against each other to establish which suit shall be made trumps or whether the hand shall be played without a trump suit. The playing, during which the player who has won the contract strives to make it, playing his own hand and that of his partner exposed on the table, against the other partnership striving to prevent him.
The dealer bids first, and the bidding continues round the table clockwise. When a player bids he states the number of tricks in excess of six that he undertakes to win, and in the denomination that he undertakes to play. The lowest bid, therefore, is a bid of One ( a contract to win seven tricks) and the highest is a bid of Seven (a contract to win all thirteen tricks). As No-Trumps takes precedence over the suits, and the suits rank in the descending order Spades, Heads, Diamonds, Clubs, the lowest possible bid is One Club, and the ascending scale is: One club, One Diamond, One Heart, One Spade, One No-Trump, Two clubs, Two Diamonds.. Seven Hearts, Seven Spades, Seven No-Trumps. A contract of Seven (to win all thirteen tricks ) is called a small slam; a contract of Seven (to win all thirteen tricks) is called a grand slam.