Tricks and Following Suit

The whole play rests on one rule. If you hold a card of the suit that was led, you must play one. This is called following suit. You can choose which card of that suit to play, high or low, but you cannot play a card of another suit while you still have one of the suit led.

In notrump, each trick goes to the highest card of the suit that was led. The ace beats the king, the king beats the queen, and so on down to the 2. Cards of other suits do not count at all, however high they are. An ace of spades played to a heart trick wins nothing.

The last row looks strange but happens. When nobody else has a card of the suit led, even a 5 wins the trick. Playing to a trick, you will often see a high card from the opponent before you, and you can then decide whether to beat it or save your own high card for later.

Failing to follow suit when you could have is called a revoke. It is against the rules and costs your side tricks once it is found out, so take a second look before you play a card of another suit.

Sooner or later a suit is led that you have run out of, or never held. You are then free to play any card you like, and doing so is called a discard. In notrump a discard can never win the trick, so the art is choosing the card you will miss least. Usually that is a low card in a suit you cannot hope to win tricks in, while you keep the high cards and the long suits that may still bring tricks in later.

A suit you hold no cards in is called a void. In notrump a void has no special power. It just means that every time that suit is led, you discard.

The player who won a trick leads to the next one. This is why the lead moves around the table in no fixed order, and why winning a trick matters twice: it is a trick for your side, and it lets you choose the suit for the next round.

After 13 tricks every card has been played. Each side counts the tricks it won, and the two totals always add up to 13. Keep a running count as you go. Players at a club leave each card they played face down in front of them, pointing it toward the side that won the trick, so the count is there to check at the end.

Step through the first five tricks of a deal. South is playing the hand in 1NT, which you will learn about later. All four hands are face up here so you can follow every card.

Look at the first card of the trick and check your hand for that suit. If you have it, play one of them, and play high only when it can win or help your side. If you have none, discard the card you need least. When all four cards are down, note who won, because that player leads next, and add the trick to the right side's count.

For the full set of rules about tricks, revokes and claims, see bridge rules. For a deal followed from start to finish, see how to play bridge.