The Rules for Scotch Bridge
A longer game of planning and strategy.
For: 4 people
Need: One deck of playing cards with jokers removed.
The object of this game is have the highest score. Points are earned through correct bidding and careful play. This is not the bridge game you find in the newspaper every day.
This game is played in 25 rounds. You can change this as you see fit, but the rules as presented here are for four people who intend to play 25 rounds.
The score sheet can be printed and used to help explain the game better. Just click on the link to take you to a printable version of a score sheet.
Decide who deals first any way you see fit. Deal out all cards to players. Every player should have 13 cards now, obviously. Now, the person to the right of the dealer "bids." A bid is simply a guess as to how many tricks you will take in this round. Bid carefully; you can only score if you actually take the number of tricks you bid.
Bidding continues to the right. The dealer is the last person to bid. The dealer cannot bid a number that will cause the sum of the bids to equal 13. Why? Because in Round 1, there are 13 tricks to be won. If the bids add up to 13 then everyone can win. By limiting the dealer's bid, it guarantees that at least one person will not win in the round.
Once everyone has bid, the play can begin. The person to the left of the dealer leads with the first card. YOU MUST FOLLOW SUIT. The highest card (Aces are high) that follows suit wins the trick and gets to throw the first card for the next trick. Each player's goal, as stated before, is to get the number of tricks that he/she bid earlier.
Once the 13th trick is played, players count their tricks. If they actually won the number of tricks they bid, they earn that number plus 10 points. For example, if I bid 5, and acutally got 5 tricks, I get 15 points for the round.
If someone bids zero, and successfully wins no tricks, they score the number of possible tricks for the round plus 5. For example, if I bid zero for the first round and actually get zero, I get 18 points for the round, since there were 13 tricks possible in that round.
Once everyone has scored, deal passes to the left and the Second Round begins. Each player gets 12 cards. The remaining four cards are the "kitty." The top card of the kitty is turned over. Whatever suit shows up becomes trump for this round.
Bidding proceeds to the right of the dealer, just as in the last round. The dealer's bid is limited. The dealer cannot bid a number that would cause the sum of bids to be 12, since there are 12 tricks in this round.
The person to the left of the dealer leads, just as before. YOU STILL MUST FOLLOW SUIT. In this round, and all following rounds save one, the trump suit is important. (In fact, you need to take trump cards into account when bidding) A trump suit card will beat any non-trump suit card, regardless of value (don't forget to follow suit!). Keep in mind, the Ace of the trump suit cannot be beat.
Score just as in the last round. For Round Three, deal passes to the left and everyone gets 11 cards.
The rounds continue. In Round Thirteen, everyone gets just one card. In Round Fourteen, everyone is dealt two cards. The number increases all the way back up to thirteen cards in Round 25. And, just as in Round One, there is no trump for Round 25.
Enjoy, and have tons of fun!