The game of MiniBridge is played with a standard pack of 52 playing cards with the jokers removed. There are four players, who sit round a table and are usually identified by the points of the compass: North, South, East and West. They play as two partnerships, North-South and East-West. Partners can be agreed or designated, or the cards can be cut to determine who plays with whom.
The process is straightforward, but it is important to proceed in a logical sequence, to keep everyone on board. This is a recommended approach:
- Introduce the pack of cards, the suits, the concept of a trick and which card wins a trick. Do not explain the concept of trumps at this stage. Shuffle and play one deal (or more) until everyone is confident playing a trick.
- Explain the concept of High Card Points (HCP). Use the table below to show how many tricks are expected to be won for different HCP totals. Shuffle & play and compare the result to the theory.
- Establish the concept of playing with one hand laid out on the table. Another shuffle & deal.
- Introduce the scoring system as detailed below, and the idea that the pair with the highest HCP score becomes the “declaring side” and the person with more HCP in the partnership sets a contract as high as they dare.
- Explain the concept of a trump suit and what constitutes a sensible choice of trump suit, recognising that major suits score better than minor suits. Shuffle & deal & play with a (slightly arbitrary) choice of trump suit.
- Now the whole process of shuffling and playing a deal can be worked through.
For further detail, see: Eleven easy steps to play MiniBridge