Bridge is a partnership game with four players at a table. Partnership mean that two of the four players are playing as a team against the other two. Partners sit opposite each other at the table. All 52 cards of a deck are dealt out, resulting in each player holding 13 cards. Following a prescribed pattern, bidding starts, called the auction, where players try to guess how many tricks they can take. The person who wins the auction is called the declarer and plays the game, with trumps being what suit they bid to make the contract (what they bid). The partner of the player lays his/her cards face up on the table. While non-players think this makes the game easy, far from it. The declarer and the defenders can develop strategies to make or defeat the contract. The game is played with each player playing a card, clockwise. A trick is one round (four cards) and the highest card in the suit played wins, unless a trump is played. When all the cards are played, a score is calculated for that deal.
Bridge is a game that can be played at home, with the cards shuffled and dealt between hands, but the games at the Fresno Bridge Center are called duplicate bridge. Hands are pre-dealt into special card holders, called boards, and partners move between tables after each round (usually after playing four boards). So all players are playing the same hands. At the end, you can compare how you did against other players. And the winning pairs earn masterpoints awarded by ACBL. Games have between 4 to 12 tables and between 18 and 27 hands are played, depending on the number and experience level of players.