The trick is the smallest unit of play in bridge. Tennis is played point > game > set > match. Bridge is played trick > hand > game > rubber. A trick consists of one card from each player. Play proceeds to the left, so if North played the first card, East would play next, then South, and finally West. The first card in the trick is called the lead. If you are supposed to play first, you are said to have the lead. When you have the lead, you can play any card from your hand.

Following Suit

The 3 players who play after the lead must follow suit. This means that if they have a card of the same suit as the card led, they must play it. If they don’t have a card of that suit, they may play any card from their hand. This is called discarding.

Winning the trick

The person who played the highest card of the suit led wins the trick. The goal of Bridge is to win tricks. The winner of the trick gets to lead for the next trick. We’ll learn later who gets to lead to the very first trick.

Let’s look at some example tricks.

Here everyone has a spade, so they all follow suit

Make sure to click through the trick with the buttons. Note at the end of the trick that everyone takes their card and lays it down in front of them. East and West stand their card upright because their side won the trick. North and South place their card lying down, because their side lost the trick.

Here is an example where someone fails to follow suit

Here East doesn’t have a spade, and discards a heart

Let’s look at that same example, but have East lead instead of South:

Now East wins because no one else has a heart.

To get a feel for tricks, here is a whole deal. Don’t worry about how to decide the opening lead.

This is a deal that occurred in real play

Here North and South won 9 tricks. East and West won 4 tricks.