MINIBRIDGE
- bridge for children and beginners -

LESSON 3 - TAKING TRICKS

Congratulations with your certificate for LESSON 2. Ready for LESSON 3? Let's give it a try!

WHAT WILL WE LEARN IN THIS BRIDGE LESSON

• Taking a trick
• Taking several tricks
• Thee minibridge quiz

TAKING A TRICK

Before we explain how to take tricks, we will learn you some MiniBridge expressions: FACE UP and FACE DOWN. Below the first card is shown FACE UP and the second one is FACE DOWN.

Now we are really going to play minibridge! We'll take it easy. We will play with 4 cards of the diamonds suit. Each player receives a card. We play minibridge in a clockwise direction.

In our example South is the dealer. The player on dealer’s left side plays the first card. He makes the opening lead:

• West leads and plays his first card face up on the table in front of him.
• Notrh is the second player..
• East is the third player.
• South is the last one to play his card.

We have a TRICK when each player has played a card face up.
The player who starts the trick is called the LEADER..

So: when North is the dealer, then East will lead and will be the first player to place a card face up on the table in front of him.

The line under the card shows which player is the LEADER.

East is the winner, because ♦K is the highest ranking card.
West is also a winner, because East and West are ONE TEAM.

The team with the best card, wins the TRICK!.

After the trick, each player will place his played card face down on the table in front of him in a neat row. The winner of the first trick becomes the leader of the second trick and so on.

Cards in tricks won are placed UPRIGHT.
Cards in tricks lost are placed SIDEWAYS. .

TAKING SEVERAL TRICKS

We are now going to take 3 tricks in succession. For this we use 12 cards of Spades. This time West is the dealer and North may lead.

South will take the frist trick for team North-South with ♠A.

The winner of a trick may LEAD the next trick!.

South won the previous trick and may lead. South chooses ♠3.

West wins the second trick with ♠Q and may lead for the thrid trick.

North wins the last trick with ♠J.

The NS-team has taken 2 tricks (1st trick by South and 3rd trick by North).
The EW-team has taken 1 trick (the second trick by West).

Below you can see how the players put their tricks in front of themselves. The cards are placed on top of each other from left to right.

The NS-team wins trick 1 (South with ♠A) and trick 3 (North with ♠J).

The EW-team wins trick 2 (West with ♠Q).

Time to practise! Take the 12 highest cards of a suit (without the 2) and practise taking tricks. Consider the following rules:

• The player at the left side of the dealer may play the OPENING LEAD.
• The best card wins the trick.
• The winner of the trick and his partner must place their card FACE DOWN and UPRIGHT in front of them on the table.
• The two other players must place their cards FAST DOWN and SIDEWAYS on the table.
• The winner of the a trick may LEAD for the next trick.

THE MINIBRIDGE QUIZ

Answer the questions below. If you have all the questions correct, then you get the minibridge LESSON 3 certification and then you are ready for the LESSON 4 of our minibridge course.

Here are the questions of our minibridge quiz.

1. How many tricks has this team won? 3 tricks 7 tricks 4 tricks 8 tricks
2. East ♥J - South ♥10 - West ♥K - North ♥Q! Who wins this trick? WEST SOUTH EAST NORTH
3. East has won the previous trick! Who becomes the new LEADER? NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST
4. Who wins a TRICK SLAG in minibridge? Make your choice! The dealer The player with the best card The team with the best card The player with the most cards