Laws 1–16 · Everyday Language edition
The Laws exist to keep the game running correctly and to put things right when they don’t — not to punish mistakes. If something goes wrong, the aim is to fix the situation for the side that wasn’t at fault, not to penalise the side that was, beyond what’s needed. If you caused the problem, you’re expected to accept the ruling or rectification without argument.
Five words tell you how strict a rule is. From weakest to strongest:
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| may | Optional. Not doing it isn’t wrong. |
| does | A plain statement of how something works — not an instruction, and not penalised. |
| should | Expected. Not doing it is an infraction and can cost you an advantage, but it usually isn’t penalised on its own. |
| is required to (replaces “shall”) | Stronger than “should.” Not doing it is a violation and is usually penalised. |
| must | The strongest word. Breaking this is a serious matter. |
For prohibitions, strongest to weakest: must not — may not — is not to (replaces “shall not”).
This table and the Definitions that follow are as much a part of the Laws as everything after them. And unless the context clearly says otherwise, anything written in the singular also covers the plural.
Adjusted Score — A score the Director awards (see Law 12), either “artificial” or “assigned”.
Alert — A signal, in whatever form the Regulating Authority specifies, that your opponents may want an explanation of your last call.
Artificial Call — 1. A bid, double, or redouble that tells partner something beyond (or instead of) “I want to play in the suit or no-trump I just named” — as long as that extra meaning isn’t something players would assume anyway. 2. A pass that promises more than a specified amount of strength. 3. A pass that promises or denies strength in a suit other than the one last named.
Auction — 1. The process of settling the contract through a series of calls; it starts with the first call. 2. All the calls made, taken together (see Law 17).
Bid — A commitment to win at least a stated number of odd tricks (tricks beyond the first six) in a stated denomination.
Board — 1. The physical duplicate board described in Law 2. 2. The four hands as originally dealt into that board for a session (also called a “deal”).
Call — Any bid, double, redouble, or pass.
Cancelled — See “Withdrawn.”
Contestant — One player (in an individual event); two players who partner each other throughout the event (in a pairs event); or four or more players on the same team (in a teams event).
Contract — Declarer’s side’s commitment to win the number of odd tricks named in the final bid, at the denomination named — undoubled, doubled, or redoubled (see Law 22).
Deal — 1. Dealing the pack out into the four hands. 2. Those four hands treated as a single unit, including the auction and play that follow.
Declarer — On the side that makes the final bid, the player who first named that bid’s denomination. This player becomes declarer once the opening lead is faced (see Law 54A if the opening lead is made out of turn).
Defender — An opponent of the (presumed) declarer.
Denomination — The suit, or no-trump, named in a bid.
Double — A call, made over an opponent’s bid, that raises the scoring value if the contract is made or defeated (see Laws 19A and 77).
Dummy — 1. Declarer’s partner, from the moment the opening lead is faced until play ends. 2. That player’s cards, once spread on the table after the opening lead.
Event — A contest of one or more sessions (synonym for “Tournament”).
Extraneous — Not part of the lawful procedures of the game.
Follow Suit — Play a card of the suit that has been led.
Game — 100 or more trick points scored on one deal (see Law 77).
Hand — The cards originally dealt to a player, or whatever is left of them.
Honour — Any Ace, King, Queen, Jack, or 10.
Infraction — A player’s breach of a Law or a lawful regulation.
International Matchpoint (IMP) — A unit of scoring awarded according to a schedule set out in Law 78B.
Irregularity — Any deviation from correct procedure — including, but not limited to, one that involves a player’s infraction.
Lead — The first card played to a trick.
LHO — Left-hand opponent.
Matchpoint — A unit of scoring a contestant earns by comparing their result with one or more other scores (see Law 78A).
Misinformation — A side’s failure to accurately disclose a partnership method or understanding, when law or regulation requires disclosure.
Odd Trick — Each trick to be won by declarer’s side beyond the first six.
Opening Lead — The card led to the first trick.
Opponent — A player on the other side — a member of the partnership you’re playing against.
Overtrick — Each trick won by declarer’s side beyond the contract.
Pack — The 52 playing cards with which the game is played.
Partner — The player you team up with, as one side, against the other two players at the table.
Partscore — 90 or fewer trick points scored on one deal (see Law 77).
Pass — A call meaning the player chooses not to bid, double, or redouble at that turn.
Penalty — (See also “Rectification.”) There are two kinds: disciplinary penalties, imposed to maintain courtesy and good order (see Law 91); and procedural penalties, which the Director may impose at their discretion for procedural irregularities, on top of any rectification (see Law 90).
Penalty Card — A card subject to disposition under Law 50.
Play — 1. Contributing a card from your hand to a trick (including the first card, the lead). 2. All the cards played, taken together. 3. The period during which the cards are played. 4. All the calls and plays on a board, taken together.
Play Period — Begins when the opening lead on a board is faced. Each contestant’s rights and powers during this period expire as the relevant Law sets out. The play period itself ends when the cards are taken from their slots on the next board (or when the last board of a round is left).
Premium Points — Any points earned other than trick points (see Law 77).
Presumed Declarer — The player who would become declarer if no irregularity had occurred.
Psychic Call — (commonly “psych” or “psychic”) A deliberate, gross misstatement of honour strength and/or suit length.
Rectification — The remedy applied once an irregularity has come to the Director’s attention.
Redouble — A call, made over an opponent’s double, that raises the scoring value if the contract is made or defeated (see Laws 19B and 77).
Retracted — See “Withdrawn.”
RHO — Right-hand opponent.
Rotation — The clockwise order of normal turns to call or play; also the clockwise order recommended for dealing the cards, one at a time.
Round — A part of a session played without progression of players.
Session — An extended period of play in which a set number of boards, fixed by the Tournament Organizer, is scheduled to be played. (Its meaning can differ slightly between Laws 4, 12C2, and 91.)
Side — Two players at a table who form a partnership against the other two players.
Slam — A contract to win six odd tricks (Small Slam) or seven odd tricks (Grand Slam).
Sorted Deck — A pack that hasn’t been randomised from its previous order.
Suit — One of four groups of thirteen cards in the pack, each with its own symbol: spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦), clubs (♣).
Team — Two or more pairs, playing in different compass directions at different tables, for a shared score. (Regulations may allow more than four members per team.)
Trick — The unit that decides the contract’s outcome. Normally four cards, one from each player in rotation, starting with the lead.
Trick Points — Points scored by declarer’s side for fulfilling the contract (see Law 77).
Trump — Each card of the denomination named in a suit contract.
Tournament — A contest of one or more sessions (synonym for “Event”).
Turn — The correct time at which a player is due to call or play.
Undertrick — Each trick by which declarer’s side falls short of fulfilling the contract (see Law 77).
Unintended — Involuntary; not under the player’s control; not what the player meant to do at that moment.
Visible Card — A card held so that its face can be seen by either an opponent or partner.
Vulnerability — The conditions for assigning premiums and undertrick penalties (see Law 77).
Withdrawn — Covers both a “cancelled” action and a “retracted” card.
Duplicate Bridge uses a standard 52-card pack — four suits of 13 cards. Suits rank spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, highest to lowest. Within a suit, cards rank Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, highest to lowest.
The Regulating Authority may require symmetrical card faces.
The backs of all 52 cards in a deck should be identical. They may include text, a logo, or a picture, but the design used should have a centre of symmetry.
Each deal is played from a numbered duplicate board with four pockets — North, East, South, and West — holding the four hands. Dealer and vulnerability follow a fixed 16-board pattern:
| Dealer / Vulnerable on boards | |
|---|---|
| North dealer | 1, 5, 9, 13 |
| East dealer | 2, 6, 10, 14 |
| South dealer | 3, 7, 11, 15 |
| West dealer | 4, 8, 12, 16 |
| Neither vulnerable | 1, 8, 11, 14 |
| North-South vulnerable | 2, 5, 12, 15 |
| East-West vulnerable | 3, 6, 9, 16 |
| Both vulnerable | 4, 7, 10, 13 |
This pattern repeats for boards 17–32, and every group of 16 after that. A board that doesn’t match this pattern shouldn’t be used — but if it is, whatever dealer and vulnerability is marked on it applies for that session.
Four players sit at each table. The Director numbers the tables and decides which direction is North at each one; the other directions follow their normal position relative to North.
The four players at a table form two partnerships: North-South against East-West. In pair and team events, partnerships stay the same all session unless the Director allows otherwise. In individual events, players enter separately and partnerships change during the session.
The Director assigns each contestant (individual, pair, or team) a starting position at the start of a session. Unless told otherwise, pair or team members can agree between themselves which of their assigned seats to take. Once a player has chosen a compass direction, they can only change it during the session if the Director instructs or allows it.
Players change direction or move to another table as the Director instructs. It’s the Director’s job to announce instructions clearly; it’s each player’s job to move when directed and take the correct seat afterward.
Each pack is thoroughly shuffled before play starts. Either opponent can request a cut.
Cards must be dealt face down, one at a time, into four hands of thirteen cards each, then placed face down in the board’s four pockets. Two cards that were next to each other in the pack are not to end up in the same hand. The recommended method is to deal clockwise, in rotation.
Someone from each side should be present for the shuffle and deal, unless the Director says otherwise.
1. If it’s discovered, before the auction on a board begins, that the cards were dealt incorrectly, or that a player might have seen the face of another player’s card during the shuffle and deal, a new shuffle and deal is required. After that point, Law 16D governs accidentally seeing another player’s card before play of the board is finished (but see Law 24).
2. Unless the tournament’s purpose is replaying past deals, no result may stand if the cards were dealt from a sorted deck without shuffling, or if the deal was imported from a different session. (This is not to prevent arrangements to exchange boards between tables, where wanted.)
3. The Director may require a new shuffle and redeal for any reason consistent with the Laws (but see Law 22B and Law 86A).
1. The Director may have the shuffle and deal done at each table immediately before play starts.
2. The Director may shuffle and deal in advance.
3. The Director may have an assistant or other appointed agent shuffle and deal in advance.
4. The Director may require a different dealing or pre-dealing method, as long as it produces results just as random as A and B above.
If the conditions of play require it, the Director may have one or more exact copies made of each original deal. After that, a board is not normally redealt, though the Director can still order one.
When a board is to be played, it’s placed in the centre of the table, correctly oriented, and is required to stay there until play is completed.
1. Each player takes a hand from the pocket matching their compass position.
2. Each player counts their cards face down to make sure there are exactly thirteen. After that, and before making a call, each player must look at the faces of their cards.
3. During play, each player keeps their own cards separate from everyone else’s. Except by permission of an opponent or the Director, no player is to touch any other cards during or after play (though declarer may play dummy’s cards, per Law 45).
After play, each player should shuffle their original thirteen cards and put them back in their compass-position pocket. After that, a hand is not to be removed from the board unless a member of each side, or the Director, is present.
A contestant who stays at a table for the whole session is primarily responsible for keeping proper playing conditions there.
1. The Director tells players how boards and contestants are meant to move.
2. Unless the Director says otherwise, North at each table is responsible for moving that table’s just-completed boards to the correct table for the next round.
1. A round generally ends when the Director signals the start of the next one. If a table hasn’t finished playing by then, the round continues there until players move on.
2. If the Director postpones play of a board, the round doesn’t end for the players involved — for that board — until it’s been played and the score agreed and recorded, or the Director cancels play of the board.
For each table, the last round — and the session itself — ends once all scheduled boards there have been played and all scores entered without objection.
1. Unless a Law says otherwise, any player may point out an irregularity during the auction, whether or not it’s their turn to call.
2. Unless a Law says otherwise, declarer or either defender may point out an irregularity during play. (For a wrongly pointed card, see Law 65B3.)
3. Any player, including dummy, may try to prevent an irregularity happening (dummy’s attempts are limited by Laws 42 and 43).
4. Dummy may not point out an irregularity until play of the hand is over (but see Law 20F5 on correcting declarer’s apparently mistaken explanation).
5. No one is obliged to point out an infraction committed by their own side (but see Law 20F5 on correcting partner’s apparently mistaken explanation).
1. (a) The Director should be called at once when an irregularity is pointed out.
(b) Any player, including dummy, may call the Director once attention has been drawn to an irregularity.
(c) Calling the Director doesn’t forfeit any rights a player would otherwise have.
(d) Pointing out an irregularity committed by your own side doesn’t affect your opponents’ rights.
2. No player is to take any action until the Director has explained the options for putting things right.
If the offender corrects an irregularity before the Director has ruled, that correction may itself need further rectification (see the lead restrictions in Law 26B).
Only the Director may decide on a rectification. Players cannot decide (or waive — see Law 81C5) a rectification on their own.
If players enforce or waive a rectification without the Director’s instruction, the Director may allow it to stand or cancel it.
1. When these Laws offer an option after an irregularity, the Director is required to explain all the available options.
2. A player choosing between options after an irregularity must decide without consulting partner.
3. When these Laws give the innocent side an option after an opponent’s irregularity, it’s fine for them to pick whichever option helps them most.
4. Subject to Law 16C2, once an infraction has been rectified, the offending side may make any call or play that helps them — even if this appears to let them profit from their own infraction (but see Laws 27 and 72C).
The non-offending side can lose its right to a rectification if either member acts before calling the Director. If a side then gains an advantage because an opponent, not knowing the relevant Law, acted afterward, the Director adjusts only that side’s score, removing the advantage gained. The other side keeps the score achieved at the table.
Even if the right to rectification has been forfeited under this Law, the Director may still assess a procedural penalty (see Law 90).
Within the period set by Law 92B, on a player’s application or the Director’s own initiative, the Director may award an adjusted score wherever these Laws allow it (for team play, see Law 86B). This includes:
1. Awarding an adjusted score for a non-offending contestant when these Laws don’t specify a rectification for that particular violation.
2. Awarding an artificial adjusted score when no rectification would let the board be played normally (see C2 below).
3. Awarding an adjusted score when an irregularity was rectified incorrectly.
1. Score adjustment aims to make up for damage to the non-offending side and remove any advantage the offending side gained from its infraction. Damage occurs when an infraction leaves an innocent side with a worse result than they could otherwise have expected.
2. The Director may not adjust a score just because the Laws’ standard rectification seems too harsh or too generous to one side.
1. (a) When the Director is empowered to adjust a score after an irregularity and can award an assigned adjusted score, this should be done — it replaces the score obtained at the table.
(b) In awarding an assigned adjusted score, the Director should try to recreate, as closely as possible, the likely outcome had the infraction not happened.
(c) An assigned adjusted score may weigh several possible results by their likelihood, but only results that could legally have been reached.
(d) If the possible outcomes are numerous or unclear, the Director may award an artificial adjusted score instead (see C2 below).
(e) If, after the irregularity, the non-offending side adds to its own damage through an extremely serious unrelated error, or a gambling action it hoped would pay off through the rectification, then:
(i) the offending side gets the score it would have received had its infraction been properly rectified, and
(ii) the non-offending side gets no relief for the part of the damage it brought on itself.
2. (a) When an irregularity means no result can be obtained at all [see also C1(d)], the Director awards an artificial adjusted score based on responsibility: average minus (at most 40% of available matchpoints in pairs) to a contestant directly at fault; average (50%) to one only partly at fault; average plus (at least 60%) to one not at fault at all.
(b) An artificial average plus or average minus at IMP scoring is worth +3 or –3 IMPs. The Tournament Organizer may vary this, subject to the Regulating Authority’s approval, per Laws 78D, 86B3, and (d) below.
(c) This is adjusted for a non-offending contestant already scoring above 60% for the session, or an offending contestant already scoring below 40% (or the IMP equivalent) — they instead receive their actual percentage (or IMP equivalent) from the rest of the session’s boards.
(d) The Regulating Authority may set different rules for a contestant who fails to get a result on more than one board in the same session, varying the scores in (a) and (b) above.
3. In individual events, the Director applies these Laws’ rectifications and adjusted-score rules equally to both members of the offending side, even if only one of them caused the irregularity. But the Director is not to give a procedural penalty to the offender’s partner if satisfied that only the offender was at fault.
4. When the Director awards non-balancing adjusted scores in knockout play, each contestant’s score on the board is worked out separately, and each is given the average of the two.
If no player with an incorrect number of cards has called yet:
1. The Director is required to correct the discrepancy, and — if no player has seen another’s card — is required to have the board played normally.
2. If a pocket had the wrong number of cards and a player has seen part of another player’s hand, the Director lets the board be played and scored. If that extraneous information affected the outcome, the Director is required to adjust the score [see Law 12C1(b)] and may penalise an offender.
If the Director finds a player’s hand originally held more than 13 cards (with another player short), and a call has already been made by a player with a wrong-sized hand:
1. If the Director judges the deal can be corrected and played, it may be played that way with no calls changed; the Director may award an adjusted score at the end of play.
2. Otherwise, the Director is required to award an adjusted score [see Law 12C1(b)] and may penalise an offender.
Any extra card that isn’t part of the deal is removed if found. The auction and play continue with no further rectification. No adjusted score may be awarded unless that card turns out to have been played to a quitted trick.
If it’s found, after play ends, that a player’s hand originally held more than 13 cards (with another player short), the result must be cancelled and an adjusted score awarded (Law 86B may apply). An offending contestant may face a procedural penalty.
If one or more hands turn out to have fewer than 13 cards (with none having more than 13) before the opening lead is faced, the Director searches for the missing card:
1. If found, it’s restored to the short hand.
2. If it can’t be found, the Director reconstructs the deal with another pack.
3. Either way, the auction and play continue normally with no calls changed; the restored hand is treated as having always held all its cards.
If one or more hands turn out short (with none having more than 13) any time after the opening lead is faced, up to the end of the Correction Period, the Director searches for the missing card:
1. If it’s among the played cards, Law 67 applies.
2. If found elsewhere, it’s restored to the short hand; rectification and/or penalties may apply (see B4).
3. If it can’t be found, the deal is reconstructed with another pack; rectification and/or penalties may apply (see B4).
4. A card restored under this Section B is treated as having always belonged to the short hand. It may become a penalty card, and not having played it may count as a revoke.
Knowing that a card was replaced is unauthorized information for the partner of the player whose hand was the wrong size.
1. A call is cancelled (along with any later call) if made by a player holding cards picked up from the wrong board.
2. (a) If the offender’s partner has since called, the Director is required to award an adjusted score.
(b) Otherwise, after looking at the correct hand, the offender calls again and the auction continues normally from there.
(c) Law 16C applies to any call withdrawn or cancelled this way.
3. If the offender then repeats their call on the board the cards were mistakenly drawn from, the Director may let that board be played normally — but is required to award an adjusted score if the offender’s call differs from the original, cancelled one.
4. A procedural penalty (Law 90) may apply on top of the above.
If, after the auction period has started, the Director finds a contestant playing a board not scheduled for the current round:
1. If one or more players at the table have already played that board (against the correct opponents or otherwise), the board is cancelled for both sides.
2. If none of the four have played it before, the Director is required to have the auction and play completed; the score stands, and both pairs may later be required to play the correct board against each other.
3. The Director is required to award an artificial adjusted score [see Law 12C2(a)] to any contestant denied the chance to earn a valid score.
1. A player may use information from the auction or play if:
(a) it comes from legal calls and plays on the current board (including illegal ones that were accepted), and isn’t affected by unauthorized information from elsewhere; or
(b) it’s authorized information from a withdrawn action (see C); or
(c) a law or regulation specifically authorizes it, or — where nothing specific is said — it arises from the legal procedures these Laws and regulations authorize (but see B1); or
(d) the player already had it before taking their hand from the board (Law 7B), and the Laws don’t bar using it.
2. Players may also factor in their own estimate of their score, their opponents’ tendencies, and anything the tournament regulations require.
1. Any extraneous signal from partner that might point toward a call or play is unauthorized — remarks, questions, answers, an unexpected Alert or a missed one, obvious hesitation, unusual speed, particular emphasis, tone, gesture, movement, or mannerism.
(a) A player may not pick a call or play that unauthorized information demonstrably suggested over another, if that other call or play is a logical alternative.
(b) A logical alternative is one that a significant proportion of similar players, using this partnership’s methods, would seriously consider — and some would choose.
2. If a player thinks an opponent has given this kind of information and it could cause damage, they may announce — unless the Regulating Authority forbids this and requires calling the Director instead — that they intend to reserve the right to call the Director later. (If the opponents dispute that unauthorized information was conveyed, they should call the Director immediately instead.)
3. If a player has good reason to believe an opponent chose an action that unauthorized information suggested, when a logical alternative existed, the Director should be called once play ends. The Director is required to assign an adjusted score (see Law 12C1) if the infraction gave the offender an advantage.
When a call or play has been withdrawn under these Laws:
1. For the non-offending side, all information from a withdrawn action — theirs or their opponents’ — is authorized.
2. For the offending side, information from its own withdrawn action, and from the non-offending side’s withdrawn actions, is unauthorized. An offending-side player may not pick a call or play that such information demonstrably suggested over a logical alternative.
3. The Director is required to assign an adjusted score (see Law 12C1) if breaking C2 has damaged the non-offending side.
1. If a player accidentally picks up outside information about the current board or one still to be played — say, by looking at the wrong hand, overhearing calls, results, or remarks, seeing cards at another table, or seeing another player’s card at their own table before the auction starts (see also Law 13A) — the Director should be told right away, ideally by the player who received the information.
2. If that information would likely disrupt normal play, and no call has been made yet, the Director may:
(a) rearrange the players at the table (where the contest and scoring allow) so the player with information about a hand actually holds it;
(b) order the board redealt for those contestants, if the competition format allows;
(c) let play of the board finish, ready to award an adjusted score if the information affected the result; or
(d) award an adjusted score directly (for team play, see Law 86B).
3. If this kind of information arrives after the first call but before play of the board is finished, the Director follows 2(c) or 2(d) above.