Auction bridge

The card game auction bridge is a predecessor to contract bridge.

The main difference between auction bridge and contract bridge is that in auction bridge a game is scored whenever the required number of tricks (9 in No Trump, 10 in Hearts or Spades, 11 in Clubs or Diamonds) is scored. In contract bridge, on the other hand, one needs to have bid the given amount of points to score the game bonus. Because of this, accurate bidding becomes much more important in Contract bridge: Partners have to use the bidding to tell each other what their suits and strengths are, so a judgement can be made as to what the chances are of making a game.