First, review what you know. In each suit, the highest-ranking card is the ace. The lowest is the two. In the bidding phase of the game, the suits rank from the lowest, clubs, to diamonds, hearts, and spades, the highest. The cards are dealt in clockwise rotation, one to each player until all the cards are dealt. Each player will hold thirteen cards.

The player who dealt the cards begins the auction, which proceeds in clockwise rotation. Each player in turn must bid, pass, double (only after an opponent's bid), or redouble (only after an opponent's double). Some of these terms may seem mysterious at this point, but don't worry. They will be clarified.

Each bid is an offer by the bidding side to win a certain number of the thirteen available tricks. A player can propose a contract in a suit, in which case that suit becomes trump and can be used to control the other suits. It is also possible to play without a trump suit. Contracts of this kind are called “no-trump” contracts. In the hierarchy of the auction, no-trump outranks even spades.

Starters

The auction begins when the dealer makes a call, which as you remember from Chapter 1 can include a pass. A deal is considered passed out when there are four consecutive passes at the beginning of the auction. The cards should be dealt again, the deal passing to the next player in the rotation — e.g., from North to East.

When you have two decks, one can be shuffled while the dealer is distributing the cards. Then the second deck is ready to go at the completion of the first deal.