Acol Bridge Lessons - the "Who's Who" of Bridge

When you first begin to play the game of bridge,individual who deals the cards to each player
getting a firm grasp of who is who in the game can bethroughout the game. Bridge is played with a full deck
somewhat of a challenge. Learning what the differentof 52 cards, and the dealer will deal out 13 cards to
names of the players and what their role is in theeach player in every round of the game. The cards will
game is essential to game play, but apart from biddingbe dealt out one at a time starting with the player left
it is the most difficult thing to learn and remember. Hereof the dealer; in a clockwise direction.
is a guide to help you learn the who's who of a bridgeThe Opener - The opener is the person who starts
game.the bidding at the beginning of each hand. It will be best
Bridge must be played with 4 players who form twoto not go into bidding just yet, but the opener will base
groups, the north and south team and the east andtheir opening bid on the amount of points they hold in
west team. Each player will sit on opposite sides oftheir hand.
the table from their team-mate. The teams areThe Responder - This player is the team-mate of the
selected by each player selecting a card from theopener. They will respond to the opening bid. How they
deck. The individuals that draw the two highest cardsrespond to their team-mate's bid depends upon their
will be a team, and the ones with the two lowesthand in relation to the opening bid.
cards will become the opposing team. The personThe Overcaller - The overcaller is on the opposite
who draws the highest card will become the dealer.team as the opener and the responder. It is difficult to
This is not always the way the teams are decided,say exactly what this player's objective is without
players may decided to form teams before the gamegoing into bidding. I don't want to over complicate things
starts, and the cards are just drawn to determine whoat the moment, so I will leave the description at the
will be the dealer.overcaller being the other team chiming in with their bid.
The Dealer - As the name suggests the dealer is the