Lead

Contributed by Cathy Artigues (cartigues@nice.com), who reports that this game was played at the University of California at Santa Barbara, at least from 1980 to 1985.

The name of the game is derived from Pseudo-bridge = Pb = chemical symbol for lead.

Players: Three or more players, best with four.

Cards: Standard deck of 52 cards.

Deal: Deal the same number of cards to each player. If there are not 4 players, put the extra cards face down in the center of the table to be taken with the first trick.

Bidding: All players look at their cards. Player to the left of dealer bids the number of tricks he could take if he had a partner and could name the trump suit. Next player must bid higher or pass. Once a player has passed, he cannot bid again. Bidding continues until all players except the high bidder have passed.

Play: High bidder plays a trump card and names another card of the same suit which he is not holding. The holder of this card must play it and becomes the high bidder's partner for the hand. The remaining players play alone. This is a standard game of taking tricks. Players must follow suit if they are able. Trump may be led or played at any time. High trump wins the trick, or high card in suit if there are no trumps in the trick.

Scoring: If the team makes their bid, they each get the number of tricks taken as their score. If they fail, the number of tricks bid is subtracted from their scores. Other players receive one point for each trick taken. The first player to reach a predetermined score wins the game.

Strategies:

• When you are the high bidder, the usual strategy for the first trick is to lead a low trump and call for the highest trump you do not have. This is not required though. You can call for a trump card lower than the one you lead.
• Since there are no penalties for taking more tricks than you bid, don't bid too high. You only need to be one point higher than everyone else.

Variations:

• When playing with other than 4 players, it must be decided before the first hand whether the leftover cards should be shown to all players or known only to the player who takes the first trick.