Call Break♠

01 /

Aim and equipment

Four play individually with 52 cards and no jokers. Each suit ranks A K Q J 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. Spades are permanent trump. This selects a strict profile: bids 2–13, anticlockwise play, compulsory winning when possible, five deals and tenths for overtricks. It does not represent every regional Call Bridge game.

02 /

Setup and deal

Choose first dealer randomly, then rotate right. Shuffle, have the left neighbour cut and deal singly from the right: 13 each. No stock, exchange or partners. Inspect only your own hand. From dealer’s right around to dealer, each makes one public final bid of at least 2 and at most 13 tricks. No pass or zero. The total need not equal 13; this profile has no low-total redeal.

03 /

Legal actions

Dealer’s right leads first. Do not lead spades to the first trick while holding another suit; thereafter any card may lead. Respond with 1 card, following suit first. Among legal cards choose one that currently wins if available: on 7♥ with A♥ and 3♥, play A♥. If the trick has already been trumped a plain card cannot win, but following suit remains compulsory.

When void you must trump. Overtrump an existing spade if able; without a higher one still play a lower spade, not a free discard. Only without suit and spades may you play anything. Highest spade, otherwise highest led-suit card, wins and leads next. Play all 13 tricks without drawing.

04 /

Scoring

Meeting at least your bid scores its value plus 0.1 per overtrick. Falling short scores minus the bid regardless of shortfall size. No Spades bags, bonus for 8, nil contract or session-wide perfect-call award here. Preserve tenths exactly; recording integer tenths and formatting later is convenient. Negative running totals are allowed.

05 /

Ending the game

After 5 fully played deals highest cumulative score wins. Exact equality shares places, our tie agreement preserving four-player play. Do not run a two-person extra deal: that changes the deal and game. When an illegal play is noticed, restore legality before continuing rather than arbitrarily revising a bid.

06 /

Context and variants

Call Break is widespread in South Asia and related to Spades, but checked sources establish no precise inventor. Call Bridge and Lakdi cover differing rules. Some apps use minimum 1, clockwise play and different trump conditions; older profiles score overtricks differently. Direction, minimum 2 and strict obligations are therefore explicit here.

07 /

Worked example

After A♥ and 6♥, void third player trumps with 4♠. Fourth is also void, holding only 2♠ and K♦ in the shown fragment: they must play 2♠ even though it cannot win. 4♠ captures. In a separate count bids 3,4,2,3 and tricks 5,3,2,3 score 3.2, −4, 2, 3. Tricks total 13; promises need not be exact for positive scoring.

← On a small screen, scroll the diagram horizontally. →

Common questions