Bridge Express is contract bridge for four players in two pairs, each on their own phone. There is an auction for the contract, dummy goes face up on the table, the declarer plays both hands, and every deal is scored on its own, the Chicago way.
About Bridge Express
Bridge needs four people in the same place and an evening to spare, which is exactly what a long journey is. Bridge Express keeps the game and drops the table: one phone hosts, the other three join it with a short code, and nothing needs a server or an account. Partners sit opposite - seats 1 and 3 against 2 and 4 - so an opponent is on either side of you, as at a real table.
The auction is the real one. A call is a pass, a bid, a double or a redouble; a bid names a level from one to seven and a strain, and has to outrank the last bid. Three passes after a bid close the auction, and the last bid is the contract. The bidding box offers only what the auction would accept: the strain buttons and the level stepper start at the lowest bid that would stand, and Double and Redouble light up only when they are legal, so nobody has a call refused.
Then the play. The player of the winning side who first bid the contract's strain is the declarer; the seat after the declarer leads, and with that card on the table the declarer's partner lays their hand face up for everyone to see and takes no further part. The declarer plays both hands from their own phone, tapping dummy's cards when it is dummy's turn. Follow the suit led if you can; there is no obligation to head a trick and none to trump.
Scoring is the book's, deal by deal: twenty a trick in a minor, thirty in a major, forty then thirty at no trumps, doubled and redoubled multiplied, with part-score and game bonuses, the slams, the insult, overtricks, and the steeper undertrick table when a contract is doubled. Vulnerability rotates over each four deals, and a table that would rather not bother can turn it off. A game is four deals by default - a Chicago round - and the higher side wins.
Made for the journey
- No internet, no mobile data. The phones talk to each other directly, so a game carries on through tunnels, ghats and stretches with no signal at all.
- Everyone on their own phone. Nobody passes a handset round the compartment, and nobody sees a hand that is not theirs.
- Short of players? Bots take the empty seats, each with a setting for how closely it follows the play.
- A dropped link is not the end of the hand. A phone that loses the connection can join the same table again.
- No sign-in and no real money. Install it, open it, play.
How playing together works, and tips for trains, buses and flights
Features
- Contract bridge for four players in two pairs, partners opposite
- The full auction: bids, passes, doubles and redoubles, with only legal calls offered
- Dummy face up on every phone, both hands played by the declarer
- Chicago scoring, with part-score, game, slam and insult bonuses and the doubled undertrick table
- Vulnerability rotating over four deals, or switched off
- A game of four deals by default, with the auction and every trick listed at the end
- Show each trick, so nobody misses what was played
- Bots that bid a plain natural system and fill any empty seat
- Connects over Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or Google Nearby, with no internet
- No sign-in, no server, no real money