Bridge Scoring Explained: Points, Bonuses and Penalties

Bridge scoring works in two halves. Make your contract and you score trick points for the tricks you bid, plus a bonus that depends on how high you bid and whether you are vulnerable. Fail, and the other side scores a penalty for every trick you fell short. Almost every number in the game comes out of those two sentences.

By Tracey Bauer

New to the game entirely? Start with How to Play Bridge: The Complete Beginner's Guide, then come back here.

This page covers duplicate scoring, which is what clubs and tournaments use, and then the rubber scoring you will meet at a kitchen table. It is worth learning early for a reason that has nothing to do with arithmetic: the scoring table is the reason good players bid the way they do. Once you can see what a contract pays, half of bidding judgment stops being mysterious.

Step one: the trick points

You score for the tricks you contracted for, not for all thirteen. A contract starts from a base of six tricks called the book, so only the tricks above six count toward this number.

• Clubs ♣ and diamonds ♦ (the minors): 20 per trick.
• Hearts ♥ and spades ♠ (the majors): 30 per trick.
• No trump: 40 for the first trick, 30 for each one after it.

So 4♠ bid and made scores 4 times 30, which is 120. 3NT scores 40 plus 30 plus 30, which is 100. 5♣ scores 5 times 20, which is 100 as well.

Step two: the bonus

Trick points alone are small. The bonuses are where the game is won, and there is one line that matters more than any other: 100 trick points is a game.

• Partscore (fewer than 100 trick points): 50.
• Game (100 or more trick points): 300 not vulnerable, 500 vulnerable.
• Small slam (a contract at the six level): 500 not vulnerable, 750 vulnerable, on top of the game bonus.
• Grand slam (the seven level): 1000 not vulnerable, 1500 vulnerable, on top of the game bonus.

Now look back at the trick values and the game contracts explain themselves. Ten tricks in a major is 120. Nine tricks in no trump is 100. Eleven tricks in a minor is 100. Those are exactly 4♥, 4♠, 3NT, 5♣ and 5♦, and they are the game contracts because they are the cheapest way over that 100-point line. Everyone who has wondered why bridge players talk about game as if it were a place on a map is looking at the answer.

Four scores worth memorizing

You do not need the whole table in your head. You need these.

• 4♠ making four, not vulnerable: 420. That is 120 in tricks plus the 300 game bonus. Vulnerable it is 620.
• 3NT making three, not vulnerable: 400. That is 100 plus 300. Vulnerable it is 600.
• 2♥ making two: 110. That is 60 plus the 50 partscore bonus, and it is what a whole competitive auction is often fighting over.
• 6♥ making six, vulnerable: 1430. That is 180 in tricks, plus 500 for game, plus 750 for the small slam. A number that size is why partnerships bother with Blackwood before committing to the six level.

One more that shapes real decisions: 3NT making ten tricks scores 430, while 4♠ making the same ten tricks scores 420. The extra no trump trick is worth 30 and the fourth spade trick is worth 30, but no trump got a 40-point head start on trick one. So when both contracts are making the same number of tricks, no trump is very slightly ahead. That thin margin is worth real money at matchpoints and almost nothing at teams, which is the first hint that the format changes the target.

Vulnerability

Vulnerability is a scoring condition, not a state of your cards. In duplicate it is preset on the board before anyone picks up a hand, and in rubber bridge you become vulnerable once you have won a game. Being vulnerable raises the bonuses for games and slams, and it raises the penalties when you go down.

It is the single biggest input into how boldly you should compete. The same three-trick set costs 500 doubled when you are not vulnerable and 800 when you are, and the same game that pays 400 pays 600. Checking the vulnerability before you compete is a habit worth building on your very first night, and it is the reason experienced players glance at the board before they glance at their cards.

When you go down

Undertricks go to the other side. Undoubled, each one you fall short costs 50 not vulnerable and 100 vulnerable. So 3NT down one is 50 away, or 100 if you are vulnerable, which is often less than the opponents would have scored for their own partscore. Going down is not automatically a failure. It is a price, and sometimes it is a bargain, which is the whole idea behind a sacrifice.

Doubles change the price sharply. Doubled and not vulnerable, undertricks cost 100 for the first, 200 for the second and third, then 300 each after that: down one is 100, down two is 300, down three is 500, down four is 800. Doubled and vulnerable it starts higher and climbs faster: 200 for the first, then 300 each, so down one is 200, down two is 500, down three is 800, down four is 1100. Redoubled contracts double those numbers again.

Those vulnerable doubled figures are why the table gets quiet when somebody doubles a vulnerable contract. A cheap-looking save can turn into 1100 in the time it takes to write it down.

What doubles and overtricks pay

If a doubled contract makes, the declaring side scores double the trick points, plus 50 for the double itself, sometimes called the insult bonus. Redoubled, the trick points are quadrupled and the bonus is 100.

That doubling applies to the trick points, which means a doubled partscore can quietly become a game. 2♠ doubled scores 120 in trick points rather than 60, and 120 is over the 100 line, so it collects the game bonus too: 470 not vulnerable. Doubling a partscore you cannot actually beat is one of the more expensive habits in the game, and it is why most low-level doubles are played as takeout rather than penalty. Both the takeout double and the negative double have their own guide.

Overtricks, the tricks you win beyond your contract, pay their normal trick value when undoubled: 30 each in a major or no trump, 20 each in a minor. Doubled they jump to 100 each not vulnerable and 200 each vulnerable, and redoubled to 200 and 400. An overtrick against a double is worth more than most partscores.

Matchpoints and IMPs: what the score is compared to

In duplicate the raw score is only the raw material. What matters is how it compares with everybody else who held your cards.

At matchpoints, the usual scoring for club pair games, you earn a point for every pair you beat on that board and half a point for every pair you tie. Beating the field by 10 points scores exactly as well as beating them by 1000. That is why matchpoint players chase overtricks, fight hard for partscores, and will risk a contract for 30 extra points that a teams player would never risk.

At IMPs, used for team events, the difference between your score and the other table's is converted on a fixed scale that flattens small gains and rewards big ones. An overtrick is worth almost nothing. Bidding a vulnerable game that makes, or going down in one that should have made, is worth a great deal. So the same hand can be bid two different ways by the same expert depending on which event they are sitting in, and neither way is wrong.

This is the practical reason to learn scoring before you learn more conventions. A convention tells you what a bid means. The scoring table tells you whether it was worth making.

Rubber bridge, which scores differently

The bridge played at kitchen tables usually uses rubber scoring, and the shape of it is different enough to be worth knowing.

A rubber goes to the first side that wins two games, and the score is kept in two parts, above and below a line. Only trick points from contracts you bid and made go below the line, and 100 points below the line makes a game. Partscores accumulate toward that 100 across deals, so 60 now and 60 later gets there, which is why partscore battles matter so much in a rubber. Everything else, meaning overtricks, penalties and bonuses, goes above the line and counts only at the end.

Winning the rubber pays 700 if the opponents have not won a game, and 500 if they have won one. Rubber play also scores honors, which duplicate does not: 100 for holding four of the top five trump honors in one hand, and 150 for all five, or for all four aces in a no trump contract.

How to actually learn this

Nobody memorizes the table from a page. Two things work.

The first is to keep score. Not perfectly, and not with a calculator. Write down the contract, count the tricks, and work out what it paid. A dozen hands of that and the common numbers stop being a table and start being facts you know, the way you know that a dozen is twelve.

The second is to notice what the score would have been for the contract you did not bid. When the opponents make 4♥ for 620 and you would have gone down two in 4♠ doubled for 300, you have just watched a good sacrifice go by. That comparison is bidding judgment, and it is free every time you play.

If you want the vocabulary alongside it, the bridge glossary defines every term on this page in one place, and bridge bidding basics is the map of the auction the scoring is paying for. For the tricks themselves, play of the hand is where the extra trick that turns 420 into 450 actually comes from.

When you are ready to go past the arithmetic, the live workshops take a single topic with real hands and live questions, replays included, which is where scoring judgment actually gets built. The VIP membership bundles the workshop library for players who would rather work through the whole thing at once. Separately, when you want the bidding agreements rather than the scoring, 50 Conventions in 50 Days covers one convention a day in plain English. The free Starter Kit costs nothing and is a good place to begin.

None of it is behind a gate you have to pass first. Scoring is public arithmetic, and anyone who tells you it is too complicated for a beginner has not tried explaining it in the right order.

Frequently asked questions

How does scoring work in bridge?

In bridge you score trick points for the tricks your contract promised, plus a bonus that depends on how high you bid and whether you are vulnerable. Minor-suit tricks are worth 20 each, major-suit tricks 30 each, and no trump 40 for the first trick and 30 after that. A contract worth 100 or more trick points is a game and earns a bonus of 300 not vulnerable or 500 vulnerable, while anything less is a partscore and earns 50. If the contract fails, the defending side scores a penalty for each undertrick instead.

How many points is a game in bridge?

A game is any contract worth at least 100 trick points, which earns a bonus of 300 not vulnerable or 500 vulnerable. That works out to 3NT for nine tricks, 4♥ or 4♠ for ten tricks, or 5♣ or 5♦ for eleven tricks. Because the minor-suit games need two more tricks for the same reward, 3NT is often the better game even when the partnership holds a long minor.

What is a bridge hand worth if you go down?

Nothing to you, and a penalty to the opponents. Undoubled, each undertrick costs 50 not vulnerable and 100 vulnerable. Doubled and not vulnerable the penalties run 100 for the first undertrick, 200 for the second and third, then 300 each, so down three is 500. Doubled and vulnerable they run 200 for the first and 300 for each one after, so down three is 800. A redoubled contract doubles those figures again.

What is the difference between matchpoints and IMPs?

They are two ways of comparing your raw score with everyone else who held the same cards. At matchpoints you earn a point for every pair you beat on the board and half a point for every tie, so the size of your win does not matter and a single overtrick can be decisive. At IMPs, used in team events, the difference between the two tables is converted on a fixed scale that rewards large swings and nearly ignores small ones, so bidding and making a vulnerable game matters far more than an overtrick.

Does rubber bridge score the same as duplicate bridge?

No. In rubber bridge only the trick points from contracts you bid and made go below the line, 100 below the line wins a game, and partscores accumulate toward that 100 across deals. Winning the rubber pays 700 if the opponents have won no game and 500 if they have won one, and rubber play also scores honors, 100 for four of the top five trump honors in one hand and 150 for all five. Duplicate has no honors bonus and no carried-over partscores, because every deal is scored on its own.