CHICAGO (Four Deal Bridge)

A form of the game much played in clubs and well suited to home play. Its effect is to avoid long rubbers of uncertain duration.; a member never need wait longer than the time (about twenty minutes) required to complete four deals. The game is called "Chicago" for the city in which it originated, and sometimes 'club bridge'.

Basic Rules

The Laws of Contract Bridge and rules for Club Procedure are followed, except as modified by the following rules.

The Rubber

A rubber, sometiems called a chukker. consists of a series of four deals that have been bid andplayed. If a deal is passed out, the same player deals again and the deal passed out does not count as one of the four deals.

A fifth deal is void if attention is drawn to it at any time before there has been a new cut for partners or the game has terminated. If the error is not discovered in tie for correction, the score stands as recorded. A six or subsequen deal is unconditionally void and no score for such a deal is ever permissible.

In case fewer than four deals are played, the score shall stand for the incomplete series and the fourth deal need not be played unless attention is drawn to the error before there has been a new cut for partners or the games has terminated.

When the players are pivoting, the fact that the players have taken their proper seats for the next rubber shall be considered a cut for partners. (In a pivot game, partnerships for each rubber follow a fixed rotation.)

Vulnerability

Vulnerability is not determined by previous scores but by the following schedule:

First deal: neither side vulnerable
Second and Third Deals: dealer's side vulnerable, the other side non-vulnerable
Fourth deal: both sides vulnerable

Premiums

For making or completing a game (100 or more tricke points) a side receives a premium of 300 points if on that deal it is not vulnerable or 500 points if on that deal it is vulnerable. There is no additional premium for winning two or more games, each game premium being scored separately.

Partscores

Partscores made previously may be combined with a partscore made in the current deal to complete a game of 100 or more trick points. The game premium is determined by the vulnerability of the side that completes the game. When a side makes or completes a game, no previous partscore of either side may thereafter be counted toward game.

A side that makes a partscore in the fourth deal, if the partscore is not sufficient to complete a game, receives a permium of 100 points. This premium is scored whether or not the same side or the other side has an uncompleted partscore. There is no separate premium for making a partscore in any other circumstances.

Deal out of Turn

When a player deals out of turn, and there is no right to a redeal, the player who should have dealt retains his right to call first, but such right is lost if it is not claimed before teh actual dealer calls. If the actual dealer calls before attention is drawn to the deal out of turn, each player thereafter calls in rotation. Vulnerability and scoring values are determined by the position of the player who should have dealt, regardless of which player actually dealt or who called first. Neither the rotation of the deal nor the scoring is affected by a deal out of turn. The next dealer is the player who would have dealt next if the deal had been in turn.

Optional rules and customs.

The following practices, not required, have proved acceptable in some clubs and games.

1) Since the essence of the game is speed, if a deal is passed out, the pack that has been shuffled for the next deal should be used by the same dealer.

2) The net score of a rubber should be translated into even hundreds (according to American custom) by crediting as 100 points any fraction thereof amounting to 50 or more points. For example, 750 points counds as 800; 740 points counts as 700.

3) No two players may play a second consecutive rubber as partners at the same table. If two players draw each other again, the player who has drawn the highest card should play with the player who has drawn the third-highest, against the other two players.

Taken in part from the ACBL Official Encyclopedia of Bridge
Editor Henry Francis