The goal of the game
Before each deal you call a number: how many of the thirteen tricks you think you can win. Win at least that many and you score your call. Fall short and you lose it. Everything else in Call Break — which card to lead, when to spend a trump — follows from that single promise.
What you need
- Exactly four players, each scoring individually.
- One standard 52-card deck (no jokers).
- A way to track scores across five deals, including negatives.
The deal
The entire deck is dealt out, thirteen cards to each player, with nothing held back. Cards rank in the usual order within each suit, ace high down to two.
Spades are permanently trump
This is the rule to internalise first, because it never changes. Spades outrank every other suit at all times — the two of spades beats the ace of hearts. There is no trump selection phase, no reveal, and no rotation between rounds. If you have played Dehla Pakad, where trump is set by the first off-suit card played, or Judgement, where it rotates every round, this will feel unusually fixed — and it makes long spade holdings enormously valuable.
Calling
Starting with the player to the dealer’s left and continuing clockwise, each player states a number from 1 to 13. You may not pass, and you may not call zero — every player undertakes at least one trick.
Unlike Judgement’s hook rule, there is no constraint linking the four calls. They may total less than thirteen, exactly thirteen, or far more. It is entirely possible for all four players to succeed, or for all four to fail.
The rules of play
Call Break is stricter about what you may play than most trick-taking games. On your turn, in order of priority:
- Any card may lead a trick, including a spade.
- You must follow the suit led if you hold it.
- You must beat the trick if you can. When following suit, if you hold a card of that suit higher than the highest one played so far, you must play one of those. Ducking with a low card while holding a winner is not allowed.
- You must trump if you are void. Holding no card of the led suit, you are obliged to play a spade if you have one — you may not discard from a side suit instead.
- You must over-trump if you can. If a spade is already in the trick, you must play a higher spade when you hold one. If you cannot beat it, you must still play a spade — a losing one.
- Otherwise, anything goes. Void in the led suit and holding no spades, you may throw any card.
One exception is worth knowing: the duty to beat the trick lapses once someone has trumped a non-spade lead. At that point no card of the led suit can win, so any card of it is legal.
The trick goes to the highest spade in it, or if it contains no spade, to the highest card of the suit led. The winner leads the next trick.
Scoring
Scoring is where Call Break differs most from its relatives, and where the small numbers matter:
- Made your call: score the call, plus 0.1 for every extra trick. Call 4 and win 4, score 4. Call 4 and win 6, score 4.2.
- Missed your call: lose the call entirely. Call 3 and win 2, score −3.
Because misses subtract, running totals can go negative — and often do. Note how lopsided the two outcomes are: an extra trick is worth a tenth of a point, while falling one short costs you everything you called. That asymmetry is the whole strategic engine of the game.
Winning the match
A match is five deals. Scores carry across all of them, and the highest total after the fifth wins. Players tied on the top score share the win.
A quick worked example
You call 4. Hearts are led and you hold the 3♥ and K♥ — the queen is already on the table, so you must play the king, because you may not duck while holding a winner. Later, clubs are led and you are void; you hold the 2♠ and must play it, even though you would rather keep it. Someone over-trumps with the 9♠. You finish with 5 tricks against your call of 4, and score 4.1.
Common variations
- Traditional Call Bridge scoring: the older ruleset requires you to win your call or exactly one more — taking two or more extra tricks fails you outright. This site uses the modern online scoring described above instead.
- Minimum call of 2: some groups set the floor at two tricks rather than one.
- No spade lead on the first trick: a common house rule preventing trump from being drawn immediately.
Once the rules settle, the depth is all in the calling. Read the strategy guide next for how to count your callable tricks.