Even though most people first become familiar with contract or auction bridge, these versions of the game are not the only ones out there.

If you want to practice some more specific elements of the game such as bidding (or play with less/more players than the standard four seated at a table), there are other varieties of bridge to discover.

Just arrived on the bridge scene, or looking for some more types of bridge to dig your teeth into?

Here are 4 other forms of the game that isn’t auction, contract, or rubber.

1. Solitaire bridge

Solitaire bridge is the version of the game you might be looking for if you would like to practice bidding and tricks without a second, third, or fourth player.

If you want to play the game by yourself, stack out a card deck and see where the best tricks are laid. Bridge Base Online also makes it possible to fill up the rest of a table with versions of GIB, or to play sans bidding with a solitaire bridge game called Just Declare.

Who said you need other players at the table to enjoy taking tricks?

2. Honeymoon bridge

Honeymoon bridge is such named because it gets played by only two players instead of four.

I would guess that it ended up being called honeymoon bridge due to the fact that there are many couples who are getting to know the game (but don’t necessarily know two other players yet).

For honeymoon bridge, the standard rules are more or less kept the same. Scoring isn’t altered much, and each player still gets 13 cards in their hand. The only real difference is the amount of players.

It’s especially great for practice.

3. Pirate bridge

Pirate Bridge is a version of the game that not many people know, invented by the person you would least expect.

Famous occultist, inventor of Thelema, and mountain climber Aleister Crowley came up his version of the game with some minor alterations to the standard rules.

Within Pirate bridge, the player changes their bridge partner for every round. Crowley claimed that this keeps the player from getting stuck with the same tedious (or alcoholic) bridge partner every time.

It’s odd and unorthodox, but it can also be fun from time to time!

Who could have guessed that a man who preferred the nickname of The Great Beast was a bridge fan?

4. Bumblepuppy bridge

Bumblepuppy bridge is another version of the game that has been simplified for newer players. If you want some complete variation on the game or you are teaching someone who has never played bridge before, then you should consider this.

Instead of bidding, Bumblepuppy bridge has only a single goal for the game: win tricks.

In that aspect, it can feel just a little like Just Declare, but minus the aspect of GIB (or intricate scoring).