Major suit
In the card game contract bridge, the major suits are spades (♠) and hearts (♥). The major suits are of prime importance for tactics and scoring as they outrank the minor suits while bidding and also outscore them (30 per contracted trick for major suits - compared to 20 for minor suits). Much of the tactics of bidding in bridge revolves around the attempt by partners to find a "fit" in one of the major suits that will allow them to easily make a game contract. Of the two major suits, spades rank higher than hearts.
Suit combinations
Fundamentally, there are three ways to divide four suits into pairs: by color, by rank and by shape resulting in six possible suit combinations.
- Color is used to denote the red suits (hearts and diamonds) and the black suits (spades and clubs).
- Rank is used to indicate the major (spades and hearts) versus minor (diamonds and clubs) suits.
- Shape is used to denote the pointed (diamonds and spades, which visually have a sharp point uppermost) versus rounded (hearts and clubs) suits.
For four-color decks, it has been suggested that the red/black distinction could be replaced by rounded tops and pointed tops (the pips on hearts and diamonds have rounded tops, whereas on the spades and clubs they are pointed).
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