Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions of people play bridge worldwide in clubs, tournaments, online and with friends at home, making it one of the world's most popular card games, particularly among seniors. The World Bridge Federation (WBF) is the governing body for international competitive bridge, with numerous other bodies governing it at the regional level.
In the card game contract bridge, the Losing-Trick Count (LTC) is a method of hand evaluation that is generally only considered suitable to be used in situations where a trump suit has been established and when shape and fit are more significant than high card points (HCP) in determining the optimum level of the contract. The method is generally not considered suitable for no trump or misfit hands; also, the trump suit is generally considered to require at least eight cards in length with no partner holding fewer than three.
Precision Club is a bidding system in the game of contract bridge. It is a strong club system developed in 1969 for C. C. Wei by Alan Truscott, and used by Taiwan teams in 1969. Their success in placing second at the 1969 Bermuda Bowl launched the system's popularity.
Auction bridge was first form of Bridge where players bid to declare a contract in their chosen trump suit or no trumps. It was first recorded as being played in Bath around 1904. The Bath Club and Portland Club met in 1908 and issued a super-set of rules for Bridge that covered the bidding and penalty for failing to make a contract in Auction Bridge. Early forms were rudimentary and unbalanced and the British and Americans could not agree over the bidding ranking and use of artificial bids, resulting in The Whist Club of New York and The Portland Club issuing competing sets of rules.
The Drury convention is a bridge convention, used to show a game-invitational major suit raise by a passed hand while guarding against a light opening by partner in third or fourth seat. It is initiated by an artificial and forcing 2♣ response by the passed hand to a 1♥ or 1♠ opening by partner. The 2♣ bid shows at least three-card support for opener's suit with 10-12 support points and asks opener to clarify the strength of their opening hand. The convention is also known in Europe as "Toronto".
A bridge convention is an agreement about an artificial call or a set of related artificial calls. Calls made during the auction phase of a contract bridge game convey information about the player's card holdings. Calls may be "natural" or "artificial".
John Terence Reese was a British bridge player and writer, regarded as one of the finest of all time in both fields. He was born in Epsom, Surrey, England to middle-class parents, and was educated at Bradfield College and New College, Oxford, where he studied classics and attained a double first, graduating in 1935.
In contract bridge, various bidding systems have been devised to enable partners to describe their hands to each other so that they may reach the optimum contract. Key to this process is that players evaluate and re-evaluate the trick-taking potential of their hands as the auction proceeds and additional information about partner's hand and the opponent's hands becomes available.
Ron Klinger is an Australian contract bridge player and a leading English-language bridge writer, the author of more than 70 books on the game. He is an Australian Grand Master and a World Bridge Federation International Master.
Frederick "Fred" Gitelman is a Canadian-American bridge player, developer of bridge software, and a founder of the online bridge platform Bridge Base Online.
Victor Mollo was a British contract bridge player, journalist and author. He is most famous for his "Menagerie" series of bridge books, depicting vivid caricatures of players with animal names and mannerisms through a series of exciting and entertaining deals—bridge fables of a sort.
Master Point Press is a Canadian book publishing company located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It grew out of Canadian Master Point magazine (1992–1997), which was published by Ray and Linda Lee. The company began publishing books in 1994. While primarily interested in books on contract bridge, MPP also publishes books on other games and intellectual pursuits, such as chess.
Marc Smith is a British bridge player, columnist and writer. Marc Smith represented Great Britain as a junior, winning the 1985 European Union Junior Teams Championship. He has a host of wins in national events, and reached the final of the World Mixed Pairs Championship playing with his wife, Charlotte. His book, co-authored with Barbara Seagram, 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know, won the American Bridge Teachers' Association 1999 Shirley Silverman Award for Best Student Book.
The Dallas Aces were the world's first professional bridge team, organized in 1968 by Dallas businessman Ira Corn. Corn was determined to return bridge supremacy to America after the domination of the formidable Italian Blue Team for more than a decade. The Aces, in various formations during the years featured stars such as James Jacoby, Bobby Wolff, Billy Eisenberg, Bobby Goldman, Mike Lawrence, Paul Soloway, Eric Murray and Sami Kehela. They won the 1970, 1977 and 1983 Bermuda Bowls, as well as several other competitions. The team slowly disbanded after Corn's death in 1982.
Barbara Seagram is a Canadian Registered Nurse and contract bridge writer, teacher, and administrator. She is co-author of thirty-two published bridge books, including co-writing with Marc Smith 25 Bridge Conventions You Should Know, which received the American Bridge Teachers' Association (ABTA) Book of the Year award in 1999. The book is in its 19th printing and has been translated into French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Danish.
Eric R. Murray was a Canadian contract bridge player and co-founder of the Canadian Bridge Federation (CBF). He and his long-time regular partner Sami Kehela were considered two of the best Canadian players in the history of the game. The Eric R. Murray Trophy, named in his honour, is awarded to the open team representing Canada in the quadrennial World Team Olympiad.
Sami R. Kehela, sometimes spelled Sammy Kehela, is a Canadian contract bridge player. A member of the Halls of Fame of both the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and the Canadian Bridge Federation, he and his long-time partner, the late Eric Murray, are considered two of the best Canadian players in the history of the game.
Andrew Michael Robson OBE is an English professional bridge player, writer and teacher. He is a British and English international. Robson is the bridge columnist for The Times and Country Life. He was a member of the Great Britain Juniors team which won the World Youth Team Championship in 1989 and of the Great Britain Open team which won the European Open Teams Championship in 1991. He is from London.
Joshua Samuel Donn is a multi national champion and a gold medal world junior champion in contract bridge. He is known as a bridge lecturer as well as author. He is the all-time leader of Richard Pavlicek's monthly polls that ran from 2000-2006 and had thousands of participants from over 90 countries. He currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada with his daughter.
