History of the card game bridge
It is believed that the card game of bridge originated in the Middle East in the 19th century. Auction bridge, one form of the game, was developed by the British in India and later was popular in the UK and the United States. It is sometimes still played but has largely been replaced by contract bridge, which achieved popularity after important innovations were made in 1925 by Harold S. Vanderbilt. Its phenomenal popularity owed much to the activities of Ely and Josaphine Culbertson. The craze subsided but was later revived; books, tournaments, and newspaper columns on bridge abounded. Milton Work devised the honour count system to evaluate a hand for bidding and this was made popular by the teachings and ‘the blue book’ of Ely Culbertson. The point count system introduced by Charles H.Goren in the 1940’s has generally been replaced by Milton Work’s honour count system (A=4, K=3, Q=2, J=1). Once bridge had become faily popular, a number of bridge bidding conventions were invented. Stayman and Blackwood were amongst the first and now there are thousands.
