Duplicate Bridge
Are you a card player? Do you enjoy playing cards, but get frustrated when your opponents seem to get all the wondrous hands, while you're lucky to see a jack or a queen in your hand? Have we got a game for you!!
Duplicate bridge takes away (much of) the luck in playing a hand of cards. [Hey, it's still cards... there's a LITTLE bit of luck!] In duplicate bridge, your score is compared against all other players who held the SAME CARDS as you during the session! If you have a night where you don't even see a face card, all of your opponents are seeing those same cards! It removes a lot of the luck factor, since you're playing the EXACT SAME hands that your opponents are! Your scores are generated based upon your relative success in playing those cards!
Origins of "Contract Bridge"
Bridge is related to the earlier game of Whist, which has been documented back to the early 17th century. The modern scoring was created and laid out in 1925 by Harold S. Vanderbilt.
A.C.B.L.
The ACBL is the American body which governs the laws and sanctions tournaments in North America and beyond. They track individual players' "master points," which are a cumulative repository of (variously-coloured, depending upon the level of the competition) 'victory points' of a sort. Although some claim that they are merely an "attendance record" [in that even the poorest bridge player will eventually accumulate points, if they play enough sessions of bridge] they are a relative yardstick by which you can compare your own progress toward the coveted title of "Life Master" while you compete against your friends and neighbors.