Bridge; My New Hobby

I like to learn new thinks, being social and have various hobbies such as photography, reading, reading about art history, visiting art galleries etc..

My aunt who loved playing bridge suggested me to enroll a bridge learning & playing class in her bridge club. I went to the course, in the first weeks Bridge seemed confusing to me. There were too many rules and it was difficult to remember these rules while playing.

But than as the days pass I began to think Bridge as a fascinating game. I don't get bored playing the game as each hand is different and there are so many strategies. My mind is very active, I feel alive.

I have many friends in the club. I am more social. I feel more active.

Intellectually stimulating. Even if we have spent a whole day working hard, bridge is a totally different kind of thinking that is probably more fun than work.

You will have an active social life. In my bridge class there are 25 good educated, clever people who became great friends.

It's a life-long game. You won't get too old for it like you will with tennis or golf.

To be competitive. Bridge can be for little old ladies just killing time but it can be a very competitive game too.

You fell successful. There are generally not any monetary prizes in bridge but you win master-points, which you can accumulate and show off to friends.

Winston Churchill

Margaret Thatcher

Gandhi

Omar Sharif

Bill Gates....

Galata bridge is "the Bridge"

First Bridge players were in Istanbul.

Known bridge playing goes as far back as late 1800's. The word "bridge" comes from the Galata Bridge, where bridge players crossed every day to go to play cards.

(B7's note: I don't agree with the people who say that the word is derived from a word similar to bridge-- britich, biritch, britch, beach, etc. Because the bridge players at that time were highly educated I believe that they surely could properly spell a word that they pronounced.. )

The bridge in the picture is Galata Bridge. The people crossing the bridge can be the first bridge players in the world..

Galata Tower can be seen at the top of the hill. It is located in the new part of European Istanbul. Bridge was a very popular game in Istanbul then..

Later, the so-called "kings of bridge" replaced the sultans of bridge. The first king was a very rich man in US: Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Mr. Vanderbilt brought rules and a method of scoring to the bridge game. Later in 1930s Mr. Ely Culbertson published the laws of contract bridge. In 1950s Mr. Charles Goren added some methods which helped to popularize the bridge game. Goren was known as "King of Aces". Some of his methods are still used. In 1958 World Bridge Federation was founded. Today, bridge is the most popular card game in the World.

An enjoyable evening of bridge turns into a murder investigation when the flamboyant host Mr Shaitana is found dead. Can the four invited investigators - Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race and Ariadne Oliver - discover which of the other four guests is the killer? All four had the opportunity - and all four have something to hide. After all, their host seemed certain that each of them had already got away with murder.

This is one of Christie's 'locked room' mysteries. Will Cuppy wrote in Books (New York Herald Tribune), "We always say there's nobody quite like Agatha Christie when she puts her mind to it, and that's what she has done in Cards on the Table."

Trick. Four cards played in clockwise succession by each of the four players, starting at trick one with a card from the player to the left of the declarer (the player who first named the denomination of the final contract) and later starting with the player who won the previous trick. There are 13 tricks in the play of each deal.

Auction. The process by which the final contract is achieved. The dealer starts the auction with a bid or a pass. A deal is passed out if there are four successive passes at the start, but in most cases the auction continues until there are three consecutive passes.

Contract. The number and denomination (suit or no-trump) representing the number of tricks your side must win. If you and your partner bid to 3 ♣, for example, you have contracted to take nine tricks with clubs as trumps. If you fulfill your contract, you can earn a bonus. If you fail, you incur a penalty. Contracts go all the way from 1 ♣ (seven tricks) to 7NT (13 tricks).

Game. Whenever your side fulfills a contract that produces a score of 100 or more (see the next chapter for scoring basics), you have earned a game bonus. Any bid, pass, double, or redouble. A bid is always a call, but a call is not necessarily a bid. A bid requires a number and a suit (or no-trump). Pass, double, and redouble are calls, not bids.

Hand. Thirteen cards. This is different from a deal, which is all fifty-two cards dealt and played by the four competitors. Players refer so often to a full deal as a “hand” that the terms have become interchangeable.

Duplicate. The form of the game played at bridge clubs and tournaments. Cards are not mixed up and reshuffled when a deal is over. The same deals are played over and over by different players, and the scoring comes from comparisons after all the rounds have been played in a session.