American Contract Bridge League sells the game as fun Scott Shepard When executives of Oldsmobile were trying to shake their image of being lumbering and stodgy, they could have taken a lesson from the American Contract Bridge League, which has just turned that corner in the quest to sell bridge as something fun, with a lifelong challenge. Something akin to the American Medical Association for bridge players, the non-profit association is the official North American scorekeeper of both contract and duplicate bridge. They sanction the games of 3,500 clubs across North America, coordinate three major tournaments each year, publish the magazines and books, and hold the purse strings for master points. It takes 300 master points to become a lifetime master, and many people will play all their lives without achieving that rank.
Bridge is a mathematically complex game using a standard deck of cards.
It's complex in that there are more than 53 octillion possible combinations. That's 53 followed by 27 zeros, and top competitive players tend to be middle aged and successful in the financial world. It's so demanding a game that bridge and chess last year were recognized by the International Olympic Committee as competitive sports, and both will have exhibition status at next year's Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Modern bridge was conceived by Harold S. Vanderbilt, and the trophy in his honor is still at the ACBL headquarters, but 20 years ago, the game began taking on aristocratic airs. We now talk about how much fun it is.