Dorothy Hayden Truscott - Bid Better Play Better: How to Think at the Bridge Table

How many bridge players realize that our game, which seems so modern, has a long history behind it.

Playing cards were used in China as long ago as A.D. 979 although, sadly, the legend that they were invented by the Emperor to amuse his concubines has no validity. Some three hundred years later they appeared in Venice, possibly introduced by Marco Polo on his return from China. During the next century they spread rapidly throughout Europe and were well on time to catch the first boat to America. Legend tells us that Columbuss sailors threw their playing cards overboard in superstitious terror during a raging Atlantic storm. Later, on dry land, they regretted their rashness and made new ones out of leaves.

Playing cards reached England early in the fifteenth century and it was here that the ancestor of modern bridge was born. This early game was called variously triumph, trump, ruff and honours, whisk and swabbers, and whisk. The earliest recorded reference to the game is in 1529, but it is clear that it had been played long before this.

By the seventeenth century the game, by then called Whisk or whist, had become very popular particularly in London. Just as today, the game was played by four people, the two sitting opposite being partners. Thirteen cards were dealt to each player, and the score was determined by the number of tricks won above and beyond the first six tricks, which became known as the book.

There was no bidding, and trump was determined by turning up the last card dealt. There was no dummy exposed which made whist much more difficult than bridge. (In case you do not believe this, try playing bridge without a dummy.)

In the coffee-houses of London it was common to have a game of whist in progress with a ring of kibitzers standing around the table anxious to bet with the players or with each other. It resembled a miniature stock exchange, and wagers were laid on anything from the play of a card to whether it would rain tomorrow. It was, in fact, a group of whist players at Edward Lloyds Coffee House who in their spare time founded the famous Lloyds of London.

Such was the lively atmosphere when Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769) arrived on the scene. A barrister of good family and education, he became the first professional whist teacher. He wrote the first book devoted to the game and it rapidly became a best seller going through many editions. Much of what he wrote on card play is still applicable today.

Before Hoyles time even the basic finesse was understood only by experts or those in contact with experts. Now it was available to all. As a result the popularity of the game grew by leaps and bounds, particularly among the ladies and gentlemen of society. Whist had become a highly respected, intellectual pursuit. Hoyle established the tradition of law and order in card-play and the expression according to Hoyle became part of the English language.

Perhaps the most famous hand in the entire history of bridge is the one said to have been dealt over two hundred years ago in the gaming rooms at Bath, England, to the Duke of Cumberland.

The Duke held the West hand in the diagram and incredible though it may appear, he never took a single trick.

Clubs were trumps and the Duke had the opening lead. In an effort to draw trumps as quickly as possible he led the seven of clubs. North won with the eight and led a diamond which South ruffed. South returned a trump covered by the nine and ten. Another diamond ruff put South in again to lead his last trump. North won, drew the Dukes last trump and claimed the balance with his seven established diamond winners.

On this hand the Duke lost twenty thousand pounds, the equivalent today of over a million dollars. Of course the Duke was swindled. This hand was used by hustlers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to take advantage of the betting habits of the day. The actual cards can be found in one of Hoyles editions published long before the Dukes disaster.

From England, whist soon spread throughout most of Europe and the United States. No history of the game, however short, can fail to mention the famous French expert, Guillaume Deschapelles (1780-1847). He is described by his contemporary, James Clay, the English whist authority, as the finest whist player beyond comparison the world has ever seen. Soldiering in one of the wars of the time he lost his right hand, severed at the wrist. Nevertheless he continued to play whist, chess, and more remarkably, billiards. Many bridge experts have been excellent chess players, and many chess experts have been excellent bridge players. But Deschapelles was acknowledged as the finest whist player and the finest chess player of his day.

Although he contributed much to the science of whist, Deschapelles is remembered chiefly as the inventor of the coup which bears his name. This is the deliberate sacrifice of a high unsupported honor in order to force an entry into partners hand.

Against a contract of four spades West leads the diamond king to Easts ace. What should East return at trick two?

The only return to beat the contract is the king of hearts, a Deschapelles coup. With any other return, West will never get in to cash his diamond winner. Try it.

The next great name to appear on the whist scene is that of Henry Jones (1831-1899) of London, better known by his pseudonym of Cavendish. Author of many books on the game, he had more influence on whist than any writer since Hoyle. Among his contributions to the science of the game was the fourth-best lead, which has remained standard to this day. Cavendish devised and directed the first duplicate game, in London in 1857.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, a variation of whist was introduced called bridge. Instead of turning up the last card to determine trump, the dealer was allowed to chose the trump suit or notrump if he preferred. He also had the option of passing the decision to partner. Doubles and redoubles were permitted ad infinitum, introducing an undesirable gambling element. Another difference, and a crucial one, was that in bridge the dummy was exposed. This made the play more scientific and whist authorities actually recommended bridge to their pupils as an aid to improving their whist.

About 1904 the element of competitive bidding was introduced: All four players could now bid in turn as high as they wanted for the privilege of naming the trump suit. Called auction bridge, this new variation quickly supplanted bridge, but the parent game, whist, continued to be played side by side with auction.

Further experiments, first by some English officers in India and then in France during World War I, produced a vital improvement: To score bonuses for games and slams you had to bid them. In 1925, on a cruise through the Panama Canal, Harold S. Vanderbilt combined this feature with a new scoring system including the idea of vulnerability and called it contract bridge. Thanks to Vanderbilts social position and tremendous reputation in the bridge world, contract bridge was immediately accepted and soon eclipsed all other forms of the game.

The credit for making contract bridge an international success must go to the dynamic Ely Culbertson (1891-1955). Expert player, author of an enormous number of bridge books, founder of