Historically, a very popular trick taking standard deck playing card game that pits two partnerships against each other. First is the auction, where the partners are able to verbally pass encoded information about their hand contents to give themselves the best chance of bidding correctly. The play features one member of the team that won the auction trying to win as many tricks as he can by playing both his team's hands, while the defenders try to stop him from making his contract.
The duplicate version of the game has many pairs, each playing the same hands separately and comparing their results. This process removes the luck-element of getting good cards and boils it down to a demanding test of partnership skill.
People dedicate their lives to playing this game without ever reaching mastery. A complex and deep, yet approachable and social game all in one.
Bridge is more formally named Contract Bridge, but it is usually just called Bridge in common usage. Bridge developed from the card game Whist. Whist developed into Bridge (1894), which introduced the dealer choosing a trump, and introduced the dummy hand. Bridge evolved into Auction Bridge (1903). Auction Bridge allowed trump to be decided with an auction. Auction Bridge evolved into Contract Bridge (1925); Auction Bridge is the same game as Contract Bridge except for a different method of scoring.
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