FOREWORD – Contract Bridge Evolution

 From a synopsis about the evolution of the Contract Bridge card game we can infer how reliable information between partners are critical for the success of a Bidding System (the language during the auction) to allow better decision in finding the best contract.
 
 We can read about history of Contract Bridge here. This fun popular partnership game of cards where humans still play better than computers had its code established in Nov 1, 1932 as an evolution from others card games since 1896: bridge whist, auction bridge, the French card game Bridge Plafond (Ceiling) - popular in Europe during 1918-1930 - and finally Contract Bridge as the principal intellectual card games where the trump suit is no more defined by the dealer but by an auction (part 1/2 of the game – part 2/2 of the game is the play of the hand).
 
 The rules of Contract Bridge were established during 1925-1926 by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970) - an Auction Whist expert player - from a magnate railroad family in New York. He also introduced the concept of vulnerability and created a new bridge scoring table that over the years had some actualizations. Then Vanderbilt started the propagation of Contract Bridge in many Auction Bridge clubs.

The first official Laws of Duplicate Bridge were published in 1928 and had successive revisions in 1933, 1935, 1943, 1949, 1963, 1975, 1987, 2007 and in 2017 here. He also published in 1929 the first Bidding System for contract bridge the “Vanderbilt Club” that used 1♣ for strong opening and 1♦ for weak opening, like in the present Precision system.
 
 Contract Bridge (or now just bridge) has many contributors but there are high emphasis for Ely Almon Culbertson (1901-1955) that founded "The Bridge World Magazine" in 1929. As editor he developed bridge principles in many articles, as writer he elaborated a Bidding System with his "Blue Book" in 1930 using a method for valuation hand's strength based in "honor tricks" (A=1 AK=2 AQ=1,5 KQx=1,5 Kx=0,5  AJ10=1,5 AJx=1,25 KJx=0,75 QJx=0,75 Qxx=0,25 ...) and introduced the conceptions of forcing bid and sign-off bid during the auction.
 
 In the 6th edition of his book "Contract Bridge Complete", Culbertson, due to many players had difficulty in add different fractions, replaced his valuation method of "honor-tricks" by "point count" that was suggested by Bryant McCampbell in 1915 and published in the years 20 by Milton Cooper Work (1864-1934) as a scale based in "high cards points" (hcp) where A=4 K=3 Q=2 J=1.
 
In England the Acol club was founded in the early 1930’s with a group of distinguished auction bridge players including Jack Marx (1907-1991) and S.J. 'Skid' Simon (1904-1948), who developed a bidding system that brought them immediate success and domestic domination.
They called their new system Acol. Only in 1938 was a book written about the Acol system to inform bridge partnership how it works with 4-cards opening, never with a short Clubs (3 cards), and until now it’s the dominant system played in England. Of course there are some variants that now include modern conventions. The Acol system uses a weak 1NT opening (12-14 hcp) when nVul and (16-18) when Vul - many invitation bids add up hcp to decide if partnership will bid game or stay in a part score.  

 Culbertson, with innovative articles and new ideas, stimulated also the formulation of other systems. In 1935 the Vienna System created by Paul Stern (1892-1948) - the captain of Austrian team - using initially a Bamberger’s scale of points count (A=7 K=5 Q=3 J=1) introduced an innovative successful bidding structure with the use of artificials bids that influenced years later the formulation for others systems like the Italians systems and Precision System. The Austrian team won the European Open Championships in 1936 and in 1937. Also won the first world championess defeating in the final match Ely Culbertson's American team in a challenge match in 1937, thus starting the Culbertson decline.
 
 In 1931 was founded the British Bridge League (dissolved in 1999). In 1936 was created  the European British Union (EBU) now having more than 54,000 members and 620 affiliated clubs.

 In 1937 the American Whist League, created in 1893, stopped their function and was replaced by ACBL - American Contract Bridge League - that is now the largest bridge's league in North America. ACBL has now more than 165,000 members in the USA and over 3.5 million tables each year in more than 3 thousand bridge clubs and online tournaments with more than one million tables per year.
  

Points Count
 In 1904 Edmond Robertson published his point count where A=7 K=5 Q=3 J=2 10=1 and it appears to be more accurate because the 10 is an important card in many configurations. In the Bamberger points count the 10 is not included, thus the deck of cards stays with 64 high card points that imply the need of 39 hcp for a game in No Trump (NT) or major suit and 52 hcp for small slam. In 1927 George Reith changed Edmond Robertson's scale to A=6 K=4 Q=3 J=2 10=1 to maintain proportionality in the points. In fact, in Milton Work published scale the value of Ace (A) is around 4.25, the King (K) around 3 and the Queen (Q) less than 2, but the simplicity of the 4321 scale is evident. Curiously, recently computer simulation shows that the Bamberger’s scale is more accurate than Milton Work’s scale.

A more precise High Card Point adjustment with the inclusion of the 10 is: A=4.3 K=3.3 Q=1.7 J=0.7 10=0.3 but this is not a practical scale to count our hand strength. But it shows that an Ace is more than 4 hcp, a King is more than 3 hcp, and a Queen is less than 2 hcp. The automatic conclusion is A and K are very important cards or that 2 Queens in one hand can’t have the same value o an Ace, or that a Qxx + Jxx has value than a Kxx.

These above conclusions help us in hand evaluation during the bidding - when partner inquires for maximum or minimum after we inform a range of 6-9 hcp what should the used as criteria for minimum or maximum? A criteria of 6-7 hcp as minimum and 8-9 hcp as maximum is inferior to a criteria using controls where A=2 and K=1.

So, if we have 3 controls (A+K or 3K) we should say maximum for the range of 6-9 and if we have only 2 controls we should say minimum. If the hand has AKxx xxxx xxx xx with only 7 hcp this hand must be consider as maximum because has 3 controls.

In case we inform a range of 10-11 in a flat hand with 10-11 hcp we are maximum with 4 controls and minimum with only 3 or less controls. A hand with 11 hcp like Kxx Kxx Qxxx QJx is minimum having only 2 controls, because what predominant makes tricks are Aces and Kings. Thus, a good maximum is Axxx Axxx xxx xx or Axxx Kxx Kxx xx.
 
 Furthermore, we should not look only for the values of hcp but also for hand distribution and for middle cards concentration like J109x having more value than J854 or Q109 more value than Q82 or K109 more value than K32 or A1098 more value than A743. Thus, for a more adequate valorization we should not think only in “high cards points” (hcp) but also in our perception of losers during a competitive bidding or where partner shows his strength. Also, if our 5^th card or 4^th card in a suit will be or is not a possible winner card, our hand revaluation many times should be based in the bidding and our hand fits with partner hand.
 
 Having a long suit with rare distribution like 6-4 or 7-4, our hand's valuation should not be based in hcp but in losers. Also, middle cards become very important for the consistence of the suit. AQ1098x K1097 xx x has more value than AQ8642 K975 xx x, or KQ109432 A1098 x x has much more value than KQ7654 A975 x x. Thus, hcp is important for balanced hands where the 10 is an important card.

However, the Milton Works's points count became dominant also for players of Vienna System who abandoned the Bamberger’s scale to use the deck of cards with only 40 hcp, where statistics determine that with 25-26 hcp, we should try game in 3NT 4♥ 4♠ and with 32-33 hcp we should try slam. Of course, advancers players use their experience looking for the middle cards and their hand distribution to decide between stopping in a part score or going to game. A hand 4333 has the worst distribution and it is a high factor to any player became pessimist and decide to stop the bidding in a part-score.
 
 In 1936 Charles Henry Goren (1901-1991) published his book "Contract Bridge Complete using "point count" with additional distributional points for hand valuation - during 1950 thru 1962 he became the new Bridger leader writing many bridge books, but then his system using opening majors with 4-cards and all opening 2 as strong hand was overcome by more aggressive bidding systems like Roth-Stone’s system with major 5-cards major opening and weak two opening with 6-cards and 7-10 hcp.
 
 The Point Count Adjust
 Initially Goren propose the follow adjustments
 Opener hand:
 - void suit plus 3 points
 - each singleton plus 2 points
 - each doubleton plus 1 point
 Responder hand after 4-cards fit:
 - void suit plus 5 points
 - each singleton plus 3 points
 - each doubleton plus 1 point
 
 The modern evaluation of hands take in consideration initially the suit’s length adding during the auction values for void/singleton only if an agreement confirms a fit (4-4 or 5-4). Of course, 5-3 is also a good fit but in this case the 3-card of the fit does not allow us to compute 5 points for void or 3 points for singleton, just 3 and 2 is reasonable.
 Opener hand:
 - each 5-cards suit add 1 point (need 2 top honors) 
 - each 6-cards suit add 2 points (need A or KQ at top)
 - each 7-cards suit add 3 points (need A or K at top)
 - hand with distribution 4333 -1 point (no good)
 - hand with 4 Aces add 1 point
 - hand with no Aces -1 point (no good)
 Responder hand having 4-cards fit in partner's suit:
 - void suit add 5 points
 - each singleton add 3 points
 - each doubleton add 1 point
 
 Honors Adjustments
 - concentration of honors increases hand's value
 ♠AKQ54 ♥93 ♦83 ♣10986 Vs ♠Q7654 ♥A4 ♦K3 ♣10642
 - honors in long suit increases the value of the hand
   and honors in short suits decreases hand's value
 ♠AK9654 ♥3 ♦83 ♣AJ96 Vs ♠976543 ♥A ♦AK ♣J963 
 - intermediate cards increases the value of the suit
   KQ1098 versus KQ765 or AJ1092 versus AJ753
 
 In 1946 Richard A. Miller published his book “Point Count Bidding” to help players in the valuation of an opening hand. In 1949 Fred L. Karpin published his “Point Count System” that compares Honor-Trick x Point Count. In 1963 Charles H. Goren published his “Point Count Bidding” which sold more than 1 million copies!

In fact, the understanding of Points Count, and adjustments are not the most important cornerstone to have success in the bridge table. It is necessarily to have a Bidding System that makes easy to exchange RELIABLE INFORMATION between partners to allow more precise decision. So, Opener and Responder must prioritize the information about their hand’s strength. Per example, showing clearly the range of hcp of their hand in their first or second bid.

 Curiously, the famous Precision System does that in the opening bid. Both majors and 1♦ opening are limited to 15 hcp, and believe, this makes success because Responder can jump to game with 14 hcp or pass with 9 hcp knowing that the chances for game or slam are low – this makes hard for opponent's reopen and defend the hand without information of what’s going on.

 In the early 1950’s Kaplan-Sheinwold Bidding System, also known as KS system, created by Edgar Kaplan (1925-1997) and his partner Alfred Sheinwold (1912-1997) was already using 5-cards major opening and weak 1NT 12-14 hcp but in 1953 the great bridge champion 16 times, Alvin Leon Roth (1914-1992), published a more elaborated system with his partner Tobias Stone (1919-2012). The Roth-Stone system introducing new ways to show the characteristics of Opener's hand and Responder's hand like 5-cards major opening with response 1NT forcing, negative double (sputnik) to show 4 cards in the other major, unusual NT overcall to show two suits 5-5, splinter to show shorter suit having 4 cards support, after  major opening the response of 3♣ as game-force (GF) with 4 cards support and many others specials bids that were used by the future Two Over One Game Force System (2/1). 
 
 In the sixties a new popular American System also using 5-cards major opening and weak opening of 2♥/2♠ to show 6-cards suit with 7-10 hcp adopt the strong opening hand only in 2♣ - in Goren’s time all opening at level 2 was strong. So, these new approaches were crystallized as "Standard American Yellow Cards" (SAYC).
 
 In meantime The World Bridge Federation was founded in 1958 and the first Team Olympiad occurred in 1960. Today WBF memberships consist of 103 National Contract Bridge Organizations with about 700.000 affiliated members and so is responsible by world championship competitions:
 a) Bermuda Bowl - since 1950 is the world championship with 44 realizations;
 b) Venice Coup - since 1974 is the woman's world championship (23);
 c) Youth Teams Championship - since 1997-  already 17 realizations.
 d) Senior Bowl - since 2001 is the senior's world championship (11);
  
 In 1962 Richard Lincoln Frey (1905-1988) suggest to ACBL a project for an Bridge's Encyclopedia to answer any question of bridge and after 18 months, in 1964, the first edition of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge was published - in 2011 the 7th edition was published.
 
 In early 70's scientific system using some ideas of Roth-Stone, KS system and SAYC, create by experts bridge players like Richard Raymond Walsh (1936-), Rhoda Walsh (1933-), John Swanson (1937-), and Paul Soloway (1941-2007) developed a variant of Eastern Scientific system that became in the 80's known by the name of "Two Over One Game Force" (2/1) due to the book of Max Hardy using lectures about the Walsh System. Now 2/1 is one of the most popular systems used by advanced players. Of course, the Italians systems since 1950 and the Precision system since 1969 are up to date and is used by expert's bridge players like Jeff Meckstroth – Eric Rodwell in competitive events.
 
 In terms of popular system, SAYC and 2/1 are the most used system followed by UK English Standard Acol system. Beginners and intermediates players make the use of SAYC and then evolve to 2/1 after gaining a better understanding of bridge's game with fixed partnership.
 
 SAYC and 2/1 have very different conceptions for the bidding, but in both systems Opener and Responder need to inform hand's strength during the auction as a priority and this is the fundamental cornerstone for a system success.
 
 Bridge is a sport for mind like “Chess” and the strategy game “Go”. The World Bridge Federation is now recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a mind sport. Bridge is played by tens of millions of people throughout the world, principally by retired people. It is healthy for our mind.
 
 Hundreds of Bidding System had been proposed but today around of ten of them are popular in use. We can find more than fifty Bidding System in this list here or the description of most elaborated here. In fact, a good system like 2/1 is not a standard with aggregated conventions and it receives always actualization in better conventions to make clearer reliable communication between partners. In these notes of 2/1 we explain some of the usual convention adopted by partnerships and we also propose some special conventions to give reliable information between regular partnerships.
 
 Thus, any partnership must study a system like 2/1 and decide for a specific approach - is the shape of the hand the most important information or it is hand’s strength (range of hcp) the most important information?
 
 Many conventions are played by most partnerships, so if you and your partner understand  what opponents are bidding that will help partnership in defense of the hand or in the play of the hand.
 
 Finally: The evaluation of a hand isn't just count of High Card Points but also add or subtract value of the hand’s distribution, the integration of the cards and principally, during the bidding, the perception of the context to know if the hands really fits. If partner shows two suits and our Kings and Queens are in the other two suits, then we should be pessimist and try to sign off the bidding as soon as possible. 
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