THE GAME OF BRIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 85, 7 October 1931, Page 13

THE GAME OF BRIDGE

AN AUTHORITY ARRIVES

(By Telegraph.) . ' . (Speoial to "The Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, sth October.

"No one invented bridge; like Topsy, it just said Mr. B. F. Foster, the. world-famous authority on bridge and other card games, who arrived by the Niagara to-day. Mr. Foster is booked through to Australia, but intends to return to New Zealand later in the year. :

Often termed "the old master of auction, bridge," Mr. Foster started his career as an architect and civil engineer, but later devoted-all his attention to cards, chiefly bridge, and he has written more than sixty books on the subject. -, "If we examine the matter carefully we shall probably find that the popular game of the day mirrors in a certain way the conditions of society, the ideas of business. methods, and the. state of public morals," said Mr. Foster, when asked if he could explain why bridge is as popular to-day as ever it was. "In the day when poker was the popular game every man was for himself, and partnership games wore in the background. Later, when the importance of co-operation was beginning to be realised there came first euchre and then whist, to be followed by .bridge. Then we got the era of trusts, when big businesses no longer thought it necessary to conceal their methods and opened up thei* books, to other competitors, an'l said, 'Let us combine, and if we are stronger than the other fellow, let us get all there is-in it.' "That is precisely the game of auction bridge as it is played to-day. It calls into action the same faculties that make for success in life—judgment of values, judgment or strength or weakness of Competitors, judgment of what to risk and when to be cautious.

"Another reason why bridge was so popular," said Mr. Foster, "was that every hand was. a puzzle that presented some problem, and no hands were alike."

Asked if it was likely that any improvements could- be brought into the game :he said he did not think it could be improved. - Speaking of contract bridge, Mr. Foster' said the great objection to if was its complicated system of scoring. A more simplified system of scoring had been devised, and he hoped to demonstrate -it in Australia and New Zealand.' .

"Anyone who learns to play contract will never play auction," he concluded.