CARD GAME

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1931, Page 8

CARD GAME

DEVELOPMENT OF BRIDGE. & VIEWS OF MRJR. F. FOSTER.

AUCKLAND, October 5. “No one invented bridge ; like Topsy, it just growed,” said Mr R. F. Foster, the world-famous authority oil bridge and other card games, who arrived by the Niagara. Mr Foster is , booked ithrough to Australia, but intends to •return to New Zealand later in the year.

Often termed “the old master of auction bridge,” Mr Foster started bis career as an architect and civil engineer, but later .devoted all his attention to cards, chiefly bridge, and he lies 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 ict-ns of business methods, and the state of public morals,” said Mr Foster, when asked if he would 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 himseii, and partnership games were 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 their methods and opened up their books to other competitors and said ‘let us combine, and if we are stronger than the other fel-

low, let 11s 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 of the strength or weakness of competitors, judgment of what to risk and when to be cautions.' Another reason wily 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 it 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 said.