Duplicate bridge
Zone Organization Area Member Countries Total Membership
1 European Bridge League ( EBL ) Europe 47 393,164
2 American Contract Bridge League ( ACBL ) North America 3 160,912
3 Confederacion Sudamericana de Bridge ( CSB ) South America 10 4,384
4 Bridge Federation of Asia & the Middle East ( BFAME ) Asia 13 9,188
5 Central American & Caribbean Bridge Federation ( CAC ) Central America 20 1,384
6 Pacific Asia Bridge Federation ( PABF ) Pacific Asia ( Far East ) 12 71,129
7 South Pacific Bridge Federation ( SPBF ) Australia and Oceania 4 47,286
8 African Bridge Federation ( ABF ) Africa 14 6,398
Governance -- Organization
The worldwide sports governing body in bridge is the World Bridge Federation , formed 1958 as the joint effort of delegates from Europe , the United States and South America . [ 6 ] In world bridge as of 2009 [ update ] , North America and Europe , or the ACBL and EBL , are the two largest of eight world Zones or zonal organizations , with about 160,000 and 400,000 registered players . [ 7 ]
Duplicate bridge is the most widely used variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play. It is called duplicate because the same bridge deal (i.e. the specific arrangement of the 52 cards into the four hands) is played at each table and scoring is based on relative performance. In this way, every hand, whether strong or weak, is played in competition with others playing identical cards, and the element of skill is heightened while that of chance is reduced. Duplicate bridge stands in contrast to rubber bridge where each hand is freshly dealt and where scores may be more affected by chance in the short run. Bridge boards, simple four-way card holders, are used to enable each player's hand to be passed intact to the next table that must play the deal, and final scores are calculated by comparing each pair's result with others who played the same hand. Bidding boxes are often used to facilitate the mechanics of bidding, prevent inadvertent passing of information, and minimize the noise level. Screens are used in higher levels of competition and were introduced to reduce the chance of passing unauthorised information to one's partner. In duplicate bridge, a player normally plays with the same partner throughout an event. The two are known as a pair. There are two exceptions: in team events with up to six members swapping partners for portions of the event, and in individual tournaments, in which players change partners for each round.