Bridge developed in the late 1800’s from the popular English card game, Whist.  In 1925, Harold Vanderbilt, created the version commonly known as  contract or rubber or “party” bridge, in which 2 partnerships competed through the course of a few hours to determine which could score the most points.  Points were scored by winning the bid and then gaining the number of tricks bid.  Bonuses were given for bidding and making a “game” in one hand as opposed to bidding partial scores which totaled to a game in multiple hands.  Points were earned by the defending team for keeping the declarer from making the bid, with more points being awarded if the declarer’s team had already won a game.  The first team to get two games won the rubber, which provided an additional bonus.  Teams played multiple rubbers during a match. 

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Duplicate bridge became popular in the middle of the 20th century as bridge enthusiasts began to play in tournaments to compete against each other.  Instead of competing against one other team for an evening, a partnership plays anywhere from 6-12 others during the match, but only 2-6 hands against each team.  A normal match includes 24-27 hands.  The same hands are played by each set of teams, so that there is a direct comparison with competitors in the skills of bidding, playing, and defending.  Scoring is slightly different from contract bridge, although there are still bonuses given for bidding and making games.  Winners of the match receive points, which are used to achieve various Master Points Rankings, including the coveted “Life Master.” 

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The controlling federation which sanctions duplicate games both at tournaments and clubs, and controls the awarding of Master Point Rankings for members in the United States is known as the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL).  It began in 1927 with 270 members and grew to over 200,000 members by 1993.  Current membership stands at approximately 160,000.   The ACBL is a member of the World Bridge Federation, which sanctions international matches and establishes standard rules of duplicate bridge for all member countries.  There are currently 116 National organization members, with a total of over 1 million active members.