History TabletopGame / Bridge

->'''Twoflower''': Some of them get very good at it, yes. I'm only an amateur, I'm afraid

* As shown in the page quote, ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic'' has Twoflower trying to teach it to the Four Horsemen. It's never actually named though, Twoflower just says "In your language it's a thing that goes across a river, I think", leading Rincewind to suggest "Dam", "Weir", "Aqueduct" and "Fishing rod".

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Bridge (or more accurately, contract bridge, but nobody remembers regular bridge any more) is a [[CardGames card game]] played by two pairs of players. It is a trick-taking game: on each round, each player plays one card, and the pair who plays the best card wins the trick. The game takes place in two phases - an auction, to determine which partnership will choose the trump (if any) and how many tricks they intend to take, and the actual play of the cards.

--> ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''

Bridge (or more accurately, contract bridge, but nobody remembers regular bridge anymore) is a [[CardGames card game]] played by two pairs of players. It is a trick-taking game; on each round, each player plays one card, and the pair who plays the best card wins the trick. The game takes place in two phases - an auction, to determine which partnership will choose the trump (if any) and how many tricks they intend to take; and the actual play of the cards.

* ''The House Of Mirth''

* ''{{Pleasantville}}''

* ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}'' (the novel, not the film), where JamesBond deals a deliberately rigged hand (specifically, [[http://www.bridgehands.com/D/Duke_of_Cumberland_Hand.htm this case study]]) to make Hugo Drax think he's going to win handily, but actually sets up an unbreakable {{combo}} that leads to Bond winning all thirteen tricks and robbing Hugo blind.

* A bridge game is used to show, if somewhat indirectly, several of the main characters being distracted by other things (like, say, the preludes to an ultimately non-nuclear WorldWarThree), in the Creator/TomClancy novel ''RedStormRising''.
* Used repeatedly in scenes in the HarryTurtledove Nazi victory novel ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies''.
* ''HarrietTheSpy''. The novel, anyway. [[FanonDiscontinuity There is no movie.]]
* ''The Cardturner'' by Louis Sachar (of ''{{Holes}}'' fame) is about a teenager who has to help his grandfather play his bridge games (doing exactly as he says) and grows a fondness for the game over time.
* ''BridgeInTheMenagerie'', a series of humorous bridge books (originally magazine articles) by Victor Mollo.

* ObviousRulePatch: Banned conventions. There are a number of bidding conventions that were legal under the Laws of Contract Bridge at first, until abuse of these conventions caused havoc at official tournaments and led to bans. One of the most prominent is the ACBL having a rule that requires a one-level bid promising at least 10 high-card points (with aces worth 4 high-card points, kings worth 3, and so on). Note that different countries have different ban lists, and the highest levels of play sometimes lack these ban lists (with the caveat that the players capable of playing at that level can generally run roughshod over such techniques).

* ObviousRulesPatch: Banned conventions. There are a number of bidding conventions that were legal under the Laws of Contract Bridge at first, until abuse of these conventions caused havoc at official tournaments and led to bans. One of the most prominent is the ACBL having a rule that requires a one-level bid promising at least 10 high-card points (with aces worth 4 high-card points, kings worth 3, and so on). Note that different countries have different ban lists, and the highest levels of play sometimes lack these ban lists (with the caveat that the players capable of playing at that level can generally run roughshod over such techniques).

* ''Literature/{{Moonraker}}'' (the novel, not the film)

* ObviousRulePatch: It was once possible to promise to take 14 tricks, if you thought you would lose less points that way than if the opponents took 13.

** Perhaps the epitome of this is the [[http://www.snopes.com/luck/bennett.asp Bennett Murder]], in which a woman killed her husband in the aftermath of him blowing a hand (although the fact that he [[MoralEventHorizon repeatedly beat her]] was the real culprit, the bridge hand in question was catalyst for the murder itself).

* ''SunsetBoulevard''

* In ''[[CarryOn Carry On Regardless]]'' Sam is sent on a job which he thinks involves a spying mission to meet at a bridge, when in fact he was hired to play as a fourth in a game of Bridge. He never made it to the game because he jumped out the train for his "mission".

* A bridge game is used to show, if somewhat indirectly, several of the main characters being distracted by other things (like, say, the preludes to an ultimately non-nuclear WorldWarThree), in the TomClancy novel ''RedStormRising''.

* PlayerArchetypes: Most players are Hearts or hybrid Diamonds/Clubs, according to the Bartle article)

* SeriousBusiness: Do not mess with anyone at an ACBL event. Just don't.)
** Perhaps the epitome of this is the [[http://www.snopes.com/luck/bennett.asp Bennett Murder]], in which a woman killed her husband in the aftermath of him blowing a hand (although the fact that he [[MoralEventHorizon repeatedly beat her]] was the real culprit, the bridge hand in question was catalyst for the murder itself.

* ''[[{{Poirot}} Cards on the Table]]'' features a murder committed during a game by one of the players (and [[ViewersAreGeniuses expects the reader to understand the game]] to figure out the clues).

* ''SapphireAndSteel'': Sapphire is invited to join a game at the dinner party in Assignment 5, and gets so caught up in it that Steel fears she's been got at somehow.

* ''SapphireAndSteel''

* ''HowIMetYourMother'': Parodied with Lily imagining her, Marshall and Ted playing bridge in the future, saying things that make no sense. After her fantasy is over they ask her if she knows how to play the game, to which she admits she doesn't.

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* XanatosGambit: And all its cousins, except perhaps Roulette

* Frequently mentioned and even somewhat plot-important in ''Literature/FarnhamsFreehold'', by RobertHeinlein.
** ''Somewhat important''? The working title was "Grand Slam". (That's also a Bridge term BTW).

* Frequently mentioned and even somewhat plot-important in ''Farnham's Freehold'', by RobertHeinlein.

->'''Twoflower''': Some of them get very good at it, yes. I'm only an amateur, I'm afraid

* A RoaldDahl story involving a young couple of {{Card Sharp}}s.

* Used repeatedly in scenes in the HarryTurtledove Nazi victory novel ''In the Presence of Mine Enemies''.