Editing Standard American (section)

==History==

"Standard American" was the label given to the bridge bidding system developed by [[Charles Goren]] and his contemporaries in the 1940s.  This system employed the 1915 point-count method to evaluate the strength of a bridge hand.  Most bids had fairly specific requirements regarding hand strength and suit distribution.  This point-count system became so popular that most bridge players, social and tournament players alike, used it.  American bridge teams in the late 1930s and 1940s won world championships using Standard American.

Modifications began to appear from the 1950s forward.  Before the year 2000, new bidding systems evolved, including "[[2/1 Game Forcing]]" which are otherwise substantial departures from early Standard American methods.  Most tournament pairs now assemble their own system from a variety of new treatments and conventions that have evolved.  The nearest thing to a common system in tournament play is the "Standard American Yellow Card" (SAYC) promulgated by the [[American Contract Bridge League]].  SAYC is widely used in internet bridge play, but only rarely in on-site tournament play.