Card games are popular but they are not popular enough for the average person to know the celebrities in the world of a specific card game. A game like bridge is very popular, yet it is a game that is considered to be played by old people only.
That isn’t true, but there is a low likelihood that a non bridge-invested person would know any of bridge’s great players, champions or otherwise ambassadors for the game. These are the greatest and most famous bridge players.
Charles Goren
Charles Henry Goren is known as Mr. Bridge. He was a professional bridge player who managed to win many times, but other than that, he was also very popular in the media. He was quoted saying that you should play bridge for fun, exclusively. If you start to play bridge for anything other than fun, you should move to a competitive sport, something like tennis.
He also said that you should always play the game that your partner plays, no matter how much more you know about bridge than the partner. Goren stopped appearing in tournaments after a stroke in 1966, at the age of 65. He lived until 1991, but his health was deteriorating during the time and he made very few public appearances.
Bob Hamman
Born in 1938, Bob Hamman is a great bridge player, still with us to this day. He played competitive bridge and won many tournaments. He was known to play bridge for the entirety of a day, with partner Ralph Clark. Recognized by the giant names of his generation, namely the aforementioned Charles Goren, Bob Hamman is a staple name in the world of bridge.
Hamman has played in many tournaments and has even won some late in his career, the last one being in 2012.
Benito Garozzo
Born in 1927 in Italy, Garozzo is considered to be the greatest ever player to have played bridge, by many of his fellow bridge players. Himself, he thinks that he had a good team and had the worst temperament among all of them. The team he played in was the famous Squadra Azzura or Blue Team. Even within the Blue team, Belladonna and Forquet, both legendary bridge players, would ask Garozzo when a problem was too difficult to solve. He always had a good idea in the back of his head. One of his mottos was to never stop learning, no matter how much you win.
Helen Sobel Smith
Born in 1910, Helen Sobel Smith was a great bridge player. Her appearance at tournaments was very deceptive. She would fear sunglasses to make people believe that she was a dumb blonde. She was a longtime bridge partner with Charles Goren, and the two won many tournaments together. Despite her competitive nature, she was quoted saying that most points are lost to unnecessary overcalls.
Bridge is a popular game, but not popular enough that bridge stars will be known outside of bridge. Now, you know of some of bridge’s most decorated professionals.