David Bruce (bridge)

David Bruce (May 5, 1900 – August 26, 1965) was a leading tournament contract bridge player of the 1930's who played under the name of David Burnstine. Born in New York City in 1900, he became Life Master #1 at the age of 36 regularly playing out of the Contract Bridge Club of New York. Burnstine was a member of the Four Horsemen team captained by P. Hal Sims and later left to create his own teams – the Bid-Rite team and subsequently the Four Aces. The Four Aces dominated tornament play in the later half of the 1930's. Burnstine moved to Los Angeles in 1939 changing his name to David Bruce and retired from regular tournament play. He died in 1965.

Playing Record

• Won 26 national titles by 1936, the year the rank of Life Master was established;
• Vanderbilt tournament victories came as a member of the Four Horsemen team in 1931 and the Four Aces team in 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938;
• three wins in the Spingold - 1934, 1936 and 1938;
• first-place finish in the first official World Championship in 1935
• won the American Whist League (AWL) All-American Open Teams four times: 1932 (Contract); 1931, 1932 and 1933 (Auction);
• won the United States Bridge Association (USBA) Open Teams in 1934 and 1937, the Open Pairs 1936
• won the American Bridge League’s (ABL) Challenge Teams in 1931, 1933 and 1937.

Publications

• Four Horsemen’s One Over One, outlining the bidding structure of the Sims’ team, was published in 1932.
• The Four Aces System of Contract Bridge (1935) was co-written with other members of the team.

Game Contributions

• invention of the strong artificial 2♣ opening, still used by the majority of tournament players; and
• creation of intermediate two-bids in the other suits, a prominent feature of the modern-day Acol system.

See Also

• The David Bruce LM-5000 Pairs bridge event, an American Contract Bridge League competition

References

• The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, 6th edition. American Contract Bridge League. 2002. ISBN 0-943855-44-6.
• ACBL Hall of Fame