Contract bridge is an example of an incomplete information game for which computers typically do not perform better than expert human bridge players. In particular, the typical bidding decisions of human bridge players are difficult to mimic with a computer program, and thus automatic bridge bidding remains to be a challenging research problem. Currently, the possibility of automatic bidding wi...

niques is now the world champion computer program in the game of Contract Bridge. As reported in The New York Times and The Washington Post, this program—a new version of Great Game Products’ BRIDGE BARON program—won the Baron Barclay World Bridge Computer Challenge, an international competition hosted in July 1997 by the American Contract Bridge League. It is well known that the game tree sear...

One of the challenges in analyzing the strategies in contract bridge stems from the fact that it is a Bayesian game with a very large type space, and that players’ action sets depend on their type. This results in a the strategy space being of a size where brute force methods of analysis are not practical. We present a general approach to simplifying this strategy space through the use of equiv...

Card games are interesting for many reasons besides their connection with gambling. Bridge is being a game of imperfect information, it is a well defined, decision making game. The estimation of the number of tricks to be taken by one pair of bridge players is called Double Dummy Bridge Problem (DDBP). Artificial Neural Networks are Non – Linear mapping structures based on the function of the h...

the methods of assessing the individuals’ performance usually applied in practice are based on principles of the bivalent logic (yes-no). however, fuzzy logic, due to its nature of including multiple values, offers a wider and richer field of resources for this purpose. in this paper we use principles of fuzzy logic in developing a new method for assessing the performance of groups of individua...

The recreation specialization concept is finding increased use among leisure researchers. To date, it's application has been limited to studies of outdoor recreationists, including anglers (Bryan, 1977; Graefe, 1980; Ditton, Loomis, & Choi, 1992) boaters (Donnelly, Vaske, & Graefe, 1986), canoeists (Wellman, Roggenbuck, & Smith, 1982; Kaufman, 1984), hikers (Williams, & Huffman, 1986; Virden & ...

Business contract knowledge exists dispersed in different domains. For successful business process functioning, a precise, clear understanding and interpretation of contractual terms and conditions is required. A semantic interpretation of contract obligations and their required performances to fulfill the obligations, is aimed to bridge the existing gap between business process management and ...