David_Bruce_(bridge)
David Bruce (bridge)
American bridge player
David Burnstine (May 5[citation needed] 1900 – August 26, 1965) was a leading tournament contract bridge player of the 1930s.[1][2] He changed his name to David Bruce after he retired from competition in 1939.[1]
Burnstine was born in New York City and regularly played at the Contract Bridge Club of New York. He was a member of the Four Horsemen team captained by P. Hal Sims, which he left to create his own teams, first the Bid-Rite team and later the Four Aces. The Four Aces dominated tournament play in the later half of the 1930s.[3] Burnstine became American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) Life Master #1 at the age of 36.[lower-alpha 1]
Burnstine moved to Los Angeles in 1939, changed his name to David Bruce, and retired from regular tournament play.[1] He died in 1965 and was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame as David Bruce in 1997.[4] Thus he was the second recipient (after Sims) of the von Zedtwitz Award, a name for Hall of Fame recognition of players long out of the limelight.[5]