Standard American is a bidding system for the game of bridge widely used in North America and elsewhere.
One standardised version, SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card), is widely used by casual partnerships and in online bridge.
The purpose of bidding during the auction phase of each deal is to disclose information which one's partner may employ in order to arrive at an optimal contract while concurrently contending with the opponents' attempts to do likewise.
"Standard American" was the label given to the bridge bidding system developed by Charles Goren and his contemporaries in the 1940s.
Before the year 2000, new bidding systems evolved, including "2/1 Game Forcing" which are otherwise substantial departures from early Standard American methods.