Intro

I am a novice bridge player. Okay, I've been playing duplicate for about 18 months and have just passed the 100 point mark, but, I'm still a novice and, most of the time, play like one. I have written about some incidents from the past year or so and thought that they might be enjoyable for not only new duplicate players but also older ones. One has been published in our unit newsletter already and was favorably received by everyone (at least that is what they told me). One expert player let me know that, after reading the article, he had vowed to TRY to be more patient with those just starting out. He has been. Another player had been urging her husband to learn duplicate and, after reading the article, he began attending a novice class. I was gratified by these little results. When someone in the club suggested blogging, I decided to give it a try. I've never even read a blog before so, this should be another learning process for me. I probably don't need more since I am still at the bottom of the bridge educational ladder but here goes!


We retired and my husband started rattling around the house wondering what to do with his life. We had always loved playing cards but, knowing no one who would play bridge with us, we joined a nearby bridge club in January of 2008 and started showing up.

It quickly became clear to me that playing bridge reflected other aspects of my life. Prime example: once I call a card from the board, I can’t change my mind. I can try, but will be admonished by the people at the table with ten thousand million master points that said is as good as done - too bad.

I write my own rules on the ACBL card, but, when I forget what’s on there, more admonishments come from the opponents that what I had bid or played was “non standard”, whatever that is. When someone said to me, “That was a non standard lead”, my response was “Which lead?” and they gave up in despair.

An A player called the director stating that we had reversed and therefore bid incorrectly after that. I kept asking him what a reverse was but he wouldn’t answer. We looked it up in our Bible, “Bridge for Dummies”, but still were unable to figure out why he was so upset. The director informed the A player that unless he had received his bridge teaching certification he should leave us alone.

My beloved partner and I made an agreement that we would not chide each other at the table but discuss the hand in a private spot after the boards were finished. When I chide anyway, which he never does, I have to apologize to the table but it doesn’t fix a thing; just like the rest of our marriage.

If I make a really bad error, the opponents call the director, similar to my neighbors calling the police about our loud parties or barking dog.

Bridge, at least for beginner, seems to be a series of elations and despairs. We made a silver point at a sectional, in C players flight, for the first time scoring above 50%. We were psyched. We walked across the club parking lot high fiving each other. “We’re on way – we’ve got it figured out now” we naively gloated. For two weeks after that, we were unable to get out of the twenties.

It’s like your favorite sports team in a batting, scoring, or shooting slump. It seems like it never ends. In fact, our bridge slumps seem to parallel our beloved Spurs when they are unable to find the hole in the basket. When the Spurs can’t shoot, we can’t win a bridge game. I used to think that unless I wore my favorite Spurs’ shirt and bracelet, they couldn’t win. I think I’ll blame my bridge slump on their lack of scoring in the playoffs this year. Fair is fair. They play better defense than I do, though.

We have made friends at the club. We like the directors all of whom take an interest in our daily percentage. We wish they wouldn’t. I feel dumb as a rock when I trump my own good ace from the board. The nice opponents say, “Oh, we have all done that”. I know they are lying.

The club started having 199er games once in a while. Some members told us to steer clear of them feeling that playing in the regular games with those who are much better will improve our game faster than playing with other beginners. We think they like having cannon fodder around to help their point production.

The slump continued so we decided to join one of those games to try to blast ourselves out of our gloom and doom. We got killed. We forgot that we have been playing for 6 months and have 11 or so points. Some of the others had been playing for 2 or 3 years and are almost at 200. Big difference in experience.

It reminded me of our son who graduated from college and started interviewing for a job. He called home and said, “They want me to take an ENTRY level job!” Imagine that. Experience counts for something we explained to him but forgot that the same lesson applies to bridge too.

Ugh, contracts. How many contracts have we had throughout our lifetime? Most recently, we have had contracts in the serial remodeling of our house. That has been going on for 15 years or so. We sometimes ended up in bad contracts with bad contractors and finally got it right in the last room – the laundry room. Oh well.

Bad contracting followed us into the bridge club. We had never seen a bidding box before and had to be shown how to take out the cards and stack them properly left to right in front of us if we dared to bid anything. It took several weeks before I quit reaching over to play the dummy myself.

So, we are putting in table time. This advice we get from everyone, including the bridge club owner, “You need to keep playing.” I suspect that she may have a vested interest in this though.

After about a week and a half of the slump, my partner stated his wish to quit. Biig Al was the first director my husband met when he went to the club to check it out before we joined. Al was wandering around stacking boards and toting coffee so, I privately asked him to talk to my husband. I didn’t want to have to find a new partner. I could see nothing but problems with that. Anyone whom I talked into playing with me would have to leave his concealed hand gun at home. This is Texas, after all.

Al talked partner into playing with him. That went well since husband/partner came home relatively intact with no bruises nor broken limbs. Al is a big guy. Plus, my partner has expressed willingness to continue playing with me as his partner. It gives me a nice sense of security about our marriage. I thrive on security. So why am I playing bridge at all? Great question.

Our percentage has crept back up into the 30s. We now know what transfers, Michaels, and preempts are. We use the bidding box like pros although usually ending up in the wrong contract. It’s a work in progress – like life.