Bring it on, Jeff

Our palms were getting sweaty, the knees felt a little weak and the butterflies in the stomach were going crazy. Jeff Meckstroth was approaching our table with his wife Sally, and he brought a whole fan club of kibitzers with him following him from table to table. This was the highest-ranked … [Read more...]

BYOB – that means ‘box,’ not booze

Homer said to beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Poker players know to be wary of anyone bringing his own deck to the table. But in Canada, no one has to be scared of any bridge player bringing his own bidding box to a tournament. They're just from Quebec City, the only place in Canada where for some … [Read more...]

A Visit to ACOL

What does ACOL stand for? When you mention "bridge" and "Europe" in the same breath, the term ACOL always seems to come up and it's often surrounded with an aura of awe and mystery. It's supposed to be the oldest bridge club in London – and since everything in England is so old and since bridge … [Read more...]

Sam’s chutzpah Slam

My partner Christine and I needed a change of venue to break out of another mini-slump. A handful of times at a variety of sites in Florida and Georgia we had scored in the 40s or the low 50s and come away without points, despite the fact that in pluses and minuses against the par from the hand … [Read more...]

Slam Fiends

I guess you might call my partner Christine and I real Slam fiends. Once we smell the possibility of a Slam, we usually bid it. Sometimes we go down, but many times we get Slams that no other pairs find – that’s always an incredible adrenaline high. A case in point was last Thursday’s Cinco de … [Read more...]

Breaking out of a Slump

Like any competitive endeavor, bridge is in large measure a mental game – the attitude that you bring to the table will greatly influence your results. If you let yourself be intimidated by the better players, you will get bad boards against them. But by the same token, if you underestimate … [Read more...]

Sam the Slammer

What does it really take to make a Slam? Some optimists say you should start thinking Slam once you’ve determined that between you and your partner you have a minimum of 29 high-card points. Others say you need at least 30 or even more. As with everything else in bridge, there’s probably no … [Read more...]

An Unusual Entry

Bridge players love to tell each other about the strangest things that ever happened during a bridge tournament they attended. We keep telling people about the time when the a/c went out during a Regional in Fort Lauderdale, where profuse sweating made everyone Ill-tempered, and also about the time … [Read more...]

Delayed Alerts

What a way to start the 2016 New Year – with a zinger of an argument at the table, and winning it! With the Voidwood (or Exclusion Blackwood) convention, my partner Christine and I reached an unbeatable 6 Clubs contract in the auction, but our very competitive opponent, the solid A player Freeman … [Read more...]

Trust Your Partner

Whether you play with one or more regular partners, the ability to be a good partner is probably the most important skill any bridge player can develop. To be consistently successful in duplicate bridge, you have to have developed an unerring confidence in your partner – that he or she will not … [Read more...]