We Are The Champions

Nobody wins every time at bridge and nobody loses all the time, either, so what makes you more successful one time over another? My partner Christine and I had our most successful tournament ever this past weekend at the two-day Sectional at our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, coming in … [Read more...]

Bridge According to the Stars

The bridge players’ horoscope for the month of September, 2019: Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) – This is your lucky month! Your astrological sign is star-crossed and you’ll consistently get below-average hands in point count. So when you complain about never getting any cards, at least this time it’ll … [Read more...]

Doping

The news that the top bridge player in the world, Geir Helgemo, a Norwegian competing for Monaco, has been banned from the game for six months for doping at last fall’s world championships in Orlando has sent shock waves through the game. Helgemo, a 49-year-old man, admitted taking a synthetic … [Read more...]

Of Slams and Captains

In all the time we’ve been playing bridge, my partner Christine and I can’t recall ever having had a stretch of games like this. At a club pairs game on Tuesday of this past week, we bid and made no fewer than five Slams on pre-dealt boards, more than anyone else in the field across three sections – … [Read more...]

2-Day Monkey Business

Our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center, this past weekend experimented with a two-day Sectional tournament, instead of the usual three-day format. According to the club’s managers, they made just as much money off a two-day Sectional on Saturday and Sunday only as they used to earn off a … [Read more...]

What a Gem!

She did it! My partner Christine made Ruby Life Master in the rankings of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), going over the 1,500 MasterPoints mark. She did it at the first Sunday (11/5/2017) game of the winter season at our home club, the Vero Beach Bridge Center. In Vero, where we have … [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...]

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 Grand Slam: Down 6 doubled, but a great bid

Grand Slam bids are pretty rare in bridge. Bidding a Grand Slam with only 1 high-card point in your hand is even rarer -- and few if any bridge players would even dream of doing such a thing. But yours truly, otherwise known as the "bridge burglar," did exactly that on Thursday night in a Swiss … [Read more...]

Timid bidding cost them a slam

Joan "Miss Timid Again?" Rightnour and her partner Tina "I'm the Really Timid One!" Perelli proved once again that woman are probably the stronger sex when they whipped the male team of John "Unlucky Louie" Walston and Jason "Geek" Cohen at the Wednesday (1-30-2013) luncheon meeting of our office … [Read more...]