My partner Christine and I just returned from a successful, but exhausting seven straight days of competition at the fall North American Bridge Championships at Disney’s Dolphin Hotel in Orlando. We played on various teams and in pairs competitions, in double sessions most days, and got at least … [Read more...]
Silver…at last
November 23, 2016 By 1 Comment
Well, I finally did it. I went over the 1,000-point mark and I am now officially a Silver Life Master. It seems like only yesterday that I had just 100 or so points and I looked up to people who had around 800 points as if that was an impossible mountain to climb. I thought I’d never get there, … [Read more...]
BYOB – that means ‘box,’ not booze
October 27, 2016 By Leave a Comment
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...]
Breaking the Rules
September 15, 2016 By Leave a Comment
The Melbourne, Florida, bridge club that plays at the Wickham Park Senior Center has become the second club away from home for my partner Christine and me. In the days when at least one of us was still working and we were limited to night and weekend games, we often made the 50-minute drive up to … [Read more...]
Lighten Up!!!
August 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment
My partner Christine and I have been browsing through a terrific bridge book, “50 Winning Duplicate Tips,” by Australian expert Ron Klinger. The nice thing about his “tips” is that they don’t require you to adapt a whole new bidding system – for the most part you can just incorporate them into … [Read more...]
A Visit to ACOL
July 9, 2016 By Leave a Comment
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
May 25, 2016 By Leave a Comment
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
May 9, 2016 By Leave a Comment
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...]
Double the Fun
March 8, 2016 By Leave a Comment
My partner Christine and I like to combine bridge and something else in our travels, and this past weekend (3/4-3/6/2016) it was bridge and baseball. On Friday we played in the Stuart Silver Sectional because it was the home tournament of Florida’s chief director Harry Falk, and we figured we … [Read more...]
Breaking out of a Slump
February 22, 2016 By Leave a Comment
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...]