Gloating

Gloating at the bridge table is strictly verboten. It is considered rude and gauche--a horrendous act punishable by frowns and reprimands. Of course those frowning and reprimanding are often the ones doing the most gloating. One time after my partner and I had left one table and were approaching the next, I quietly commented "Good job on that last board." The opponent sitting North--whom we hadn't even played against yet--looked at me sternly and admonished, "No gloating." Two boards later I was able to echo his comment when he grinned at his partner and went into great detail about his brilliant play against us.

That said, I do believe there is a place and time for gloating. The place, of course, is away from the bridge table and at an entirely different location (such as a bar). The time is when a C player with less than 50 masterpoints gets a top board against an A player with thousands of masterpoints. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is a beautiful thing (for the C players, of course).

Just the other day a relatively new player called me on the phone to gloat. She described the cards, the bidding, and the play of a particular board against two of the club's top players. She related the expressions of these opponents as they struggled to make a contract they shouldn't have been in and the cross words between them when they went down. "Of course I had to keep a straight face," she said, "But I had to tell someone what happened!" An interesting side note here is that C players--at least the C players I know, including myself--have a difficult time remembering hands unless they have been successfully played against A players.

I confess that after a game I check to see how we did against the A players. When we get a top board, or even an above average board, I point this out to my partner with a smile. First, this encouraging score might indicate that our bridge careers are on the right track. Second, it shows that even really good players sometimes make mistakes.