Bridge Beginnings

Today my bridge partner was my teacher, the man who introduced me to bridge almost 2 1/2 years ago. I remember signing up for the six week beginner course, thinking that was an excessive amount of time to learn a card game. Oh well, I thought, this way I'll learn all of the nuances and really know how to play. It didn't take long for me to realize that this was going to be a whole lot more complex than I had imagined. At the end of the six weeks I signed up for the intermediate course, and when that class ended I signed on to play duplicate at the Grand Rapids Bridge Club in the newly formed Newcomers section.

After I had played in the Newcomers group for awhile, my teacher invited me to play with him on what some of us called "the dark side," the other area of the room where the "real" players were. (Some of us still call it that.) I remember my nervousness and fervent hope that we wouldn't end up on the bottom. It turned out to be a special day for points; we placed and I even earned some red! Since then I have found that "the dark side" has a lot of light and that being on the bottom sometimes isn't so bad (although I would still rather not be there).

How did you first come to duplicate bridge and the GRBC? Here's your chance to share your story! Please leave a comment, we need some new voices here!