What I Learned This Week

As I entered the bridge club on Thursday afternoon, I scanned the crowd for my partner.  I couldn't spot Julie anywhere, but I knew she must be there because I was running a little late.  I looked for her 90 year-old mother, whom I saw talking to someone wearing a baseball cap.  I looked closer--yes, that was Julie wearing a bad-hair-day hat.  It turns out she was still feeling under the weather from a bug she got last week, and wasn't up to dealing with the new perm that was hiding under her cap.  Several people commented on her outfit (because of course she had on a matching jacket), even calling it "collegiate."  Julie sure knows how to pull off a new look!

As we traveled around the room sitting east-west, Julie carried her triage bag along and periodically blew her nose, coughed, and took drugs (always wiping her hands with anti-bacterial tissues).  Across the room I could hear Mike echoing her noises, although he was much less delicate and a lot louder.  In fact, the room was full of the sounds of sneezes, coughs, and sniffling.  I am hoping that since I haven't caught anything yet, I am safe.  Knock on wood.

What I learned playing bridge on Thursday, perhaps better stated as "what I learned playing bridge on Thursday that I still remember on Saturday":  Consider playing in No Trump even when you fit a fit in the majors.  It's 10 extra points.  I think about No Trump when we have a fit in the minors, but was taught that it's better to play in the majors if you can because it's easier to make the contract.  Now I know that I need to consider my partner's bid and count tricks, and decide if it will work in No Trump to get those 10 extra points.  At the end of the day, when I looked at the game results, I saw that 3 pairs got to No Trump on that board.  We had an above average board.  I think it is wonderful that our opponents are coaching us to be top players, not just good ones.  

What I learned playing bridge on Friday:  Julie and I have been working on playing defense, since that appeared to be a weak spot.  Now it seems that we need to focus on playing offense, as well as to continue to fine tune our bidding.  

How long does it take to get good at this game???

Rude Players

I played bridge Wednesday and Thursday afternoons this week.  It's hard to play on Wednesdays because I teach a 7:45 am class and a 5:45 pm class, so when I also play bridge I am exhausted by the end of the day (plus my paperwork doesn't get done).  This Wednesday my class met at the library so I thought I could relax; this turned out to be true for the evening class, but the morning librarian didn't know much about using technology for database searches, so I ended up taking over.

Anyway, at the bridge club on Thursday my partner and I sat north-south.  After a couple of rounds, a pair we like -- and not just because we usually do well playing against them -- sat down.  They were visibly upset, especially the woman.  I got the bid, LHO (the man) played a card, Julie laid down the dummy, and the woman started laying down her cards.  What?!?  She was so rattled by what had happened at the previous table that she had totally lost focus.  She picked up her cards and commented on "that awful woman."  Her partner (husband?) told her take a deep breath and we concurred that "she really is an awful woman."  Julie assured her that she hadn't seen her cards, and in fact was a bit upset with herself because she should have looked.  That brought a laugh and play proceeded.

Bad behavior at the tables is not tolerated by the tougher, more experienced players or by the director.  (I have heard both put people in their places.)  I suspect that the few people who are sometimes rude are fundamentally unhappy and find bridge to be one of their few sources of enjoyment.  If true, you would think they would take care not to alienate people at the club.

Today is My Birthday

The words "treat your partner like royalty, don't criticize and always praise..." greeted me as I entered the bridge club yesterday.  The regular Thursday morning lesson was coming to a close with partnership advice.  I found my partner across the room and repeated what I had just heard.  She liked it!

Play went well for us.  Even though we made a few mistakes, since this wasn't the Friday night crowd we placed 3rd in our division.  That's good for beginners, which we still are because we've been playing for less than a year.  

A few people have noticed and commented on the fact that I am not playing bridge tonight; instead, I am going out to celebrate my birthday.  Apparently my obsession with bridge is not (yet) all consuming, as I am on my way out the door for dinner and dancing.  Cheers!

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Good:  To get right to the point, on Thursday afternoon we had a 50.25% game and placed 2nd in C.  At first Julie thought we weren't doing well because our opponents were winning game after game, but I noted that they were winning with too many overtricks.  I thought that at least in some of the games this meant that they were in the wrong contracts; plus, we did have some good games.  My goal for the afternoon, which I miraculously met, was to stop and think before I did anything.  That helped a lot.

The Bad and the Ugly:  I know this should be two separate paragraphs, but Friday night was too awful to dissect and write about twice.  It is hard to compete against people who have more knowledge than I do of the cards in my partner's hand, and in some cases better knowledge of my own cards!  Add to that a couple of horrendous mistakes, and the result is not pretty.  

Even though Friday night play is incredibly humbling, I still have fun because I am playing bridge, the people are nice, and I laugh a lot when we go out afterwards.  The thought occurs to me that those who are the most encouraging and kind to newcomers, and the most polite at the tables, are the best players . . . why do you think that is?  (Note that this is an invitation to comment on this blog.)

Year Two

I haven't written for awhile, but I have been busy playing bridge.  A few things have happened since last summer . . . Julie and I have established a solid partnership. We learn from each other, don't get upset by each other's mistakes, and mostly we have fun.  I am much more confident in my bidding and my play, and we sometimes join the Friday evening games (we were intimidated at first by the level of play, but now we don't care).  We've had some good games where we actually got master points.  Some things have remained the same . . . most of the people at the club are very nice and a lot of fun, but some are grumpy.  There's so much to keep track of that I lose my train of thought sometimes and make mistakes that I shouldn't make because I know better.  My bidding is still too conservative.  And while we have some good games, we also still have some not-so-good games.

Last Thursday included a little bit of all of this.  The play at our table was so crazy I didn't know what to think.  Here's one thing that happened:  During one game, I had five nice spades and was getting ready to bid them when my RHO bid spades.  This was disappointing, but I bid something else instead and we got the contract.  My LHO played, the board came down, and my RHO said, "Something is not right here."  I thought she meant that our bidding was way off (which was possible, I guess), but then she said that she had some of the same cards in her hand that were in dummy!  It turns out she had taken her cards from the other board.  I was sure this had never happened before in the history of bridge, but when we called the director over she said that she's seen it all and seen this particular scenario more than once.  Our opponent exchanged her cards and play continued, even though we were in the wrong contract and did not do well.  Our opponents felt badly and tried to give us an extra trick but the director said "no."  

And then we played with another pair and things were going smoothly when suddenly one of the opponents started to vigorously erase something on her card.  She erased and erased, picking up her card and blowing on it, and erased some more.  I watched Julie become increasing distracted and was not surprised when she suddenly blurted out, "What the hell are you doing??"  Our opponent explained that she had written the wrong score down previously and was correcting it.  I didn't say anything.

That gives you an idea about how our afternoon went, and we could only laugh.  Playing bridge is never boring.

We played bridge again, and every time we learn something new.  We learn about how to play bridge, of course, but we also learn about the club.  Today we waited patiently for the print-outs so we could compare our boards against the other east-west players.  Just like last week, though, it seemed like everyone got their print-out except us!  Well, another newbie saw us going through old papers and looking perplexed.  She told us that we had to sign up for a print-out, otherwise we don't get one.  Now we know.

My partner had two great ideas.  First, we are going to stop saying that we are new players because people seem to be quite bossy telling us how we should be playing.  Many times I am sure they are right, but sometimes I think not.  Also, we are going to wait until the end of the boards at a particular table before we tell them our names.  If we played particularly poorly, we will remain anonymous :)

Yesterday was much better!  Our overall score improved, but mostly I felt better about the way I was playing.  The director said, as long as you learn something each time you play then you are doing well.  I learned a couple of things (at least): Not to leave my partner stranded when she is bidding to tell me what she has (or doesn't have).  A couple of times I didn't understand her bid, so I just passed!  Mistake!  I should have taken over and bid again, even if I wasn't quite sure what she meant or if I thought the bidding was getting too high.  Another thing I learned is to look at my overall hand quality rather than going strictly by the book.  I had 6 strong spades, 4-5 diamonds, 2-3 hearts.  I opened with a weak 2 spades bid because I had only 10 points.  Turns out that my hand was so strong that I should have opened 1 spade.  

On a personal note, while most of the people are very pleasant, we did run into at least 2 very grumpy people (at two different tables).  One table was actually quite stressful; I was glad to move on from there!