My first experience with bridge, in fact duplicate bridge, was when I was around 9 or 10 years old. My parents, who played bridge with a couple of different groups, were in a duplicate bridge group.  When my parent’s hosted the duplicate group, they would let me shuffle the cards for the boards. After their friends left, I got to finish off any of the leftover appetizers.

Until I moved to Pennsylvania from Minnesota two years ago, I had only played with people a dozen times. My dad had taught me when I was 11, but I only played with my parents and some of their friends a couple of times. Other times, I played with my Tai Chi group during its annual weekend retreat, which one of the group, Kim Hayward, is a Grand Master. My other prior experience is playing bridge solo almost every night. I deal out, bid, and play the hands to what be the most likely lines of bidding and play.

I moved to the eastern Pennsylvania & western New Jersey area to be able to work in my business associate’s, Rose Levy Beranbaum’s, Hope, New Jersey home. Rose is the award winning baking cookbook author of 11 books. I found the when I was looking on-line for a bridge group. Jo Ann Mauger received my email and invited me to join the Stroudsburg, PA Monday afternoon group.

My experience with Jo Ann’s group has been wonderful. She is a great director and an excellent teacher, as she frequently holds a class for players after we finish our games. She paired me up with a good “C” ranked partner as well, Sam Goosay. Before joining the club, I had only played informal party bridge and only knew Stayman and Blackwood for conventions. So it has been a rapid and interesting learning curve for duplicate bridge. 

What I like about our club is the willingness of the experienced “A” ranking players to offer their advice on bidding, playing, and strategy. Especially, William Haynes, who likes to remind Sam and me,” You need to remember the scoring. Sometimes better to let the opponents get the bid with the possibility of setting them than be in the same contract as everyone else.” I also, have found the ACBL’s on-line “Learn to Play Bridge” very helpful with playing the various hands, especially with all of the modern conventions. I have also enjoyed reading and trying to solve problems in the Bulletin. My partner also recommended Audrey Grant’s Bridge at a Glance, which I check with it and convention pages from Learn to Play Bridge when I practiced solo.

Since Rose and I research, test, and write baking books, I generally bring a treat to the group each week for their feedback.

When I began taking bridge lessons a little over 5 years ago, my objective was to learn enough to be able to play a competent game with my wife, Suzie, who is an accomplished bridge player. Life Master, or any ACBL rank for that matter, seemed way out of reach. Through the help of patient and talented bridge teachers and mentors, and dedicated study with my partners (we started out as a cohort of newbies intent on learning how to play bridge), my game improved to the point where I could do well in local, sectional, and regional events.
Getting newer players to that point where they are confident in competing is a key to helping them progress through the various ACBL levels. It is long and daunting road to Life Master status, especially for those of us in the new 500 MP category.

At a little over 400 master points, and still needing 16 more in gold, my wife and I participated in an ACBL regional at sea along with our friends (also accomplished bridge players) Bill Young and Debbie Hoveland. We had a phenomenal experience- we played pairs and teams in 19 out of the 21 sessions during the cruise. I was hoping to make a big dent in the gold points that I still needed, but our success vastly exceeded any expectation that I had. Our week at sea added 62 master points to my total, with 58 of them being gold. I was absolutely thrilled when Larry Cohen presented me with a trophy for the highest “B” player of the tournament. Within a few months of our return, I was able to get to the magic number of 500 at one of our local club games. The lesson from my experience is that no one makes Life Master on their own. Anyone who achieves that level only gets there with the help and guidance from more experienced players, just as I had help from Bill and Debbie, Suzie, and many others.

Life Master is a significant accomplishment for any player. To me, it is more of a beginning point than a destination. Life Master says someone has learned how to play bridge and has competed successfully in local, sectional, and regional events. But, in reality, this is where you begin to learn how to play bridge at an advanced level. In athletic terms, you have made the varsity team, and now you must learn how to play at the varsity level.

Bridge is a fascinating game that requires a complex mix of skill, knowledge, and judgement. In most endeavors, the more you know about a game, the easier it is. With bridge, the opposite occurs. The more you know, the more you realize how difficult and complicated the game can be trying to figure out the billions and billions of hands that you pick up at the table. Two hands can look nearly identical, but the path that succeeds with the first may fail with the second. Figuring that out is the challenge that keeps people playing.

While I love playing bridge, my real passion is teaching the game. As a student, I learned the rules and procedures for bidding, play, and defense, but I also tried to understand the reasons behind them so I could better judge what to do in unusual or undefined situations. As a bridge teacher, I enjoy helping my students appreciate bridge by giving them a better understanding of the “why” behind the rule, rather than just following the rule. Lately, it has become bitter-sweet when I play against two of my students at a club game and they get the good board scores (because they learned something in my class or workshop).

Bridge has been one of my main interests since I started learning the game as a senior in high school. I love the sociability of the game and the competition it affords. I play all kinds of games; golf, tennis, backgammon, board games, etc. but nothing compares to tournament bridge. I am gratified that I reached one of my long-term goals of making Diamond LM although it has only taken me about 50 years and 150-200 thousand dollars – well worth it for the enjoyment it
has given me. Family (wife, 2 daughters and 5 grandchildren) and work ( I was a DE State Trooper for 20 years and a registered lobbyist for business interests and non-profits for 25 years) kept me from “going on the tour”, but since retiring 3 ½ years ago and moving to Rehoboth I have been able to play a lot more. I’ve picked up approximately ¼ of my total master points thanks to all of the wonderful friends and partners I have met since moving south.

Over the years I established partnerships with a great many fine players and the following is a list of those who helped me on the way: Tom Kirch, Roy Peters, Frank Giovannozzi, Len Reed, Rick Rowland, Andy Kaufman, Assen Slavov, and Jeff Ruben from northern Delaware and Eli Solomon, Terry Patton, Terry Dutton, Beth Mallon, and Don Wand from southern Delaware. Of course I have played with many other talented players during my bridge career, but there are too many to mention.

Emerald LM?? I hope to be healthy enough both mentally and physically to pursue that goal. Special thanks goes to my family for their support over all of these years.