I am 67 years old and fully retired since fall of 2024. I was working part time the two years before that. I have been an electrical engineer my whole career.

I started playing bridge when I was about 24 years old. I always liked card games and board games. My family played Pinochle and I learned when I was young. I always wanted to learn how to play bridge and even got a book out of the library when I was a teenager but found the description of bidding overwhelming.

When I was around 25 years old (1983), some fellow coworkers and I decided we would try to start playing bridge during lunchtime. Some of them tried it a few times in college. I purchased some bridge books at a local bookstore, including Contract Bridge Complete by Ernest Rovere and Contract Bridge for Beginners by Charles Goren. I also eventually purchased Modern Bridge Conventions by Root/Pavlicek.

We really loved playing and eventually one of my coworkers and I decided to take an adult evening class (Intermediate Bridge) once a week for some duration (maybe 6 weeks; I don’t recall). The last class we asked our instructor about bridge clubs. She directed us to one that Billy Gough was running near Glenside, PA. We tried it a few times and got our butts kicked. Obviously, we were nowhere near as good as we thought we were!

I started going for my master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1984. I discovered that there was a bridge club there (run by Danny Sprung) that had a game once a week. One of my coworkers and I started playing there.

We started improving and even started improving at Billy Gough’s club. We joined the ACBL at the end of 1984. I noticed a Sectional Tournament in Cherry Hill in the spring of 1985. I asked one of the guys at the Penn bridge club about it and he said we should definitely go. They had beginner events, such as 49’er games

We played 2 or 3 sessions at this tournament. I remember we did poorly in the 49’er game and that demoralized us. But later we played in an open game and got second place in our section! We couldn’t believe it. Obviously, we were somewhat lucky, but it really motivated us. Since that first tournament, we started going to almost every local event there was, including regionals, etc. And started playing 2-3 nights a week at different clubs, including Raffles in Philadelphia.

In 1988 four of us tried out for the non-life master GNT and won our district. We traveled to the 1988 summer nationals in Salt Lake City to compete against all the districts. Unfortunately, we got knocked out the first day in a 3-way match. It was a 3-way tie all around, but we lost out in the victory points.  Still, we had a great time and played for several days in other events.

I became a life master in 1993 and a bronze life master in 2000. However, I got married in 1995 and we had a son in 1997. Since my wife is a career woman, I had to cut back on my extracurricular activities to help raise our son. Bottom line: I gave up tournament bridge. I still played at the bridge club once a week but acquiring masterpoints was a much slower process.

Then in 2020, COVID hit. All clubs suddenly closed. I have not had much interest in on-line play, so I didn’t play (except socially a few times) for 4 years. I understand clubs started up before then, but no evening games. Since I was not yet retired, I could not really play during the day. Also, my regular partner was not retired.

In April 2024, we were visiting friends in Florida. They live in a 55+ community, and this place has an ACBL sanctioned bridge club. My friend (who does not have much experience) suggested we play. We did and this gave me the itch to start playing again. The next day I reached out to my regular partner to see when he was going to retire. By coincidence, he retired the day before! After my vacation we started playing again at North Penn.   And I got back into it with a vengeance. I have a few regular partnerships and try to play 3 times a week. We formed a team for the GNT B team event, and qualified to play at the Philadelphia nationals this last summer. We didn’t make it past the first day, but we played in other events where we had moderate success.

Since I had approximately 780 master points when I started playing again, it was not a great challenge to hit 1000 in less than 2 years.  Hopefully I’ll hit Ruby over the next several years!

I took a lesson with Mary Miller of Canandaigua.   She uses the Shark Bridge Platform.    This platform also offers daily “tournaments” where you can earn points.  I like the system because it is true to the stated convention card  (unlike Trickster for example).

I have been participating on Shark Bridge with a goal of getting one point a week  (a tad ambitious I know).  I did my first in person play yesterday with Mary Miller’s group in Canandaigua and had a wonderful time and got 0.16 points!!

Mary told me I am the only ACBL player in Yates County!!  So now I can tell people I am the best ACBL player in Yates County….  quickly followed by I am also the worst there, too!!

I have been playing with a partner who while not as experienced as I am, is hard working and eager to improve. She is also a touch stubborn.

Often when we go over hands and I offer a suggestion or two she will often not ‘buy in’ to my logic.  The next week when we meet again she will announce  ‘ I asked Joann G. and she agrees with you so you must be okay.   I often feel you are my partner in absentia!

Another story – A few years ago. my wife and I traveled to London for vacation.  I arranged to play at one of the local clubs and was assigned a rather intimidating partner who brought a few kibitzers along with him.  First board out of the box it goes multi 2d on my left, X by my partner – at that time I had no clue what that meant and I froze  – I then blurted out in loud American voice – ‘I’ve  traveled 3000 miles and now I have to have to deal with the ‘#$$%%’  multi!’  As you can imagine – no one was amused! (ps it all worked out in the end)