Ten years ago, I retired from a thirty-five year teaching career in health and physical education. I was often asked what I was going to do in retirement, and I had a couple of things in mind such as work part time and continue to pursue my lifelong love of sport and fitness. One fateful morning while reading the newspaper, I noticed an advertisement, “Learn to Play Bridge”. I signed up, went to the classes and was introduced to the world of duplicate bridge. I was informed there were sectional, regional and National tournaments. There were milestones to be achieved called Life Master rankings and black, red, silver and gold points to be won. All of this was appealing to my competitive nature that had its origin in high level competitive swimming in my youth. Maybe I could channel it into duplicate bridge and try to become a good bridge player? Although there was – and continues to be – a nagging doubt whether I have the natural aptitude, I decided to take on the challenge. Believing the slogan hard work beats talent, I attacked the game. I took many classes, read books, and committed to playing every day at the local club. I practiced declaring and defending hands on instructional websites. I begged better players to play games with me and asked them hundreds of questions about bidding and play of the hands. I paid bridge pros to help me improve my game so I could catch up to the other players in the club. I entered tournaments to earn those colored points and Life Master ranking.

I recently earned my Silver Life Master at my ten year goal mark. It has been a journey of baby steps because the game of bridge has been difficult for me to play well. I could never have reached this milestone without the help of my bridge friends… a few loyal partners who stick by me and tolerate all my mistakes. Also, I extend heartfelt gratitude to my teachers and especially my mentors who became close and dear friends. Thank you for joining me on this bridge journey.

On the day that I retired from my work as a physician at the Veterans Administration, my wife asked me if I could start learning how to play bridge in order for her to have a consistent (if not ornery) partner. At the time, she was taking lessons from Barbara Patterson at Ami Bridge. I was skilled at chess, but bridge was not part of my life up until then. It just so happened that Diana had a book by Audrey Grant on bidding which Barbara had lent her. For the next 5 days, I studied that book and managed to complete it in time to compete with Diana in Barbara’s upcoming Friday morning beginners’ tournament.

As bad luck would have it, I happened to draw several unusual hands that first morning covered only in the Appendix of Audrey’s book. One hand was weak with 8 hearts. Another was a slam hand requiring knowledge of Blackwood. Barbara was kind enough to walk around the room assisting beginners with bidding, and she managed to teach me how to bid these hands. I also noticed that the convention cards Barbara had described common opening leads with both suit and no trump contracts.
By studying that and with the bidding knowledge gained that morning, I discovered that I had just enough knowledge to be competitive at the novice level.

As we continued to play tournaments at Ami, many of the more skilled players casually provided us with tips along the way. Perhaps the best tip was to obtain the book Twenty Five Conventions You Should Know by Barbara Seagram. However, I quickly realized that if only one member of the partnership reads the book but the other doesn’t, it doesn’t really help. I also saw that some of the better players were walking around with your books, and that’s when I decided to order them.

As my knowledge increased, I started to attract the attention of higher ranked players who occasionally invited me into partnership. Playing with multiple new partners was both instructive and frustrating. I learned a lot, but I also found it difficult to really be “in synch” with scattered partners-particularly on defense.

Since you asked if there is anything the District can do to improve the bridge experience, I would have to say that it would have been nice to be able call upon an expert within the District who would be willing to mentor a beginner with insatiable curiosity for the game. Barbara tried this once, but there did not appear to be much interest, and it did not continue.

I think I actually now like bridge more than chess. I’ve discovered that when I lose at chess, it’s my fault; when I lose at bridge, it’s my partner’s fault!

I reached this next rank thanks to the late, great Lila Gleitman, my mother. Mom, my favorite bridge partner, would come to the table and when meeting new opponents, would say, “I may look like a blind, little old lady, but I always have an Ace up my sleeve.” And she would pull out an Ace of Hearts. Mom and I wanted to go to Nationals this year. We qualified right before Covid. I retired to play bridge with her and go to Nationals. I almost quit the game when she died, but thanks to John Dickenson who invited me to play with him shortly after her death, I realized the game was her gift to me. And so long as Mom is in my heart, I will always have an Ace up my sleeve. I had one tattooed permanently on my arm.