My bridge life began a few years back when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to learn how to play the game with her by taking lessons. We decided to take lessons at the local Women’s club and learned just enough to be dangerous. Luckily, a friend of ours, Sally Manning, was kind enough to put a game together once a week and we continued to learn this crazy game of Bridge and become even more dangerous..to ourselves, that is!

Eventually, schedules conflicted with fun time and Bridge went to the back burner, but I was addicted. I found the Bridge Doctor website and started playing online. While some folks had no patience for my inexperience, others noted my drive to excel and helped me learn along the way and I will be forever grateful to all of them. After jumping into the shark waters, getting chewed up, spit out, and used to mopped the floor, I finally started to really understand the game…a little! I bumped into Sally months later and she convinced me to play at the Williamsport Bridge Club on the day that the amateurs got together. I braved going to the club and continued to enjoy the game for yet another year while playing with a variety of folks and learning even more insights to the game of Bridge. However, my hunger to excel got the best of me again and I finally decided to take the plunge and go back into the shark waters. This time it was at our local Bridge club on the days that our better players got together. Again, the folks were extremely supportive and I eventually became a substitute for the better players. I am currently still a sub for the club and welcome every challenge that comes my way.

While I started later in life to learn the game of Bridge my goal I to rise to the top of the player board. My drive is fierce; the game so humbling; I may have to attend Bridge Anonymous for counseling.

I am truly excited to attain the rank of Silver Life Master in bridge.

My entry into the world of duplicate bridge began some nineteen years ago upon my retirement from optometry. My wife and I would take long walks together and as we walked, she’d explain various conventions to me. And so began our lives as bridge partners and eventually certified bridge teachers both at home in Utica, NY and on ten bridge cruises.

While competitive running (I’ve run six marathons), and autocross racing continue to be two of my avocations, at the age of eighty-one, I know that bridge will keep me challenged long after I drop running and car racing!

One of my friends at work kept telling me “Terri, you have to learn how to play Bridge before you retire.” She said I needed to keep my mind sharp when I retired and so I took my first lesson in June 2008. My instructors were Life Masters and they played very well. But, as they say “Bridge is easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master” and I realized I had a lot to learn.
I played that summer and into the fall, but at work my hours changed, ( working nights) and couldn’t continue to play. Every time I would vacation in Florida for a few weeks, I took a several lessons by John Foster, in Sun City Center (He was one of the finalist in the ACBL Bridge Teacher of the Year in 2013).
I finally retired in 2013 and that fall started taking Easy BridgeTM lessons in Sun City Center.

Kathy Smith and Sue Batt started the program and it has exploded with so many new players Even people who were social bridge players were converted to duplicate because they heard we were all having so much fun. There program consisted of lessons on Wednesday followed by playing (boards that were related to the chapter) and then they would also have workshops that expanded on the lessons. I finally started to understand why I couldn’t pass when my partner doubled, and how to play Stayman and Transfers. It has been so much fun, and I have met the most interesting people. We also have monthly happy hours and pot lucks and in the summer, we go out to dinner/lunch at local restaurants.

Sun City Center hosted a Sectional Tournament this February and my partner and I came in first North/South in the 0-20 category. Some of the other area bridge clubs have extended invitations to play, Sarasota, St. Pete, Manatee. One even had a cake to welcome us. And there is a Tournament on May 25th that I am going to attend.

I also attended a week long Bridge Boot Camp in Warwick, New York (summer 2014) sponsored by Marti & Gary Ronemus. That was intense bridge lessons, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed/learned that week. It was all inclusive meals, lessons and room for under $800.00 thru Road Scholar.
(AKA Elderhostel)