I went over 10,000 masterpoints by coming in eighth overall in the 0-10,000 pairs in the Atlanta Nationals. All I can tell you is that it takes a lot of perseverance to reach your bridge goal, whatever that may be. Sometimes we take baby steps. When I finally earned my first points, it was in a club. My grand total was .08.

When I started playing duplicate bridge, I had never played bridge at all. My friend and her were longing for a way to meet people. My father suggested playing duplicate bridge. I asked how to do that. Dad gave me a book that was five pages long. The book stated that an ace was worth four points, a king, three and so on. My friend and I memorized this book. It didn’t seem all that complicated! We decided to give it a try. Off we went to the bridge club. Of course we came in last. The next three nights we went back, only to repeat our fate. A less than sympathetic person told my friend if we came in last again, we couldn’t play there. She started to cry. After asking someone else we were relieved to find out that we would still be allowed to play. We did decide that maybe we should split up and try to see if we could get better players to play with us. That was the beginning of our determination not to win points, but to learn to become better players. Obviously, it is still and always, a work in progress.

The best advice I can give is to play. Play in sectionals,regionals, and nationals. Play up every once in a while. Play against the best players. Learn from them. Listen to their discussions. Ask questions. Most good players are happy to answer questions as long as you want an answer, not affirmation that your action was right. Listen to their reasons for making the decisions they do. And most of all HAVE FUN.

What does it take?

Love of the game, love of partners, acceptance that no one is perfect in any set of 26 hands, especially yourself and your partner. I heard a story lately of a divorced couple that still played bridge together. When asked why, the answer was “it is hard to find a good bridge partner.” I started 50 years ago with no idea how to play. I had to read, absorb, and apply logic. I’ll never be a bridge great but I’ll keep reading their books and articles.

Thanks to all I’ve played with and against.

I began my bridge journey around 1999 when I started reading the bridge column in the newspaper. It was my first exposure to the game and I was fascinated by the logic presented in the solutions. In 2001 I borrowed a book for beginners from the Los Alamos bridge club and started playing duplicate. I played for about a year and then moved away to a town with very little bridge. I returned to the game in Indianapolis in 2003-2004 before moving and getting married near Scranton, PA. I started playing again in Toledo in 2009-2011 with the goal to become life master and picked up 200 points. Moving to Corning, NY slowed my progress, but I continued to play regional tournaments with my wonderful Toledo partner. We were moderately successful, picking up points a few times a year including all the necessary silver and gold. In 2017 I played a few online tournaments, bringing my total to 299.94 masterpoints. It was very important to me that I win my final points with my amazing partner across the table. We made it to the Pittsburgh Roni Atkins regional this year and got my final points in the first session we played. It was a fantastic feeling, almost 20 years in the making. I would like to thank Sandi Bellner from Toledo for being my partner all these years. We had a great rapport at the table with Sandi being the best sacrifice bidder I ever played with. She was right 99% of the time, it was amazing to witness. It was very special to win my last 0.06 points with her and I am elated to have reached this milestone. There were many people who helped along the way, especially Ralph and Karin Raber for improving my fundamentals and the late Bob Harlow who was an extremely patient, kind and generous teacher. As long as I play the game, I will always remember Bob. Thank you to the Toledo bridge club and everyone I met along the way.

I hope to play more bridge in the Corning area, get more involved in district 4 and attend more tournaments in the area. The game is amazing and I hope to play it for many more years.