Bridge Beginnings: How a Snowstorm Shaped My Journey to Gold Life Master
A story by Craig Pritzker (BBO: 3jsnac) I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. In Feb...
In the far and distant past (65 years ago in my case), long before anyone had heard of Cappeletti or rkc Blackwood, I started playing rubber bridge with some high school friends, often sitting on the floor (see photo below taken in around 1960). Goren was king.
In college, I often played bridge (still rubber!) in the cafeteria. I'll always associate JFK's assassination with cutting Chaucer class to play bridge as that's where I heard the news.
I came to Thailand with the Peace Corps in 1965, and marriage, work and raising children kept me away from the game for the next 30 years. One day as I was walking past a British colleague's office, I noticed a bridge program on his computer. As neither of us had classes on Fridays, I asked if he would be interested in playing at my club one Friday morning. I had been away from the game so long that he needed to get me up to speed. So my first re-introduction to the game was ACOL. Playing duplicate bridge with pre-dealt hands and writing down bids on bidding sheets (still the days before bidding boxes) were all new to me.
When my friends at the club saw me playing bridge, they started inviting me. I had just quit smoking and needed something to do with my hands, so I started playing regularly again. Problem was very few of them played ACOL OR Goren. Needing to learn all the new conventions, I started playing online. It took a while, but I found my new addiction. For many years I played at the various clubs in Bangkok several times a week.
Now that I'm 80 and live in the suburbs, it's harder to get up for those 9:30 a.m. games at my club. How lucky that I can spend many happy hours playing on BBO with friends from around the world who have become regular partners. Some have even come to visit me in Bangkok from the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and the USA.
Long live BBO!!
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I enjoyed a lot all the storys...I love to play bridge..
wonderful story
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks.
It was 1960. As I was walking home from work when a car stopped and the driver said "Parsons?". We had been at school together but never spoken as Wright was a year above me. This time ther was a dinner invitation for Jenny and me. We left our pram in their garage and a lovely dinner followed and Peter and Ann offered to teach us bridge. An ace was 1 point and a King worth 1/2 point. I now forget what one does next. We played with them
until we left Norwich.
At Amersham we joined a baby sitting group who also played bridge, and we have played together for the next 60 years so far.
David Archer gave bridge lessons where I began to be his fall guy for his jokes. He put a simple hand on the board and said "Anyone would open with 1NT - except Oliver"
A patronizing elderly lady once said "Jenny will make a good player one day" And she was right too!
Now we live at a Retirement Village and continue to enjoy the bridge club here every week.
Love the stories! I was introduced to "Rubber" B ridge when a Junior in High School. We met a friend's parents home during the summer holidays as it had AC! We lived in Pasadena, CA then. When we returned to Vancouver BC and was attending UBC Bridge became over ridded classes.
And it was still Rubber Bridge in the late 50's and early 60's. It wasn't until I moved to Kelowna BC that I was lured to Duplicate. Lots of lessons from Bridge teacher Diana Knowles and I enjoy playing at least 2x's a week. It is not only good for your brain but for the development of new friends.
Now th an over riding baAT
Nice story. Hope you enjoy many more happy years at the bridge table.
Hi Rochelle, I used to live in Thailand over 50 years ago, and I used to play duplicate bridge regularly at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. And thanks to BBO, I am still playing a lot of bridge. I have not come across a Thai BBO club yet. Maybe you can tell me where to find one. Cheers and Khop Khun Khrap, Panya Jaksuwinyan (I speak Thai very well. My Farang name is Bob Jakes).
very nice your story.
Rubber bridge is still alive and well where I live. We have several weekly groups and a number of Marathon groups that play in Northern Wisconsin. Yes, there is a duplicate group too,but rubber bridge players far outnumber the duplicate ranks. So, don't hold the funeral for rubber bridge quite yet.
I started playing in the 70s. I toyed with programming a computer to play bidding systems to reveal Darwinian selection. Never did get round to it and if someone else did they kept it under their hat!
I love that story, and was stationed at Fifth Field Hospital in Bangkok during the Vietnam War (thankfully). 1968-70
We had a weekly bridge tournament at the Prince Hotel as I recall. I wonder if Rochelle remembers any of these places.
Here is a bridge story from then: of course lots of people smoked then (US Army sold cigarettes very cheaply)
My partner and I didn’t smoke and disliked the smoke. So we would try to get there early so we could sit NS. Then we would put a “No Smoking” sign on our table. It greatly irritated the smokers and thus it helped our score!
I didn't move to Bangkok until 1973, so I missed you. Thanks for sharing your experience.
At my club, the rubber bridge players play for money! LOL
Rubber bridge us alive and well here too, but they play for money and the stakes are high.