Story by Michael Schneider (BBO: mjs1888)

Like many bridge players, I learned the game from my father, who thought it would be a nice family activity. We started family games after dinner around the time that I was 12 years old and my sister, Ellen, was 8, My mother also learned the game at the same time. Our game was very simple back then: no transfer bids, basic Blackwood, and nothing "fancy" like Stayman.

Fast forward about 30 years, and I was introduced to the wonderful world of duplicate bridge. I joined the ACBL and started moving up the ranks. My parents never played duplicate, but Ellen joined the fold about 15 years after I did. By that time, I lived in Denver, and she lived in Northern Virginia, so we really never had the opportunity to play together.

One year, Ellen visited me in Denver when the Rocky Mountain Regional tournament was going on, so we decided to play one day in a double-session pairs game. I had about 1700 points at the time, and she had less than 20.

The most memorable hand of the day was one with a competitive auction against a well-known expert player. The auction progressed to the point where I bid 4 hearts, which the expert doubled. To my shock and horror, Ellen pulled out the redouble card, which she confidently placed on the table. (I was quite sure that she didn't know what the XX meant.).

Amazingly, I maintained my composure as I tabled the dummy, and awaited what I was sure would be a humiliating defeat. I should have saved the hand record for illustrative purposes because Ellen more than rose to the occasion and made the contract with an overtrick. We did well enough to earn her first gold points!

Ellen continued to excel at bridge and a few years later, we had the opportunity to play online in an event that paid partial gold points. Ellen was just on the verge of becoming a life master, and needed only some fractional gold points to get there! Sure enough, there were no redoubled contracts, but we did well enough to get her the gold dust she needed!

We still play online most Sunday afternoons, with our 92-yeard old mother kibitzing. After the game, Ellen will occasionally call me and start the conversation with "Mom enjoyed watching us, but she can't understand why you … (insert something silly that I did that cost us the contract).

Isn't it wonderful how a card game can keep families together across the generations and the miles !!

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