District 8 President's Report

 by Karl Dencker, Lake in the Hills IL

 District 8 President
 


Greetings, Friends:

As bridge players extraordinaire, we realize there are basically two kinds of bridge. You have a game of light-hearted conversation, mixed in with dealing cards, take your time in bidding, asking any bridge question of your partner you want --- oftentimes we refer to this as "Social Bridge."  On the opposite side is "our" kind of bridge, which we call "Duplicate Bridge". This is a no-nonsense game, you don't enter into light-hearted conversation (at least not much), the cards are dealt and lay before you, keep the game moving and your eye on the time clock and lastly, you don't ask your partner anything. No wonder this isn't called Social Bridge.

Have you ever seriously thought what kind of game we play? Why is there is there a group of "social" players who refuse to enter into the dark waters of "duplicate". When we mention the possibility of their playing in one of our games, some give a quick glance and change the subject, some giggle and look for something else to talk about, some act like they never heard you, some relate some negative weird story they heard about our game and the list of reactions go on. What it boils down to is "they are afraid of our game". You don't see in their eyes a look of admiration because we're smart enough to play Duplicate Bridge. Hold up there -- did I say "smart enough"? Where did that come from?

Let's think about that a minute. Perhaps we do need to be a little smarter than the average person when it comes to playing Duplicate Bridge versus Social Bridge. While it doesn't require a Ph.D., it does require a number of talents. You have to be able to keep track of four different suits as they are played. You need to pay close attention to not only your partner's bidding, but also the opponents' calls. What is a finesse and what is the best way to try one? What are the odds for various suit distributions? There are many different card conventions. You and your partner have to agree on which ones you will play -- and then, even though you aren't going to play them, you need to know what they are if your opponents use them. Some conventions contradict each other. There are rules you must follow at all sanctioned games. There are directors to make certain you obey the rules. Whether it's a weekly club game or a tournament event, it starts on time and will end in 3 to 3 1/2 hours. No messing around. It's a tough game we play.

I guess there are a few books written about a plain ole game of Social Bridge. However, there are hundreds of books written on Duplicate Bridge. There is an international organization for Duplicate players: ACBL, the American Contract Bridge League. This an organization all Duplicate players belong to. They publish a monthly magazine that provides continual evaluation of bridge hands and how they should be bid and played -- a wealth of information every month. They break down the membership into districts and units. They sponsor tournaments. As you play the game, you receive "points. As you acquire points, you achieve different levels of playing ability. With all of this, why do we play it?  We like people. We like the competitiveness. We are "Social Duplicate Bridge Players." 

I still think about the Social Bridge player and that look in their eye when we mentioned trying Duplicate Bridge. I have it figured out -- the look they had was "fear". I wonder if we had that look of fear when we started playing Duplicate? I think we probably did, but someone held out their hand and led us across the road from Social Bridge to Social Duplicate Bridge. How long has it been since you took someone by the hand?