A BRIDGE TOO FAR

Calling all A2k bridgers to moderate this thread! I know you're out there...present ranks!

Never mind Edgar, you're excused

By the way, how's that song index coming along?

testing....testing...

Is this thing on?

I play a fair to middlin game of party bridge. Never attempted duplicate. I'll just hang around and kibbitz!

Oh - cards. Humph. Might have guessed.
By the end of the week end I will have the index ready, panzade. I just haven't taken the time to do it yet.

Kidding Edgar! Sisyphus and the boulder from hell!

KIBBITZERS WELCOME!!

OK here we go now. I play once in awhile at Yahoo, funny makes me think of Mary Pope (an old friend) when things got hot in the poltical forum she would e-mail to go play some bridge.

Let's se now I have not played tournament bridge since I was just a babe in 1975.

So what's new panz

Well, we're weaning ourselves from yahoo bridge cause it's not really duplicate and right now the hot spot is BBO(Bridge Basic Online)
It's a fascinating place with some famous players like Bill Gates , Mick Jagger, and Rob Halford of Judas Priest. Yeah The Mick was my partner one night in a tournament. He was real sharp.

Cool, next time ask him if he could hear me screaming and the DC concert in 1994, VooDoo Lounge. Or the Oakland gig in 1998? Heh.

I knew about Gates playing but not the others, hmm.

My player name at Yahoo bridge is fanofmiro. But I rarely play outside of the intermediate rooms as I am not so knowledgable about all the new conventions and theories of play.

Can you recommend a quick read that can bring me up to speed. Practice makes perfect but I am leary of all the new stuff until I put it into play. I will surely need a crib sheet until I have it down.

Jo, I'm sure you know this stuff but I'll post it for the bridge newbies.


Bridge can be traced back to the early 16th century when a game called Whist was played in England. Through the centuries, Whist evolved and grew steadily in popularity. Early in the 1890's, bridge appeared on the American scene at about the same time it was introduced in England. The game underwent many changes until Harold S. Vanderbilt perfected a new form of bridge in 1925. It incorporated many of the most popular principles and also produced a scoring table. He succeeded so well that his game of "Contract Bridge" became the staple diet of card players everywhere

The word "bridge" comes from Russian Whist, called "biritch," meaning announcer or herald. Bridge players announce their contract bids.

1742 - The first book devoted to Whist appeared, Edmond Hoyle's Short Treatise, which became a best seller.

1903 - British civil servants in remote India developed the practice of bidding for the privilege of calling the trump suit, thus introducing "auction bridge."

1925 - Harold S. Vanderbilt, American multi-millionaire and three-time America's Cup winner, changed the course of bridge while on a cruise. He suggested that only tricks bid and made count toward game, with extra tricks counted as bonuses. These revised rules turned auction bridge into contract bridge.

1953 - President Eisenhower played bridge regularly on Saturday night with top experts. He attended national bridge tournaments when possible. He enjoyed bridge as much as golf and he was considered an excellent player.

There are three areas of expertise in bridge, bidding, declarer play and defense. Of these, bidding has changed the most in the last 80 years and even in the last ten, when I started. My favorite book on bidding is Bill Root's "Commonsense Bidding" but even this doesn't address more modern conventions. Any bridge ackers are welcome to interrupt here with their picks.

I've tried to learn to play bridge a coupla times. I love card games of all sorts, but the bridge gene seems to have passed me by.

(this is one of my very favourite Beryl Cook paintings)

Beryl Cook is sort of the "Grandma Moses" of Britain isn't she?. Completely self-taught, her style has earned her a place with the greats. On a sad note, my father and sister are going theough his paintings, cataloguing them with dates and places. Although his memory has faded and 15 minutes of this labour tires him completely, I'm hopeful they'll finish in time. This is a link to a painting he did in camp Hay during his internment in Australia.

http://www.holocaust.com.au/mm/i_australia.htm

This looks good to me and it is available at Amazon.

Betheh, you can learn, it is easy. You just need a gentle patner to play with at frist until you hone your skill.


Yellers and screamers are not allowed at my table. Either I leave or they do. It is just game after all.