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At my going-away party at the Miami Valley
Bridge Center, just before leaving for my two-year stay
in Sweden, 1998.
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In
1984, circumstances developed in which I began learning
to play bridge. So, there I was learning to play the very
game with which I previously couldn't have imagined wasting
time. I will be forever thankful for finding myself in that
unlikely situation, however. Bridge is the most fascinating,
fun, frustrating, exciting, hateful, interesting game in
the world. I now play one or two times a week regularly
at the Miami Valley Bridge
Center (MVBC) in Kettering, Ohio. I also play tournaments
from time to time. Occasionally, I go down to the bridge
club on Monday nights to serve as a mentor to beginning
bridge players who participate in a program called "Bridge
with Guidance."
In my opinion, duplicate bridge is much more exciting
and interesting than party (or "rubber") bridge
for the following reason. In party bridge, whether you
win or not depends very heavily on the cards you get,
but in duplicate you can get no points at all for the
entire evening and still win. That is, winning in duplicate
depends on how well you play the hand you get; if you
can play it better than all of the other players sitting
your direction (who will be playing exactly the same hands
as you against different opponents), then you'll win.
In this way, the element of luck is largely removed from
the game. It doesn't matter what kind of cards you get,
what matters is how well you play those cards. So, if
you're a party bridge player, give duplicate a try.
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