Di stories - let's introduce ourselves :)

[hi bye]

We have our own stories. Stories about who we are, stories about love and friendship, stories about loneliness and failure. Every person has a story to tell. I have had this idea - to create stories about bridge. Welcome to Di stories!
This is the first story which represents what is bridge for me.
Hello! My name is Diliana. I started playing bridge at the age of 14. At first I had no idea what contract bridge is. But with the time, I fell in love with it. For me, bridge is a game of partnership and trust, hard work and skills, concentration and a bit of luck. Bridge takes a lot of time and practice. But you will meet people from different counties. Also, you will see your progress while playing with good players. For some people, bridge is passion. For others - competition. Bridge is this part of me which helps me grow and learn so many things. What is bridge for you? Share with us!
Di stories will try to represent the way we see things and opinion that matters.

[hi bye]

Di stories welcome tourney starts this Thursday (20.02.2020) at 19:00 UTC.
There will be a short story after each tournament. Please, plan to join us!

[Curls77]

WTG Di, welcome to IAC TD team 
I hope many members attend and share their stories with us

[kenberg]

I'm Ken.

Growing up I played crazy eights, cribbage, poker, hearts, various forms of rummy but not bridge. I learned rubber bridge as a young adult. Back then (and that's quite a ways back) you learned bridge by reading Goren.  Opening 2 was a game forcing natural bid. When I later tried duplicate I doubled a bid by the opponents, Lho asked my partner if my double was negative, I had no idea what they were talking about.

I have played off and on, sometimes a lot, sometimes not at all, currently I play a modest amount although my wife Becky, a non-bridge player, might disagree with calling it  "a modest amount".

The game suits me. Thought is often rewarded, but luck also plays a role. In a recent club game hearts were set as trump, partner bid 4NT, I bid 4 showing two keys and the trump Q. Oops, partner had only one key. What to do? He bid 6 and hoped for the best.  Fortunately we were not off two aces, we were off one side suit ace and the trump K. The finesse worked. Whew.

A good sense of humor can be useful in bridge, especially in cases where the required miracle does not happen. I enjoy going over hands examining how much was due to luck, how much was due to good or bad choices. 

I am not sure if I can make it this Thursday but hopefully I can.

[jcreech]

My name is Jim.

Similar to Ken, I grew up playing all sorts of card games.  Somewhere along the way, the games became a bit specialized.  Cribbage when I visited my uncle in the Pittsburgh area.  Hearts when camping in the Boy Scouts.  Euchre during study periods during high school.  Double-bid Euchre in college.  Double-deck Pinochle when visiting my brother’s college.  And a separate group of college friends played Spades.

Bridge was the odd game.  My parents played some social bridge, complete with the Goren tablecloth that described how to convert your honors into points, and how many points you needed to open, bid game or slam.  I remember opening According to Hoyle’s section on bridge and becoming completely confused by their discussion.  So I never took it up, but I did start reading the bridge column in the newspaper, learning something, but not too much in depth.

Working on my Ph.D., there was a table in the dorm hallway of bridge players, and to help guarantee that they would always have at least one fourth, one offered to teach an introductory class.  That was a brief introduction, because after the semester ended, so did the game.  Next time for bridge was a few years later, on a Post-Doc; there was a sign in the student union –Free bridge lessons:  intermediates at 6, beginners at 6:30.  I decided it wouldn’t hurt to sit in on both, so I came early.  The instructor came in, asked who wants a lesson, and who wants to play?  Everyone else voted to play, so I joined in.  Somewhere in the middle, the auction went 1H-2H-P-3D; P-3H-P-4C; P-4H-X-P; P-P.  So I found myself in 4HX, when RHO opened 1H; I had a terrific hand and great 6-card heart suit, so the contract came home and I was hooked!

My Post-Doc was in Measurement of Social Psychological Concepts, so I justified my obsession as being a different form of applied measurement and bidding, the method by which a partnership communicates to arrive at “true score” or contract.

I moved into directing at local clubs along the way.  For a while, I was a fixture on Imagination, playing bridge and spades, but when they raised their prices significantly, I jumped ship.  For about 25 years, almost all of my bridge playing was with last minute pickups to fill out movements where I was the director.  Now I get to play more often, and need to  (I pull hands from my play to bring to my mentoring classes).

[Curls77]

Oh so nice to learn bit more about all of you  Here is my story...

Since childhood I adored card games, but only played for fun until university when I needed some extra cash. So I learnt preferans, very popular game in eastern Europe, kind of very cruel cut-throath ind bridge played with 3 players only and 32 cards. We played for small money, oh how one suffers so much being on mercy of the dealer, but it did pay for my cigarettes during student years LOL
When Balkan's wars started and I decided not be in that movie (loooong story here written and deleted). I moved to Portugal. I love it here, but got very disappointed because very few people play any cards, so was very happy to join MSN and learnt spades. Later we moved to new site, formed couple of spade clubs and had great fun for some years. We even developed couple of duplicate formats for spades, which were not common at all, but all so much enjoyed. Then bad news came that someone is buying several of those small online clubs, to cut competition between them. Dustin Stout (dustinst22 at bbo), at that time multiple USA spade champion, challenged all us to "pass from donkey to horse" = drop spades and learn bridge. He gave link to bbo and link to download Gitelman's BBO 5card major learning software, and said "you have 2 months to lean, see u at bbo".  Oh, I only had a glance and became completely enthralled by it, run to buy Bridge for Dummies and read all kind of stuff on the net. Couple weeks later, I shyly contacted Dustin and asked all kind of stupid questions, to which he patiently answered and made me play too !! Then he said u have a month to learn 2/1, join IAC and watch lessons there
LOL Pam kindly accepted dumb beginner and I'd sit silent as mice at shep and hondo's  lessons (hondo run at 3am my time) & absorb all they taught. I'd be happy as a child each time I'd figure new convention, when first I made super accept at the table it felt as winning bingo hahaha! Imagine my embarrassment when BBO made interview with Dustin and from all great games he played and all great pards he had, he choose to show hand where silly me put him in slam by asking rkc with void (rkc was my latest learnt toy lol) : http://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/news_fetch.php?id=877   

I hardly ever play now, I have so few free time, and I prefer use it in IAC and "pay back" little for what IAC gave me, I truly enjoy watching our members play and organizing trnys, teams and lessons. 

[Masse24]

Played about ten years now. Maybe a bit more.

I started at home, playing exclusively online. I had played for a brief period on POGO, having wandered over to the bridge area from pool. Yes, I used to play some in real life (a lot) if you’ve figured out my BBO name. Then it was suggested I try BBO.

I needed something to fill my time. I was, at the time, caring for my dad at home who had Alzheimer’s. I had quit my job to do so. He slept a lot, so I had many, many hours to fill. And so, I played a lot, up to 12 hours a day. Dad would sit in his recliner, watching TV, napping. Between preparing meals and tending to his other needs, I played a lot of bridge. I recall not long after joining BBO running into some friends who I played teams with. I still see them online, and I exchange Christmas cards with a couple of them. They are my friends. I read everything I could get my hands on, a few books, but primarily online material. I sat in on the lessons when I could. Hondo. Shep. McPhee, and others. I read Mike Lawrence daily. Frank Stewart daily. I knew every corner of BridgeGuys. And I scoured the BridgeBase Forums—a lurker. 

About a year after I began playing, having watched the Sunday evening IAC tournament regularly, I entered my first tournament. An hour after we began (they lasted 90 minutes or so), I started to feel strange—pain—dizzy—sweats. I sensed what it was, but we continued. And we won! My first tournament. Woohoo! It was a heart attack. Off to the hospital. So apparently, heart attacks help your thought process while playing bridge. At least that’s what the evidence seems to indicate. 

Dad died the next year. I went back to school and went into a new field. I now am a paralegal and also a tutor at the college, splitting my time. I play when I can, kib a lot, read what I can get my hands on. Some day I’ll take the time to plan a vacation around a nationals. Maybe even hook up with a fellow IAC member?

I love this game! 

[ShawnT]

    ShawnT
  Shawn Paul Tuttle is my full name I am AShawnT,lots of players think I am a woman, Witch is really np by me.

    I Start playing bridge when I was around 30 years old. I was drinking and doing someother thing "TO MUCH". I had played cards my whole life,but more importantly, I have alway loved anything competive. When I decide to give drinking a break,someone suggest a game of bridge. These fallas taught me the very basices of the Game, we did not even open short minors. My Father has played bridge my whole life,as a child I use to caddy all the sec/reg in London. Shortly after I learnd how to play I started talk to my dad about it,at the time he was giving lesson ever Thursday afternoon,at what is now called bridge Lab. I started to attend these bridge labs,for free and from there I just started loving bridge lessons. I truly love talking about bridge more then playing the game.

   I took ever lesson I could ever Thursday afternoon for at least 6/7 years before I joined the ACBL, The 1st year I joined I was the 7th top point earner in NA,in the rookie category,top Canadian. It is still one of my greatest bridge achievements. I have won a few trophys since but stopped playing f2f bridge when my fav partner who is an 85 year old woman,moved to Calgary. I am 44 now,she was 79,I was 38 and I swear if not for the age gap I would have married that lady. We had a 78% game once open pairs. All that said and done I still have not reached 500 mp,I am about 60 points shy of becoming a BLM.

  I play a lot more on line in the winter months as I am laid off from work. Not unlike Todd I would like to go to NAT some time after I retire I would love to play in a platinum event someday is my main goal,likely in life . But I still like sitting in on lessons more then playing,or even teaching newbis.

 AShawnT

[ian84]

Hi my name is Ian. My extended family always played cards when they got together and I learnt to enjoy the games from an early age. Mainly cribbage, Canasta and solo whist and numerous 'party' games for all. Started to play bridge at my senior school aged 13 and eventually started to attend my my local club in my last year at school. Then nothing for about 30 years. I got a job in the US in 1997, got onto the net and eventually found the MS Game Zone and started to play bridge there and on Yahoo bridge. Discovered BBO around 2004 and played socially for about a year before joining the BIL club, where I initially volunteered to be a Table Host, and then got taught how to run tourneys. I also helped with running practise sessions for beginners learning the game via the BIL's teaching program, and that eventually developed into mentoring newly 'graduated' beginners from the program. Like Todd, I was a live-in carer for my father for his last few years and so was able to devote a lot of my spare time to playing, helping and learning in the BIL.   

I joined the IAC about 4 years ago, and have run tourneys and helped run themed practise sessions. I've been very lucky to have played with and learnt from some great teachers along the way. Greatest highlight so far was to fly out to Las Vegas some years ago and play in a NABC convention along with the Kings and Queens team, who consisted of BIL teaching program graduates that I had mentored.
 

[blubayou]

Hello;  I am not nephew of la Linda Ronstadt,  but Jock Mc Quade  (only  you dozen know this  ;>)
     i read my parents' already outdated Culbertson workbook in the 50's , but the beginning of the end came in my Junior year of high school   (11th form?]   our math teacher was also the football coach,  and on several of our LONG bus rides from Normandy to Poitiers  etc to play AMERICAN football with other nato base high schools,  3 of us were drafted to make a foursome with Coach Close. By term's end,  we three were given automtic "A" grades  in the 3-hour algebra final,  and played replay-duplicate  at the teacher's desk.   Coach must have been sorry to be stuck in the wheat fields of Normandy for 3 years, to carry aluminum boards with deals from a year + ago from Boston, complete with 'travellers'  from his old cronies!   After majoring in bridge in college  for 2 rocky years,  and a 3-year trip to Korea  (  the VACATION end of the pennensula,  since dad was a Lt.Colonel at that time,  and TET  was looming) I started a lifelong series of
'blue-collar' jobs calculatedto  pay rent and card fees.   By 1978 after leaving my beloved Tucson AZ 2/3 of a block from L. Ronstadt's childhood home  for Oregon,  I was dragged by the scruff of my neck into Directing  mostly to get me out of my quarrelsome partnerships.!  Some years,  my director's pay was a match for the day jobs I held  until about 1990.   
    Mid-ninetys,  everybody's favorite ACBL club on Portland's east side closed up,   and 10 families  including my 3rd wife+myself anti'd up to open a co-op club.  (I did mention some of my partnerships were barn-burners--right?)  Then it was on me  to direct 6 night games a week -for over one year, while still showing up for my strenuous day-job.  Things leveled off to the schedule of a 'normal'  addicted bridger soon after,  until i retired from live play around 2009. 
   then came OKBRIDGE,  and after that place committed suicide,  BBO.  ONE fun thing coming out of that online experience was to be invited to be the 'hired gun' in the Boston Nationals'  batch of knock-out compact team events --  a place where aspiring chipmunks come with 4 or 5 experienced "friends"  to grab fast gold points.   Mission for our chipmunk was accomplished,   but i was not the 'shark'  my online partner knew I could be,   so here i am--  a fading boomer that sorta-was but not too much.
    Yet i say  I LOVE THIS GAME AND ALWAYS WILL    -- namaste'

[

[Curls77]

Oh what lovely stories, once again TY Di for brilliant idea and all that replied. I want more stories!! 

[donnas]

Before I start, I just want to point out the Ian... I WAS ALSO AT THAT LAS VEGAS NATIONAL, and we did have dinner together.

I learned to play bridge when I was 8.  Someone taught my older sister and her friends to play.  I was the 'emergency fourth' whenever necessary.   I learned more about boys than I did about bridge.

Years later, my freshman year at college, I discovered a group of people who liked to play cards  (in many cases, preferred playing to going to class).  Spades, hearts, and, finally, bridge.  No one had much training or experience.  Some made up their own conventions.  I refused to play with my then-boyfriend  (now husband) because he invented conventions such as the Stoker 1 Diamond - which was a singleton Ace of Diamonds.

We played some social bridge, but didn't have much free time  When we moved to Virginia, I started looking for bridge players.  I met someone who invited us to our first duplicate game.  This was before bidding boxes or scoring machines.  The location?  The United States State Department Building.  Someone had to vouch for you and you went through a metal detector.  At the time, I did not have a photo ID.  T

We played some duplicate after that - and went to a few sectional tournaments.  After our son was born, we stopped playing for a few years.  Then  I started playing again, and we went to some local games and tournaments.  I also started playing on line.  First, it was Yahoo, then a few others, and finally, almost 15 years ago, I found BBO.

Started doing more reading and studying.  Played much more than my husband.  By the time I was a life master, and we had to play in the open games, it appeared that our mistakes were becoming very costly.  Especially when you have to play against Mike Cappelitti in an open club game.  We stopped playing together, and I found some new partners.  I even went to some Regionals without partners and used the partnership desk.

Since I had been a high school teacher, the idea of becoming a bridge teacher interested me.  I became accredited and started teaching on-line.  I am now a Ruby Life Master.  I spend (too much) time on BBO every day and play f2f whenever I can.

I've met over 25 people from BBO at tournaments, and hope to meet more.

Everyone knows that I 'talk' a great deal, so no one should be surprised at the length of this all.

[ian84]

Yes the apres-bridge evening meals at Vegas were lovely and I was indeed thrilled to meet Donna at a couple of the gatherings  . I have a feeling that Todd was also there, though I don't think he made it to any of the meals as he was often playing in the evenings.

[ccr3]

Hi folks, I'm CCR3, Pat. I was introduced to pinnacle at age 9. I fell in love and played every card game that came down the pike, hearts, crazy eights, poker, spades, you name it but never bridge. Only heard of it on tv. So when hospitalized with the birth of my second child I met my room mate, Robin. She told me she played bridge. Oh boy, Finally met someone! So she invited me to her home about 18 months later. We played three or four times. But our visits were cut short. We moved to Irving, Texas.

I didn't know a soul. So I camped out in the laundry room hoping to meet someone. Sure enough in walks Jacki Blue. We introduced ourselves and started  talking about bridge,(hot dog!). I said sure I know how to play. She said well we'll just have to get together. Not soon after I joined the club. Well, it didn't take long for me to realize, I didn't know a darn thing about bridge. This was a serious matter. So I borrowed Goren's book at the library and my self teaching began. I'd study a chapter and have the book renewed. Did this a number of times. Finally bought the darn book. And I played with the group of 8 women for five years until we moved back to Cleveland, Ohio, my old stomping ground. But, again, I didn't know anyone who played and Robin had moved to California.

So I contacted Welcome Wagon and was given the name of Katy Pike who ran a duplicate game on Tuesday night. Started playing there and another game during the day once/week. After three years and my 50 MP we moved to Richmond, Va. But this time I asked around and was given a name of a contact person, John Hawks. Through him I found the Bridge Center. 50 pts was the cut off for playing in the Mixed/Master's game. They told me I'm a pro?? The next 7 years I played at the club and started tournament play.  I had 300 MP but needed 18 gold to become a life master.

But, we moved to Virginia Beach. This ended my bridge playing for the next 9 years. I enrolled in the Tidewater Community College, with the intention of becoming a nurse. (Before this I was a secretary.) But there was a waiting list of two years. So I took the necessary college courses and worked part time for Kelly Girls taking on typing assignments. Finally after four years I started my nursing career.  Another five years and  found myself separated from my husband and back to Richmond near my daughter.

Played just one time in the novice group my partner saying "boy you really are rusty". But now with no strings attached I played frequently at least three times/wk. Started playing with Ann and got my game back. After a year we went to Va. Beach for their regional, telling Ann I needed 18 golds. We came back winning 33 golds,  finally a life master.  Continued traveling to tournaments, played on OK Bridge and BBO. I told Ann I just needed 1 MP to become a gold life master and would like to partner with her for old times sake. So we played and won.  One little item I'd like to add: today that Mixed/Master's game cut off is 500 MP! And yes, I still have Goren's book, outdated but a souvenir.

[yleexotee]

Hello all,

I'm posting this now before Sanya has my head!

My bridge story is short because I did not discover bridge until later in life. I began playing somewhere in my early 30s while I was still in grad school earning my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. I was a very good card player before that, including Poker, Hearts, and Spades. I was a very good spades player and like some other people had met Dustin playing that game and we had played together somewhat often online.
    I read a basic book by Lampert I believe and played a bit online in yahoo and World Play (of WP refugee fame, if I still remember the name correctly). Eventually, I found my way to the Barrington Bridge club in Santa Monica, CA where I was living. I showed up there and played in the beginner's room and the director there watched me play a few hands and promptly kicked me out of the room! When I explained to him that I had literally never played the game with actual cards or live people he thought I was from Mars. Online play wasn't as well known at that time and I think the bridge teacher was a bit shocked that someone learned to play on their own and online only. Eventually, that same teacher told me a story - that he was once a Ph.D student in chemistry but that he fell in love with bridge and never finished his degree.  He meant that I should stop playing and finish what I was doing!  Shockingly, I listened to his advice and did not really play again for some years. The other lucky thing I did was to sign up for an ACBL number so that I ended up on the old Life Master schedule for points.
    Later on, I came back to play bridge again, although by this time I had moved to Orange County, CA close to my work. I played mainly on BBO and I played live with Dustin on occasion. Eventually, we formed a small group of decent players who had low master point totals. (To this day I try not to earn Master points except in major tournaments, so I rarely play any ACBL tournaments on BBO for example. As you may know, online points are colorless yet count against you in experience BUT don't count for you in making your Life Master.) This small group of players I ran with began to take the game more seriously, and therefore so did I.
   Eventually, we developed very good system notes (think 100's of pages) and set our sites on national competitions. Long story short, as many of you know, 5 of us won Grand National Teams - C level at the Chicago Nationals a few years back! It was a great deal of fun, but also much more tiring, stressful, and anxiety packed than I expected. However, we will be forever in the bridge encyclopedia for that win and that's really fun! Our group has also been to two other finals including another GNT, and the mini Spingold team finals. We lost the other two finals - once to a team that was better than us, and the other time because of a complete meltdown by a team mate who frankly over a two week period didn't sleep enough, didn't eat enough, and drank too much so that he was rambling zombie by the time we hit semi-finals and finals of the mini-Spin.
   Other than that, you all know that I enjoy teaching bridge and am a certified instructor. I have given talks on bridge in university settings and through one stretch I had several clients that I helped to obtain their life master requirements. Yes, people paid me to play with them! (you could say I was a bridge professional since I was paid for my "work"! lol)  I am in a very valuable position of having low Master points so that makes it much easier for a client and I to win Gold points. Ironically, I will probably not be a LM until I retire from work when I have time to play in clubs. Those black points will just never happen otherwise. Finally, I developed our club system notes  which can be found here at https://goo.gl/FASfsY  . I would love for people in the club to use it more.