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Who wrote the following commentary about the game of bridge?
The first thing I want to do is remonstrate with the people who don't play bridge. They are apt to be hoity-toity with those of us who do and tell us they can't understand how presumably intelligent persons can waste their time on such an idle pastime. That is stuff and nonsense. Everyone has a certain amount of leisure and everyone needs distraction, and when you come to inquire of these supercilious folk how they prefer to occupy their leisure and in what they seek their distraction, the chances are that they will say in conversation. The conversationalist needs an audience, and it is true that the bridge table robs him of it. No wonder he is bitter. But the fact is that few people can talk entertainingly for three or four hours at a time. It needs gifts that few of us possess, and even the most brilliant talker grows tedious if he goes on too long; and when, as he is apt to do, he monopolizes the conversation, he is intolerable .
Scroll down to find out. |
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Replay At Home
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Replay Boards at Home Video |
You can replay the boards you've played at the club - in the comfort of your own home.
Replay the exact same hands with any of several commercial bridge programs such as GIB or Bridge Baron if you own one. If you have not purchased one, we have a free program for you to download.
Watch the video above or click here for further instructions. |
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Print at Home
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Print Hand Records Video |
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Download and print hand records from any game played at Bridge Ace.
Watch the video above or click here for further instructions. |
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Free Bridge Lessons
Rich answers your questions every Tuesday prior to the game. |
Thursdays, we have a vugraph presentation. Rich reviews interesting deals of the past week. Each board in question is projected onto our large video screen for all to see as we discuss it.
We also have many other free bridge lessons online at our website which you can find here. |
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Since St. Demetrios is rented out so often on Saturdays, we now hold Saturday games at Billy Rose's bar, Jester's. It is located at:
801 E. Cypress Creek Road
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334 |
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Trivia Answer:
Somerset Maugham
From "What I Love about Bridge," an article in Good Housekeeping magazine in 1944 |
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Greetings!
The Omar Sharif Bridge Circus was a fascinating phenomenon born in the late 1960s. Sharif collected some of the world's best players, including members of the Blue Team, and traveled around the world playing bridge exhibition matches against local teams. The Lancia sports car company put up four cars as prizes for any team who could beat them (they paid out once, to a bunch of upstart New Yorkers who included a couple of promising youngsters named Matt Granovetter and Alan Sontag). Then the format changed: the Sharif squad would play matches against the new world bridge powerhouse, the Dallas Aces (Hamman, Jacoby, Wolff, Goldman, Eisenberg and Lawrence).
Here is a deal from one of their four exhibition matches in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1970: 
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 Online Partnership Desk |
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You may remember we tried an online partnership desk once before. Unfortunately, we had to take it down because of spammers. We have reinstituted it in a different way.
If you need a partner, just enter your contact information and the date(s) you want to play.
Find it here. |
New Addition to Website |
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As in any sport, bridge has its share of heroes. Those who enter the Hall of Fame have helped make the game what it is today.
Hall of Fame History
The Hall of Fame was started by the Bridge World magazine in 1964 with founding members Ely Culbertson, Charles Goren, Harold Vanderbilt, Oswald Jacoby, Milton Work, Sidney Lenz, Waldemar von Zedtwitz, Howard Schenken and Sidney Silodor. Portraits of all members are housed in a gallery at the ACBL.
We have interviews with 15 members of the ACBL Hall of Fame on our website. You can learn much by listening to their wisdom.
Find it here. |
The Daily Deal |
Each day we "seed" one lesson deal somewhere into our otherwise randomly dealt set of boards. The board number is different each day. You never know which board it is.
The daily deal is a free mini-lesson. You can take home a handout of the daily deal every day. We hope you find it educational as well as entertaining. To see past Daily Deals, click here. |
BOLS Bridge Tips |
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Check out our new page of free lessons online.
The BOLS Bridge Tips competition started in 1974, and took place off and on for more than 20 years. During that time, virtually all the world's greatest bridge players and writers contributed their ideas to the series.
Not sure what to lead? Can't decide the right bid? Want to make more contracts? Get pointers from the all-time greatest names in bridge - Reese, Rodwell, Zia, Flint, Goren, Hamman, Wolff, Schenken, Garozzo, Belladonna, Chagas and many more - they're all represented. All the advice is here in a perfect potpourri for players of every standard.
These tips are terrific. You can find them here. |
The Omar Sharif Bridge Circus |
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On the opening lead of the eight of clubs Giorgio Belladonna played the club king, covered by the ace and ruffed. Now Giorgio pondered the problem. The Closed Room was small but had been provided with a side table for water and coffee. Giorgio stood up, went over to that table and lit a cigarette. He walked back and forth with his head in his hand, puffing furiously.
He finally went back to the table and played the ace of diamonds and a diamond to the jack. He cashed the queen of clubs, discarding the ten of spades. He ruffed the last club high and began running trumps. During his walkabout, he had concluded that the spade king must be offside. When he found an eight-card club suit on his right, he was also convinced that the hearts were not breaking. He arrived at this position:
When Giorgio led his last diamond, Billy Eisenberg was in trouble. If he threw a heart, Giorgio would play ace, king and another heart to endplay Billy and force a spade lead into the A-Q whilst setting up the heart seven. If Billy discarded his spade nine, Giorgio would simply discard the heart three and then play the ace and queen of spades to set up the spade seven and six for the eleventh and twelfth tricks.
Jacoby-Wolff also arrived in six diamonds, but it was over very quickly. Jacoby ruffed the club lead and after playing the diamond ace and a diamond to the jack he led a spade to the ten and jack. Eventually he lost two hearts in the end position for two down.
To this day, Billy Eisenberg says that this was the greatest hand ever played against him. How clearly Giorgio saw this game of ours.
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As always, you can follow the bidding and play of our Deal of the Week on our website, here. |
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We send out the Deal of the Week newsletter every week. You can view many of our past newsletters here. |
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