Bridge to fun: Card players find connections at weekly duplicate bridge games

Bids were offered, contracts ensued, and tricks were played at the Southside Community Center on Friday.

Members of the Spokane Duplicate Bridge Club focused intently on the cards they’d been dealt.

“It’s more exciting than party bridge,” Brenda Simpson said. “We change tables every three hands. We’re the only duplicate bridge group in Spokane.”

Duplicate bridge is a variation of contract bridge where the same set of bridge deals are played by different competitors, and scoring is based on relative performance. Every hand is played in competition with others playing identical cards.

“When I moved here in 1978, I joined the Welcome Wagon, and a gal introduced me to bridge,” Simpson said. “I was smitten. But I didn’t play duplicate until I retired in 2001.”

The club meets at Southside Community Center on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays. It operates under the auspices of the American Contract Bridge League.

On Friday, players sat in cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) at numbered tables. Each table had a bid box, a Bridgemate (a wireless scoring system), and green plastic boards holding predealt hands as determined by the ACBL.

“The boards are loaded into a machine, and the cards are automatically dealt into the correct hands,” Simpson said. “We used to have to shuffle them.”

Pat Gorton began her bridge addiction quite young.

“I started playing regular bridge when I was 7. Grandmother was a big bridge player,” she said. “I didn’t start playing duplicate until I retired. It’s more challenging.”

Gorton relishes the intricacies of the game.

“It’s very much a game of skill instead of luck,” she said. “There’s strategy, a little bit like chess.”

She plays with the group three times a week.

“It’s my job, now that I retired,” she said.

It costs $8 to play ($1 more if you’re not a Southside Community Center member). There aren’t any cash prizes – instead, they play for ACBL points.

“You get master points,” Gorton said. “You can’t do a thing with them, but we are proud of them.”

John Jacobs knows the thrill of competition well. Though he’s a member of the Coeur d’Alene unit and oversees games in Post Falls, he often comes to Spokane.

“They needed more directors, and I’m happy to help,” he said.

The director sets up the game, places the predealt cards on the boards, monitors the play and ensures accurate scoring. Like a square dance caller, they get people where they need to be.

Jacobs began playing duplicate bridge in California, 28 years ago. In addition to the challenging gameplay, the social aspect drew him.

“All my good friends have come from playing bridge,” he said.

He believes serving as a director has helped his game from a technical standpoint.

“The goal is to pay each hand to the very best of your ability.”

With those points up for grabs, the competition can get intense.

“Sometimes it’s like a pressure cooker situation,” Tami Gillman said.

A foreign exchange student from Turkey taught her the game 20 years ago.

“He’d take me to the Seattle bridge club,” she said. “I was overwhelmed. If I couldn’t remember what he taught me from one week to the next, his lower lip would tremble.”

They’d go to a restaurant afterward and he’d go over the game with her.

“He remembered every bid, every lead, every contract,” she said. “We played twice a week for two years.”

Now, she plays online with him on Saturdays.

When she moved to Spokane, bridge allowed her to find connection and community.

“I play every game. I don’t miss unless I’m ill,” she said. “I’ve made a ton of friends in the bridge community,”

That’s what she most values about the game.

“Bridge is all about building connections between partners, opponents and generations,” Gillman said.

“The game teaches us to communicate, cooperate, and find common ground even when we see things differently.”

Beginning bridge lessons are offered at Southside Community Center through Spokane Community College. To register, call (509) 279-6144 or contact Brenda Simpson at (509) 939-4666.

Find more information about Spokane Duplicate Bridge Club at bridgewebs.com/spokane.