This is our first community event at the local Laurel Parc Senior Living Center. The goal of today’s event was to bring the generations together through the game of bridge and create connections between the young and old. The event was a huge success and everybody had a lot of fun learning and playing the complex game of bridge.
Upon arrival at the senior living center, the Bridge Club kids were greeted by friendly and excited residents who were eager to share their love of bridge with the young players. The atmosphere was filled with laughter and chatter as the kids and seniors paired up to play a friendly game of bridge. Despite the age gap, the kids and seniors quickly bonded over their shared love of the game and the competition was fierce.
At the first table we have Delinda (in the vest) paired with Arnold (in blue) vs Sue (in white and blue) paired with Kishore (in black). Sue is an experienced bridge player with more than 3 years under her belt while this was only Kishore’s third time playing. On the other hand, although this was Delinda’s first time playing bridge, she has a wealth of experience playing trick-taking card games like pinochle pairing with Arnold who has 5 months of experience. The table ended up being equally matched, with both sides equally winning three 120-190 points games and going down a couple of tricks in the last 2 games.
At the second table, Chris (in dark blue) was the only experienced one. Siddesh (in red) had just learned the rules the morning of the event and they were facing Denzel (in white) and his partner who picked up on the game very quickly.
At the third table, we Pei (in grey) and Charlene (in orange) against Arthur (in dark blue) and Virinchi (in red). Although it has been many years since Charlene last played the game of bridge, she and Pei still coordinated together very well and won many games.
On The way back we met the regular Bridge experts which we were told about. Bob on the right in the blue jacket had over 30 years of experience and the three blind women who were all expert bridge players. Barbara (in the black vest) and Pat (in Blue) were looking at a complex hand, where Barbara had all the honors (A,K,Q,J) in spades while Pat had a void (no cards) in spades. Barbara had opened 1♠️, and Pat replied with 2♣️, however Barbara also happened to have a void in clubs. Barbara without anything strong in any other suit, rebid 2♠️. Pat facing a diffucult decision ended up bidding 2NT, as she had honors in clubs, diamonds and hearts, while Barbara had strong spades. Pat ended up making the contract 2NT+1, because although she had no bridge over to Barbara in spades, she had length in the other suits and their opponents wouldn’t play into Barbara’s spades. Therefore they ended the last few tricks in the other suits without opposition.