[WasWinM]

jillybean, on 2026-October-11, 13:06, said:

I will take a look and add it when we have had enough of experimenting with Big ♣



I have thick skin, the sun will shine again soon.



Yes, it seems that players nowadays prefer to talk during the game.
One partner likes to go to the nearby pub after the game, and some days one or two others join us, but as said above, most of the good players don't play at the clubs anymore—around here they are playing at home with other good players, or not at all. It's a dilemma.

I began playing any type of bridge at all in Santa Barbara at the San Roque Bridge Club which I found in the phone book. The vast bulk of my playing days was in Oklahoma City. Bridge wasn't a game there; it was a community of players who would gather after the games, share rooms 8 deep at tournaments, and genuinely enjoyed each other's company. The idea of being a "Bridge Bum" was highly inviting. I've heard of death by a thousand cuts; this was death by each person saying a thousand times, I have to pass on that this time.

[WasWinM]

mike777, on 2026-October-10, 14:09, said:

I hardly play online.

At the local club we have a Grand Life Master or two who may play a couple of times a year. They attend the sectionals and regional.

A number of Platinum LMs play regularly

We actually have a good number of A level players who make the Barry Crane 500. They play all the time at the club.

The club does an excellent job as far as NLM , newer player games and teaching lessons. Bless them.

I would say the vast majority of players are intermediate such as myself.

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Now way back when at the local school bridge club. We had two future world champions playing. If that is what you mean by good player. At least two others who are , I think active top 500 players all time in terms of MP.

Oh and I would add Kit Woolsey was a regular at the club a year or two before I joined but had graduated I think. So I forgot to add him to the list

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In terms of local players out in Southern California playing at the the local clubs.
Back in the day.

Yes plenty of excellent, really excellent players would occasionally show up but that was still rare
However I never saw Hamman or Soloway or Kantar at the local clubs.

I had a weird experience when I was sent by my job to Dallas for training for a number of weeks. At night, I was free, so I found a bridge club and they arranged a partner. The first night I played one of the N/S pairs was Oswald Jacoby and his partner of whom I have no recollection. All I remember is they bid 3NT, I led the K from Kx, and my partner overtook with AQJxx and gave them a stopper with 10xxx. So much for my Ozzie story, LoL. Can't recall the name of that Dallas club ... seems like it had White in it's name though, which was the color of Ozzie's hair by then. This would have been 1980, I think.

[jillybean]

I'm obviously too young, too inexperienced or keep the wrong company to have great stories like this.