Prop Bets

There was a good discussion at the bar last night about what it means to be on a bridge team. I’m sure that anyone who is reading this who doesn’t play bridge still might have some trouble following me if I ever talk to them about bridge being a team game. Why are there 6 people on a team when only 4 play at a time, and how do you play like a team when you’re at 2 separate tables?

The latter question is a little too remedial to address here, but the 6-man team is a concept that I struggled with last year in Beijing. I’d never been on a team with more than 4 players, so it often felt awkward to sit out of matches and at times it was hard not to feel like I was doing something really wrong or that I should have been playing, even though I knew that my teammates were playing just as well if not better than I might have if I were at the table in their place.

Bridge is a tiring game--not physically, but mentally. It is hard to focus your energy for a long time guessing what cards someone might hold, making statistical calculations and tactical decisions, and using logic to deduce how you might bid or play a hand. 6-person teams help when you’re playing in long events to keep you sharp and prevent that tired, cloudy feeling that slows your ability to think critically. Not only that, but it’s great to have another pair who the captain (who tries to remain unbiased) can sub in for another pair who is really sucking, for whatever reason. Sometimes people just need to be benched in bridge just like in any other game. It’s your job as a player to gather yourself, not get angry at the captain or be a distraction to the team, and get back to the table and do that. You also need to be able to pick up your teammates after they make mistakes to keep them playing their best. There’s a lot of morale and momentum in bridge, and in my opinion teams really bring out these aspects of the game and make it a much more enjoyable way to compete.

We went to the Grand Bazaar today. There were a lot of shops and a lot of haggling. I was able to procure a backgammon board in the hopes that I can win back the money I lost to ch00 last night betting on how many mililiters there are in a shot of liquor. Having dated a girl who liked to bartend and worked with metric measurements all the time in labs I thought I would have known...