Day 3

Well, it’s the 3rd day of play here in Philadelphia and finally I have some time to write. So far I've mostly been occupied with 10 hours of bridge a day.  I try to eat and sleep in the remaining 14 hours. Luckily, I had the opportunity to have one of the best dinners of my life on Saturday night (look for a special guest post by my partner, Jason Chiu) with some team members.  I also saw my good friends, Brian Wyman and Jocelyn Rhoades, on Monday.

Up to this point I would classify the tournament as stressful.  I felt relatively calm leading up to this trip compared to the previous two years, although there were some symptoms of stress. However, since I’ve arrived in Philly it’s been impossible to remain asleep for more than a few hours at a time and I've had to basically force myself to choke down meals.

So why is that? Well, while my main goal in normal tournaments is to have fun, it’s nothing but business here. Free time before matches is spent poring over the opposition’s system notes and constructing counter-defenses to bids that are foreign to American players. With the advent of running-scores on the internet, what used to be relaxing sit-outs have become stressful sessions looking at your teammates’ results. Evenings are spent wondering how you could have possibly screwed up such-and-such a bid or botched such-and-such a play. The table environment is also intense. For anyone who hasn’t seen a screened bridge table before, here's our battlefield:

Notice the diagonal barrier across the top of the table as well as the divider underneath. These are to prevent the communication of any illegal signals between partnerships. During play the small window is opened to see the play of the cards. Basically the only part of your partner’s body you can see are his or her hands.

As far as results go, we’ve been doing well. Currently my partner and I are the top-rated pair in the tournament and our team has a healthy grip on 1st place heading towards the end of the round robin. For those of you who are wondering, there is no carryover in the knockout phase, but the top ranked team gets first choice of 5th-8th placed opponent in the quarterfinals and is allowed to set the semifinal matchups. However, if USA2 qualifies for the knockout phase, the bracket would be constructed such that we would play one another in the semifinals in order to prevent an all-American final.

Bridge is a game of mistakes. Much like golf the main objective is to hit the fairways and greens. Do that, and you’re likely to distance yourself from the field. But, just as Jean Van de Velde blew it on the 18th hole of the 1999 British Open, one serious error can ruin all your hard work. Up to this point our team hasn’t been great, but the other teams have been worse. It’s a microcosm of many of life’s challenges.