BRIDGE : A GAME OF CURIOUS CONTRADICTIONS............... ( Some observations by Bridgemeister Gibson )

Bridge without doubt is a very strange game. Aspects of it border on the absurd..........with contradictions everywhere you care to look. And so if you don't believe me read on, because where else you could across a game in which :

• you treat your opponents with politeness and respect, saving your rudeness and aggro for partner
• opponents can bid like complete numpties against you, only to end up with complete tops
• you are required to open at the higher levels, only when possessing hands with litttle in the way of HCPs
• you can spend vast fortunes on accumulating masterpoints, which then prove to be meaningless because umpteen others are on the same total
• you set off to the club loving the game, only to leave the place threatening to give it up
• your final score is not determined by how well you played, but what had happened elsewhere
• you are told that all bids need to be transparent, only to misunderstand many of your partner's bids, or what conventions you have on your card...... yet when it comes to understanding your opponents bids, well they usually have a system card that is more complex than the enigma code
• you and everyone else in your club claim to be experts, when in reality the opposite is true
• brilliant play by yourself and/or partner is not what wins events....because winners are usually those who don't play stupid
• you spend more time on beating up yourself ( or partner ), than you ever do on bashing your opponents
• even as a top class player you can often end up being drawn against the mediocre non-entities in a major swiss pairs/teams event
• you are required to describe your hand as having one particular suit by simply bidding another
• you believe (bridge) is a sport, only to spend the next 3 hours or more sitting utterly still in a comfy chair
• you are forced to rely on lady luck and prayer far more than your own ability
• you see insanity triumph over disciplined logic time and time again

Yes, the world of bridge is very bizarre indeed....and any one who thinks differently is clearly in denial.