Poker and Bridge

Bridge players share many skills and interests with enthusiasts of other card games. Now at the top of the page is a link to an article entitled “Poker and Bridge”, which outlines some of the similarities between the two games and the usefulness of talents acquired playing bridge when gambling, be it for fun or real money. A bridge player’s dedication to the study of new techniques would also stand him or her in good stead on the path to becoming a successful poker player. Check it out, and perhaps you will find a new hobby to go alongside your bridge habit!

Costa Rica Voluntourism

Well I have returned unscathed from Costa Rica! I even managed to do some promotion for our various Bridge sites: the day we left, our volunteer coordinator was flying out to visit her mother, who is an avid bridge player. Hopefully the whole Louisville, Kentucky bridge community will come to read some blogs!

But on to the real adventure blogging! I’ll take it from the top.

As I’d mentioned in my previous post, my roommate, Deirdre, and I work at Medieval Times on weekends and were the two lucky employees sponsored to participate in a Globe Aware voluntourism program. (Check out their website at www.globeaware.com) There were ten of us in total from various “castles”, three from Maryland, two from California, and one each from Georgia, South Carolina and New Jersey, eight girls and two guys ranging from 21-30.

Deirdre and I flew into San Jose on Friday the 23rd, and got to spend the afternoon taking in the city (and trying not to worry about our temporarily lost luggage). The cab ride from the airport and our pedestrian excursions taught us that drivers in that city have an “anything goes/every man for himself” sort of attitude to driving. Taking our lives in our hands every time we crossed the street just added to the excitement, at least for me. Shopping in San Jose includes a mix of souvenir/craft shops and discount stores that sell sundries and clothing, many styles of which haven’t been prevalent in North America since the 90s. We stayed in the little hotel where we were to meet the rest of our group the next afternoon, though we found most of them that evening and got acquainted over bottles of Imperial, Costa Rica’s official beer.

On Saturday, we met our group coordinator, Jennifer, and piled into a large van with all our luggage strapped to the top, and proceeded to drive up and down through mountains, towns, and rainforest, almost three hours to El Sur de Turrubares, the village where we would be staying, working, and playing. We settled into our cabinas, which were two very nice two-story wooden structures with camp-style cots. There was a welcome dinner in the village “salon communal”, or meeting hall, of rice, beans, fish, plantains, tortillas, salsa, cooked vegetables and more.

The rest of the village consisted of a church, an elementary school (which currently has four students) the “popperia”, (which I have no idea how to spell) which is the convenience store and bar and evening hangout for most of the village men, where they watch soccer on TV or play pool. Houses were spread out, and it was difficult to figure out a definitive population since it was school vacation and there were lots of visiting children. With the exception of some itinerant workers from the nearby teak plantation, most of the people in El Sur are families who have lived there most of their lives. A couple of people owned horses and cows (who often provided a soundtrack to the week) and had small farms, but since much of the area has been declared a nature reserve, the revenue gained from the ecotourism program helps the village survive. It was a good thing we had some fluent Spanish speakers in our group, but I certainly feel I know more now than the almost nothing I started out with. Some ome knowledge of French and Latin did help me figure out certain words.

For the rest of the week, we made our own breakfasts in the little kitchen near our cabinas, but rotated in small groups to have lunch and dinner with five families who participate most actively in the EcoSur program with Globe Aware. Sunday we went for a hike in the morning, and Monday and Tuesday mornings were spent on our work projects, building a bus stop for the infrequent bus that goes by up the hill from the village, and painting and repairing some fences. Even though I put on lots of sunscreen, my very pale skin protested, but despite the intense heat we felt very accomplished. Afternoons included a siesta, or just time to read in a hammock, which was excellent for someone like me who has trouble relaxing and doing nothing, despite always wishing for more time to spend with books!

A fluently bilingual teacher has recently started coming to the village once a week to teach everyone English, from teenagers to grandparents. We volunteers sat in the lessons, (which I found incredibly interesting considering my academic background in Linguistics) and helped out, and even got some incidental lessons of our own, such as how to identify the Fer de Lance snake, the most venomous in Costa Rica.

In the dark after dinner Tuesday night, we had the spontaneous adventure of going crayfish hunting in the river! We watched a couple of the villagers shine super-bright lights into the creek and stab the little lobster-like creatures. We were instructed to walk in the river itself, in our rainboots, since we ran less of a risk of running into dangerous creatures than on land. But the risk still existed. Someone saw a snake, and even our intrepid Jennifer screamed (though I’m proud to say, for the record, I did not). Amid much tension, our fearless Costa Rican leader, Mario, threw three rocks at it and killed it. When we stopped to examine its corpse, we discovered it had all the features of a Fer de Lance.

On Wednesday, we took a field trip to Manuel Antonio beach, where we played in the waves all day, had authentic Costa Rican barbecue for lunch, and saw white-faced capuchin monkeys in the nearby national park! We rounded off that day watching the sunset from a hillside restaurant, drinking what several tour books said was the best sangria in the country. On the long drive back, we stopped in Jaco, (HA-ko) an area recently built up to be a tourist attraction and somewhat of a Costa Rican version of Miami for some food at a very North Americanized restaurant. We realized how much better an experience we were having in a real village rather than in an environmentally unfriendly tourist trap.

Thursday morning we milked cows! We then made fresh cheese out of the milk and learned how to make tortillas, and enjoyed the fruits of our labours. In the afternoon we saw a demonstration of traditional sugar cane processing (complete with a machine powered by oxen) and got to taste the various steps of the process as the juice was boiled and mixed and cooled. We toured one of the villager’s woodworking workshop, saw his beehives, and bought some beautiful cutting boards he’d made with various types of native Costa Rican wood.

Friday morning we went horseback riding, pausing to go for a swim in a hidden pool under a small waterfall, which was totally idyllic. After a lazy afternoon, we once again had a big dinner in the salon with all the villagers and sad goodbyes were said. We left early Saturday morning for San Jose, and dropped some people off at the airport while those of us leaving the next day went back to the hotel. After cold showers all week, the simple fact that it had hot water made the little Hemingway Inn feel luxurious! The remainder of the group had a lovely dinner at the beautiful Cafe Mundo, which I mention only so you can make sure to find it if you ever find yourself in San Jose.

The fun was still not over. Deirdre and I left at 6:30 the next morning and spent all day traveling. We had a 7 hour stopover in Atlanta so took transit downtown and discovered the Olympic park and the CNN building. It was well past midnight when we landed in Toronto, so I’m running on four hours of sleep and enjoying the chance to blog at the office.

I could go on and on, but I hope I’ve given a good summary. All in all, the trip was an amazing chance to get some global perspective, enjoy the warm temperatures, and recharge my proverbial batteries. The snow and the daily grind seem a little more bearable today, and I’m grateful for the unique opportunity to meet people both from the States and Costa Rica, who had so many stories to share and who participated in stories I get to tell!

Ebullient about eBooks

I’m really hoping that people in general, and bridge players in particular, are interested in eBooks. In part, it would give my life for the last month and a half meaning and purpose, but I also think that they are  a really useful product. In this age of concern about the environment, they don’t take up paper or energy to produce, and they are certainly easy to store!  Personally, I have a very large library and a very small apartment,  (the plight of many an English grad, I’m sure) which are somewhat at odds.

eBooksbridge.com is set to go live this coming Monday. I think the electronic format is perfect for bridge books, because the links and bookmarks (which I have worked so hard on) enable the reader to jump quickly from questions to answers and between related topics. In addition to some new and popular books, we are putting up several titles that are out of print, at least on paper. Bridge players are a good-sized but fairly spread out market,  and eBooks can be purchased anywhere, as long as one has the internet, with no time or money wasted on shipping. If you’re having trouble sleeping and are low on reading material,  bridge problems, lessons and stories are just a few clicks away.

Just from going through the first set of titles, my brain is crowded with all sorts of bridge information which I hope I can successfully put into practice at some point.  We’ve covered a great range of levels and topics, so there should be something for everyone. There will be some good deals and frequent additions. Companies are continuing to put out improved eBook readers  as well as more portable computers and other devices, so eBooks are only going to get more versatile .

So please, check out the fruits of our labours when they’re ripe for picking off the digital tree, and we promise that your bridge library will be more exhaustive as well as ahead of the technological curve!

Bridge Through the Snow

Working from home in the snow storm, and thus missing our Friday bridge lesson at the office, I thought I would spend some time with the Learn to Play Bridge software. Having read through the tutorial portion already, I began with the sample deals. Though perhaps my own inexperience is to blame, I have a few difficulties with the program.
I found myself wishing that there was some sort of pointer as to what I should be looking for as I started the hand. Also, the judgment of “INCORRECT” along with an accompanying ominous sound came only after too many tricks had been lost, rather than earlier on whenever I started down the wrong road.

After enduring various sound effects on the first three deals, it seemed deal 4 was more promising, as it had been designed to give the declarer plenty of opportunities to crossruff. Of course, the program was not happy with me taking a mere 11 tricks and insisted on 12. Still, after reading the explanation I was able to implement its suggestions (mostly by making a heart void in dummy using clubs rather than trumps, spades) and was rewarded with a harp sound effect and the wonderful word “Correct!” However, this small victory was put in perspective by the knowledge that real deals are random and one does not usually have the luxury of reading a lengthy explanation.

I moved on to Learn to Play Bridge 2, which begins by focusing on defense. Although the program warned me that playing defense is considered much harder than being declarer, I started with some hope. The chance to place some defense without a real partner to disappoint seemed like a good opportunity, and having only one hand of cards to work with is what I’m accustomed to from Hearts and Euchre. Learning what cards signal what seemed to be an interesting new undertaking as well.

Reading the tutorial was all very well, since of course everything made sense in theory. (The reminders to be kind to other players were also amusing. Apparently: “Bridge is not a form of war. The game is more enjoyable when the players use good manners!”) Memorizing and applying the ideas will of course be a different matter.

The opening lead quizzes were very useful because they were interactive and kept my attention while teaching. I will admit to skipping through some of the example hands. My brain was just about saturated by that point when it came to hands in which I could not participate. (Feel free to blame video games.)  Much to my dismay, there were no deals for the learner to play. I went on to read about signals for a while, which again made sense in context but I’m not confident in whether or not I’ll be able to apply them the next time I have a chance.

I’d have to say my bridge learning for the day was largely frustrating, but there is hope and a lesson to be learned! Namely, flesh-and-blood people and going through a hand in real-time are the best tools for learning a new and complex game. I still think I did accomplish some learning that will make me a better student, and Learn To Play Bridge was a useful program that I will undoubtedly return to. I’m definitely looking forward to my next real-life bridge lesson in the new year.

Still in shock from the good news…adventure blogging to come!

Note: Not bridge related, but exciting enough that Linda encouraged me to post!

While I am now a bridge book marketer by day, I still work evenings and weekends at Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament. As a way to “give back”, the corporation pays to send a few employees to another country to do volunteer work. Last night at the company Christmas party, it was much to my surprise that l heard announced that I was one of twelve people across all nine castles selected to go to El Sur, Costa Rica!

Apparently my Writing degree proved itself useful in putting together a good application. It likely helped that I mentioned I’ve taken a lot of Teaching ESL courses and volunteer and go camping with Scouts Canada. As an added bonus, the only other person from the Toronto castle selected to go was my very own roommate (another appropriate selection as she is an immigration law clerk by day with aspirations to be an environmental lawyer). It’s not specified yet quite what kind of work we’ll be doing, since the tour group figures out what is needed at the time, but it will likely be ecologically-related.

So I’ll be off for a week at the end of January, blogging all the while if there is internet access, or returning with plenty of entries to post if there is not! I can’t think of a better Christmas present; something to look forward to which combines the chance to do some good with getting away from the Toronto winter. I’m sure many readers have been all sorts of exciting places for bridge tournaments and such, but my travelling up until this point has been limited to Canada and the US.  I’m pleased to be able to share my good fortune and can’t wait to share my adventures! Now, back to work.

Humble Beginnings

My bridge education began last Thursday. Having done as much work was possible that day, I started up the Learn to Play Bridge computer program. The first several minutes were simply reading and reviewing concepts and sample hands, but it got more interesting when I finally got to play against the computer (of course with the tutorial providing extensive review after each hand).

The concept of a trick was at least familiar from playing hearts on the computer and euchre around the campfire. Though with the higher level of complexity in bridge, the need to formulate a strategy at the beginning of each hand is readily apparent. I can most definitely appreciate the almost infininite number of possible combinations of cards that necessitates countless rules and even more exceptions. After finishing part one of the software, I was comfortable with the process of actually playing a hand.

I received my introduction to bidding the next day when we had our office lesson/game with Ray, Linda, and Sally. Though I’m not sure of how to use it to signal the contents of your hand to partner, I now understand the requirements of one’s hand to bid for a certain contract and the way it affects the play of the hand.

Apparently I ended up doing a simple finesse during my first hand, not knowing precisely what it was, only that it seemed like a good idea. I led the ♠10 in hopes of flushing out the Jack, and believe it or not, it worked. It also seemed to reassure my bosses of their choice of employee, much to my relief and joy.

I would describe more of this first real hand hand, but I’m afraid my bridge memory is not so great – yet. My brain is sure to benefit from all the strategic thinking, calculations, and memory work. I think I may also be absorbing some bridge knowledge through osmosis, as I reformat various books and articles on the subject. While much goes in one eye and out the other, some stays. We’ll see what new revelations the next week brings.