June 2008 - 26

Eight is Enough:
How it began
By Mary Oshlag

There was no bridge game on
Wednesday night at our club, and the
Unit 144 Board asked me to think of
something. Bridge teacher and Director Jack Wynns and I brainstormed;
our plan was to find a way to get
players with less experience to play
with experts. The Eight is Enough
concept is the result.
Here's how it works: Once a month
we hold a Swiss team game. Each
player is assigned a point value. A
Flight A player counts as three points,
Flight B as two and Flight C as one.
(The masterpoint limit for each flight
depends on your club.) No team can
have more than eight points. This
means that if two Flight A players
want to play together, they have to
play with two Flight C players. Three
plus three plus one plus one equals
eight. Sometimes we have four Flight
B players who team up. They each
count as two points and two times
four is eight - eight is enough.
With the Unit Board's approval, I
started advertising the game. I put
posters in the playing area and articles in our newsletter. We had eight
teams the first month - maybe when
I said eight is enough, they got the
wrong idea! I remember that the sec-

ond month, a player brought a guest
from out of town. That guest was told
that we "might have eight teams," and
we had 16! It was growing. We are
now in the third year and typically
have between 20 and 30 teams.
Because it is a special game, we
only hold it once a month. We think
it would lose its appeal if held more
frequently.
The response to this game has been
incredible! It is really heartwarming
to have people tell me how much they
enjoy it and what a wonderful game
it is. One day I had a message on my
answering machine. It was from a
local player who played for the first
time. She thanked me and told me
that in her 40 years of playing bridge,
she had never had such a great time!

Richard and Mary Oshlag direct team games in Memphis TN.
Mary created the Eight is Enough concept.
26

For her, it was a new game, a new
partnership and a new friendship.
That is what we want to hear from
our bridge players.
Eight might be enough, but the
concept alone is not sufficient. We've
found you have to call and e-mail.
There are lots of players who want
help getting partners and teammates.
I try to build teams of players who
would enjoy playing together; many
friendships and partnerships have
developed because of this.
Other things have helped Eight is
Enough be successful. There's lots
of good food - if you have food,
they will come. We keep the game
moving. It starts at 7 p.m. and we try
to end by 10 p.m. Jack Wynns usually gives a short lecture before each
game, and the Flight C players love it.
We've also featured guest lectures by
Tim Bourke, Frank Stewart and Brent
Manley. The game was improved by
stratifying it. I take a photo of the
winners and post it on the bulletin
board. A note and the photo is sent
to each member of the winning team.
These are little touches that can be
done to improve any game.

North Carolina clubs
agree: Eight is Enough
By John Markey

A local Tournament Director heard
about Eight is Enough at the Gatlinburg Regional in 2007 and told me
about it. As President of the Raleigh
Bridge Club, I had been looking for
a way to build a bridge to our friends
at the Triangle Bridge Club which
serves Durham and Chapel Hill NC.
I talked to Club Manager Jay Bates
about it. He also liked the idea and
forwarded it to his Unit 191 board. I
discussed it with the RBC board, and
they loved it. Both boards approved.
Here's how we do it: We hold
the game once a month on a floating Sunday (to make sure we don't
overlap with a sectional or other
event). A person with 2000 or more
masterpoints is assigned three points,
a person with 750-2000 counts as
two points and a person with 0-750 is
counted as one point. A team cannot
have more than eight points - eight
Bridge Bulletin
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2008
