June 2020 - 7

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Ode to bridge in clubs

Will bridge in clubs survive the
COVID-19 crisis? I get asked that a lot.
People suggest that once players are
used to playing online, they will not
bother to get dressed and get to the
local club. Come rain or shine and no
matter the hour of day or night, online
bridge is always available.
But while it is a wonderful shortterm solution to our current craving, online bridge will never replace
face-to-face interaction. We want to
visit face-to-face with our friends and
acquaintances. We want to hug, kiss or
shake hands. We are all starved for human contact. Online, we can chat for a
moment but it is not the same. Some of
the time, your whispered chat may get
misdirected to the lobby or to the rest
of the table. We want to gossip (always
so much fun), but email and chat just
don't cut the mustard.
There are pretty much two types of
bridge clubs in North America: proprietor-owned (for-profit) or memberowned (ostensibly not-for-profit).
Their future survival depends on a few
things:
1. Is there only one club in town? No
competition means the club can
easily survive.
2. Is there a teaching program? We
have to keep building new bridge
players. Beginner and intermediatelevel courses are essential. And
there has to be a good teacher committed to teaching and encouraging
people to play duplicate bridge at
the club.
3. Are there stepping-stone games
for new players? 0-5, 0-20, 0-50,
0-100, 0-200? The newbies cannot
jump from the classroom into the
open games.
4. Does the local bridge community
admire, respect and appreciate the
club owner/manager's business

Letters to the Editor

practice? Does that person run
a good ship and care about their
members? Are there good directors? If it is all a bit shoddy, the club
may not thrive. If they are loved and
respected, the local bridge community will want the club to continue
and will do everything possible to
make that happen.
Players need to have a face to turn to
to ask questions, to solve problems and
to pat you on the back and say "well
done."
In online bridge, if you take a bit
longer to think, you may get replaced
by a robot, or at least ejected from your
seat. With so many people playing
online right now, the system is strained
and there are several glitches. These do
not occur in real life.
The hardened anti-social players
may prefer to stick with online bridge.
That is fine. Bridge clubs are better off
without the anti-social. It is rare that
we are not greeted by our opponents in
real-life bridge. Online, it is common to
have zero interaction. We crave human
interaction, of the real-life variety. For
my part, I can hardly wait to get back
to a real bridge table, and I predict that
bridge clubs everywhere will flourish
after the downturn. But they must be
prepared to put in some extra effort.
Let us all remember that running
a bridge club is done for love, not for
money. I was always told: "How do you
become a millionaire running a bridge
club? Start with two million."
BARBARA SEAGRAM
Toronto ON

Boroughs

As a career statistician and columnist for the Sunshine Bridge News, I
am often asked about probabilities.
Recent Bridge Bulletins have described
various "Yarborough" hands, ones that

contain no card higher than a 9. Recently, a hand from an actual club game
was published in the March issue (pg.
7) featuring nothing higher than a 6.
The table below describes the various "boroughs" and the probability that
your next deal will meet the requirements.
Highest
card
10
9
8
7
6
5

Name
10-borough
9- borough
8- borough
7- borough
6- borough
5- borough

Probability
(1/x)
275
1828
16,960
254,398
8,191,609
1,133,952,785

The reported 6-borough is incredibly
rare, to say the least.
I was also asked about the probability of having both members of your
partnership being simultaneously
pointless (10-boroughs), so that the opponents have all 40 HCP. The answer is
once in 1.951 million. This is about four
times as common as a 6-borough.
JON SHUSTER
Gainesville FL

Seniority

I believe that one reason bridge has
failed to grow is the problem of venues
for clubs. Many clubs operate from
churches or other facilities available
for meeting spaces. Some are forced
to make commercial arrangements for
their facilities. This forced hiatus will
take a toll on clubs who had commercial arrangements and have not been
able to secure rent relief during the
Letters to the editor are welcome by regular mail and email.
Brevity is considered a virtue, as is subject matter with relevance
to a majority of ACBL members. Unsigned letters are not
considered for publication, so please include your name and
hometown. Letters may be edited. All letters will receive a
response. Send emails to editor@acbl.org.

June 2020 Bridge Bulletin

June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2020