A man named Mr. Jimmy once tried to teach me how to play bridge. The only problem was that I was eight years old and counting down the minutes until this particular visit with my second grade class to the local nursing home would be over.
I remember listening to his gentle explanation of card values and rules for a few minutes until one of my friends politely took the deck from him and asked, "How about Go Fish?"
Much like my handwriting, my bridge abilities haven't really evolved much since the second grade.
Jimmy's efforts were noble, but card playing has just never been my strong suit. I'm not even that good at Go Fish.
So the thought of joining a campus organization dedicated solely to playing one of the most involved card games out there? Yeah. Funny joke.
Dartmouth's Bridge Club was founded three years ago and has about seven active members. In 2010, it was ranked sixth in the 2010 North America Collegiate Championship Games, beating Harvard, MIT and Penn in the qualifying round.
The game is often described as intellectually challenging and excellent for maximizing the potential of one's short-term memory.
In light of the fact that I already lost my room key a week into the term, I realized that I could actually use some short-term memory TLC. So I attended a meeting on a Wednesday night in Collis not exactly the typical Dartmouth Wednesday evening scene but I figured it could be interesting.
The group was immediately welcoming and more than happy to teach me the tricks of the trade. They started to explain the rules, but then they realized that they were going to need to back up further.
Like, all the way back. Like pretend like this girl doesn't know what a jack is, and then go from there.
I would like to think that I'm a fast learner, but to be honest, I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on during the first hand I observed.
The rules seemed too arbitrary and subjective to be teachable. I wanted to pull a second-grade and ask if we could just play Go Fish. But after repeated explanations of the rules (usually more dumbed-down than the last), I eventually started to get it: rounds of secretive communication within paired teams followed by a series of "trick" competitions between the teams.
Or something like that?
I wanted to know more about what makes these students enjoy bridge so much.
Yinghan Ding '13 is a transfer student from Hamilton College, where he founded a bridge club before coming to Dartmouth. He learned the game from an old and I mean really old friend a few years ago.
"I have a friend in North Carolina who will be 88 years old this year, and he taught me how to play," he said. "It was a very popular game when he was in college, but it isn't as much now."
Ding said that the fun and intellect of bridge isn't the only thing that makes the game worthwhile it's also a great way to impress your grandparents during Christmas break.
During his freshman fall, Zach Kamin '14, another member of the club, was like any freshman attempting to find his niche. He received a blitz about a club that plays card games, and he decided to show up.
"I didn't know how to play at all," he said. "It was really frustrating at first. To play and know what you're doing comfortably takes a month, at least."
I doubt that my bridge-playing skills would impress anyone at the moment, but there was definitely some marked improvement in my game after attending the club's meeting.
That is, I could take a turn and only mess up with my card selection twice before finally picking something acceptable. But hey, that's at least a step up from Go Fish.
Maybe I'll go back to that nursing home when I go home for Thanksgiving this year.
If Mr. Jimmy is still around, I could use a couple of tips.
