Love Of The Game All You Need For Bridge Club

A Spokane bridge club removes the element of luck from the game to focus on skill.

Each of the 500 members of the Spokane Duplicate Bridge Club is dealt the exact same hand, which removes any luck of drawing good cards. So each player has an equal chance and from there, it’s a matter of skill.

With each game they win, players are awarded master points. When they accumulate 300 master points, they become Life Masters and are regarded as advanced players.

“You’re a better player than the average bear,” said Bruce Cook, the club’s publicity chairman.

Being an advanced player, however, doesn’t mean there’s nothing more to learn. “Oddly enough, it’s a game you never master,” Cook said. “I’ve been playing for 30 years and I’m still learning.”

Cook learned to play bridge because he was interested in a girl who played.

“I think half the men get into it for that reason,” he said. His interest in the girl waned, but his interest in bridge kept growing.

Cook remembers when bridge was the “in” game, during the ‘30s. “It was more popular than football,” he said. “You played bridge or you wanted to.”

Cook likes the competition of playing at the club rather than at home with friends. “When you play at home, you have no idea how good you are,” he said.

All one needs to join Spokane Duplicate Bridge Club is a love of the game. Cook joined when he moved here three years ago.

The club was formed in 1947, but the original reason for its being is a lost fact: “A bunch of players got together, (but) nobody seems to remember why,” Cook said.

Members can join the National American Contract Bridge League. It has annual dues of $28, but the only cost associated with the local group is the $3.50 charged for each three hours of play.

Most of the session money is used for overhead; about every three months the price is raised briefly to $4.50 per session, with the extra dollar donated to charity.

Last year the club donated $500 to the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery and Spokane Hospice. The national bridge league also picks a charity every year.

“ACBL has always been big on charity and so have the local units,” Cook said.

Lessons are offered every Tuesday to players at all levels of proficiency at the Bridge Studio, 112 E. First. A series of eight lessons costs $41.

For more information, call 624-7108.