Playing the trump

Young Chang

Something random has suddenly reminded 92-year-old Jewel McQuaid that

she needs to pack her lunch today. She’ll probably take fruit -- canned,

no sugar added -- and half a sandwich on something other than white bread

because she’s diabetic and needs to watch her choice of carbs.

The occasion? A double date with luck and mental maneuverings. A

chance to think hard and go up against the game that never stops

challenging its players. Quite easily, a highlight of her week.

Bridge.

For McQuaid and other seniors who arrive promptly at 11 a.m. twice a

week at the Costa Mesa Senior Center to lunch and catch up with friends

while playing a good three hours of bridge, it’s important to maintain

the momentum. After all, if they don’t, who will?

Certainly not younger generations. And certainly not fellow seniors

who forget that bridge is every Tuesday and Wednesday because their

memory escapes them. It’s a dying game, players say -- theirs to save.

“Where I used to have as many as 20 tables, I rarely have over 12,”

said Gordon Dean, head of the bridge group at the center. “We’re getting

fewer people that are coming in, and I think the younger generation is

not playing bridge. So when they’re old, they don’t know how to play.”

Dean, who celebrated his 88th birthday Tuesday -- he jokes and laughs

that it’s actually the “59th anniversary of his 29th birthday” -- says

the cause might be technology.

“I think the newer generations that are coming up are involved with

their computer stuff and not playing it anymore,” he said.

Pat Holman, who is also part of Dean’s group, agrees. Anyone who has

hit the age of 55 is welcome to play at the center -- for just $1 a day

-- but they rarely get anyone even that young.

“When you’re older, it’s a wonderful way to spend part of your day,”

she said.

Esther Vollowitz, who won’t tell her age because she’s “up there,”

adds, “You make a lot of good friends.”

Some people talk all the time, some keep quiet. Vollowitz maintains

that it’s a thinking game in which you don’t want anyone to break that

process, but she and other seniors chat during lunch.

Dean admits he plays bridge mostly for the company. The competition of

the game, the skill, the intensity -- it’s all enjoyable, but for this

bridge leader, the game is more about the players.

“You know, you get awfully lonesome when you get to be my age,” he

said. “For me, this is a social event where we play bridge, not the other

way around.”

But all of the players agree that bridge is not a game for the dim or

slow-witted, which is perhaps why devoted fans can play for decades

without feeling they’ve mastered the tricks. Computers may be today’s toy

for up-and-coming brainiacs, but bridge is a predecessor to that

technology -- one comparable in mental strategies, players say.

The lingo itself is something to learn: There are the “suits,” which

contain 13 cards each. “Ranks” include spades, hearts, diamonds and

clubs, and are important when it comes to “bidding,” which helps you

learn the strengths and weaknesses of your fellow players and establishes

whose game it will be, as well as the number of tricks that player will

need to make his or her bid.

There’s also the numerical ranking of the cards.

A player must know just how much to bid, where, whether to combine the

bid with suits or no-trumps and, also, when to “pass.”

“Slams” can be small or grand. A small slam involves six bids. A grand

slam has seven. “Tricks” are made up of the cards each player puts on the

table during a round.

You have to leave certain elements of the game to chance, much more to

skill and some degree to your ability to judge and read others when it

comes to verbally valuing the cards.

The goal of the game is to get the most points.

“You have to remember what people have said and done, and what the

portent of the leads they’ve made are, the bids they’ve made,” Dean said.

“You have to retain a memory of what has been played and the sequence,

and there’s a lot of strategy involved in the game.”

Vollowitz admits that they can’t keep track of everything.

“We’re all seniors, you know,” she said. “Sometimes I win, sometimes I

don’t. It all depends on the cards you get and the cards you have. You

have to count all the points.”

McQuaid, who enjoys that luck plays somewhat into the game -- she even

takes a bus up to Laughlin once a month to gamble -- said bridge really

isn’t all that hard.

“You just keep your mind on what you’re doing and you’re OK,” she

said. “You’re never too old to learn new things.”