In Bridge world, I am a “junior master.” While that sounds impressive, it is really just slightly less than mediocre. I always enjoyed the game regardless of my lack of talent playing it.
Oh, if you did not know, Bridge is a card game played by 4 people with rather complicated rules. In the US, it pretty much equates grey hair and retirement. For the rest of the world, however, it is a fiercely competitive game of intellect.
To play Bridge, you need a partner. You can never win or lose on your own. Internet introduced robot players. Everyone entered the tournament with the same robot partner, algorithmically speaking. They have exactly the same intelligence and adhere to the same conventions. Cloud also enabled games with hundreds, or even more, players — a difficult feat in the real world.
So I installed this app (WeWeWeb Bridge for Android) and found myself in tournaments with 300+ “solo” players. These tournaments have 16 “boards” — that everyone was dealt the same 16 hands. Since the hands, partner, and the opponents are all the same, there is really no excuses; the result is completely up to your own skills. Can it be any more adrenaline pumpingly brutal?
Several tournaments proved me to be a solid average player: in terms of match points earned or ranking from the game. Good thing there is no partner yelling at my mistakes. Better that I can practice and improve on my own.
Sigh… Need to practice SAYC (a weird name for a bidding convention) now. Wait, is there an app for that?