bridge

did reasonably well in the bgb on tuesday and wednesday - top 15% finshes both days - and i am quite sure now that we don't totally suck. after all these years of struggling, it's heartening to have sure markers of progress, to be able to look at a result after a board has been played and know that we've done the right thing, and for the right reason. the spats and disagreements that justin and i have are about higher-level things as well - psychology, technique, fine-tuning our judgement - and this, too, is an encouraging sign.

players like kantar, zia and roseneberg have all spoken variously about the stages of improvement in bridge, and in particular about how intelligence and problem-solving ability do not necessarily correlate with skill at the table. kantar, in particular, has written (i believe) a series of essays on players who "get it", and what exactly that means and entails - ability to think about the right thing at the right time, ability to see things from the points-of-view of the other players, knowing when to concentrate and when to let go. this was hardly comforting to me when i was picking up the game eight years ago, and there were times when i despaired of ever "getting it" - but now, now, i am convinced that at the very least i have not stagnated at that awful plateau, the stretch - sometimes impassable - that stands between the advancing player and the expert in any game.

some things haven't changed. there are still a million details of our system to be discussed. i still feel bloody terrible after, well, many sessions (although for vastly different reasons than i had in the past). i'm not an expert - yet - but at the very least i'm now sure that the path towards that goal is open to me, may be traversed. and that's a big thing.