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Documentary on bridge


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"It's not easy making your living playing cards, especially when you're playing a dying game."

 

It must be a very hard work for professional players to make a real "miles & boards marathon" like a one C. Balicki & A. Zmudzinski did in only 7 weeks:

 

Poland>>>Japan(NEC)>>Poland>>Moscov(Slava Cup)>>>Poland>>>Amsterdam(Whithe House)>>>Poland>>>China(YEH)>>>Poland>>>St Luis(6 hard days of Vandy).... all top tournaments in which the sponsors expect top play and results.

 

 

Robert

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A couple of generations ago, most educated adults knew how to play bridge, and bridge superstars were minor celebrities. So while bridge isn't yet on the verge of extinction, it's definitely been on its way down for decades.

partly because of that invention called "computer games" and its effect on the youth?

 

bridge still has its tradition though after this many years, and it's definitely not "dying"...how inappropriate that word was :)

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Guest Jlall
Dravid out for 60, India on the brink of following Pakistan out of the tournament. Disappointing really... because I really fancied them.

 

On the bright side, at least England might win 3 games in the super eights now! (Windies, Bangladesh, Ireland). Oh... if we beat Kenya tomorrow of course.

lemme guess, you meant to post this on the cricket thread :)

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From ACBL HQ:

 

IN THE CARDS

 

As every bridge player knows, playing your cards well is only half of the game. The other half, which is perhaps even more challenging, is dealing well with your partner. The relationship that exists between two bridge partners is often as intimate, as complicated, and as volatile as a marriage. It's that dynamic that separates bridge from almost every other game. And it's that dynamic that makes the game so exciting,

 

In The Cards is a one-hour television documentary airing on CTV on April 7 at 7 p.m.  (check your local listing) that's about one of the most exciting partnerships in the world of bridge. They're young. They're brash. And they're Canadian. Their names are Gavin Wolpert and Vincent Demuy, and In The Cards follows them for almost two years as they struggle first to prove themselves as a professional partnership, and then to maintain their partnership, and even their friendship, as the competitive pressure mounts.

 

Filmed during a variety of events between 2004 and 2007 -- including the National Swiss, the Blue Ribbon Pairs, the Spingold, the Reisinger, the Cavendish, the World Junior Championships, and the Canadian Nationals -- the documentary captures the intensity and the excitement of high-level bridge.

 

How will the boys do when they're hired by Jim Mahaffey, a real estate tycoon and one of the richest sponsors in bridge? Will Gavin be able to keep up with Vince's prodigious talent? Will Vince be able to control his temper when Gavin makes mistakes? And what happens to their partnership when Gavin starts to play with his girlfriend, Jenny Ryman, as well as with Vince?

 

The documentary also features cameos by such well-known bridge figures as Fred Gitelman, George Mittelman, Hazel Wolpert, Rose Meltzer, George Rosenkranz, and Sabine Auken. Eric Kokish, the renowned bridge coach from Toronto, is a major commentator throughout the documentary.

 

But at heart, In The Cards is a story about two young men trying to make their way in the world. It's got a heart-warming ending, but there are plenty of twists and turns along the way.

 

The CBF wanted to make all Canadian Bridge players aware of this documentary.  Please accept our apologies if you would have preferred not to receive this notice.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gavin Wolpert's comments on the documentary are in his relatively new blog, at:

 

Gavin Wolpert's Bridge Blog

 

The documentary was shown at the same time as a Toronto-Montreal hockey game, and at the start time of the Toronto regional evening session. There is no sign, yet, of it showing up on the CTV network broadband site.

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Part 4 is now up.

Great effort Justin by you and others to put this on You Tube and make it available to mass audience. CTV market is small, ( Canada) and this should spark some interest in bridge around the globe.

 

By the way, I think they CTV choose wrong timing, it was Easter weekend and also at the same time Regional Tournament in Toronto, so probably not many have seen it anyway.

 

I ve seen first 2 parts and can say very well done.

 

Cheers

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Yes, great job Justin!

 

Not to sound ungrateful, I would like to suggest uploading the files to a free storage site, like mediamax.com, so people can download the orginal file - in that way, the quality of the film will be kept as the original - without Youtube "distortion".

 

Anyway - great stuff!

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I've just watched the whole 5 parts and on the whole I enjoyed it, particularly as it features good friends of mine. I dont think Gavin and Vince come out of it smelling like roses though and altogether I'm not sure its a really good advertisment for bridge.

 

I think they both made some statements they regret they making on film but since 18 months of filming was condensed into 44 minutes you may have to question the context of some of the material.

 

Worth watching but grab an uncut version if you can (it's in 5 segments on YouTube).

 

nickf

sydney

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I watched it on You Tube.

I thought it was well done.

It seemed well suited for non bridge players.

Good job all around.

 

Idea for a book

"Bridge Psychology - and What causes partnerships to collapse and what you can do to avoid this"

 

In "At The Table" Hamman mentions that Ira Corn hired a psychologist to help Goldman and Eisenberg work on the communications. (not signaling either :)

 

I likes hearing Kokishs comments too.

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