Playing bridge, the card game, often conjures up images of little old ladies passing the time while they chat about other things. It’s poker that is often romaticized as the competitive game, thinking man’s game.
Not according to the likes of billionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates who indulge a passion for bridge on a regular basis. And not so for local players from Franklin Lakes, Oakland and Wyckoff who belong to the North Jersey Bridge Association.
The NJBA held their Winter Sectional in Allendale, NJ Jan 27 – 29, and local players from all three FLOW towns were sitting at the tables exercising their concentration and memory while indulging in the joys of competition. ( Franklin Lakes even has its own club: http://www.thebridgetable.com/ )
While the term “poker face” is common enough, bridge has not caught on in popular culture with televised tournaments and celebrity players. The winners in a bridge tournament often must be satisfied with being winners, as it’s about points and not dollars.
Still, it’s an intellectual game, a team game, and many people find benefits that extend far beyond the card table. The team element, and the social gentility of the game, are often cited as elements that foster positive skills needed for work. The need to strategy, concentratation, and memory are specifc skills that the game helps to build in young and old players alike.
No one has yet to start the rumor that George Washington played bridge during his stay at Oakland’s Van Allen House, but there is no one to refute it either. America’s first president apparently had an affection for a version of today’s bridge game, and supposedly whiled away sometime holed up at Valley Forge playing cards.
It would be no surprise that leaders, whether political or industrial, would find card playing a natural diversion and exercise. The playing cards themselves, the face cards, have a foundation in specific leaders throughout world history.
The traditional basis for today’s playing cards can be traced back to real life leaders. The King of Hearts was orginally based onn France’s King Charlemagne, the King of Diamonds was Julius Caesar, the King of Clubs was Alexander the Great, and the King of Spades was King David.
More recently, playing cards played a role during World War II when The United States Playing Card Company secretly worked with the U. S. government to create special decks sent as gifts to Americans in German prisoner of war camps. When these cards were moistened, they peeled apart to reveal sections of a map indicating precise escape routes.