The enigma of Bryan (and others)

Bryan has been playing bridge longer than I have. He's a more rigorous bidder, a quicker-thinking declarer, and all in all I believe a better player than I am. When I set up the running score tally nine months ago, I didn't have any particular expectations; but it has revealed a mystery. My score has steadily pulled ahead by miles, while Bryan's has lingered very close to zero for months and months.

(I'm taking Bryan as an example, but the low scores of others puzzle me equally.)

With no false modesty, I'm quite sure that I'm not the best player of our crew, and certainly not by such a margin. (Nor do I falsify the scores.) I am probably the best memorizer of conventions, but that doesn't confer a great advantage with a series of randomly rotating partners. The main difference in style between Bryan and I is Bryan's requirement of a sound 13 points to overcall, while I'll jump in with 9 good points if I think it'll do any good. And I'm perhaps more eager to shoot for slam than most people; I suppose that could be a factor.

Any theories?

Rusty bridge

After playing bridge in the flesh every week for a year or so, as well as online almost every day, trips and other people conspired to put the weekly games on seven-week hiatus, at just the same time that I got bored by the online game. The result at last night's game might have been more obvious to myself than to others, although (skillful new guy) Adam noticed when I foolishly trumped low during my one stint as declarer.

It feels as though I've been keeping all my bridge skill in short-term memory, where it was readily accessible as long as I was playing frequently, but after weeks off, it's decidedly no longer at my fingertips. Adam, who hadn't played in a couple of years, seemed to have much better access to his brain's bridge archive. Perhaps his is in a different type of memory; or, more likely, he's just sharp.

Nils won the evening's prize for point winner: a copy of Louis H. Watson's classic book on the Play of the Hand at Bridge.