Hawaii bridge players say game bolsters friendships, sharpens minds

Cathy Hess inherited a lifelong interest in bridge from her parents. “I’d watch over their shoulders and learned to love the game,” Hess said.

She played in college and as a newlywed, then rediscovered the game as a grandmother after moving to the islands in 2003 to help her daughter with the grandchildren. As a newcomer, bridge helped ease her into her new home.

“Bridge is a great way to make friends,” she said. “Bridge brought me into a community of people with similar interests. It feels like a family.”

The game also provides exercise for the brain, said Hess, who plays three times a week. “It’s something that you can do your whole life. It keeps the mind active because there’s lots of deduction, reasoning and logic involved. Research has shown that playing bridge keeps people mentally sharp and socially involved. Some of our top local players are in their 80s and 90s.”

So it will be a social occasion and more when the North American Bridge Championships are held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village this week. The last time the national tournament was held in Hawaii was in 2006; it’s only been held in the state four times.

Close to 4,000 bridge players from all over the world will compete Thursday to Dec. 2. Locally, games sanctioned by the American Contract Bridge League take place on Oahu, Kauai, Maui and the Big Island. The tournament will give players from these local communities a chance to compete against players from the mainland, Canada, Asia and Europe.

Muriel Stitt, the 2018 chairwoman of the bridge championships, said the games are not played for money, but rather for master points that allow players to reach different ranks.

This year, prizes will include “Jazz With Aloha” CDs, created in memory of Stitt’s late husband and bridge partner, Oded.

Stitt’s first visit to Hawaii was on her honeymoon in 1971, when she and Oded fell in love with the islands. They came to live on Oahu in 2004.

“He was the love of my life. We were married for 45 years and were always bridge partners, but he passed away three years ago,” she said.

Stitt has named one of the games at the upcoming tournament in honor of Oded.

The tournament also will include a “Learn Bridge in a Day” session for newcomers to learn the basics, as well as special rooms for beginners.

“When I was a beginner player, and went in against the best players, I’d get clobbered,” Stitt said. “I’d have to scratch and claw to earn anything.”

She intends the beginner rooms to be a haven, “a safe, secluded place for newer players,” she said. “They don’t need to be terrified of the big, bad sharks.”

Like many veteran players, Stitt said the game introduced her to new people and helped forge social connections. “It brings people together from all different cultures.”

Gordon and Penny Riddick, who have volunteered to work several shifts at the newcomers desk at this year’s tournament, picked up bridge as a hobby that would challenge them in their retirement.

“Much has been written about the importance of exercising your bodies as well as your minds as you age,” Penny Riddick said. “We had the physical exercise part down but not the mental part. Plus, both of us had toyed with learning bridge earlier in our lives.”

Gordon Riddick was taught the rudiments of the game by colleagues at work during lunch breaks. Penny learned the basics from a roommate in college. But both put bridge on the back burner for about 20 years, until attending a “Learn Bridge in a Day” session at a tournament in 2014.

Along with a few friends, they took a 10-week beginning bridge class at the Wailupe Community Center to brush up on their skills.

The Riddicks say they’ve gained lots more than mental exercise from the game. “We have made many friends at the bridge table, many of whom we have other interests in common such as dancing and traveling,” said Gordon Riddick.

Penny Riddick uses the bridge league website to find bridge groups when traveling. “You can make friends all over, not just in Hawaii,” she said.

And she has gained a better feel for living in the moment.

“In bridge, you can do very badly on one board and you must learn to put that behind you and move on to the next board. You don’t have time to dwell on it or brood about it.”

Busaba Williams began playing bridge in college with some sorority sisters. She called it “kitchen bridge, very basic and just one step harder than playing hearts.”

Williams’ proficiency grew after she moved to Honolulu from San Francisco in 1995. “I took bridge classes and started to play at several country clubs and a local bridge club. I met so many wonderful and interesting people.” Williams was the chairwoman for the 2006 tournament and is in charge of this year’s intermediate and newcomers rooms. She became a bridge teacher accredited by the bridge league and a certified bridge director. She also met her future husband, Luke Han.

“We were bridge partners from 2004 to 2011. We taught and ran bridge on cruise lines,” she said.

Sadly, Han died 18 months after they married in 2009.

In their years together, though, the couple took steps to ensure the future of the game. They opened the Hawaii Bridge School and received funding from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to teach bridge to middle-­schoolers in 2005. Gates and Buffett are passionate bridge players.

“They believed this game would teach kids math skills, logical thinking, leadership and partnership,” said Williams, who continued to teach classes at Moanalua and Washington Middle Schools and the Boys & Girls Club until her husband’s death.

It can be hard to get younger players involved in the game, she explained. “It takes time and you need some dedication to take it up.” Most players are 40 and above, Williams said; the average age is 59.

But young players who do stick with it stand to share in the the game’s benefits of friendship, learning and community. “Bridge will be with them for life,” Williams said, “and eventually they will carry on this great game.”

For more info on the tournament, including a schedule of events, go to nabc.acbl.org.