Saturday, July 19, 2008

Poker players can play bridge too

Phil Gordon and Steve Zolotow played together yesterday in the Life Master Pairs at the Las Vegas NABC. I watched them for a few boards, and wrote about one of the deals in the Daily Bulletin.

They bid to a small slam and made seven when Zolotow (who was declarer) found a nice play for the overtrick. I titled it "Poker players gamble on slam." You can read about it on page 4 of the PDF, here. Bridge gets a bum rap as a game for old folks in a rest home. If you look at the DB, note all the young faces on the front page. Cal Tech beat Princeton in the finals of the Collegiate Bridge Championships and another team won the trials to earn the right to play in the Youth Bridge category in the International Sports Mind Games in Beijing, China, later this year.

I interviewed Gordon and Zolotow yesterday (Friday). They were generous with their time and it went well. The Gordon interview will appear tomorrow (Sunday) and I'll link to it then. The Zolotow interview will likely be published Tuesday.

Gordon is a high-energy guy with high standards. Having said that, he is down-to-earth and quite charming to engage with. Zolotow is funny and also a cool guy.

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