Ken Obrecht

I first began learning and playing Bridge with a church group in the mid-1980’s.
My wife and I would play once a month. Our group called it “Fun Bridge”. Our
Rubber Bridge game was very basic, using only one convention – Blackwood.
I would also read the Bridge column in the daily newspaper trying to learn and
understand some of the very basic conventions. Our bridge group continued until
about 2009 or so.

I retired in 2010 and decided that I wanted to focus on something that I could
improve upon. I started exploring Bridge websites and came across a website
called Bridge Club Live (BCL). It was based out of London, England.

One day I was playing at a table and met two other players from the U.S. One
was from Chicago, IL and he told me that he was holding a Coaching Class every
Tuesday afternoon. He invited me to participate. So, for the next four years or
so, I tried to attend as many of his coaching classes as possible every Tuesday
afternoon in the BCL coaching room for 2 ½ hours. I took a lot of notes, plus, our
coach would send each of the participants e-mails on basic bidding guidelines and
the commonly used conventions.

However, now I’m more active in the St. Louis Bridge Center and enjoy playing
with several partners on BBO website.

Bridge is game that you never stop learning. Read as much as you can and try to
spend some time each day studying bridge. I still read the Bridge column in our
local newspaper everyday.

Most importantly, bridge is a game that one should enjoy and simply have as
much fun as possible.