Masters Of The Game -- For The World's Best Bridge Players - Some Here Next Week - The Triumph Is In The Trump

The questions:

A: In what game would you find a 96-year-old playing at equal level with a 32-year-old partner?

B: In what game do you have intellects who can tell you how the cards fell in a hand four years ago?

C: What game so confounds some noted brain surgeons that people with more wholly logical minds wonder how the good doc ever learned to tie his or her shoes?

The envelope, please.

Bridge. Bridge. Bridge.

If that's not enough bridge for you, trot over to the Seattle Sheraton Hotel or the Washington State Trade and Convention Center next Thursday through Nov. 28. Both sites will be crackling with intensity as Seattle hosts its first national bridge tournament in 25 years.

Sometime today or tomorrow, a 52-foot trailer from Memphis, Tenn., will begin unloading 10,000 decks of playing cards, 15,000 pencils and enough soothing terms to last 4,500 players 10 days.

The fraying of nerves

Everyone knows bridge is only a game, but when masterpoints are involved and when a person's partner turns out to be a complete bumble bum, nerves get a little frayed.

"As the degree of difficulty goes up, the more intense it becomes," said Roger Putnam, who lives in Redmond but is home only about 12 weeks of the year. The rest of his life is on the road directing bridge tournaments.

Putnam and his wife, Margo, will be among 35 directors here for the American Contract Bridge League Fall Nationals, one of three

national-level events held each year.

Directors serve as umpires. They take the money, start the game and come running if there's a question of rule interpretation. It's very like baseball, Putnam said, except appeals more often result in change.

"There are times when it's every bit as difficult as baseball because of the personalities involved."

You don't have to be a crank to play bridge. On the contrary, the best players are often the ones most in control of their emotions. But the game is highly competitive, as much for the 96-year-old as for the 32-year-old.

Paul Soloway of Mill Creek, one of about 100 players in the country to actually make a living playing bridge, forced himself to be less intense after having open-heart surgery in 1988.

"I've had to relax a little," said Soloway, 52, who's won three world championships and holds the country's all-time-high masterpoint total. "There's no doubt there's stress in what I do. There are people who torture themselves."

A form of relaxation?

That, for the nonplayer, might lead to another question: How can people say bridge is relaxing?

For some people, the more intense the play, the more they forget about the rest of the world and think only of the game. Other people limit their competition, say, never venturing beyond club play, because they don't want it to be too taxing. Still others, well, about 8 million others in the U.S., don't go beyond kitchen, or party, bridge, a much more social version.

Whatever the form of bridge, the main idea is to select a "trump" suit, which has additional powers, and then have partners agree by way of a contract to win a specified number of hands, or "tricks." The partners who win the bid then try to take enough tricks to meet that contract. Meanwhile, the other partnership attempts to score enough points to stop them.

Players have to qualify for the Blue Ribbon Pairs at nationals, but all national events are open to anyone, even novices. Regional-level events are being held at the convention center and national events at the Sheraton.

Ole Godefroy, local co-chair of the tournament with Barbara Nist, said one way the national tournaments add pressure is through Vugraphs, which display hands of the top matches on television screens. The audience watches the monitors while commentators wonder aloud why any fool would make such a move.

"If you play bridge, it's a phenomenal way to improve your game," said Nancy Foy, one of three people from the Tennessee-based ACBL who choose tournament sites and get them up and running. "If you're like me and don't play bridge, it's like listening to a foreign language.

"You look into the minds of the better players and formulate how they're going to force a five-spade contract."

Duplicate bridge means each player in each session plays the same 26 hands, which are pre-dealt by computer, placed on boards and carefully kept under lock and key. It removes the luck because there are an equal number of good and bad hands for all, and it places more emphasis on tactics and strategy.

Being logical helps

People who are good in math (stockbrokers, math teachers) or are particularly logical (computer analysts, lawyers) do well. But so do some people who have no relation to those fields or any field, for that matter.

"If you know the percentage or the odds, you're apt to be better, but every now and then that rears up and bites you," said Putnam, the director. "Card sense helps, but it's by no means mandatory.

"A favorite pastime is people getting together afterward to discuss hands. If you ask `What did I do wrong on that hand?' there are a lot of people waiting to tell you."

The real skill is in the bidding, which has kept Soloway challenged for 30 years. Although there are standard bidding conventions, it can become so complicated among the better players that Soloway has a 90-page agreement with one of his partners.

Opponents are allowed to see the agreement or a summary in advance. Beyond that, if there's something particularly tricky, say in opposition to standard agreements, Soloway is bound by the rules to say "Alert."

Bidding is how partners describe their hands to each other. Soloway, bless his heart, can describe it in terms a 3-year-old could understand.

"It's like, if you're describing your dog outside the window and you say, `See the big black dog,' that's a fair description. But if you say, `See the big black dog with curly hair, pointed ears, short snub tail, a white spot on its chest,' that's a much better description."

If you just guessed that Soloway raises Bouvier des Flandres, you should take up bridge.

In fact, lots of local people will take up bridge in the next few months. It happens in the wake of every national tournament. Shirley Edelson, a local teacher, says a person of average ability could pick up the basics in eight weeks of classes.

Knowing the basics can be enough to get you happily off and running. It's the next step that's painful, according to Edelson. That's the slow-dawning recognition that you still have a lot to learn.

Bridge was a real apple-pie sport until video games stopped the influx of American youth into the game. Membership in the ACBL dropped a decade ago and only recently climbed back up over 200,000. Godofrey did a demographic study a year ago and found the average ACBL player is 58 and makes $58,000. Ninety percent have completed college.

"We're getting a little long in the tooth," he said.

Computer bringing them back

The computer is making amends for distracting youth. Now it's bringing them back through Internet, which links players worldwide to play "OK Bridge." Students at the University of Washington can sit down and play students at the University of Sydney, and they do.

Players from around the world will be coming to Seattle for the national tournament. Though the sport is healthy and growing fast in Asia, the former Soviet Union and Europe, it's unlikely they'll steal Americans' thunder, yet.

"Bridge talent in the U.S. is very deep," said Soloway. "It's almost easier to win the world championship than it is to win the right to represent the U.S."

--------------------- CHARITY GAME, AUCTION ---------------------

A black-tie charity game and silent auction will start the activities for the American Contract Bridge League Fall National this Thursday at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Actress Kay Lenz will present a $100,000 check to benefit the fight against multiple sclerosis. Daily bridge sessions will start at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. Nov. 19-28 at the Convention Center and the Seattle Sheraton. Players and visitors are welcome.