A Game Bridges Generations

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With players like Warren Buffett giving it cachet, the game, once a bigger pastime, holds its own.

Investors know Warren Buffett as the Oracle of Omaha. His online bridge partners know him by another handle: Tbone. He says the skills the game teaches— making inferences and working well with a partner—are invaluable in broader life. "I really do recommend it to people," he says.

Some figures suggest Mr. Buffett has a receptive audience.

 

 

The American Contract Bridge League, the sanctioning body for competitive bridge in North America, says it expects to have nearly 163,000 members by the end of the year, a 15-year high. A spokesman for Bridge Base Online, a site partly owned by bridge enthusiast Bill Gates (screen name Chalengr, according to Mr. Buffett), estimates 100,000 computers log onto the site daily, up from 75,000 two years ago, but says the growth could reflect players defecting from other sites.

What seems certain, says Jay Baum, chief executive of the bridge league, is that baby boomers are driving most of whatever growth there is. As boomers age and get more free time, he says, they're discovering the game offers a low-cost way to socialize. And with the league's base graying—the average age of its members is nearly 69, up from 66 in 2002—aficionados say bridge gives tennis knees a chance to recover.

Bridge has "deception, it's got analysis and you can play with your opponent's head a little bit," says Bob Hamman, one of the world's top-ranked bridge players, about the game's appeal. Don't give up, he advises: "If someone's played for maybe 100 hours, they end up liking it."

Bridge used to stand taller as an American pastime. In 1931 and 1932, the so-called Bridge Battle of the Century pitted two proponents of different bidding systems against each other for five weeks. NBC Radio nightly aired a 15-minute broadcast about the match.

First Lady Lou Hoover played in Washington, and Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer in Hollywood, says Gary M. Poment when bridge was young and sexy," Mr. Pomerantz says in an interview. The game would enjoy strong popularity through the 1960s before being edged aside by TV and other distractions, but "never again would it reach that fever pitch."

The game continues to inspire passion in its devotees. Former Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne made headlines in 2007 and 2008 for hitting the bridge circuit while his firm was foundering.As for Mr. Buffett, he plays online most nights. "I just picked [my handle] out of thin air," says Tbone. He once famously said that if he were playing bridge, a naked woman could walk by and he wouldn't notice. Mr. Buffett adds now, "I'm 79, but when I'm playing bridge I feel 20."

-- Juliet Chung

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