Bill Gates Finds Duplicate Bridge a "Window" to Fun

Bill Gates is accustomed to taking on software competitors, government anti-trust lawyers and federal judges, but this weekend he's facing some really tough opposition.

Rumors of the Microsoft chairman's attendance at the Anaheim NABC have been circulating all week. Those rumors proved to be true, as Gates entered the Mixed Board-a-Match Teams Saturday with partner Sharon Osberg of San Francisco and teammates Sheri Winestock of Toronto and Howard Weinstein of Chicago.

Gates has been much in the news of late, with Microsoft battling an anti-trust suit in the federal courts that threatens the software
giant with possible partitioning.

With regards to Gates, however, many bridge players have paid less attention to his legal troubles and more to the fact that he has
recently been spotted playing at several ACBL-sanctioned events.

Although this is the first North American Bridge Championship that Gates has attended, online enthusiasts have known for sometime that Gates can frequently be found playing bridge on OKbridge or at The Zone, his own online game site.

Gates frequently plays with partner Osberg, as well as Berkshire
Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and bridge software designer and Bridge Base founder Fred Gitelman. Indeed, Buffett was also scheduled to play as part of the Gates team in Anaheim, but is recovering from surgery and was unable to attend. Gitelman, too, was supposed to be part of the team but wasn't available to play since he is still doing battle in the Spingold Knockouts as a member of the squad captained by Roy Welland.

It is no secret that players and ACBL officials alike are delighted
with Gates' participation in the game. His presence attracts media
attention to bridge, and as with any celebrity, provides an opportunity for the game to be show-cased to the general public.

In an interview preceding the first qualifying session, Gates appeared excited to be attending his first national event. He and Osberg were engaged in the typical, last-minute fine-tuning of agreements. Gates sought clarification from Osberg on a series of points:

"How likely are we to encounter big club systems, and what defense do we play against them?" or "How do we treat a Precision one diamond opener?", and so on. Osberg reminded him of their methods each time.

Gates and Osberg play fairly straightforward methods.

"We don't play two-over-one," said Gates. "It's pretty much standard Yellow Card."

Gates took time out from the convention card discussion to explain his attraction to bridge.

"The game is so deep. There's always something you can learn, and it rewards you when you use good judgment," said Gates, who added, "and it's fun."

Gates said that he reads bridge books and uses instructional software to help him improve his game.

"The software that Fred (Gitelman) has produced is first-rate, and I also really enjoy material by Larry Cohen and Mike Lawrence," said Gates.

The Gates squad had a strong first qualifying session, posting a score of 16 (average was 13), but the foursome had a tougher time of it in the second set, scoring 11 for a total score of 27. This was just enough to qualify, however, as the cutoff score for the final was 26.5.

Gates looked pleased but relieved at the end of the qualifying
sessions.

"I knew the second half wasn't as good. We had several bidding
misunderstandings that were primarily my fault," he said, laughing.

"I'm not so concerned with bidding mistakes though, because I know that with enough experience, certain types of auctions will start to become automatic. But it's really frustrating to get a play problem wrong. I feel I should always be able to work it out."