Bridge | 24 April 2014

It’s no coincidence that many card players excel at both bridge and poker. The poker legend Gus Hansen plays a mean game of bridge and regularly turns up at tournaments. The American bridge star Steve Weinstein is also a poker pro who goes by the name of ‘Thorladen’.

The attributes needed for both games are remarkably similar: a knowledge of probability, an ability to ‘read’ people, an outstanding memory, the confidence to bluff, the ruthlessness to go for blood…But I’m pleased to report that Weinstein believes what I’ve long suspected: that bridge is the  more skilful and difficult game. ‘You can’t be a prodigy in bridge like you can in poker,’ he maintains. ‘It takes years to become anywhere near a master.’ He does, however, credit poker with giving him the psychological edge for which he is famed at bridge. The above deal comes from the recent Las Vegas Regional. Weinstein (West) was on lead.