10 Questions about Famous Bridge Players

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Perhaps the world's most famous investor, he competes in tournaments both in the flesh and online. Although he dislikes technology, it was his passion for bridge that led him to buy his first computer. He once proclaimed 'Bridge is such a sensational game that I wouldn't mind being in jail if I had three cellmates who were decent players and who were willing to keep the game going 24 hours a day.'

Answer: Warren Buffett

Bill Gates couldn't convince Buffett to buy a computer, but Sharon Osberg, Vice President of Wells Fargo (in which Buffett owns over one billion in stock) as well as a championship player, convinced him that if he bought a computer, he could play better bridge, as she could coach him in online games.

2. He is one of the world's richest men and, perhaps, one of the world's most famous men. He is not the world's best bridge player, but he is one of the most famous ones. Who is this computer geek turned multi-billionaire?

Answer: Bill Gates

Of Microsoft, of course. Sometimes he partners up with Warren Buffett. On one occasion, he and Buffett flew their regular partners in for a 24-hour bridge-playing marathon aboard a train. It was this partnership that led to a 'Wall Street Journal' headline proclaiming 'Bridge Is Cool!' In his first tournament, in Anaheim, CA in 2000, Gates partnered up with Sharon Osberg (he was supposed to play with Buffett, who couldn't make it due to illness.) Although their play was lackluster, they certainly attracted media attention!

3. This tennis star uses bridge games as opportunities for relaxation. When she travels, she likes to find nearby bridge clubs and join in. She once said, 'No matter where I go, I can always make new friends at the bridge table.'

Answer: Martina Navratilova

She wrote the introduction to Audrey Grant's 'The Club Series-Introduction to Bridge'. She's also teamed up with Billie Jean King in an email course designed to help teach bridge to newcomers.

4. The longtime president of the 'Washington Post' newspaper died in 2001. What most news stories did not reveal was that she was on her way to a bridge game when she had the untimely fall that led to her death. Who was this rich and talented publisher?

Answer: Katharine Graham

She was on her way to play bridge with Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. This caused William F. Buckley to comment, 'One doesn't know about her prowess in bridge, but a playful imagination wonders: If the bridge game had been consummated, would Buffett or Gates have ended up owning the Washington Post?'

5. This famous cartoonist was an avid bridge player who often depicted bridge players in his comic strips. One of his characters was named an Honorary Life Master by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL.)

Answer: Charles Schulz

The Life Master was Snoopy, although it was usually Woodstock and his buddies who were too busy playing bridge to talk to Snoopy.

6. This actor is perhaps better known as a bridge player than as a thespian. Author of many bridge books, he also writes a popular newspaper column of bridge problems. Who is this star of 'Dr. Zhivago' and 'Lawrence of Arabia'?

Answer: Omar Sharif

Sharif is one of the bridge world's most prolific authors. He has proclaimed 'Bridge is my passion' and 'Many games provide fun, but bridge grips you. It exercises your mind. Your mind can rust, you know, but bridge prevents the rust from forming.'

7. This basketball star was called 'the biggest, tallest bridge player I have ever seen' by Jeff Goldsmith,a CalTech professor, who faced him at his first bridge tournament.

Answer: Wilt Chamberlain

In his account of the match, Goldsmith wrote, 'It turns out that he has been playing for only six weeks. Now he is thrown into the shark pool. ' A bit more of the commentary gives a glimpse into the obsessive world of competitive bridge: 'West leads the Jack of Clubs and Wilt wins the King. Studiously, he returns his other club and West runs the clubs. Declarer pitches all four hearts from dummy and two diamonds and a heart from his hand. Wilt can spare a heart and two diamonds, but what can he pitch on the last club? Nothing at all; he is suicide progressive squeezed. If he pitches a diamond, declarer can win the spade return (best) in dummy and cash three diamonds, squeezing him in the majors. If he pitches a heart or a spade, declarer has seven tricks immediately.

He pitches a diamond, then squirms again, only to concede defeat in the end as declarer chalks up seven tricks. In order to beat 1NT, Wilt needed to shift to the King of Hearts at trick two. That seems to be a very difficult play for anyone, not just someone playing in his first tournament.

It is not good enough for West to abandon clubs, since declarer can just simply set up two heart tricks to make his contract. All at the table were amazed by the hand; none of us had seen one of these before. Imagine: my partner, all 135 pounds of him, squeezing Wilt Chamberlain to death. Isn't bridge great?' Now, if you can understand any of that, you are on your way to being a good bridge player!

8. This late comedian was an avid bridge player. For several decades, he played daily at the Hillcrest Country Club. He said, 'Bridge is a game that separates the men from the boys. It also separates husbands and wives.'

Answer: George Burns

Even at the age of 100, he still showed up for his daily bridge game.

9. From 1965-1970, this actor played the inept Agent 86 in 'Get Smart.' His role as a bridge player is less well-known although from the 1990s onwards he ran frequent games at the Playboy Mansion (yes, Hugh Hefner plays bridge too!) Who is he?

Answer: Don Adams

An anonymous story on a Don Adams fan site said, 'Don Adams (of Get Smart) played a lot of rubber bridge while I was living in L.A. in the early eighties, and for all I know he still does. One day his partner opens 1NT, it goes double, and Don bids 2NT. Don did not play this for the minors, and everyone knew it.

The other players looked at him as if to say 'What are you doing?' Don is no dummy, he knew he must have done something screwy. With his best Maxwell Smart imitation, Don says 'There are only five players in the country who know the meaning of my bid.

Unfortunately, . . . I am not one of them!' ' Phillip Alder, a bridge columnist, wrote an entire 'Get Smart'-themed series of bridge columns that can be found online.

10. This Supreme Court justice likes to play bridge in a suit and bow tie.

Answer: John Paul Stevens

He is a Life Master in the ACBL, and his bridge-playing career began at a very young age. His brother Ernest wrote, 'When John was six, he could play better bridge then most adults today'

Source: Author crisw

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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10 Questions about Famous Bridge Players | Hobbies

Duplicate bridge is a sport for the intellectually-inclined. Quite a few famous people have spent time at the bridge table. Can you identify them?

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