My wife and I arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, this morning. We're spending a few days here before heading to Herning, which is where the Bridge World Championships are being held.

The woman who checked us through immigration seemed surprised that we've come half way around the world to play a game of cards!

It's not just a game of cards, was my first thought. My second thought, two seconds later, was hang on, it is just a game of cards. And then two seconds after that, tired from a ten hour flight and then another thirteen hour flight on top of that I thought, dang, she's right! It is a long way to come for a game of cards.

Had dinner at NyHavn. Reminds me of New Regent Street in Christchurch.

Some of you may be interested in the bidding systems of players at the 2025 World Teams Championships:

view system cards

Ian and I have two systems, one for when we're vulnerable (Berrington-Tuffnell VUL NZ Open) and one for not vulnerable (Berrington-Tuffnell NZ NZ Open). 

When we sit down to play bridge it’s just us, the cards and our opponents. Bridge is a great equaliser and that’s a good thing. 

But we all have lives away from the bridge table and, frankly, I think we’re all amazing. All of us. 

We write, read, compose, sing, run, jump, climb, fly, build, break, fix, cook, eat and so on and on and on. 

And we paint. One of our members, Gerry, sent me this painting, “Cards Playing”.  

Next time I make a video I’m going to use the image as the thumbnail.

 I love it, Gerry. 

I've created a collection of suit combination videos.

Learning suit combinations in bridge is so helpful because it allows you to maximize your chances of winning tricks.

Remembering some of the best bridge books I've read. - 'How to read your opponents cards' by Mike Lawrence was an eye opener. What are some good ones you've read?

Great interview with the one and only Billy Eisenberg. Towards the end of the interview he talks about partnership skills. Well worth a look:

Watch on YouTube

The guy making coffee this morning told be about chess boxing. You play chess for three minutes and if nobody has won in that time you start a boxing match!

Watch on YouTube

Just goes to show that bridge players are smarter than chess players.

As bridge players we don't need to reinvent the wheel. In the poker world there's lots of discussion about playing our best. I read a book called 'The Joy of Poker' by Jason Su recently. All of it completely applicable to bridge. I just found this video where Jason is discussing it all.

Watch on YouTube