Bridge is a game of strategy, communication and endless possibilities. For generations, bridge enthusiasts have gathered worldwide to play the card game – including right here in Pacific Palisades.
Fifty years ago, Palisadian Russ Sherman and his then-neighbor Austin Phillips met with several friends at the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center to play a game of bridge. It was the first meeting of what has become a sure-thing Wednesday nights in the Palisades.
A throwback to the game made popular when he was in college, Sherman set three rules for the bridge club – what he still refers to as the “Three No-s.”
No charge. No points. And no smoking.
Sherman wanted to keep the club fun and open to players of all levels, setting it apart from the American Contract Bridge League which charges membership fees and awards Masters Points for each win.
The Rustic Canyon club only plays duplicate bridge, instead of party bridge, because as Sherman says, “Then there are no excuses if you lose in duplicates. It’s a game of skill and you can’t win on luck.”
Players have come and gone since the club’s inaugural meeting in 1962, membership dwindling to as low as 8 and rising to as many as 32. Sherman, who learned bridge from his mother at a young age, has remained faithful to the game year after year.
“Never say die,” he said. “People come and go, but most of us came here because we knew other bridge players from outside the club. Now that we have all played together so long, we’ve become friends inside the club.”
Initially, Sherman partnered with his wife until her passing several years ago. Thanks to a newly formed bridge partnership, Sherman was introduced to a special lady, Tanya Flanzbaum. The two are now officially an item, he said, and recently enjoyed a bridge cruise together.
“You never know how you’ll find someone,” Sherman said. “Maybe that will encourage more young people to take up the game. But I know they’re too busy looking at those [phones] in their hands. It’s like they don’t know what to do without it.”
Sherman is right to recognize that the members in the bridge club are mostly in their seventies or older, but the average age certainly hasn’t hindered the group’s liveliness – or their competitive edge.
“Retired people tend to a play a sport, if they can, and then they play bridge,” Ralph Gidwtiz said, who came back to bridge after a 40-year hiatus. The Highlands resident had played the game in college and got back into it in recent years at the suggestion of friends.
His partner, Zenon Neumark, is a newer bridge player but the group said his game has improved tremendously with the lessons he has taken. In his late 80s, the retired aerospace engineer said his game is finally picking up.
Lessons have served many members well, including David and Carolyn Field, who have made their home in the Palisades longer than the bridge club has.
“I refused to play for 50 years,” Carolyn Field said. But when several tennis friends made the switch from racquets to cards, she followed suit. “For various reasons we’ve all made our way here. And now, here we are every week.”
The game seems a right of passage for the members of the Rustic Canyon Bridge Club – an endearing group made up of teachers, bankers, a Holocaust survivor, New Yorkers, tennis enthusiasts, Palisadians and grandparents. Wednesday nights at 7, you can find them, friends new and old, tipping their hat to a game as timeless as its players.
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