As part of my project this year, I’m interested not just in how world-class players get and stay so good, but also in how regular mortals work on leveling up their game. I’ll be speaking with many players below the expert level who have worked hard to improve their game. I hope their insights can help everyone who is working to level up this year.
Charlie Wilkins is a bridge enthusiast who retired in 2021 after a long career in commercial real estate. Since mid-2017, he has been collecting deals from actual play, where non-experts made technically correct bids and plays that gained lots of matchpoints. He calls these deals “Real World Bridge” to distinguish them from deals that occur in all-expert games, deals that require expert skills, and deals that were invented by authors. Since COVID, most of these deals have occurred in large online Open Pairs games with 50+ tables. For more information, see https://realworldbridge.com/
“I’ve been working on Leveling Up for almost eight years now, and it’s led to big improvements in my game. I’ve read hundreds of bridge books and studied bridge for over sixty years (yikes), but my game really started to improve when I started getting coaching from Marty Bergen, Dennis Dawson (from 2017 until he died in 2022), and Val Kovachev (starting in 2020), not only about technical skills but about how to play my best bridge consistently.”
Some of the highlights:
Charlie told me about how the first pro he worked with, Dennis Dawkins, changed his outlook on the game (1:30) and how playing a tournament with Marty Bergen helped him understand the need to work on playing to the best of his ability (6:45). We talk about the importance of partnership and system versus individual ability (21:30) and Charlie gives me his advice for getting better—hire a good teacher (27:00)! Charlie gives a great tip for getting the hands out of your head at night at a bridge tournament and getting yourself to sleep (31:10).
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