Once upon a time when I had under 5 masterpoints, I worked at some nerdy quantitative hedge funds. We managed money using math and computers while taking advantage of leverage and relatively high turnover strategies. But I always respected value investing and buy-and-hold indexing, and there is no better guru than Warren Buffett.
Annual Trips To Omaha
For years, a group of friends made annual trips to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting in early May. Just like at the bridge club, our crew immediately stood out, probably because we looked decades younger than the median attendee. It’s an immersive experience of 20,000+ visitors, and I always leave with an energized mindset and new perspectives on investing, frugality, and life priorities. Unfortunately, this year the pandemic required a virtual meeting with 0 attendees – but today marks my bridge in Omaha anniversary.
Did Not Recognize Any Superstars
Every year, they hold a shareholder bridge event. It’s completely casual, shuffle-and-play bridge right after a boozy brunch. Unfortunately, I was a novice player who barely knew how to bid. We were waiting in line to play and Bob Hamman introduced himself as a shareholder who does some IT consulting, giving us his business card.
Later I’m playing against Sharon Osberg and we talked about places to play bridge online. She said, “Oh yes, try Bridge Base Online. That’s my site.” I thought she meant it was her go-to site, not literally HER site. They were so friendly and down-to-earth, and we were probably rowdy and buzzed.
Competitive Versus Casual Bridge
Maybe we offended people. Maybe they secretly loved not being treated as celebrities for a change. But it was a great time and critically import for taking up bridge later. Our group included Chris Moh and Mee Warren, who later became my first GNT and Big Apple Regional partners, kicking off my actual bridge journey 4 years later.
Most of us have memories from when we first learned bridge, and it was probably a much more casual and entertaining experience than our typical tournament play today. Do you ever long for the early days, when everything was just fun and low key? Do you enjoy bridge more today, or when you first began?