Welcome to the website of Bridge on the Edge, based in St. John's, NL, Canada.  In 2016 we became a player owned bridge club.  We support a respectful culture, both at the bridge table and in all BOTE communications, for the enjoyment and growth of all members.  

Please contact info@bridgeontheedge.ca if you need additional information.

Members who want to use the member's functions (ie bookings etc), please ensure you've accessed the site using the bridgeweb link bridgewebs.com/onedge/.

Tom and Deirdre will be teaching three lessons on defence on Thursday mornings 10:00am to noon at St. James beginning March 12th (next week).  
There will be an optional fourth lesson in April.  The topics are listed below:

March 12th Opening leads, third hand play, attitude signals and suit preference signals.
March 19th Discards and more suit preference signals.
March 26th Counting and unblocking.
April 9th If there is enough interest, practise hands to reinforce the above topics,

There will be prepared hands with each lesson to illustrate the topics as they are taught. 
Cost will be $25 per lesson, pay as you go. Sign up on the website singly, as pairs or as a full tables. 
Full tables would obviously be great but we can't guarantee this will happen.

These classes would be of benefit to all levels of players so sign up, there is no gardening on the go yet!

Starting this Thursday, March 5,  all players in BOTE’s Winter/Fall Session are invited to start again at the new premises at St. James Church on Elizabeth Avenue for a full day of BOTE Bridge. The morning lecture at 10 am, will kickstart a 4 lecture series throughout March. Cost for the full March block is $100. This Thursday only, to celebrate our successful move, we will break for lunch, and we will provide free finger food at noon. In the afternoon, more freebees as you are invited to stay & play some more supervised bridge with Roy as long as you want, no partner needed. All Welcome.

Please bring a donation for our food bank drive.

Our Supervised players certainly gave from their hearts yesterday when they help the club support the local Community Food Sharing. Association. We amassed this much food!  When I dropped it off this morning I was helped unload by the Federal Minister of Agriculture Heath MacDonald who just happened to drop by at the same time. Thanks everyone. 

On Monday, February 16, Raye & Wanda, sitting EW scored a whopping 72.05% to come first overall in this prestigious competition. Not too far behind them, also in the EW position Judith & Pramila posted an envious 67.95% to come in sixth place. It was really great to see four of our regular players, compete so well at this level & out perform a huge field of competitors.

The STaC (Sectional Tournaments at Clubs) games have been a very popular offering of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) for over 20 years. They were established as regular events in various districts as early as 2003. The initiative was purposely designed to bring sectional-rated, silver-point games to local clubs. This enabled a number of players to obtain access to MPs that they otherwise may not have had that opportunity to obtain without expensive travel requirements. While played face-to-face at local clubs, these special events evolved over time with specific rules, such as those for masterpoint-limited games, becoming more formalized by 2016 and updated again in 2019.

STAC offers sectional rating and is played in a number of clubs in a specific area over a period of several days. The masterpoints awarded in this type of tournament are silver points.

Results of all games are sent to the Director-in-Charge of the event. Section results are determined by comparing the results of play at all the individual clubs playing. Overall pair game awards are determined by comparing the results of all games conducted at a particular session just as if all of the games were played at one site. STAC results are uploaded directly to the ACBL results page. As a result, results are available quickly and updates happen automatically.

The Canadian Bridge Federation Canada-Wide STAC is played in clubs all across the country and begins early in February.

When I first sat down at a bridge table, I felt like I’d walked into a room where everyone was speaking a language I couldn’t quite hear. Bids flying across the table, signals, conventions, inferences… it was overwhelming in the most humbling way. I remember thinking: will this ever make sense?

And then, slowly, it did.

That’s the thing about bridge that nobody really warns you about. Learning it isn’t a straight climb. It’s more like breaking through atmospheres.

You start in the clouds, foggy, disoriented, just trying to remember what a splinter bid means or why your partner looked at you like that after you led the wrong card. Everything feels like too much. But you keep showing up. You keep playing. And then one day, something clicks. The fog lifts. You break through into clear air and you can see the logic of it, the beauty of it, the way a hand tells a story if you know how to read it.

And you think: I’ve got this.

Then someone introduces you to hand counting. To squeezes. To the inferences hidden inside what was not bid, the dog that didn’t bark. And just like that, you’re back in the clouds again. A new atmosphere, thicker than the last.

This cycle of fog, struggle, breakthrough, fog again… that is bridge. It’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong. It’s a sign you’re doing it right.

Every time you rise into a new atmosphere of confusion, it means you’ve grown past the last one. You’re not back at the beginning. You’re at a higher altitude, learning things you couldn’t even have asked questions about a year ago. The fog feels the same, but you are different.

I think about the players who can reconstruct an entire opponent’s hand from the auction alone. Who hear a 1NT response and immediately start calculating what that player didn’t have. Who feel the shape of a hand through the cards that have fallen. That didn’t come from talent. It came from walking through atmosphere after atmosphere, again and again, with patience and curiosity.

If you’re new to bridge and feeling lost, that feeling is not your enemy. It’s the feeling of growing. Every expert at your table has been exactly where you are. Every one of them has sat there thinking I’ll never understand this. And every one of them broke through.

So stay in the game. Ask questions. Play the hands. Embrace the fog.Your next clear sky is closer than you think.

Well mother nature ensured that last week didn’t go according to plan so let’s try those celebrations one more time.  This week, however, MUN is back in session so please try to carpool, walk or take the bus, especially at Supervised Play.  

Monday Morning   we will have a free Supervised Play session and will be providing sandwiches, coffee and tea.  Please bring something for the food bank in lieu of your table fees.  

Thursday Lunchtime   . . before the afternoon games we will have some sandwiches, tea and coffee.  There will be a free game for the Open Game and Duplicate Lite players.  Roy and Sandra’s students are invited to stick around and socialize after their class. Please bring something for the food bank and try to carpool if possible.

Thanks to everyone for their understanding and support. What can you do?  It’s winter. 

See you at the club!

Good morning!  Just a reminder about parking at our new home.  We are allocated forty (40) parking spaces per session.  We are to park in the first two rows nearest Elizabeth Avenue.  The first row there is hard to pick out if there is a slick of snow on the ground as it is close to the big snow pile near Elizabeth. We need to be mindful of our parking and try to stay within the lines (not exactly easy if you can’t see them, I know!).   If those two rows are full we can park elsewhere.  Don’t forget your permit and to display it when you park. 

We also need to carpool.  For supervised play tomorrow we have 64 people signed up.  Which is absolutely wonderful but we don’t have 64 spots for parking, hence the need for carpooling.  Please try to share a ride with a friend.  Apparently the parking is patrolled by MUN Campus Enforcement.  At this point we have no clue how diligent they are with enforcement, we are still in learning mode, but we do know we don’t want any problems for our players or the church.  So let’s all work together on this and it won’t be a problem.  

We’ve had  a lot of positive comments about the new space, quieter, brighter, cleaner.  We’re glad it’s working out so far.  

Thanks to all, see you at the club!