American bridge-playing honours students find fun with cards

Paul Gutterman, a tax professor at the University of Minnesota and an avid bridge player, gives a group of honours students guidance on their finished bridge game. Photo: TNS

On a recent Monday night in a common room of Middlebrook Hall on the University of Minnesota’s West Bank, about a dozen honours students sat at tables, most with their heads down, intensely focused on deciphering what they held in their hands.

Yet, there wasn’t a single phone to be seen. The students pored over playing cards – 13 each – as they tried their hands at what for many has been their grandparents’ game: contract bridge.