I’m an avid fan of The Matrix: This includes the film series, the video games and the complimentary Animatrix that’s worth a watch for much of the background that you’ll see in the films.
Every once in a while, I’ll consider the series worth watching again from the start. This time, I realized that re-thinking the Matrix series could help me to think about bridge in a few different ways.
Here are a handful of concepts from the Matrix universe related back to cards.
The White Rabbit
The white rabbit is the metaphor for anyone’s first introduction to bridge. The first time you spot the white rabbit is the first time you ever hear about the game – and what intrigues you far enough to go looking for more references to the game of bridge everywhere else.
It’s the first time you type “contract bridge” into your search engine, it’s the first link you click, it’s the first game you play. It’s the very start of the journey.
The Red or the Blue Pill
Which pill are you going to choose, Neo? The choice of either one capsule or another is your second, more serious introduction to bridge. It’s what happens once you’ve met and followed the White Rabbit towards the discovery of bridge clubs, communities and sites – and it’s what happens when you consider yourself converted to the game of bridge.
Neo finds Morpheus, and just the same, you’ll find your appropriate Bridge Teacher when you’re ready. From there, they’ll teach you what they know and you’ll get to see an entire new World of Bridge that you didn’t know existed beforehand.
The Black Cat
The first Matrix movie introduces the sight of the black cat walking by twice. It’s a glitch in the program that runs the Matrix, and it’s the same as seeing a character in a video game get stuck in a wall.
As a direct quote, “It happens when they change something.”
They, of course, are the ones within the Matrix.
What this teaches about the game of bridge is recognizing the sight of patterns in the game and knowing how to respond to them from there: It also teaches you how to recognize any unauthorized information (UI) and rule violations at a glance.
The One
Neo is known to be The One. The metaphorical Messiah of the Matrix, meant to lead people to greater insights. Morpheus devotes most of his life to believing this goal, even when the Oracle points out that he might have been wrong.
Within the game of bridge, you can see The One as your most powerful cards in the hand you have been dealt.
Use these right, and you’ll get to victory. Use these wrong and you might be leading your way to a losing game.
Dialing Into the Matrix
Within the Matrix, picking up the right ringing phone gets you back out to the real world – and plugging in gets you back in. Dialing into the Matrix can be compared to logging into the world of BBO for a game: Instantly, you have access to an online network of thousands of players online right now – and you can start your journey into the game just by dialing in.
Welcome to the Matrix, and welcome to the world of online bridge.
Mr Smith
For every hero, there’s an opposite. Neo has Mr Smith – and bridge players have GIB.
We could say that both Mr Smith and GIB are made up from lines of code, and both can hold their own when opposing a human player.
If you’re ready to face off against a thousand varieties of GIB, you might be better prepared for facing off against players in the Real World – and no, I couldn’t resist the pun.
The Taste of Tastee-Wheat
What if everything tastes like Tastee Wheat? It’s an essential concept in the movie – also introduced very early on during the first link, by the character known as Mouse – that speaks to perception and how it can be fooled with.
This is a great metaphor for the variables that take place within a game – and about not being fooled by an opponent’s moves.
Can you see through the moves and plays of what the opposing team is doing for a few moves in advance, or are they fooling you into thinking that Tastee Wheat is chicken?