Do you remember your first visit to BBO?

Discovering BBO for the first time felt a lot like striking gold. I’d known about bridge for a while, but was still dipping into the waters and trying to get a feel for what the game was about.

I was familiar with trick-taking games, even though I didn’t realize it yet. I’d played casual rummy, blackjack and poker up until that point. But not yet serious bridge.

I remember being in a tough position at the time. Depression and circumstance came together to create what’s known as a proper SNAFU.

The moment was fueled by strong, sweet coffee. (With milk, I’m not completely insane.)

I’d sat down, powered up the laptop, took a sip of coffee, and remember thinking, “What the hell do we do now?”

It was a rough day, rough week, rough few months situation. Simply, after a particularly traumatic event, the PTSD felt raw. I recall being jumpy, nervous and riddled with a new series of nightmares.

Cue more coffee. Then cigarettes. Then another coffee.

I think all of this happened to a background soundtrack of The Mentalist. (Come to think of it, he might have said something about poker on-screen.)

At the time, I was digging for fresh writing markets.

The temptation to write about card games was certainly, undoubtedly there. I had wanted to do it for a while, but had spent time sitting on the fence.

It was more or less then when I discovered a selection of bridge websites.

I visited almost all of them that same afternoon. Of course, Bridge Base Online would turn out to be one of them.

I made it from one website to the next, played a game here and there. Lost – and horribly. Then read some more resources to figure out why I was on the losing end. (I got better, but that’s an ongoing process.)

Officially, my journey into bridge kicked off.

I didn’t think any card game could be analyzed move-by-move as critically as chess. At least, not until I met with bridge. This was one of the first aspects of the game I had been grabbed by.

The idea of partnerships in cards was still new to me at this point. (So were terms like ruffing, rubbers and Stayman.)

It jogged a few memories of trying to play bridge on DOS and early Windows systems as a young kid, but back then, I could barely tell the difference between Hearts or bridge.

I still had a lot to learn. Looking at my first scores, I could tell.

But discovering the game of bridge was what you’d call a turning point. I realized that I wanted to be good at something that wasn’t guitar solos – and by that point, I’d hung up the instrument.

I guess it’s no surprise that the guardian of the famous crossroads carries both a guitar and a card deck.

All it took was a couple of clicks to cross the crossroads into a new deal.

Instead of guitar, it was time for cards. And that was just fine.