It’s common for people who develop vision problems to not realize the problem themselves for a very long time.
When life is seen through your eyes, it’s much harder to notice vision changes, sight degradation, or the little things you might do that points to being less able to see.
As someone who has experienced several eye surgeries in a lifetime, I can attest to it that you don’t always know about sight impairment until someone points out that you’ve just done something unusual (or someone says that you weren’t looking when you swear that you were).
Sound familiar to you, or to your partner? Here are some signs that a bridge player should check their vision.
1: More Misclicks
Misclicks happen when a player means one card, but clicks another.
It’s common when your smartphone’s screen settings are more sensitive than they should be (and you can set Click Confirmation in your BBO settings – but it can be just as common when you just can’t see what you’re clicking on anymore.
If you or your partner spots more misclicks than usual, zoom in, or check your vision.
2: Lowering Scores
If a you know a good player who suddenly starts to show up with lower scores, it might be an overall sign that something about the way they play their cards has changed.
If you suspect that vision might be behind this one, look for other signs (some on this list) that their sight could be the problem.
Are they looking harder to find the right card, or are their pauses between plays longer now?
Again, it could be their sight.
3: Dropped Smartphones
Before my second eye surgery (and right now, I have absolutely no idea how to describe what was done while I hope I was completely under), I dropped more things.
Just more things in general.
At first, it was barely noticeable, until the one day that it was. You can only break so many mugs before people start noticing it.
Vision issues can mean that someone is more likely to walk into things, aim for placing their phones on the edge of things (but missing them), and reaching just wrong for things when they do.
It’s easy to think you’re just dropping more things.
Nope. It’s probably a sight problem. And it’s something that I can only know because I’ve been through it before.
See a professional for an eye test.
4: Mistaken Suits (Or Wrong Numbers)
When a player begins to play the wrong suit (or approximately the right number) for what’s on the table, it might say less about their strategy and more about their eyes.
Reading situations wrong has a lot to do with reading, it turns out, especially when we’re communicating with cards.
The advice is the same as above. See a professional for an eye test, and find out just how much vision has to do with the issue.
Have you ever noticed anything that might be indicative of eye issues in yourself or another bridge player? Are you only noticing it now? See a professional.