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Article on "Mr. Bridge" Mentions Backgammon and Poker
Posted By: Bill Riles
Date: Wednesday, 5 May 2010, at 10:17 p.m.
From new May 2010 issue of "Texas Monthly"
http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2010-05-01/feature5
The greatest player in the world—perhaps the greatest player of all time—is a seemingly unremarkable, quietly intense septuagenarian from Dallas named Bob Hamman. How do I know he’s so good? Because every time I’ve played him, he’s inspired the same emotion: fear. by Paul Burka
“I think there are four great mind games,” Bob Hamman tells me. “Chess, backgammon, poker, and bridge.” He has played them all, and he proceeds to lecture on the subject. “The trouble with chess is that a small difference in skill is a huge difference on the scoreboard. If the other player is better, you lose. You either have to get better or quit the game. As soon as I figured that out, I quit. It’s like being the second-best sprinter in the world. You’re still never going to beat Usain Bolt. Poker is not about cards; it’s about reading psychological situations. There’s no complex card play. Backgammon is a matter of positional evaluation and math. It’s a gambling game.”
That leaves bridge, the subject that I have come here to discuss with Hamman. We are sitting in his office in North Dallas,..............
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