Bridge team to test skills in national tournament

Rajan Iyer plans to play bridge for a long time.

//

"This is the only game you can play until you are 100," said Iyer, an Aiken resident, who is one of six men from the CSRA Bridge Club who will travel to Nashville, Tenn. for a national bridge tournament that runs Wednesday through Saturday.

The men - Iyer, Varghese George, of Martinez; Gordon Lien, of Augusta; Ray Coleman, of Augusta; David Coberly, of Spartanburg, S.C.; and Owen Lien of Hickory, N.C., formed a team last fall. In February, they won a tournament in Columbia, which qualified them for the regionals in May in North Carolina.

"We've gone the last three years and lost to the same team each time. We beat them this year," Lien said.

Bridge club members meet on a regular basis on Shartom Drive in Augusta. There are games in session most days of the week.

Lien said he plays as often as he can.

"Probably about once a day," he said.

Bridge offers a challenge that other card games do not, players said.

"It's mental gymnastics," Coleman said.

"Poker is strictly odds," Lien said. "This has some odds, but you have to figure out what everyone else is going to do."

For some of team members, this trip to the nationals is a first.

"I'm excited and nervous," George said.

For others, it could be the last.

"This is a one-time opportunity," said Iyer, who will move up to a different category next year.