After a five-hour online bridge marathon against twenty-six other teams earlier this month, the Caltech Bridge team has qualified as one of eight teams to play in the North American College Bridge Championship. They will be sent on an expense-paid trip to Las Vegas to vie for $500 scholarships per a team member in the championship which starts on July 17.

The team members are CS undergrad junior Cheng William Hong, ACM undergrad junior Roger Lee, Physics grad student Chien-Yao Tseng, and EE grad student Hsi-Chun Liu.

The four met during the weekly Monday night Bridge Club meetings at Avery Dining Hall, where anywhere from six to sixteen undergrads, grad students, alumni, and community members played bridge. As the only four individuals young enough to participate in the tournament, they formed the Caltech team.

While no Caltech team tried out last year due to time conflicts, Roger Lee was a member of the Caltech Bridge team that qualified for nationals two years ago. “We didn’t play well,” Lee says, but thinks this year’s team is stronger. “I think we have a good chance of winning.”

Bridge is a card game where a set of bids is followed by the playing of dealt hands. In the team tournament play, four team members form two partnerships. While skill and chance are involved, tournament style “duplicate bridge” attempts to remove certain aspects of luck by dealing a duplicate hand of cards to the opponents of your other two team members. Thus, the two partnerships of each team must play from opposing points of view.

William Hong says this is the most interesting part. Regardless of the hand you are dealt, “you need to make the most of what you have.”