Yeah, I drank the Kool-Aid on playing what some consider an old person’s game: Bridge

The regulars, around 14 of them, are drinking coffee, chatting and enjoying some freshly baked goods still warm to the touch. The air in this austere room in Overland Park has a feel of electricity, anticipation, like you might sense just before a sporting event.

They are preparing to play bridge.

In the universe of card games, cable television suggests poker is the most popular, played in Las Vegas, mostly by men sporting wraparound sunglasses and ball caps plastered with ads. But bridge has its own dedicated and devoted following. And there is increasing evidence the game is reversing its decline.

To be sure, no one would confuse the Bridge Studio at 97th and Metcalf with Caesars Palace. No one has pinkie rings, for instance. Bridge might be the domain of the AARP crowd and, on this Friday morning, nothing you see would dissuade you of that opinion. The game is seeing a revival in pockets and, with a renewed focus on tasks people can embrace to improve brain health, the game is making a comeback on college campuses and with a growing collection of Kansas City area residents.

This is their story.

The journey of a Lenexa housewife

In the spring of 1984, Beckie Stasi was a housewife living in Lenexa with husband Frank, son John and daughter Krissi. She flourished in a frenetic, energetic world typical for parents with grade school children.

Beckie had formed a circle of friends around her children’s grade school, Bonjour. Her connections were largely shaped from PTA clubs, sports teams and the joyful times shared with other mothers. Among other activities, they bowled weekly at King Louie on Metcalf. As often happened in the ’80s, however, somewhere along the way, they gained an interest in cards — their game of choice? Bridge.

Bunco was nowhere on the horizon. Mahjong was the stuff of obscure Hollywood movies. It would be 10 years later when Bryant Gumbel on the “Today” show would ask, “What is the internet, anyway?”

Beckie and her circle made connections the old-fashioned way. Over coffee, typically. Their bridge was strictly social — with a group of eight to 12 women, playing at alternating homes, with cookies or brownies decidedly not from Price Chopper.

Cards in general, and bridge in particular, can offer levels of complexity and nuance that stir a desire to become better. With time, Beckie and friends heard the siren of skillful partners. To maybe play in a competitive environment with other like-minded players. It’s called duplicate bridge, where the same set of hands are played by every set of partners, and your scoring can be compared against everyone else.

“It was a wonderful thing to occupy your time and make friends.” Beckie said. “We decided to find a bridge instructor and get better at the game.” They learned tips and strategies to win hands, and ultimately improve their overall scores.

The social games extended to meeting at local venues, where other bridge players would gather. In no time, they found community tournaments, first local, but later, regional.

Meanwhile, Frank Stasi had his own circle of friends. He played golf at Hillcrest Country Club, served as the president for a period, and the circles overlapped. But in 2009, Frank died of cancer. “For two weeks, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t have a job. I had my children, but I picked up the game again. It helped saved me.”

These days her social universe circles around the Bridge Studio, where the more experienced players get together and play 24 to 26 hands. Those who join her include her bridge partner, Paul Pressly, an Army veteran with two tours of Vietnam flying helicopters.

“I got shot down a couple times, received two Purple Hearts and some bronze stars. Along the way, some Army officers introduced me to bridge, and being competitive, I fell very hard for the game. I started playing once a week for relaxation and made Life Master in 1974.”

Life Master is a distinction reserved for the most skilled players. I have a personal fondness for any monikers that conjoin “Life” and “Master.” I hope that it comes with a crown or cape or at least a large medal you can wear at family reunions.

What makes any game fun are the personalities you meet along the way. And the studio has its share. It includes Marty Roth, who graduated from the University of Arkansas with a postgraduate degree in elementary education teaching deaf students. She moved to Olathe to work for the Kansas School for the Deaf. Bridge was her hobby. After 16 years, her husband’s work took them to California. After he died, Marty decided to return to the Midwest and reconnect with her family at the studio. It’s been a beautiful reunion.

Don Stack is another part of this family. A chemical engineer by education, he too is a Grand Life Master and played against a who’s who of bridge stars — Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Omar Sharif. He’s beaten them all. Don’s 50-year bridge partner is Fairway resident Don Brooker. Don, originally a farm boy near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, came to KC to work for Western Electric and was introduced to cards over lunch in the company break room. The two Dons connected over a card game in a bridge club in the early ’70s.

The Bridge Studio

You can find the studio off 95th Street, just north of Home Depot, south of Two Men and Truck and west of Jack Stack. The studio’s lot tends to fill with cars that resemble the show lot at Aristocrat motors.

The room is spacious and functional. Organized around the floor are 20 card tables. In a corner of each table is a stack of cards, placed in trays with four compartments, hands already dealt out among the players.

At one time the studio was located at Ranchmart Shopping Center, in the basement. The owner/manager/marketing guru then was Jean Joseph, who taught/mentored/inspired thousands in Kansas City to join the game. When Jean retired to Arizona, Lee Goodman took the baton. But Jean actually never retired. She was busier in Scottsdale than she was in Kansas City, teaching hundreds the game in the desert. Jean, it’s worth mentioning, is very sharp and living independently in her 90s.

Starting to see a pattern here?

Lee is a local, who, while at University of Missouri law school won the 1975 National Collegiate Bridge Championship with his partner, Tom Allen. Lee is fun and funny and helped extend my interest in the game.

The studio has lessons for various levels of players ongoing all the time. It became an adventure making social connections and new friends and occasionally opponents.

“Bridge is a game of logic and problem solving using cards to do so. I teach classes for players at all levels, including beginners, starting this month” Lee shared with me.

The road to Abilene

Dwight D. Eisenhower has a number of distinctions: one of nine five-star generals, chief allied commander of the Allied Forces and two-term president. He was also a devoted bridge player.

Stephen Ambrose’s 1991 biography “Eisenhower: Soldier and President (The Renowned One-Volume Life)” is a great read and adds some color to Ike’s bridge playing. For example, on the afternoon of Dec. 7, 1941, Ike was exhausted and told Mamie, his wife: “Don’t wake me, headed to the bedroom. “(I don’t want to be) bothered by anyone wanting to play bridge.”

His nap was interrupted for another reason.

Eisenhower, who grew up in Abilene, Kansas, famously played bridge while waiting for news of troop deployments. In Operation Torch, which was the invasion of French Morocco and Algeria in November 1942, Eisenhower was designated the supreme commander, which was unusual in that many of the troops in battle were not fighting under the U.S. flag. In that era, of course, there were long periods of no information coming from the front lines. While the world’s balance of power was teetering on the brink, Ike was trying to beat his bridge opponents.

Ike’s frequent bridge partner was a man named Alfred Gruenther. When Ike needed a second-in-command for a general for NATO, he appointed Gruenther. Did the fact that Gruenther was the best bridge player in the U.S. Army play any role in that decision? It remains a mystery only to those who have never played the game.

When Ike became president, he routinely organized games with Republicans and Democrats alike, including Supreme Court Justice Fred Vinson and Sen. Stu Symington, a Missouri Democrat.

Yeah, it was a different time.

Social engagement = healthy brain

Activities that are mentally challenging can delay and/or reduce your risk of cognitive decline as you age. Social engagement can do the same. As a partnership game in which each hand is like a puzzle, bridge counts for both.

“Bridge is a great way to expand your social circle, whether it’s moving to a new city or traveling to a new country,” Stephanie Threlkeld of the American Contract Bridge League told me recently. “Bridge is played all over the world, and since the rules and bidding are basically the same all over, you can play even if you don’t speak the language. There are people who look for the local bridge club wherever they travel, and have made friends all over the world.”

The Alzheimer’s Association publishes a tutorial, “10 Ways to Love Your Brain”: “Stump yourself. Challenge and activate your mind. Build a piece of furniture. Complete a jigsaw puzzle. Do something artistic. Play games, such as bridge, that make you think strategically. Challenging your mind may have short and long-term benefits for your brain.”

Now colleges are offering bridge as a credit, or an elective course. “At the national bridge tournament in Providence (Rhode Island) this past July” Stephanie told me, “over 80 college students representing 18 colleges competed in team and pair events to earn scholarships and bragging rights for their schools.”

Growth. Classes. Resources.

If this article sounds like a pep rally for a card game, then your brain is hitting all its cylinders. My journey to this adventure started at the Bridge Studio some 10 years ago. My parents’ bridge club in Great Bend, Kansas, was central to their social circle. When they gathered once a month, they drank, smoked, laughed, drank some more and eventually played a few hands.

My wife, Lori, and I took beginner lessons at the studio with Lee Goodman as our instructor. Following those lessons, we took a more advanced set of classes. They were all fun.

As my interest, and skill level grew, the notion of inviting my mother-in-law, Lee Hickman, to join me was intriguing. As a widow, she was already playing monthly with a social group that rotated homes. One day I proposed she become my partner, and we’d play duplicate bridge on Tuesday evening, the beginner’s night, at the studio. This was crossing the Rubicon of in-law relations. We had a good relationship, within limits, of course. With this foray, I was heading to a point of no return. If I bombed, I would never again enjoy her succulent banana bread that made you briefly lose consciousness at the first bite.

Soon, I would be living in a van down by the river.

But one night turned into many, and the games, the cards, the tricks, the slams, the laughs. We found some villains along the way who were often our opponents. We developed strategies, and many were successful. We were a team.

She died suddenly three years later. Bridge was our shared partnership. An adventure the two of us shared that would never have occurred had I not elected to learn something out of my comfort zone at the age of 55.

So, yeah, I drank the Kool-Aid on playing what some consider an old person’s game. If you see my car in the parking lot outside the studio, I am most certainly not browsing Home Depot’s inventory of bird feeders. And if you spot me at the studio, my pants won’t be hiked up to my chest with Velcro shoes. I might have a checkbook, though.

Take a lesson and start a new adventure. Maybe you will see me on Tuesday evening with my partner Chuck Lillis. He’s very good, I’m not. Together we make a fun team that’s going places.

You can reach freelance writer Matt Keenan at mattkeenan51@gmail.com.

Want to learn or play bridge?

American Contract Bridge League: acbl.org/learn. Click the “lessons” tab for more info.

Local resources:

KC Bridge Studio: kcbridgestudio.com. Email Lee Goodman at lee@kcbridgestudio.com

Wanna Play Bridge: wannaplaybridge.com. Email Kathy Rolfe at Kathy@WannaPlayBridge.com

Johnson County Parks & Recreation: jcprd.com/793/Cards-Games. Email Millie Sampson at msampson002@gmail.com