Murat Genç posing in just the sort of facially expressive way that is forbidden in real bridge games.
Come October, Department of Economics Associate Professor Murat Genç, will park his usual deep thinking around microeconomics and econometrics and give his brain over to the game of bridge.
Recently chosen to represent New Zealand at the World Bridge Games, he’ll be scooting off to Buenos Aires in Argentina to pit his card skills against the world’s best.
The New Zealand Bridge Association made their selection by inviting players in established bridge partnerships who’d been successful in recent years, to enter trials in four categories: open, women’s, mixed, and seniors.
Murat and his bridge partner were one of three pairs selected for the ‘seniors’ category and will face card-savvy opponents from 55 or so countries. He was thrilled when he heard the news.
“I was overjoyed. It had been my ambition to play for New Zealand one day. I had finally made it.”
He’ll have to tuck his glee away from view when the competition starts, though. Even a slightly raised eyebrow could prove perilous. Supreme control of facial expressions is a must. In fact, in competitive bridge, they take things one step further to guard against suggestive facial signals.
“It’s a requirement that you do not make facial expressions during play. You need to have a ‘poker face’, otherwise you may be penalised. This is why the matches in competitions, like the one we will be in, are played behind screens so that nobody can see the face of their partner during play.”
Murat has been devoted to bridge for 34 years now, and still finds it as engrossing as ever. It’s not just a matter of having good ‘card sense’ – there are many things to master, and this involves a fair bit of study. He says he owns about 150 books on bridge and has read many of them more than once.
“It is very addictive – it easily becomes an obsession if you take it seriously.”
He’s not alone in his addiction. Bill Gates called it the “king of all card games” and said that while the rules were “deliciously simple”, excelling at the game was “deliciously complex”. Bill’s friend and bridge partner, Warren Buffet, is similarly smitten. He described bridge as “a game of a million inferences” and said, “It’s got to be the best intellectual exercise out there.”
Murat thinks Warren nailed it with that description. As a game that’s heavy on strategy and deduction, it rewards a pert memory. He says a good store of sleep is vital to keeping your mind match-fit.
“The key to success in bridge is concentration. You need to remember which cards were played, the order your partner played their cards, the bids made during the auction, the probabilities of certain distributions of the cards, etc. The mind is almost always bridge-ready. You just need to make sure that you are not tired when you play.”
One of the things Murat likes most about competitive bridge is that you can’t moan about being dealt a bad hand of cards.
“Everyone plays the same set of hands. You try to do the best you can do with the hand you were dealt, just like in life. But unlike life, you are left to your own devices, and nobody can interfere with your actions. You create your own fate in a ‘world’ where there is no injustice. This is what I love about it.”
If Murat’s sleep quota remains nicely topped up, the University may soon have a world champion bridge ace on campus – and if nothing else, his economics students will benefit from his card-sharpened mind.
– Kōrero by Communications Adviser (Otago Business School) Claire Finlayson