U.S. Comes From Behind to Dominate Europe!
September 26th, 2006 by Michael StephensWe may have lost the Ryder Cup, but this wasn’t the worst sports weekend for the U.S. of A. In another grudge match with our European counterparts, the Red, White & Blue pulled it out in dramatic fashion.
Despite the European team entering the last day of the match narrowly ahead, an impressive performance by the Americans in the final rounds of the individual contest swept them to a convincing victory in the Warren Buffett Challenge Match, also held in Ireland from September 18-21.
We are talking, of course, about bridge.
More specifically, the Buffett Cup, an event founded by investor Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest men and an avid player. The Berkshire Hathaway founder, whose fortune has been estimated at over $40 billion, has always had a passion for bridge, which he plays at times with a deck of cards inscribed “Make Checks Payable to Warren Buffett.”
Buffett (left, with friend and bridge partner Bill Gates), has this to say about his favorite card game:
“It’s got to be the best intellectual exercise out there. You’re seeing through new situations every 10 minutes… In the stock market you don’t base your decisions on what the market is doing, but on what you think is rational… Bridge is about weighing gain/loss ratios. You’re doing calculations all the time.”
In the inaugural match, the Americans finished ahead by 23 championship points, equivalent to nearly six matches, having won all five of the final five rounds, including two clean sweeps in Rounds 8 and 9. A rematch of the “Ryder Cup of Bridge” will take place in Kentucky in September 2008. Go team! U-S-A!
