As when he led the nation’s destiny as President of the Nation for four years, Mauricio Macri has responsibility this Sunday at The Argentina team in the Bridge World Cup: beside Paul Lambard faces Sweden with an obligation to win to advance to the Playoffs for its 45th edition title.

In Parma, Italy, where he has been competing since March 27 in the complex card game he is passionate about, Macri sat on the “South” side of the tableface Lambardi, to start the final game of the first round.

After encounter 22 of the 23 teams are registered in the Senior categoryArgentina areas in ninth placewith the 250.75 points. Swedenhis rival this Sunday, is seventh. For this reason, the albiceleste group is forced to win to get into the top eight and sort in stages of direct displacement.

The founder of Together for Change, seen at tables with tight masks and concentration, is also involved in a team with Héctor Camberos, Walter Fornasari, Carlos Lucena, Marco Bertagnoni (captain) and Debra Hyatt (coach).

It was discovered in the early days of pandemic quarantine that the formerly strong Boca Juniors had renewed his passion for bridge.

Forced by the mandatory separation ordered by his successor before vaccines were circulating, Macri trained hard and evenly through online platforms while he remained confined to his Los Abrojos villa, in Buenos Aires. town of Malvinas Argentinas.

His goal, then, was to play in the Copa América, where he reached the semifinals with the MM team. He later played a championship in South America. And now the scale is the Senior World Cup, where he once again represents Argentina.

The former president shares 336th position in the senior world ranking and is in Argentina’s top 7 on the scale led by Walter Fornasari (217th on the planet).

how to play bridge

To play bridge you need four players and a deck of French cards, the same ones used for poker -52 cards with spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds as different suits-. But this is far from easy to learn. Each pair sits facing each other and the areas occupied by the players represent the cardinal points (North, South, East, West). Turns are always followed in the right direction and each receives 13 cards – aces are the highest value until they reach 2 in descending order.

Before starting, each couple establishes their role through “contracts”, established by Vanderbilt nearly 100 years ago. This is how the first stage begins, where it is set how many tricks -rounds- will be needed to win after the thirteen -one per card- that each game has. The declaring team sets a goal and it must be met. It must be avoided by the opponent, or defender, in order to win.

The second stage, known as card play, begins when one of the players – the one to the left of the dealer – throws a card. Others must throw one in the same suit. Whoever throws the card with the highest value, keeps the trick.

Since the maximum number of rounds is 13 -because in each round the player throws one card per trick- the minimum number of rounds that have been established is 6 and at least one more is required to win the game. However, a pair can raise the bet and establish that they are capable of winning 9 of the 13 rounds of the game and also establish a trump card.

An example: if a 3 of hearts is thrown, it means that, in addition to the 6 established tricks, the goal is to win three more and the winning suit is hearts.

If the pair declaring wins the tricks suggested, they will get some points. If that doesn’t happen, the defending couple will score. For beginners, however, the best of 5 or 7 hands are played but without counting points.

The game, to professionals, with many variants becomes very complicated. It requires knowing and analyzing multiple variants and considering the countless number of conventions, it is very difficult to synthesize in a simple journalism article. Chance, unlike other table games, has little effect once the cards have been dealt.