Mrs. Seng joins Bridge elite as Ruby Life Master

Mary Ann Seng learned how to play Bridge when a couple of fellow IU students invited her to join them in the game during her freshman year in 1945.

“After we would have the evening meal, we would have a little bit of free time before everybody went to the library,” Mrs. Seng explained. “You’d walk down the hall and here’d be two, three guys sitting on the floor.”

Hey, we need a fourth for Bridge, they said.

“I joined, and I learned how to play bridge that way on the floor.”

She quickly picked up the nuances of Bridge; growing up in a home where Rook was a common card game likely helped.

She played all four years at IU. However, after graduating with her degree in teaching, she ended up in northern Indiana, where Euchre was more common among cardplayers. In 1951, she moved to Jasper to teach at Jasper High School and found Bridge was popular in the area.

The 97-year-old has been playing ever since.

Last month, she was named a Ruby Life Master by the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). The ACBL tracks players nationwide and awards the ranks according to the number of points players accumulate from Bridge matches and tournaments.

How do you earn these ranks?

“You win a lot,” Mrs. Seng’s daughter Carol Olinger said.

The points accrue incrementally. Three hours of gameplay on a Monday gathering of 20 players may only earn her .74 points throughout 20 boards, while a championship tournament she and her friend, Julia Bomalaski, entered and won in 1986 in Tampa, Florida, earned her 30 points. It also propelled her to surpass the points needed to earn the Life Master rank.

“At the time, Florida was easy to win,” she said. “You could go down there and win. They weren’t very good players.”

Earning the Ruby rank is a high point for Mrs. Seng, but it doesn’t seem to eclipse her pride in teaching her grandchildren to play the strategic card game. “I’ve had six grandchildren I’ve taught,” she said, adding that she was the envy of the other grandmothers in the room when they showed up to play.

These days, Mrs. Seng and her daughter partner up every other Monday at the Habig Center in Jasper for games hosted by the Jasper Duplicate Bridge Club. The club hosts games every Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon and is open for anyone to attend and join.

She says the game keeps her sharp, and she loves the competition. “I look forward to playing twice a week. I’ve been playing twice a week forever,” Mrs. Seng said.

In a way, playing Bridge is relaxing. “Your mind has to be on that Bridge game, or else you’re not going to do well,” Mrs. Seng explained.

And, it is ageless. “You don’t outgrow it,” Mrs. Seng said. “I’ve seen hundred-year-old players wheeled up to the table. They sit there, and they win.”

And she plans to keep playing and winning; she’s only 994.11 points away from the next rank, Gold Life Master.