{"id":7610,"date":"2015-04-07T12:30:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T12:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress72\/?p=27588"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:25","slug":"econometrics-student-tobias-polak-21-wins-national-bridge-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2015\/04\/07\/econometrics-student-tobias-polak-21-wins-national-bridge-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Econometrics student Tobias Polak (21) wins national Bridge tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

EUR student Tobias Polak (21) has become the new Dutch youth champion in bridge. Polak, studying econometrics at Erasmus University, and his bridge partner Tom van Overbeeke, placed first<\/a> in the national bridge championships held in Utrecht. The pair are no strangers to success though, last year they placed 2nd<\/a> in the World Championships held in Istanbul, a title which Polak is very proud of. <\/p>\n

A strategic game which requires logic and analytical thinking, Polak says he enjoys the feeling of outwitting his opponents. \u201cIt\u2019s like with chess, in the end you\u2019re smarter than the other one in a sense\u201d. The key to doing so he says, lies in understanding your partner. \u201cBridge is a game of trying to avoid making mistakes. The ones who make the fewest mistakes win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Older people only play<\/i> bridge<\/b><\/p>\n

The game is popular amongst older generations, but in Polak\u2019s view it\u2019s not the same. \u201cPeople say \u2018my grandma plays bridge\u2019. I know they play<\/i> bridge, but we say, they don\u2019t play bridge.\u201d Playing amongst the top international talent is certainly different to how he started playing with his grandmother seven years ago. \u201cWe train a lot, we have club evenings, like how a hockey team might have a weekly training, we have club evenings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding professional sporting commitments to an already hectic student schedule can prove challenging, \u201cespecially when you have tournaments in the weekends and exams afterwards\u201d Polak added. Recognised with Topsport status at EUR, Polak hasn\u2019t encountered many problems, as most of his bridge tournaments are held during the summer. \u201cThere is no official rules whether teachers should help students if they can\u2019t make an exam, they wouldn\u2019t have to provide another one, but usually it solves itself. If I have a workgroup I can\u2019t attend, I just explain to the teachers and usually they\u2019re like, oh fine, you play, cool!\u201d<\/p>\n

Erasmus alumni in bridge<\/b><\/p>\n

In fact, many of the \u2018bridgers\u2019 he knows are Erasmus alumni, with backgrounds in statistics, economics, computer science and, like himself, econometrics. The bridge circuit is home to a number of high profile personalities, and playing in their teams is one way for players to make money. \u201cBill Gates for example, they buy teams. They hire five people and they play with one of them themselves. They play the tournaments with them because they want to win. For example, Jimmy Cain, the head of Bear Stearns before the crisis, he was playing bridge while his bank collapsed. He\u2019s got his own bridge team, he plays once a week. I played on the internet against him, they buy the top players for their teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polak has a busy tournament season ahead, with competitions in Germany, Norway, Croatia and the USA. Perhaps it\u2019s the trip to Norway for the European Championships which is the most exciting though. In the 2014 World Championships, it was the Norwegian team they faced in the finals and who eventually took out first place. Smiling, he adds, \u201cwe\u2019ll take revenge I hope!\u201d HK<\/p>\n\n\t

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