The Setting Trick: Conversations with World Class Bridge Players

In this episode of The Setting Trick, I sit down with ACBL’s Stephanie Threlkeld and Shaneka Cunningham, the two stars of the ACBL's social media team. We get into how their skits are made with a tripod and an eye for humor. Amainzgly, the ACBL YouTube channel has passed 100,000 subscribers.We also talk about BridgeBattle, the game that gets new players going in under a minute, rebuilding collegiate bridge after COVID, and why public events at NABCs struggle to draw a crowd. Stephanie and Shaneka share how they became friends, their master points and what they want viewers to do next.__________________________________________________Key Highlights🎬 Made with a tripod: Every skit is filmed by the two of them, jumping on social media trends and keeping them bridge themed.📈 Awareness, not conversion: The videos keep bridge in front of people, so it is there when someone is ready to learn.🃏 BridgeBattle: No bidding, high card wins, first to seven tricks, with jewels for tricks, in four levels up to mini bridge.🎓 College bridge rebuilt: COVID took away the clubs' social side; Stephanie has brought it back to close to 50 schools.🤝 Failure is not fatal: Bronia Jenkins gives the team freedom to try things, which has helped make the hit videos happen.The complete list of ACBL Shorts can be found here. Links to mentioned videos included in time stamps below:__________________________________________________Resources & Next Steps🃏 Play BridgeBattle online or order the box game📺 ACBL on YouTube📸 ACBL on Instagram🎧 Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts__________________________________________________YouTube Chapter Timestamps00:00 Cold open, cat video00:46 Meet Stephanie and Shaneka01:33 The box video02:43 Filming with a tripod03:29 100,000 subscribers, big in India04:54 Awareness, not conversion05:56 The cow kick and the chicken07:43 How the videos started09:42 Making trends bridge themed12:26 Introducing BridgeBattle14:00 How a BridgeBattle hand works15:02 Jewels and the box set17:31 The four levels19:25 Class zero and the daily duel20:48 Growing the social channels23:12 Which platforms work24:06 Bronia Jenkins and freedom to fail25:32 Who is the better player28:09 How Shaneka joined the ACBL31:48 Master points and playing level35:36 Working the NABCs37:28 Rebuilding collegiate bridge40:11 The youth NABC42:15 An alumni cup on RealBridge45:11 A day at the ACBL46:21 The truck and the trust fall48:12 How they became friends51:08 What viewers can do52:50 When they will play next54:43 Thank yous

In this episode of The Setting Trick, I sit down with Emma Kolesnik, who just won the Mixed Teams at the 2026 World Bridge Series in Katowice, Poland. She partnered her husband Adam Grossack, and their teammates were prior Mixed champions Sabine Auken and Roy Welland. Emma takes me through their quarterfinal win, decided by a single imp, including a seven imp time penalty. The final was a marquee matchup against Adam's brother Zach.We talk about pressure at the table, paying college students to learn bridge, and how the game turned her younger brother Finn Kolesnik into a close friend. We also get into playing with your spouse, family trips built around the European championships and why her family gave up cooperative games.__________________________________________________Key Highlights⏱ One IMP, After a Penalty: Seven minutes over cost seven imps, so a win by eight became a win by one.🧠 Bridge is Grinding: Adam has helped Emma work hard on every deal.🎓 Paid to Learn Bridge: With Mitch Dunitz, she paid college friends to come to four lessons.👫 How Finn Came Around: He refused to play until he learned Emma was being paid to go to the youth NABCs.🎲 Ticket to Ride: The team name came from a board game, and her family learned cooperative games only start blame games.__________________________________________________Resources & Next Steps🏆 2026 World Bridge Series results📸 The Setting Trick on Instagram🎧 Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts__________________________________________________Chapter Timestamps00:00 Cold open00:52 Welcoming Emma Kolesnik01:47 A quarterfinal won by one imp03:39 The seven imp time penalty05:21 Checking scores on the tablet07:18 Facing Klukowski and Zmuda09:03 Pressure, and the grind10:30 Seven spades doubled11:44 The last board, two notrump15:11 Bridesmaids who don't play15:53 Paying students to learn19:25 Did she cry? Finn's Soloway21:32 A final against Zach Grossack22:45 A comedy of errors25:09 Rooting in the semifinal26:56 Six years apart, bridge friends28:31 Why Finn finally played30:50 Adam asks Finn's permission33:20 Playing with your spouse36:14 Turning down a pro offer38:23 Tablets, screens, the ACBL41:56 Roy, Sabine and golf43:06 Watching the Bermuda Bowl48:09 Watching family on ViewGraph49:57 Tromsø and family trips52:56 How many countries55:50 Museums on bridge trips57:22 Why Ticket to Ride60:56 No more cooperative games63:10 Nationals with her dad65:36 A yoga retreat instead68:16 Boards that stick with you73:01 The round of 16 ruff76:06 When she plays next

In this episode of The Setting Trick, I sit down with Alessandro Calmanovici, the founder of Bridge Tricks, a site that became a big part of my own bridge learning. His name rang a bell the first time I found it. He appears in Double Dummy, the film I made at the 2012 World Junior Championships, winning imps on each of the last four boards to scrape into the knockout.We dig into suit combinations and how a solver changes the way you think, the Survivor streaks that have players like Giovanni Donati obsessed, and the Bidding Architect that turns your own system into flashcards. Alessandro built all of it around a full time job and a new baby. We also get into why he thinks the game needs a better public image.__________________________________________________Key Highlights🎬 Finding Himself in Double Dummy: Alessandro watched the film years later, recognised the event, and realised the player on screen was him.🧠 Fifty Suit Combinations in a Row: Giovanni Donati ran a Survivor streak of fifty and spent an hour on the last one.📐 Commit to the Plan Before They Play: 54% against 51.7% on a disputed combination, and why the plan you settle on first wins.🤖 Built With AI, Starting From Nothing: His wife mentioned a tool at work. Turned down for help, he wrote the solver himself a year later.♣️ As Popular as Chess: Juniors are close to extinct in Italy and the Swiss scene is thinner still. He wants to change the game's image.__________________________________________________Resources & Next Steps🃏 Bridge Tricks, Alessandro's platform📝 Bridge Tricks on BridgeWinners📘 Peak, on deliberate practice🎯 Cuebids, the bidding practice app🎧 Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts__________________________________________________Chapter Timestamps03:00 Bridge With Ballers and athletes04:30 Hooking beginners with BridgeMaster06:00 Pisa, a classmate's first ten hands07:30 Taicang, the last four boards12:00 Suit combinations, the feedback loop13:30 Survivor streaks, fifty in a row16:30 Reading par in seconds19:30 Launching the site, built with AI21:00 Bridge Lab and Bidding Architect22:30 Daily users, Fred Gitelman's message24:00 Why a solver beats an encyclopaedia25:30 Leonardo Cima says it is wrong27:19 A possible Cuebids collaboration31:49 Learning bridge at twelve, Cagliari34:49 Why the Italian scene shrinks37:49 Bridge as popular as chess39:19 Building the solver after a refusal43:49 Simon de Wijs, its best advocate46:49 Flashcards for your bidding system49:49 Being copied, and AI for small builders52:49 A bridge class in Zurich54:19 The dinners, not the squeezes57:19 How Double Dummy got made61:49 The cup and the daily combination66:19 Survivor, Rush, where to start69:19 Paying students, chasing Chess.com

In this episode of The Setting Trick, I sit down with Nabil Edgtton, one of the best bridge players in the world, and AJ Antonios, a professional poker player who learned bridge from scratch then won the 2020 Gold Coast Open Teams three months later. Longtime friends from poker, Nabil and AJ were living together, when Nabil finally convinced AJ to learn bridge. What followed was three hours of study every morning, five days a week. AJ describes a teacher with enormous knowledge and no patience. Nabil describes a student he expected to remember everything first time. When they won their first club game, after about a fortnight, opponents refused to believe AJ had just started!They both love to razz each other, starting from the story of how they first met. Nabil stacked AJ three times in a small poker game, then told him he was too good for these stakes. AJ explains why he rates bridge among the most skill based games he has played, and why its community beats every other he has been part of. Then there is the golf bet, which began with a claim that Nabil could clear the fence at a driving range and ended with a $220,000 wager, an acupuncture session and a punctured lung. AJ closes on Australian Survivor, where he finished third, and on the one minute that undid seven weeks.__________________________________________________Key Highlights🃏 Three Months to a National Title: AJ learned bridge from zero, won the 2020 Gold Coast Open Teams, then stopped playing.🔑 Teaching From the Student's Side: Nabil is blunt about his own coaching. You have to explain a game from the learner's side, not your own.🧠 A Flexible Mind Beats One Foundation: AJ credits Magic, poker, Yu Gi Oh and a Lebanese game called Tarneeb for giving each new idea somewhere to sit.🎰 Stacked Three Times, Then Recruited: Nabil took AJ's money three times at a poker table, then told him he belonged in bigger games.⛳ The Bet That Went Over the Fence: A claim about clearing a 350 metre fence became a $220,000 bet that Nabil could reach a three handicap.🏝 Survivor Tests You at Your Worst: AJ finished third after 47 days in Samoa, lost 15 kilos, and stopped eating to kill a rumour.Resources & Next Steps🃏 Nabil Edgtton's ABF player profile🏆 The 2020 Gold Coast Open Teams honour board📰 Liam Milne's match report on the Gold Coast final🎙 Episode 26, our earlier Nabil interview🏝 AJ on Australian Survivor🃏 Grand Archive, AJ's next worlds📚 Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool📸 The Setting Trick on Instagram🎧 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

In this episode of The Setting Trick, I sit down with Tim Verbeek, professional bridge player and Chairman of the Dutch Athletes Committee, for a wide-ranging conversation about competitive bridge in the Netherlands and beyond. We open by reminiscing about a dinner in Lyon at the 2017 Transnational World Championships, where he helped pull me out of my post-elimination funk. From there we get into the remarkable depth of Dutch bridge talent, and the origin story of Tim's partnership with Danny Molenaar, which started when they were 12 and 13 years old and has now spanned 28 years.We also dig into one of the most uncomfortable topics in competitive bridge: cheating. Tim walks through real cases, from the Lotan Fisher scandal to an online incident during COVID to a player at the Dutch Bridge Federation who duplicated a key to access hand records. He explains how he developed an eye for suspicious patterns, and why the standard of evidence required to convict in bridge is so much higher than for doping in other sports. We close on the emotional toll of losing, raising a four-year-old daughter while traveling the circuit, and the surprising lack of a definitive beginner's guide to the game.__________________________________________________Key Highlights🇳🇱 The Golden Era of Dutch Bridge: Why the Netherlands keeps producing world-class pairs every five to ten years, and Tim's bet that the Dutch will be world champions again within the decade.🏆 From Fill-ins to Full-Time Teammates: How Tim and Danny Molenaar went from last-minute fill-ins at a US National to permanent members of Patty Cayne's team, thanks to an Israeli pair's bad manners.🔍 Catching Cheaters in the Bridge World: From Fisher and Schwartz to an online player who sent strategy messages to the wrong group chat, how Tim developed his instinct for spotting cheating.⚖️ Bridge vs. Doping: Athletes get banned for trace substances, while bridge players suspected of cheating often walk free because federations demand an impossibly high standard of proof.💔 The Emotional Weight of Losing: My tearful near-miss at the Lyon Transnationals, Tim's moment of self-doubt in Belgium, and how even top professionals lose far more often than they win.👶 Life as a Bridge Pro and a Father: Two-week tournaments away from his four-year-old daughter Rosa, and coming home to find that "everything in our life is done by Mommy."📚 The Missing Beginner's Guide to Bridge: Berry Westra's untranslated book, apps like Tricky Bridge, and why the game still lacks a simple learning path for new players.__________________________________________________Resources & Next Steps🎴 Learn more about the Dutch Bridge Federation (Nederlandse Bridge Bond)📱 Try Tricky Bridge, the bridge learning app by Scott Hoffer📖 The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge, recommended for beginners🏅 Follow the Dutch Athletes Committee and their Olympic qualification work🎧 Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts