Pensioners who type the cardboard in the afternoon under a tree. This is the image that bridge still has, like other card games such as belote or tarot, with the general public. “But there are two bridges. This one, and ours”, attacks Cédric Lorenzini, the current French n°1 and “about 30 or 35th worldwide” in the discipline.
His seems very far from clichés. A bit like a tennis player in search of prize money, the native of Mulhouse, 33, travels the world to chain tournaments. “I left home [à côté de Besançon] between 150 and 200 days a year,” he says. Most of the time for competitions that last two weeks, like the one that starts this Saturday in Strasbourg.
Days during which the bridge player can stay “up to eight to nine hours sitting at a table”. Not very physical this case? “It’s a grueling sport. When the matches are tight until the last deal, it’s exhausting, ”replies this tennis, swimming and running practitioner before detailing. “So yes, of course, you can do it not in great shape but I’m sure that the physique counts. »
Perhaps he has his share in the mental aspect of the game, a kind of much more complicated belote stuck. “In China in particular, bridge is considered a noble intellectual sport because it requires many qualities. Psychology, memory, bluffing…” In order to get to know your partner well, remember the cards of the player who will have to lay his own in each game, but also bid, calculate, develop a strategy. A whole art that can be learned!
“Infinite Game”
“Some say you reach your best level at 40, I don’t know. But what is certain is that it is an infinite game, where you never encounter the same situation, ”he explains, he who fell into it completely by chance at the age of 7. Bridge being played in pairs, he had simply accompanied his grandfather to a club. “He was retired and looking for an activity. I went there, I was the only child! I didn’t really like it at first but as soon as the first competitions arrived, I got hooked. »
First small local tournaments, always with his grandfather, then national ones. Until integrating “working groups at the Junior Federation, under 20 and under 25”. It was also around this age that the Alsatian decided to devote himself only to his passion. Yet he had a choice at the end of his doctorate in polymer chemistry. “But I decided to take a year off to really improve at bridge. So that I no longer arrive tired at competitions and focus on them. »
A winning choice since the young graduate stood out in the United States by winning two of the most prestigious tournaments. Result, a title of “player of the year 2015” across the Atlantic. “I was the first European to win it, and the youngest”, appreciates the one who then became European champion in 2016, then vice-world champion in 2017. Never alone, in a team since his discipline is practiced by six, with two pairs playing for one resting every game.
The best in Strasbourg
Since then, the pro player has traveled all over the world “but not too much in China since the Covid”. With what means? Particularity of the discipline, it is most of the time private patrons who finance and… play with the champions. “They can be good, or less, you have to adapt if you’re with them,” explains Cédric Lorenzini, without wanting to offend anyone. There is no interest, they are the ones who allow him to live on it, at the rate of “an average of 5,000 to 10,000 euros per month, even if the income is very variable. But it’s not a money game with big prizes when you win a tournament.
In Strasbourg from this Saturday, the French n°1 will meet “all the best players in the world because it is a championship organized by the European federation but which welcomes people from everywhere”. He will be engaged in a mixed team, then in “Open”, where all ages and sexes can mix. “All the best teams will be there, it’s really not sure that we will be in the final table”, says, cautious, the regional of the stage, who can still be seen on the circuit. “As long as I like it, I continue. We’ll see if I’m not tired in twenty years…”
To avoid this, the father of two young children takes breaks in the season, during which he does not even play online. “There, I have just chained and we leave for the United States on July 13th. I will have to cut after Strasbourg. From which he risks coming out “broken”.