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Welcome to “Illini Insider,” your regular dose of University of Illinois news from beat writer Luke Taylor. Fresh out of college himself, he’s always looking for story tips, photo ideas and social media mentions. Email him at ltaylor@news-gazette.com and he’ll give chase.
When Han-Mo Ou and Ryan Fu started playing bridge in grade school, I doubt either expected the game to be their ticket to intercollegiate competitions.
When we talked Tuesday, they were getting ready alongside teammates Nick Koskelo and Daniel Schuck for a trip up to Chicago.
The University of Illinois’ Illini Orange bridge team — which isn’t even a registered student organization — will be representing the school at this year’s Collegiate Bridge Bowl. It was one of eight teams to win a package from the American Contract Bridge league that will cover transportation and hotel rooms.
“Once we got the travel package, we were definitely going because … free tournament,” Fu said.
Fu and Ou have both been playing for a while: Fu’s elementary math teacher in Shanghai, China, put all his best students in a bridge team, and Ou’s math classmates in high school in Taiwan asked him to play.
“It’s always something to do with math,” Ou said.
At the UI, they each started playing bridge again for a hobby outside of school.
“Ph.D. life is long and it’s very stressful, so it needs something else to balance it out,” Fu said. “I’m not really sure bridge is less stressful.”
Ou, Fu and Schuck played at Ginger Creek apartments, which hosts a game, as well as on Bridge Base Online in the College Bridge Online club.
That’s where they spotted another person from the UI and made contact, bringing Koskelo into their group.
They earned their trip to Chicago in two qualifying rounds for the Collegiate Bridge Bowl.
The competition is today through Saturday, but Fu and Ou were looking forward to going up early to play casual games and strategize.
“The individual event actually helps us to know our opponents, because we’re going to tell who’s good and who’s actually bad,” Fu said.