For these teens, contract bridge is not a game they play casually with friends while eating chips and drinking cola.
The pair are members of the five-man Otago youth bridge team which recently competed in the New Zealand Interprovincial Bridge Competition in Hamilton.
They finished second-equal with Canterbury, just behind the Auckland Youth Bridge team.
Sam, a Kings High School pupil, and Glenn, who attends Otago Boys High School, were the only secondary school pupils selected to represent Otago and Southland at the competition this year. They were joined by University of Otago students Alysha Bloxham (25), Jared Fudge (21) and Glenn's brother Sam Coutts (20).
Bridge is a trick-taking card game of skill and chance, and is played by four players who form two partnerships.
The game consists of the auction (often called bidding) and play, after which the hand is scored.
Bidding ends with a contract - a declaration by one partnership that their side will take at least a stated number of tricks, with a specified suit as trump or without trumps.
The rules of play are similar to other trick-taking games such as 500 or whist, except that one player's hand is displayed face-up on the table as the "dummy".
While contract bridge is seen by many as "an old folks game", Glenn says it is far from it. You only have to attend a major bridge competition to see the majority of players are young.
Sam says there are only about 10 competitive bridge players in Otago at the moment, but popularity of the game and the numbers playing had been growing recently.
"The Otago Bridge Club gave some lessons on how to play at Kings High School about five years ago, which got my brother interested. Then we got interested."
And the rest is history, he says.
"It's challenging - it's a game of strategy. It's also a reasonably social game you can play anywhere, any time."
While the pair were delighted with their placing at the recent national competition, it is clear bridge is not just a game for these teens.
"There were a few opportunities to pick up points that we missed," Sam says.
And at this level, every point makes a big difference to the results.
Both Sam and Glenn are already talking about ways to improve their game strategies, and hope to be selected for the Otago team again to compete in the Pacific Asia Bridge Federation Competition in May next year.
