How many here play bridge?

[Hamlette]

Poll question: How many here play bridge?

There was a story on one of the Sunday shows about Bill Gates and Warren Buffet donating money to the schools to teach kids bridge. Learning bridge was a right of passage in our family, my 84 year old mother plays several times a week and I still kicks my butt whenever we play.

In Europe the governments supported bridge as a way to bring the generations together in the 60s and 70s. My family members all played bridge when they lived in Europe as a way of meeting people and connecting. They have great stories of the ppl they met at "the table". It is a great way to bridge (no pun intended) the great divide between people and bring them together over a common passion. Like bowling but a million times more fun.

But, I regret that not enough people play. Or maybe I don't know nothing and many of you play and I just misjudge you.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I'd love to learn but I went to a community center class once and the students there.....

... were already accomplished bridge players who had no place else to hang out and as a result, made the class for the beginners really unpleasant. If one is going to a class to learn, it should be to learn, and not to have to sit around great bridge players who are bored and show up to a class to show off and laugh. I left thinking all bridge players were obnoxious @@@@@@@@@s. I never went back.

[Hamlette]

5. what a shame! You should always play with players who are better than you are.

I know its hard because you feel like an idiot but that's the way you learn. Too bad they were unpleasant about it. You should have complained to the center about it.

It is a highly competitive game and I've been known to do the equivalent of an end field happy dance when I win a hard hand. Often, however, that means my opponents might have done something "wrong".

I agree there are a bunch of bridge players who are pretty stuck on themselves but just think of it as using them. If someone is playing with a beginner and they think they are a hot shot bridge player one of two things is going on: they are kind and want to bring on newbees or they are not as good as they think they are or they'd be playing "with their own" level player.

I play bridge 2-3 times a week and have for 40 years. I've met some wonderful people playing bridge. Not all of us are jerks.

Talk some of your friends into wanting to learn and go to the center with them and all learn together. Ignore the jerks, pick their brains, use them to learn how to play. Once you do, you'll never want to play any other game. It's the only game computers have not conquered. Humans still do it better.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. It's not a matter of feeling like an idiot. It's a matter that if I go to a class, I go to have

things explained, not to have some great players laughing, having a good time, and I can't stop the game because they're just passing the time, bored as hell, wish there were some place they could go play with real players, but are STUCK with beginners.

I don't expect to know how to play, if I don't know how to play, but if I go to a class, I suppose it's to learn and have things explained, and not by a bunch of idiots who don't really want to be with students. Why don't people like that go elsewhere? Why are they latching on to a beginner's class? How pathetic.

I won't go to a beginner's class again. When you don't know how to play, you want to learn, not watch some @@@@@@@ laughing and carrying on because he's just bored and has no one to play real bridge with.

[Hamlette]

11. not all beginners classes are like that, not all bridge players are like that

which is all I was trying to say.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. I got the feeling that there aren't bridge clubs or something, so bridge players are desperate to

go somewhere, anywhere, where the word "bridge" is mentioned.

[Hamlette]

16. then they're losers :)

I haven't been to a bridge club in years. I play party bridge, not competitively, and play 2-3 times a week. You don't need a bridge club to play bridge (it is easier to learn in a class, however, and all bridge clubs teach classes so often that's where you go to learn). If the people there only went because they couldn't find a game elsewhere it is because they are so obnoxious they can't find 3 friends to play with them.

IMHO.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. LOL! Maybe. The worst part is they knew each other and I got the feeling they sign up for

Beginner's Bridge every season it's offered. :banghead:

[TahitiNut]

2. Party bridge and kitchen bridge ... eschew 'serious' bridge.

Played in college and for many years with friends. Learned Precision Club system but usually stick with "American Standard" ... but NEVER enjoyed playing with sociopaths. If it's not conversational and relaxed, I walk away. I haven't played in years ... and have no overwhelming need to.

[Hamlette]

12. there are all kinds of bridge players

if it is "conversational" its not at all fun for me.

but I was raised in a bridge household and serving food while playing bridge or talking during a hard was considered a sin!

(BTW, one of my bridge clubs is "conversational and relaxed" so I do it, for the love of the other players and the game, but for me the best time is to be had when we bring knives.)

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. other, mainly computer bridge

because spousette does not play, and finding 3 here is not easy.

[Earth_First]

4. I've got a bridge to sell. Does that count? n/t

[uppityperson]

6. Have friends who have regular games nights, have thought of doing so also.

People used to meet in person more, and playing games was a good way of interacting with rules while they got to know one another better. In real life I'm a quiet retiring person, do miss social interaction though. I wonder if in person get togethers will become more common in the future

[Hamlette]

14. I think people should get together "face to face" more often

but doubt they will become more common unless we make an effort.

Socializing might be a lost art and there is some thought it is leading to our polarization. As I said earlier, in Europe they saw it in the 60s and 70s and got together to figure out how to counter the effects of what was then a growing generational gap. The bridge clubs that emerged as part of the fix are still around and active. My sister has lived and worked all over the world. She loved that in Europe she could join a bridge club and meet people outside her job. My parents had the same experience when they lived in Scotland.

There is a book "Bowling Alone" where he talks about how in the 50s people had bridge clubs and bowling clubs and got to meet, know, and like people who were not exactly the same. If people who listen to Rush played bridge or bowled with a few of us damned liberals they might come to realize we are not as bad as Rush thinks we are. That's the idea anyway.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I've gotten by playing team hearts, but would like to learn. nt

[LWolf]

9. Other:

Never learned, and would probably be interested if my life weren't in total overload already. It's a big deal to get together with a friend once every couple of months as it is.

[radfringe]

10. I've played house - does that count? n/t

[Neecy]

15. I didn't fit into your poll....

I love bridge and try to play when I can find a foursome. But I'm not passionate about it as response #1 would indicate.

My older sister was definitely a #1. We took a bridge class together when I was in high school and she became a bridge fanatic. We played a lot in those days and when I came home for the holidays after I'd grown up and moved out of state we always got a game together. She passed away a couple of years ago and our bridge games are one of my happiest memories of her. And she was a terrific player, too. Nice topic, thanks for starting it :)

[Hamlette]

18. yes, I have tons of wonderful memories of the people I've played the game with

my sister became a fanatic while living overseas, and I have so many great memories of bridge playing.

Like the time my Great Aunt Grace was playing with mom and Polly and Lynn and . . .

And I'd never have known Fran or Janet without my "children's center" bridge group.

[pitohui]

19. ah brings back the memories

my parents would have these vicious arguments after "bridge night" was over about who was too slow to pick up on whose signals

i do not play bridge and it's hard for me to understand why people of my generation or subsequent generations would bother

if you want to apply yourself seriously to a card game, you can actually make good money playing poker or blackjack -- i supported myself with blackjack for several years
-- hell, i know people making 10s of thousands or in one case a man who earned close to 800K playing onnline card games (mostly poker and blackjack promotions)

hard to invest the time in bridge and chess when there is real money going begging out there for the same (or less) effort) in becoming expert in another (and in the case of blackjack) simpler game

an old blackjack buddy, who has since earned $1 million playing blackjack (and yes reported and paid taxes on it), often comments that he can't believe he used to waste time playing in chess tournaments for $25 prizes -- he just didn't know all the options back in the day

if people just want to socialize, i guess there are lots of games now, some of them complex, i don't think you'll ever again see that world where the new couple comes to town, and the welcome wagen invites them to the bridge game, and that's pretty much it for gaming in the town

[PCIntern]

20. Promised my Dad of blessed memory

that I wouldn't learn until I got out of school so that I wouldn't get the bug and flunk out. After my didactic work was finished in dental school, I learned how to play and loved it. My wife doesn't play and have not played much in recent years. Loved the game...

Interesting that the game developed enormous popularity in the days of radio, but when TV became popular, the patterns of socialization changed and you didn't get together, put on the radio, and play (and eat!) simultaneously.

Great game...very challenging and intellectually stimulating.

[jannyk]

21. Played a lot in my teens and early twenties, but that was...

a lifetime ago and a world away. My first husband and I used to play a couple of times a week in London, and even took part in a few tournaments. Then we got divorced at 23, I moved to the US a couple of years later and I've never played again.

Second (and final) husband and I do play Mahjong, but getting 4 people together that can play is not easy.

[Igel]

22. Learned.

Goren and Precision. Dabbled with some other kind of bidding conventions ... Italian?

Like it, went 1-2 times/week for maybe 3 months, started to rack up points after 1-2 months. Partner left town, life got too insane at work and school, I moved. Never went back to it. Just might return to it one day, it was fun, but my wife shows no interest in it.

[mia]

23. Grew up playing games all kinds of games with family

Canasta was first then rummy, hearts, spades, poker, bridge and Chess. Over the holidays we played a new one called Booray (Bourré). My grandsons learned it in Tennessee.
Chess and bridge continue to be my favorites.

[Romulox]

24. Would love to learn. Played similar (simpler games)

Eucre, spades, etc. Conceptually similar but much simpler games. Would love to take up Bridge with my wife one of these days.