Bridge, the game
March 2, 2022 12:29 PM Subscribe
Seattle Times boosts Seattle-area intergenerational bridge groups. It pointed me to a free online bridge course for students, BridgeWhiz, commissioned and hosted by the American Contract Bridge League; and an app for online teaching (and play?), Shark Bridge.
My cousin's child failed out of his first year at RPU because all he did was play bridge, (this was in the early 80s). I was taught bridge by my grandparents in the late 60s.
posted by Windopaene at 4:15 PM on March 2, 2022
posted by Windopaene at 4:15 PM on March 2, 2022
Is there a comparable situation for pinochle? My mom is partially non-verbal but still likes games from the 20th Century so online pinochle might be the thing.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:29 PM on March 2, 2022
posted by fiercekitten at 6:29 PM on March 2, 2022
I love bridge! And spades, which is bridge-lite. I love all kinds of regular deck card games, and it's so hard to find people to play with anymore. Except for poker, which I have zero interest in. Canasta, anyone?
posted by hippybear at 8:59 PM on March 2, 2022
posted by hippybear at 8:59 PM on March 2, 2022
I've been wanting to learn bridge but the clubs here aren't particularly welcoming to absolute beginners. So, maybe I can build the skill before I can find a beginner game. Any game that has a little puzzle printed in the newspaper is probably good.
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:17 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by blnkfrnk at 9:17 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
For adults, BridgeBase is the usual online bridge-playing system. The interface feels a bit dated, but they also have different modes and overall it's free to play (You might have to pay to play with smarter bots(?) or in games that will earn you ACBL masterpoints).
I remember going to tournaments as a young (19?) beginner, and getting unpleasant reactions from the older players (even if they were also beginners) when offered as a potential partner at the partnerships tables.
I haven't played much recently, and I always find in-person games much easier mentally than online games.
posted by that girl at 9:51 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
I remember going to tournaments as a young (19?) beginner, and getting unpleasant reactions from the older players (even if they were also beginners) when offered as a potential partner at the partnerships tables.
I haven't played much recently, and I always find in-person games much easier mentally than online games.
posted by that girl at 9:51 PM on March 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
A few years back, I did an intro-to-bridge course with some friends at our local bridge club. It didn't stick because I'm pretty bad at card games, but I'd always been interested in bridge (my first Christie was Cards on the Table). Anyway, I didn't know there was a local bridge club, but Mrs. Cupcakeninja was poking around and saw the they did that sort of thing occasionally...
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:35 AM on March 3, 2022
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:35 AM on March 3, 2022
Windopaene, my uncle failed out of college in the late 50s for the same reason. He's a good bridge player, I've never learned any of the conventions. The bids that resulted always stuck me as so high. How are you making a 4NT bid by way of conveying you have all the aces. Or you're getting unreasonably good hands that makes me question things.
posted by Hactar at 6:36 AM on March 3, 2022
posted by Hactar at 6:36 AM on March 3, 2022
There was a very active Bridge club at my previous employer, although while I never got into it due to the complexity of the game and the high-level that they played, I really enjoyed discussing the hidden communication protocols with the players.
However, we've recently picked up the co-op card game "The Crew", and it such a gentle on-ramp to trick-taking, disguised as a cooperative logic puzzle. Rather than dropping new players into all of the complexity Hoyle's rules and bidding, The Crew starts with drawing one "task" (a trick that must be won) per mission and then adding two tasks per mission and then requires them to be won in an order and then continues to increase the difficulty in many novel ways as players progress through the fifty scenarios.
And since it is co-op, all of the players are trying to reveal as much as they can to the other players without speaking or showing their cards. Since they can't communicate openly, the game has a neat feature where each player can optionally, once per mission, reveal something about one card in their hand (highest, lowest, or only of the suit). Figuring out when to do this to best convey it to the other players is an enormous challenge and can make the difference between winning or losing the mission. The game is super fast to setup, and the post-mission debrief as everyone explains what they were trying to signal is also super fun.
Also the trump suit is ROCKETS. Who doesn't like to play the Four of Rockets to take the trick?
posted by autopilot at 3:21 PM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
However, we've recently picked up the co-op card game "The Crew", and it such a gentle on-ramp to trick-taking, disguised as a cooperative logic puzzle. Rather than dropping new players into all of the complexity Hoyle's rules and bidding, The Crew starts with drawing one "task" (a trick that must be won) per mission and then adding two tasks per mission and then requires them to be won in an order and then continues to increase the difficulty in many novel ways as players progress through the fifty scenarios.
And since it is co-op, all of the players are trying to reveal as much as they can to the other players without speaking or showing their cards. Since they can't communicate openly, the game has a neat feature where each player can optionally, once per mission, reveal something about one card in their hand (highest, lowest, or only of the suit). Figuring out when to do this to best convey it to the other players is an enormous challenge and can make the difference between winning or losing the mission. The game is super fast to setup, and the post-mission debrief as everyone explains what they were trying to signal is also super fun.
Also the trump suit is ROCKETS. Who doesn't like to play the Four of Rockets to take the trick?
posted by autopilot at 3:21 PM on March 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
My parents loved Bridge and one day when I was in high school I asked my mother to teach me. Within 5 minutes I basically accused her of making things up. So many rules! So many conditions! I wish I had stuck with it.
Maybe now...
posted by allthinky at 9:23 AM on March 4, 2022
Maybe now...
posted by allthinky at 9:23 AM on March 4, 2022
I've always regarded Spades as the on-ramp to bridge. It never occurred to me there was more learning than "how to bid" and then "how to make your bid work".
Spades is just one trump suit, so you learn how to play without flexibility. Then you step into Bridge, and it all goes wonky but is that [MORE] you're wanting at that point.
posted by hippybear at 8:47 PM on March 4, 2022
Spades is just one trump suit, so you learn how to play without flexibility. Then you step into Bridge, and it all goes wonky but is that [MORE] you're wanting at that point.
posted by hippybear at 8:47 PM on March 4, 2022
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posted by clew at 12:33 PM on March 2, 2022