Bridge dying?

[jmc]

I had an email exchange with J. Baum the president of the ACBL about the possibility of taking some action to get spades players into local bridge clubs and for the League to have a presence at the 2 big spades tournaments every year. Nothing came of this but he did indicate that the ACBL owned some spades related urls.

 

 

My email in part from March of 2006 and Mr. Baum's response follow:

 

Second, let me begin by talking about a card game called spades.

Spades is a trump based card game similar to bridge. The game is

played by 4 players who are seated and partnered as in bridge but

spades is always trump. There is no dummy and players can also bid

"nils" for taking no tricks. This game is thriving both on the

internet and perhaps more importantly among high school and college

students around the country. Spades has only two major tournaments a

year and has thus far failed at creating a national sanctioning body.

In many ways spades players are in a similar position to whist /

bridge players pre ACBL. They have no clubs. They play in coffee

shops and student unions.

 

Why am I prattering on about spades players you might be wondering. I

think that the acbl should consider stepping in and becoming involved

in spades. Many bridge players play in spades tournaments and the

game would be simple to learn. More importantly, the opportunity to

get spades players (did I mention many of them are young?) into our

clubs, perhaps even playing games for spade "points", would be a

chance to recruit them into OUR great game, Bridge. I am convinced

the acbl would benefit mightily. My father and sister have both

recently become interested in playing bridge because of how much they

have enjoyed playing spades.

 

Imagine if acbl clubs had a spades game on Saturday afternoon,

immediately followed by a bridge intro and minibridge game. Some

players would surely stay. They could then watch as the Saturday

Bridge game players trickled into the club. Maybe they would see the

intensity of play. Some might stay and kibitz. Imagine how easy our

members could invite family members who didn't know bridge to play

spades. The game is much easier to learn, but provides great training

for bridge in terms of play of the hand. It has to be easier to

recruit players for bridge among those who play cards than those who

don't.

 

The ACBL could test my ideas by running a pilot program. Persuade a

bridge club owner or two to publicize and run a spades game and offer

some bridge indoctrination immediately before and after. When the

players arrive explain the clubs main purpose is for bridge and

introduce the role of the acbl. ACBL score could easily prepare swiss

pairings or some other type of playing bracket. Post sheets just like

in real bridge. Following the game invite whoever is interested to

play a few hands of minibridge. Announce any upcoming bridge lessons

and emphasize how many bridge games the club has every week. If this

is at all interesting to you, I have spoken to club owners willing to

give it a try.

 

Even if none of these ideas about acbl and bridge are interesting to

you, at a minimum I think you should consider having the acbl sponsor

a booth or some kind of presence at the three large spades conferences

every year. It makes sense to market to our fellow card players. Two

conferences are held by The Spades Connection and information can be

found at http://www.thespadesconnection.com/news.php. The largest

tournament is the World Series of Spades and information can be found

at http://www.grandprixtournaments.com/ Currently there are 4000

spades players online at the Microsoft Gaming Zone. There are only

1000 bridge players.

 

Jay Baum's response:

The Spades idea is a good one and one we have done a little work on with very little success.We do own spadesrus.com and NADSL . com (North American Duplicate Spades League). If one of the clubs in Omaha starts a game we would be interested in the results.The boards and movements can be the same as a bridge game , so the transition to duplicate spades would be easy.

ACBL is also setup to be the rating record keeper through slight adjustments in ACBLscore.Thank you also for the idea about the major tournaments.Will pass that on to marketing. Hope bridge is still strong in Omaha.

Kindest regards,

 

Jay Baum, CEO

ACBL

[JLOGIC]

Because people would rather sit on the idea for five years?

 

?

[eagles123]

Haven't had time to read through the whole topic, but I'm a young player (19) looking to learn and develop my game. Can be quite frustrating going to tournaments (very local ones, i'm only a beginner), and seeing 90% of people being 60+ lol. Still I think there is a youth market out there, it just has to be tapped into!

[Patremo]

I have been playing bridge for 50 Years. I have played on-line for at least 10. I taught Bridge in the Schools to children ages 10 t0 13. Sometimes it was an extra-curricular activity and sometimes it replaced one weekly math class. The extra-curricular was so popular we needed to recruit more volunteers and use two classrooms.I have also taught beginning adults.

 

As an avid player, I always try to encourage my friends to play. Many of them have said that bridge players are the rudest people they have ever met. They are right. Your "Rules" indicate that rude behaviour will not be tolerated but it is. This morning, within a 15 minute period, two people called their partners retarded and crazy. I've heard worse. So have you. Why do you allow it? It is impossible to report every incidence.

 

We have all been in situations where our bidding/playing styles were not compatible with our partner. How hard is it to say, Thank you and leave the table without a nasty parting shot?

 

I'm sure that with the sophisticated software programs that you are developing, certain words could alert a moderator. People who cannot control themselves should be automatically booted.

 

BBO has an opportunity to do something about this dreadful situation.

[nige1]

I have been playing bridge for 50 Years. I have played on-line for at least 10. I taught Bridge in the Schools to children ages 10 t0 13. Sometimes it was an extra-curricular activity and sometimes it replaced one weekly math class. The extra-curricular was so popular we needed to recruit more volunteers and use two classrooms.I have also taught beginning adults.

 

As an avid player, I always try to encourage my friends to play. Many of them have said that bridge players are the rudest people they have ever met. They are right. Your "Rules" indicate that rude behaviour will not be tolerated but it is. This morning, within a 15 minute period, two people called their partners retarded and crazy. I've heard worse. So have you. Why do you allow it? It is impossible to report every incidence.

 

We have all been in situations where our bidding/playing styles were not compatible with our partner. How hard is it to say, Thank you and leave the table without a nasty parting shot?

 

I'm sure that with the sophisticated software programs that you are developing, certain words could alert a moderator. People who cannot control themselves should be automatically booted.

 

BBO has an opportunity to do something about this dreadful situation.

You rarely encounter bad language on BBO. Typically, rudeness takes forms that are hard to police. As Patremo says, often, a player impugns partner's "Expert" status before leaving in the middle of a hand -- usually just a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Since there is a chat log, it would be easy to report such cases. The problem with enforcing rules is the same as with with reforming them: bridge-players are an apathetic bunch.

[matmat]

You rarely encounter bad language on BBO.

"Rarely" might be an underbid. There is plenty out there, but the context and intent vary, though.

 

 

Typically, rudeness takes forms that are hard to police. As Patremo says, often, a player impugns partner's "Expert" status before leaving in the middle of a hand -- usually just a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

This is just a manifestation of more than half of the BBO crowd being above average, with a substantial fraction seeing themselves as Experts or better

[PhantomSac]

It's now pretty clear to me that a large part of the reason bridge is dying is due to incompetent and greedy people leading our game (WBF, ACBL). I guess it's not surprising. Only took me ~12 years to figure out!

[hrothgar]

It's now pretty clear to me that a large part of the reason bridge is dying is due to incompetent and greedy people leading our game (WBF, ACBL). I guess it's not surprising. Only took me ~12 years to figure out!

 

I am actually starting to believe that the ACBLScore debacle might be a good thing.

Anything that hastens the death of the ACBL has to help the game.

 

The WBF is looking pretty bad as well.

[Jinksy]

I am actually starting to believe that the ACBLScore debacle might be a good thing.

 

The whowhenacle?

[barmar]

The whowhenacle?

ACBL contracted with Nicholas Hammond to write a replacement for ACBLScore, called ACBLScore+. A year or two into the project, when it was completed enough for some live testing and they'd already paid him a significant amount, they abruptly cancelled it, without ever giving a good reason, saying that they would go back to making incremental improvements to ACBLScore (despite the fact that there's only one, aging programmer who knows how it works, and it only runs on Windows).

 

You should be able to find lots of information at Bridge Winners.

[PhantomSac]

I am actually starting to believe that the ACBLScore debacle might be a good thing.

Anything that hastens the death of the ACBL has to help the game.

 

The WBF is looking pretty bad as well.

 

WBF is way worse than the ACBL IMO, and that's saying something.

[hrothgar]

WBF is way worse than the ACBL IMO, and that's saying something.

 

I was never a big fan of the WBF. (The whole Olympics idiocy really soured me on the organization)

 

I am hopeful that something new and better may rise from the ashes...

[nullve]

WBF is way worse than the ACBL IMO, and that's saying something.

I'd rather collect Olympic pins than play ACBL stratified games for masterpoints. And that's saying something, because I never even watch the Olympics.

[1eyedjack]

I quite rarely play F2F bridge now, but I play a lot more now on the Internet than I ever played in F2F before internet bridge took off. But I expect that I count among the statistics that prove that Bridge is dying, which I personally would rate to be a distortion.

[Charlie Yu]

Bridge IS dying, young players come and gone, nobody actually stays for more than a few years.

[1eyedjack]

Bridge IS dying, young players come and gone, nobody actually stays for more than a few years.

If accurate this is really sad. I had always taken the view before now that the (main?) reason for bridge dying is that it is harder these days to keep young beginners interested until the point that they get "hooked". Which could take a year or two. But having got them addicted, for those that we manage it, we would have them for life. If they have the staying power to get past that point and THEN still give it up, there is not much hope for the game, I fear.

[nullve]

Maybe bridge will survive by metamorphosis, but BAM is already dead (here on BBO it is, anyway) and MP is certainly dying (just try to start a random MP table, or have a look around the Main Bridge Club, for evidence).

[Zelandakh]

MP is certainly dying

You realise that MPed Pairs is by far the most commonly played competition type in clubs all across the world, right?

[nullve]

You realise that MPed Pairs is by far the most commonly played competition type in clubs all across the world, right?

I knew I was on thin ice with that statement, but don't you get the impression there's a trend away from MP?

[Bbradley62]

You realise that MPed Pairs is by far the most commonly played competition type in clubs all across the world, right?

Having joined ACBL in 1982, I've always presumed that clubs use the inferior system of matchpoints to score their sessions because it is much easier to do than IMPs (without a computer), and that the vast majority of players understand that and tolerate it, rather than like it.

[PhantomSac]

How is matchpoints inferior? A 1 session imp pairs sounds like about the most random thing ever. To me a system where better pairs will score better more frequently is superior (aka matchpoints).

[akwoo]

If accurate this is really sad. I had always taken the view before now that the (main?) reason for bridge dying is that it is harder these days to keep young beginners interested until the point that they get "hooked". Which could take a year or two. But having got them addicted, for those that we manage it, we would have them for life. If they have the staying power to get past that point and THEN still give it up, there is not much hope for the game, I fear.

 

Actually, a fair number of young players end up not playing very much. Someone learns the game in college or graduate school when they have flexible hours even if they don't have that much time. Then they get a job and move to a new city where there are very few evening games, they can't play regularly (and that's before they have kids), and all the good players around already have a half dozen partnerships and are reluctant to establish a new one, especially with someone who can play less than once a week.

[Aberlour10]

If accurate this is really sad. I had always taken the view before now that the (main?) reason for bridge dying is that it is harder these days to keep young beginners interested until the point that they get "hooked". Which could take a year or two. But having got them addicted, for those that we manage it, we would have them for life. If they have the staying power to get past that point and THEN still give it up, there is not much hope for the game, I fear.

 

There is a hope. Look at the polish bridge. The long term efforts in youth bridge started 10-15 years ago brings nowdays success by success at the international stage Even the shock of the BZ affair cant stop this development in polish bridge. Such a development is possible everywhere, if there will be enough done for it.

[Bbradley62]

How is matchpoints inferior? A 1 session imp pairs sounds like about the most random thing ever. To me a system where better pairs will score better more frequently is superior (aka matchpoints).

I prefer a system where I am rewarded more for being the only one to bid and make slam than I am for being the only one to make an overtrick in a universally-bid part-score.

[nullve]

I prefer a system where I am rewarded more for being the only one to bid and make slam than I am for being the only one to make an overtrick in a universally-bid part-score.

Why?