Poll: How you started playing bridge

[jtxyzzy]

A similar poll on Bridgewinners produced striking results. I'm looking here for a larger and less bridge-dedicated population; my interest is in how to bring people into the game.

[aguahombre]

Don't know if you will get what you want. Less Bridge-dedicated is doubtful among BBO forum regulars. Also, we would need a definition of "learn Bridge". It is much different than starting to play Bridge, and I doubt anyone would claim they ever stop learning the game.

[inquiry]

Under 26? I started well under age 10,,,, my much older sister and parents needed a fourth....

[655321]

I thought there was already a poll for this, but the one I was thinking of is a bit different: How long have you been playing?

[Antrax]

A bit surprised nobody else seems to have been exposed to it at school. Don't your countries try to create juniors?

[gwnn]

No :) in fact there are some countries which are almost actively trying to dissuade young people to start playing.

[helene_t]

I wanted to play bridge when I was ten but my parents didn't want me to go to the club because of the smoke. I started 20 years later when smoke-free clubs had become the norm

[Zelandakh]

I started playing bridge, somewhere around age 12 or so, because the books on card games were next to the chess section in the library. Having read through all of the chess books, then the patience and general card games section I had little left other than bridge. I also played it alone, bidding and playing all 4 hands, until going to university. I did try to join a bridge club but at the time they all offered only "penny a hundred" rubber bridge games and it was against my principles to gamble (not to mention against the Law since I was a minor).

 

Funnily enough, one of the things that attracted me to bridge was the idea of creating a bidding system to maximise information exchange. This seemed like it ought to be a simple problem and I was confident that the systems I found in the library (Culbertson and 5 card major, strong NT Acol) were not optimal. Sadly, I found out (much) later that bridge regulation effectively banned large swathes of potential innovation in the bidding and even where it was possible, the chances of finding a partner willing to innovate in the same ways was minimal.

 

In terms of bringing people into the game then I think there are several areas that all need to be worked on:

 

1) Image - this is really the killer for the majority of children. Bridge is played by old people. It is not cool. Your mates will not be playing it. Before bridge can get back into the mainstream it will need to overcome this fundamental problem. Most likely, this will never really be overcome and we are better of targeting certain sub-sections of children, nerds and loners being the obvious initial categories.

 

2) Friendliness - my memories of bridge clubs are dominated by negative experiences. The impression I have is that a large number of those who play (club) bridge think they are superior somehow. When a youngster comes in to the club then it is something of a novelty but the clientele are clear that they are of a "higher class". I found such attitudes a huge turn off. It is not like other games are immune - I had it occasionally with chess too - but bridge players seems to be particularly susceptible to this. Add to this that I sometimes like to play unusual gadgets, and when these come up they very often draw an extremely negative reaction from opponents...linking nicely to

 

3) Regulation - young people like to innovate. One of the reasons for the big boom in poker is that young internet players found that they could quickly know more about how the game worked than experienced pros by using more advanced techniques. I personally found it a big disappointment when I discovered that a great deal of innovation is restricted in bridge. The older, established players prefer it this way. But it is not a good way of attracting young talent to the game. Imagine if casinos told poker players that they were only allowed to use betting patterns established prior to 1990. People would laugh; then when they found it is was not a joke they would go elsewhere. In my view innovation should be the lifeblood of the game, driving it onwards and attracting the most creative minds.

 

4) Time and Complexity - I put these two together because they really amount to the same issue - attention span. Let's face it, bridge takes a little time to get into, and when you do you need a fair amount of time to play a full session. Most successful modern games are able to be played after a few minutes and last under an hour per game, with an optimal length being around 30-40 minutes. Longer than that and distractions like Twitter, Facebook and the like start to loom. In some ways this links back to the first area - if it were as cool to sit down and learn a game like bridge as to send inane messages to friends then the distractions would not be such a problem. But it is not and decreasing attention spans is bad news for games like bridge.

 

 

Anyway, we have had a number of threads in the past on the subject of attracting new players. A popular idea is to target Hearts players; another to lobby education authorities to bring bridge into schools; a third is to target older (40ish) professionals looking for a non-athletic, social hobby. If there were a simple answer to the problem then I daresay someone would have come up with it by now and implemented it in at least one country. I think it is clear that for bridge to serious compete for younger players will require such a major sea-change as to upset many existing players. That would be a serious risk for RAs since if they do not attract the hoped-for new members they could kill the game completely. Therefore I can understand the status-quo approach even when I feel it is misguided.

[Vampyr]

I did try to join a bridge club but at the time they all offered only "penny a hundred" rubber bridge games and it was against my principles to gamble (not to mention against the Law since I was a minor).

 

I wonder if there is a way around this (apart from the issue of being a minor).

 

Suppose you paid the management a small amount (a dollar would cover a penny a hundred quite easily) every time you played and considered it table money. They could take your losses out of this fund and add your winnings to it. Whatever balance you had whenever you played would be put towards refreshments. You would have nothing to do with money except for paying your table money. Would this work for a player who didn't like to gamble?

[PhilKing]

FWIW, rubber bridge was not legally considered gambling in the UK after the 1968 Gaming Act. I started playing at Pinner Bridge Club with my father when I was 16. The Tuesday partnership rubber game was my first hunting ground, but for much higher stakes - 2p per 100. B-)

[nige1]

My father, Charles, was a civil servant in Africa. There was a dearth of local entertainment, so couples invited other couples for dinner and Bridge. I would sit up and watch for as long as my parents allowed. My mother, Barbara, began to be bored by the game. After a few deals, she would lapse into a long trance. Our guests may have feared another brilliancy until my mother's cards fluttered from her hand and she slumped forward fast asleep. In those circumstances, my father sometimes permitted me to substitute. Later at school, Headteacher, Oswald Eaves, and Maths master, Roger Beauchamp, taught Bridge to my class of lucky ten year olds.

[WellSpyder]

A bit surprised nobody else seems to have been exposed to it at school. Don't your countries try to create juniors?

My answer doesn't say that I wasn't exposed to it at school, just that it wasn't via lessons. I started playing at school with friends who had learnt from their parents, but there was certainly no encouragement from the teachers, who I suspect regarded it as a rather frivolous way to spend free periods!

[Antrax]

Today in Israel there's a program in school with the stated purpose of identifying young talent and cultivating it - similar to how many countries have chess as part of the school curriculum. Before that, when I was in high school, there was an afternoon (it was a boarding school) class about Bridge. I remember learning the 1-2-3-4 point count and some variation of Acol before the teacher gave up and quit teaching :(

[akhare]

A popular idea is to target Hearts players status-quo approach even when I feel it is misguided.

 

Good strategy ;) -- we used to play hearts during lunch time @ work and a coworker convinced me to learn a "real card game".