PROS

[puidedac]

how can u end up living out of bridge? or what level should u be playing bridge to start living out of bridge or maybe in which country/ies u can do that?

i see so many italians, polish, american players and not only playing everywhere; do they end up earning enough out of the prizes to cover all expenses?

tx.

[luke warm]

i would think it'd be like any other business... if one thinks he's ready to make a living playing bridge, find a like minded partner... then draw up a business plan... set aside the investment capital and then go :D

[TimG]

do they end up earning enough out of the prizes to cover all expenses?

Certainly not in America, and I doubt elsewhere. The big money made playing bridge comes mostly from being paid to play as a partner or team mate. There is also the possibility of making money by teaching bridge, or running bridge games, but I don't think this is what you were really asking about.

[the hog]

You can make a good living by playing big money rubber bridge games. There are a number of professionals who do that in London eg Hallberg, Gruia, formerly Courtney and many years ago Zia. There are many others.

[pbleighton]

"You can make a good living by playing big money rubber bridge games."

 

I know someone who does this. He has three U.S. national titles. When I have played him, it seems that he can see through the backs of the cards.

 

If you are going to make a living this way, I don't think being "very good" will be good enough.

 

Peter

[EricK]

You can make a good living by playing big money rubber bridge games. There are a number of professionals who do that in London eg Hallberg, Gruia, formerly Courtney and many years ago Zia. There are many others.

Who are these people making money off?

 

There would have to be enough people who play in big money rubber bridge even though they know they are going to lose big money.

 

Who are they?

 

Eric

[the hog]

Business men, developers, the idle rich, gamblers etc. There is a regular $10.00 per point rubber bridge game at Double Bay in Sydney. Tim Seres is a regular, as is Courtney. Want to play? Not me thanks!

 

Don't forget that a lot of people have a much inflated opinion of ther own game. A guy I play with on occasion won $100,000Aud playing Backgammon in Sydney in one afternoon a few years ago. (settled for $5000 cash and was paid in cash there on the spot - the other guy just took it out of his wallet. (My pd didn't want his legs broken by insisting on the full amount and at least this way he was paid and the guy played again.)

[EricK]

Business men, developers, the idle rich, gamblers etc. There is a regular $10.00 per point rubber bridge game at Double Bay in Sydney. Tim Seres is a regular, as is Courtney. Want to play? Not me thanks!

 

Don't forget that a lot of people have a much inflated opinion of ther own game. A guy I play with on occasion won $100,000Aud playing Backgammon in Sydney in one afternoon a few years ago. (settled for $5000 cash and was paid in cash there on the spot - the other guy just took it out of his wallet. (My pd didn't want his legs broken by insisting on the full amount and at least this way he was paid and the guy played again.)

My wallet wouldn't even hold $5,000!

 

It still strikes me as strange that these people are prepared to lose so much money (and their experience, if they are regulars, must have told them that they are going to lose).

 

Of course, if it is the case the amount they lose is not a lot of money to them then it is a shame that they they can't find a more worthy cause to donate their money to. Unless, for example, Seres and Courtney are using their bridge to help fund their important medical research :lol:

 

Eric

[mr1303]

Even at my local bridge club there's plenty of the so called stupid rich who play in the £5 game, and get wiped out every night. Doesn't stop them coming back though.

 

A friend of mine plays pro bridge. Apparantly there are these very rich sponsors, who are quite happy to give him about $500 for playing in a weekend congress somewhere in the world, and pay his hotel and air fair on top of that. Guess it just shows it's not what you know......

[the hog]

Courtney actually is interested in preventing alcoholism in youth. He and Stephen Burgess are trying to drink the world dry so that young people won't have any alcohol left to become alcoholics.

 

I agree, Eric. I am on a teacher's salary. I am lucky if my wallet holds $20.00.

[the saint]

Having been to TGRs and St John's Wood in London a couple of times and seen the big game in action, I can assure you that there are some seriously minted people lurking around who don't mind losing the odd few grand because it is just pocket change to them. Their money simply allows them to play around and do what they please in life. Their comprehension of risk is just on a totally different scale. I baulk at floating a tenner on anything, they couldn't give a %@&£ about ten grand. The compulsive gamblers have been doing it so often, they just don't care either and have to float that much just to get the buzz again.

 

I have to say that visiting these two places was actually quite depressing. TGR's is in a basement just off Hyde Park and St John's Wood is in a basement somewhere just north of there. Both are pretty dingy, and the thought of spending 24 hours a day in there trying to win a few quid I find really quite depressing when there is such a big wide world out there to see.

 

Just my two pennies worth.

 

Alan

[TimG]

It still strikes me as strange that these people are prepared to lose so much money (and their experience, if they are regulars, must have told them that they are going to lose).

I suppsoe you've never beento Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Foxwoods, etc.

[EricK]

It still strikes me as strange that these people are prepared to lose so much money (and their experience, if they are regulars, must have told them that they are going to lose).

I suppsoe you've never beento Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Foxwoods, etc.

You are right!

 

But I would imagine that the odds are better in a casino than they are in rubber bridge game with experts.

 

Eric

[pbleighton]

"But I would imagine that the odds are better in a casino than they are in rubber bridge game with experts."

 

In either case, if you play long enough you will lose all of your money.

 

Peter

[Free]

first WIN some major international events (or become your country's hero), then write some good books or start a good online service :rolleyes:

[pclayton]

the world is a different place........

 

Someone that has a 20K loss at Vegas over a 3 day junket isnt a a big fish anymore.

 

At any given time in the off-season, a major hotel will have roughly a dozen players with a 7 figure credit limit. Multpily the number of people by 10 during the busy times like new years eve, super bowl, etc.. And we aren't talking about the Bill Gates and Warren Buffets of the world.

 

So why should any of us be shocked when the wealthy want to drop 5K in an afternoon at a bridge club?

 

Biggest game I've heard of around here is a $100 per IMP game with rotating pairs on the west side of LA. I've been tempted...... B)

[mycroft]

If my workaday job was making $10m speculative decisions, and I was worth $50m or so, playing for $0.02 a point (or a pound a hundred) would be matchsticks - and it wouldn't be worth my while to play for matchsticks. No amount of money short of 1% of my net worth would be anything near as risky as that "if this deal goes south, I'm fired. If I don't make 2, 3, 4 deals a year, I'm fired" job I get paid very well for - even if I am pretty much guaranteed to lose at the bridge table.

 

There are people who are willing to pay $1000/day plus expenses to play with (around) great bridge players. If I'm in that bracket, why shouldn't I play cutaround rubber, where most days I'll lose $1500 to those experts, but some days it'll be $300, and I get a story I can tell for years the day I come out ahead?

 

After all, I get to play with, and against, and learn from, those same experts...

 

Now, I'm not such a person. I don't have that much money, I don't have that cavalier an attitude to money (I spent 5 days at the Nationals in Reno last year and bet... $0.00) and I don't gamble when I play games - because among everything else, the chance of cheating in $0.02/point games is probably higher than even online - at the $10/point games, they can afford to do security and you only get caught once...

 

But I can understand it for those who are like that.

 

Side story; I remember playing against someone in Toronto at the Nationals who was "taking a break" from his work by playing over his head at the bridge table. He'd just come out of LV having come third in the WSOP. He told us he works about 40 days a year - *very long days*, though. And I bet they're really stressful, even though he knows that (of the non-tournament games) he's likely to be out of pocket at the end of the day maybe once. *Just not today, please...*

 

Michael.

[bearmum]

Business men, developers, the idle rich, gamblers etc. There is a regular $10.00 per point rubber bridge game at Double Bay in Sydney. Tim Seres is a regular, as is Courtney. Want to play? Not me thanks!

 

Don't forget that a lot of people have a much inflated opinion of ther own game. A guy I play with on occasion won $100,000Aud playing Backgammon in Sydney in one afternoon a few years ago. (settled for $5000 cash and was paid in cash there on the spot - the other guy just took it out of his wallet. (My pd didn't want his legs broken by insisting on the full amount and at least this way he was paid and the guy played again.)

Think U jave the right idea - as for me WHENEVER I play Rubber I ALMOST never get reasonable cards - SO RARELY win - which is why I won't play rubber (unless for matchsticks :) )

ALSO I am not NEARLY rich (or a good enuff player) to contemplate playing for TEN dollars a point !!!!!

[Fluffy]

Proffesionals here will get most of their money out of giving classes, a big amount also from playing with sponsor, and about 10% or less from tourney prices.

[ArcLight]

>first WIN some major international events (or become your country's hero), then write some good books or start a good online service

 

Would one really make much money off that?

How many copies does a top selling Bridge book sell? (Where is the major book market?)

How much does the author get per copy?

 

If Geir Helgemo wrote a book, I assume it would sell in Norway, but what about the US?

(I use him as an example because he's a strong player from a country where English is not the main language, and Norway is a small county population wise)

 

 

I think the real money is to kidnap the wife of a rich bridge player and demand $1,000,000 ransom. :)

[fred]

It is very hard to make a good living as a bridge writer. The vast majority of bridge books sell no more than a few 1000 copies and if you go through a publisher you make roughly $1 per book. You can do better if you publish the book yourself, but there is also a lot more risk (and a lot more work) involved.

 

There is a lot more money to be made from bridge software (mostly because the margins are significantly more attractive).

 

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[Free]

It is very hard to make a good living as a bridge writer. The vast majority of bridge books sell no more than a few 1000 copies and if you go through a publisher you make roughly $1 per book. You can do better if you publish the book yourself, but there is also a lot more risk (and a lot more work) involved.

Ok, didn't know that...

[MickyB]

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

[fred]

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

I would guess that in the recent Vanderbilt in Pittsburgh there were roughly 15 teams in which more than one player was getting paid at least $10,000. Probably close to half of the professional players in the Vanderbilt were not Americans.

 

Another guess is that there are roughly 25 American players USA who make over $100,000 per year playing professionally.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[cheech]

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

Just out of interest, who are the "maybe 4" u are thinking of? (not that I'll probably have heard of them)