Why do people make learning this game so hard?

[Winstonm]

I am looking for a way to learn "rubber" bridge. I started out studying the duplicate bridge but then found that close friends play rubber bridge. The problem is, they play by the guidelines set out in "At the Bridge Table" by Jo Woods, copyright 1967. It is written in very short sentences or even partial sentences without much explanation. I just cannot understand so much of it. I would like to take lessons or find a GOOD book on rubber bridge, but when I search online, I come up with so many videos, etc. that just fall under the category of "bridge" without making a distinction between rubber and duplicate bridge. I am lost! Can someone point me in the direction of where I can get help learning rubber bridge?

 

Search the internet for beginning bridge books written by Charles H Goren. He called himself proudly the simple Simon of bridge but won national championships too. His writing is clear and simple. Play While You Learn Bridge is one of his books you might find useful.

[helene_t]

I am looking for a way to learn "rubber" bridge.

Rubber bridge isn't played much anymore.

 

In the other thread you mentioned that you play socially with another pair that uses very old bidding methods, so presumably they are used to play rubber bridge. I would suggest you play Total Points which works when you don't have a second table to score against, and hopefully the other pair can live with that.

 

The problem with Rubber (or Chicago) scoring is that the contract you need to bid to get game bonus depends on the score you have accumulated. So for example, if you just need 40 points to complete the game, you will probably just open 1NT with 20 high-card points in 3rd or 4th seat as there's no point in exploring higher contracts, partner is going to pass with 11 high-card points anyway. Who knows what a 2NT opening will show in that situation, then? This basically means that your whole bidding system goes pearshaped as soon as you already have a partscore.

 

For this reason, you probably won't find any book that tells you how to use a modern bidding system to play rubber bridge. It would be like a book showing how you can use pliers to patch socks.

[mikl_plkcc]

I can relate to that to some extent. In other (physical) sports I am used to being able to turn up and depart with some flexibility, but for training or casual competition only (and only in a few precise hours can I rely on finding the trainer or even company). Real competition is scheduled on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, when most people are not working or committed to family. Somehow I doubt that would work for bridge, although I agree that a lot could be done to improve things for younger players (for example, incentives for more expert players to play with them).

 

I got into bridge when I was in high school, and I had a regular partner at that time. However, my partner didn't get good enough result in the GCSE to enter matriculation. Also, I was in the national high school programming team at that moment and playing bridge was the most common form of entertainment by then.

 

I continued playing bridge into university, at the university bridge club, but I no longer have a fixed partner by then, until one year after graduation when I left my job as a research assistant at university, as my interest in sports had shifted into orienteering, and then marathon swimming.

 

The university bridge club had open competitions which were held on a weekend, similar to the high school competitions. This is not too different to any other sports. In bridge, 4 players form a table, and get a deck of cards then you can practice.