This is a good point. I also agree with Siegmund's comments about the value of 2/1 being in part that it's safer to play with someone with whom you're not going to be able to have extensive discussion.

ok, i've never played bridge before, but am a spades expert (seriously; not just some guy who thinks he's better than he is)

i'm confident in my ability to make my bid and to set the opponents, but i don't know how the actual bidding/auction works or what the various conventions are; what's the best resource for quickly getting up to speed on the bidding conventions so that i could start playing? i'm used to playing the hand without info since we don't have that bidding info in spades, so i'm not worried about optimizing that right now, just getting a base so i can play and then determine next steps from there

would also be willing to play with someone online to learn the basics and get my feet wet

The ACBL has a learn to play bridge program that will teach you everything you need to know about basic bidding.

http://www.acbl.org/learn/ltpb.html

I can't remember everything that's in the program, so here's a bit about conventions. Anything that isn't in the program you can look up on Wikipedia.

Absolutely essential conventions that you must know inside out:

Strong 2C
Takeout double
Stayman
Jacoby transfers
Blackwood

Widely used conventions which intermediate players might get annoyed with you for not understanding:

Negative double
Splinters
Unusual NT
Michaels

For the latter ones you don't need to be an expert in what all the different responses mean. For instance with unusual NT it's sufficient to know that it's 5-5 in the lower two unbid suits and might well be quite weak; you don't need to know all the detailed responses Wiki goes into, common sense will suffice.

Nich! You can learn this very quickly. Look back a page or so and Chuck posted a link to basic bidding.


Or look back one post and someone beat me to it

Nich and Zurvan.

If you want someone to play with to help you learn join Bridge Base Online and hit me up sometime. My name on there Babushkka and I am on there a ton. But going through at least part 1 on that program is really useful first.

thx; i'll go through the program and learn the basics first; will post after i've done so

got this email after requesting the program:

"We appreciate your interest in the FREE Learn to Play Bridge lessons provided by the American Contact Bridge League"

i thought bridge was a tame game

Wait until you have your partner pull your penalty double when the opps are about to be set 3. You will understand the contact part then.

I spent the afternoon playing rubber bridge with my grsndmother, who is 98 and learned the game in 1931, and a neightbor of hers who learned in 1929. Grandma and I won huge (seven games to one), but because of the bizarre reward system they like to use, I lost twenty cents.

I was also reminded how some modern conventiosn are not just sill gadgets. Easy case for all of you: vul/not, rubber bridge, you hold KJx Axxx xx Jxxx (approximately — I spaced out a bit, as it was 80 degrees...). Partner opens 1D; RHO opens 2C, and you...?

You double, of course. Except if you're my grandmother you don't. You can't. It's penalty, and you don't have it.

She tried 2NT, which I passed with my 4=4=4=1 fourteen count. Down two. A quick look said hearts was good for about nine tricks — but how do you get there without negative doubles?

Yeah the nice thing about 2/1 is just saying that too any decent partner and the odds are you won't have any confusion with your bidding. But playing precision, any bid after 1C, other than 1D, I've seen have a multitude of different meanings.

I think we need to go back to near the beginning of this thread to where Siegmund and I (and others, but those were the big contributions) each posted lists of bridge books that were good for various levels.

You won't have much confusion in the first few calls, anyway. After that, no guarantees. In particular, East Coast and West coast 2/1 come with slightly different sets of "standard" gadgets.

Nich, you will like bridge. IF your partner opens 1 there are 27 different responses you can make, not counting doubles or No Trump bids.

Wyman,

It has been a long time since I've paid for my entries at a national. Definitely if I was paying I would always get the junior discount. I always tell my clients about it so when they buy the entry they can fill one out if they want, most are rich and don't care lol.

Nicholasp27, I think learning spades before bridge is the perfect way to learn bridge. I played a ton of spades before I got into bridge, had over 10k games on yahoo. You will understand card play and hand evaluation very easily. Bidding won't really be about conventions at first, you will need to know what standard, every day bids mean like an opening bid or a response to an opening bid. The only really essential conventions to learn are stayman, blackwood, and takeout doubles.

Also, not all regionals give junior discounts (in fact most don't). Two districts that I was a member of used to though, and either stopped or changed the rules so that if you are playing professionally you are not eligible to get a discount. This also happened in Toronto because of Gavin Wolpert.

It's a shame, when I played in LA when I was 12 they let me play for free, and I would play a LOT. I think the clubs/units/districts should support juniors playing more by giving them discounts, but I understand the no pro rule.

can a good bridge player make money playing?

The person posting right above you does

good money? how, by winning tournaments and coaching? can u play duplicate bridge online for decent money?

Not as good as you could with poker. Bridge is also much harder to pick up, so I would approach it as a recreational thing.

The top guys make good money. It's not really by coaching, it's just people hiring you to play on their teams so that they are more likely to win. You cannot play duplicate bridge online like poker (gambling style), but you can get hired to play on there. The money is not good but it's fine, something like $100/hr for good but not top pros and who knows for one of the top guys (since most of them don't play pro online, no idea what they'd charge). Nobody makes their money just playing online though, if you can get reasonable money getting hired online you could get much much more getting hired for a tournament (and you get more sessions in that way).

You can also coach/teach obv, a few guys retire from competitive bridge and make bank off of group seminars and lectures, but that is pretty rare.

And ofc when someone hires you to play you usually end up teaching them stuff as well so that they get better.

There are a couple of people who coach top teams rather than play on them, few make good money like this but one notable exception is Eric Kokish who is by far the most famous partnership/team coach and is considered the most influential theoretician in bridge by many.

so i could get paid $100/hour to pard people...i didn't realize that; i'm much more suited for bridge than poker, so i'm gonna take it seriously for a bit and see where it takes me

it would be good to pard some good players once i learn the basics to increase my learning curve

to give an idea, i'm going through program and the stuff they go over to maximize tricks like planning who gets the lead when is pretty basic stuff for me in spades where i can't see their hand (tho it's very hard to find spades players who understand the stuff)

i went 250-25 on yahoo advanced/ladders with many partners and coached the national champ; my senses are honed for trick taking games after many thousands of spades games

i know my trick maximizing skills are better than jay tomilson, if u know that bridge player, but i have to learn how to bid

Yeah all of your spades skills will transfer to bridge, seriously the perfect game to play before actually learning bridge.

For IMPs, BBO.

R-R (Us, Them)

__W___N___E___S
______________(1d)
__X___(P)__1h__(P)
__3c__(P)__3d__(P)
__4N__(P)__5c__(P)
__P

It is morning here. I am into my fourth hand partnering fcblcomish. In the previous hand, we were in 3NT with me playing. I butchered the hand (had long spade suit and took a needless risk in not playing to the solitary J in my hand and just reeled off the winners in dummy AKQxxx and the T did not drop, which allowed opponents in to reel off their winners). We lose 9.6 IMPs. So I am already embarrassed and then...


I am West with:AK9 ---- AQ86 KQT742.

South has opened and I don't really know what to do. Decidiing to adapt something I recall reading I double and then intend to show my suit next bid. I know this can be taken as a takeout double for partner but I don't think he will have hearts. Fcblcomish replies 1. South passes. I now think "nooooo". We have game but I immediately dismiss 3NT because we will most certainly not have the majority of hearts. I decide to simply show my strength and let partner show me where we are going. I bid 3. fcblcomish responds 3. I wonder if this is a cuebid but dismiss that thought instantly as I have the A and we have not agreed a suit! So what now? It looks as though partner is saying 3NT is where we are heading but I am still reluctant despite his showing of hearts. I instigate Blackwood to see what we have by way of Aces. [It is easy now to see how wrong this is. I have a void.] Fcblcomish bids 5. As I have two Aces I conclude that fcblcomish does not have four and so I pass. 5 looks doable.

I make for 3.6 IMPs but stupidly discard a spade winner and cost myself an overtrick. Fcblcomish was at the end of his evenings play (it was the early hours of his morning) and he had announced during the bidding he had to go after this hand. It is the beginning of mine and with my mind not working, I decide that I too should abandon the field of battle.

I found this hand very difficult to bid.

Could someone please illuminate me?

I think you'll like bridge a lot Nich. Spades is a good game but the strategic depth is somewhat restrained by the limited amount of information available. In bridge, with the bidding revealing information about the hands and then each player being able to see two hands during play, there's exactly the right amount of information available to make playing the hand very challenging. It's kind of like how draw poker is a worse game than holdem because the amount of information available is too limited.

i hope so
i actually like the limited information...it gives me a bigger edge since i can still do the same things i see in bridge program without knowing pard's hand...being declarer seems so easy as of now since i get all that extra info...seems like it'll be harder to gain a huge edge because everyone gets that info...obv not everyone will play hands properly, but a larger # of players will after some practice, while smaller % of spades players will be able to

but again, i haven't gotten to the bidding part, just the playing as declarer part, which seems very simple

i had a famous "sweet 16" strategies in spades, and see many are covered in bridge...it seems we basically reinvented bridge hand play strategy from playing thousands of games of spades