Learn to Play Bridge

learn to play bridge

Bridge is for the Young at Heart. It is especially great for the young in years as well. Teaching kids bridge is not just about teaching the rules of the game itself but about teaching the application of math and logic skills, social skills, and ethics. There are youth tournaments held around the country via local ACBL units, the Youth North American Bridge Championships, and the School Bridge League. There are college scholarships available to youth bridge players through ACBL and local organizations.

bridge and

yes, by all means Bridge will keep you alert and sociable into old age with the perspective of a nice death from falling off a chair at a bridge table arguing with partner why he did not return diamonds.

But do avoid tough competition bridge which is full of one-sided off balance people who constantly grade everyone around them from idiot to expert, with massive disdain for the majority.

However, Bridge will not do for real balance in life. You also need a hobby for your legs, a job to support you and a social life beyond bridge.

What's Trump Anyway?

My contrarian view is--based on age (89) and fifty years of playing sociable bridge--that learning to play bridge is one of the best things you can do to have a happy old age. BUT the repeated advice to immediately seek out ACBL lessons (for MOST people) is a mistake. As a purely sociable player, my motto is, "It's better to have played bridge badly than never to have played at all." Ask your bridge-playing mother or grandmother to let you sit in for a month or two and THEN go for bridge lessons if you wish--buy instruction books with coded cards for practice hands. The bad habits you learn will be more than offset by the danger of being turned off by formal ACBL lessons too soon.

A little secret (not dirty): "the ACBL's own statistics indicate that 87.9 per cent of bridge players learn how to play from friends and family"--a quote from my about to be published book: Bridge Table or What's Trump Anyway: An Affectionate Look Back at Sociable Bridge. It's "herstory" of bridge, a feminist word from the 60s for history told from a woman's viewpoint, complete with an account of the menus and recipes for ladies' lunch, an integral part of ladies-only sociable bridge since the 1890s.

For appalled ACBL-ers, here's my book's epigraph, from a popular culture classic, Middletown in Transition, by Helen and Robert Lynd, published in 1935: "It is conceivable that [bridge] never would have been anything but the sport of an esoteric few, had its growth depended entirely on the male [i.e. serious] world. Its development, however, has been primarily in the hands of women [who govern sociable bridge]."

If you are amongst the compeitive people who are as ego-driven about leisure as work, the "esoteric few" -- take lessons. If you just want to insure for yourself a lifetime hobby, a way to meet people, a guarantee (scientists are saying)of living long and mentally alert, a distraction from your woes, the key to a happy old age (Talleyrand and Somerset Maugham said it)take my advice.

Finally, playing bridge is the PERFECT hobby in this recession/depression--costs virtually nothing to pursue. In fact, one of the reasons bridge playing became a frenzied fad in the 30s was THAT depression. It was the no-cost, fashionable thing to do, and one shared by all classes from lower through socialites.

lessons

I am looking for the basic rules of bridge to see whether I

would want to pursue it further.

Honing Your Skills

I've been playing bridge since college. I'm now 77. It is a great way to meet & make new friends. A lot of my free time is spent in this challenging game. I urge everyone to give it a try. If u meet some crabby people, move on to the next because they're lots of friendly & warm players out there.

Partners are easy to come by as well as lessons. Go to ACBL.org & click on your state & city. You'll find clubs & lessons.

Enjoy!!

Retirement

After moving away from the city in which we had both worked and raised our children, I found making friends so easy because of duplicate bridge. Bridge lends itself to the visiting person as well as the newcomer and without the game my life would be much less fun. There are not many of us in the retirement age bracket who would not benefit from getting up and out to spend time excercising our grey matter.

Alzheimer's

not only is bridge fun, but there is conclusive evidence that there are fewer cases of Alzheimer's disease among bridge players than among the general population..in addition, I completely concur that it is a great way to make friends..not all bridge players are warm and comfy, but the great majority are..in addition, it is a game hat is like chess with cards,layers and layers upon layers..and there are games specifically for new players, so one can be relaxed while learning..and then move up at hih or her own rate of speed to the more difficult games...and ACBL will be there to help every step of the way..give it a try..I promise you''like it!!!

The Best

Because of bridge, I have friends from literally every continent on the planet. Nothing is more challenging, intriguing, creative, exciting, fun, funny and frustrating than bridge!

Whether you are eight or eighty, if you're not yet a bridge player, consider learning the game as one of your new year's resolutions. No matter where you live, you'll find teachers and friends who can assist you to learn the greatest game ever invented.

Not only adults but kids can benefit also

Unlike most activities bridge is also something you and your children can learn and play together.

I know of thousands of children all over the country who are learning to play and many will attend the Youth North American Bridge Championship in Washington DC in 2009.

Don't let the opportunity to share a new experience with your children pass you by.

Bridge is the most fun four people can have sitting down

All that and it makes you smarter too!

Another good place to find a bridge teacher is the American Bridge Teachers' Association.

Find them at ABTAhome.com