I really must play Bridge again sometime. I used to be a little too good at it, and stopped because it was taking over my life. I think the addiction may have passed now.

(Reply) (Thread)

You wouldn't like to play bridge with me would you? We could go to the Young Chelsea, which I presume is not too far from here, and where I understand good bridge is played.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

If by the term "good bridge" you mean, "like bridge from another galaxy" then yes, you'd be right. The best players all play there, and play something although called bridge, doesn't appear to resemble the bridge played anywhere else.

Yes I'd love a game. I've not been to the Young Chelsea in years and I've been wondering about it again recently. Wait until I've finished moving and have settled in, so sometime next month I guess. And Baroness Henig (long time bridge partner of mine who I've recently found out has become a member of the house of Lords) has prior claim to a game with me at the Young Chelsea should I be heading that way. Or something. I'll let you know when I know I'm free.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I was always hopeless at remembering. Otherwise I liked it. Though for ages when I was learning I was paralysed with fear I'd get it wrong whenever I did anything and didn't play fast.

And I generally didn't like team sports where I was shit, because (1) I was letting everyone down and (2) you don't get to do much which isn't fun. But that doesn't really apply here: you're playing with friends, even if you were bad and this was a problem they'd say so.

I remember David and David having silly conventions, but observing I decided they did it because it was fun: it gave them a greater chance of making it big when they had lots of special bids saying "Hey, I've got... do you have... if so bid a slam" and whatnot, at the expense of making it harder to bid boring hands, which spiced up boring hands. So not *that* superior to a sane system :)

(Reply) (Thread)

I was always hopeless at remembering. Otherwise I liked it. Though for ages when I was learning I was paralysed with fear I'd get it wrong whenever I did anything and didn't play fast.

I know that feeling.

Thanks to Foundation and then Rivendell, I've improved at trick based games and can now occasionally be persuaded to win tricks (and thus lead to the next trick),* but I still find the idea of not being dummy when our side has the contract utterly scary! But I've only actually played bridge about 3 times!

*My Contract Whist strategy of bidding to lose tricks used to drive claroscuro up the wall!

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

But otoh at least when it's your contract you're in control, and you can plan with reaosnable accuracy what you'll have to remember beforehand...

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I still find the idea of not being dummy when our side has the contract utterly scary!

Never bid NT.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Bridge happens approximately once a week at my house. If you'd like to be prodded about the next one, this can be arranged. Let me know...

(Reply) (Thread)

I need to play more bridge... or rather, I need to figure out how to play bridge. Because it could be fun. If I understood it.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

That would be fun (all the disclaimers above included, of course :) ) I can come with an emperor too if that makes numbers squarer, although we both tend to play with the other person rather than each other, for the sake of Domestic Bliss. (I don't think this rule is set in stone though)

Random chiark types are frequently found playing bridge in the Carlton on Thursdays too...

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Bridge with beer!? Sounds interesting :-)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I have a similar problem with bridge. It's a game, and I normally enjoy games but don't take them too seriously; I think about what move to play fairly hard but not very hard and I don't care too much if I lose. With bridge, the partnership arrangement means that someone else is dependent on me to play well and possibly that their enjoyment of the game is dependent on my playing well. Because I believe that everyone else thinks more about their game than I do, I can't treat bridge with the same carelessness that I treat other games.

That takes the fun out of it for me and replaces it with stress.

(S)

(Reply) (Thread)

Not being good at card games doesn't make you thick. Or at least I hope it doesn't anyway...

(Reply) (Thread)

I haven't played bridge seriously since Sixth Form. Gosh. I should try and do better.

(Reply) (Thread)

I have very happy recollections (from years ago) of long afternoons spent in pubs playing German Whist, Cribbage, and Hunt the Lady; all of which have a pleasing mix of short-term and memory-based strategy (and intuitive estimation of non-trivial probability distributions), a fair mix of luck, and moments of wonderful unfairness and being-picked-on (or at any rate feeling as if you are).

I'm quite puzzled by why bridge has never grabbed me, though.

(Reply) (Thread)

Well, L. might be a bit young to make up a bridge four. She's just the right age for teaching cribbage though...

Mmm, cribbage. I haven't played cribbage for aaaages. Or bezique. All I need now is a willing opponent :)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

*waves*

For cribbage, anyway. I learned Piquet as my other two-player game.

I never got around to learning Bridge either, although I know the rules and have a shaky memory for *some* bidding conventions. My preferred four-player game is Solo Whist, since it doesn't have a dummy and Misere hands are just *fun*.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Gosh, I haven't played Solo for a decade. It's fun, as I recall, but less deep than bridge, which after all, is the only truly intellectual card game.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Cribbage I can do.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Haven't played bezique in a while... Cribbage also! We might have to arrange a game...

Bridge also good - I tend to play rather cavalierly, with a disregard for caution.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

It takes a while to get the hang of remembering cards. I find it helps to have a plan, and to keep track of how that plan's going in order to remember them.

Did I tell you about the bridge tutor program I found on the net?

(Reply) (Thread)

No, you didn't. Or yes, you have done now. Depending on how you look at it. Where was it?

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

I used to play bridge at school, I think it's a great game and would love to play again. But I remember getting unreasonably irritated at how seriously everyone else took it. As in, spending about as much time analysing the previous hand as it took to actually play the hand. Part of it was my own laziness about self-improvement, refusing to learn to count cards when the other players seemed to be natural at it. Also, what stephdairy said.

(Reply) (Thread)

Maybe we should found the lighten-up bridge society. But then all the people I play with already would say "but we *don't* take is seriously and join, so I'm not sure how that would help :D

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

Well, it would mean you could say "oi" and kick them out again if they subsequently took it too seriously for your taste :-)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

make them play naked?

*scratches head*

hm, no, maybe that doesn't help.

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

What, a "remove and article of clothing it you're sarcastic when you say 'thank you partner'" rule? Well, it'd be different. And kind of fun :)

(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)

The variatey of Doppelkopf I used to play is much less rational than bridge, because the suits are by far too short (the worst case version for diamonds is that you'd potentially only have two 10s and two Kings in the suit...) and there are by far too many trumps (up to 30). Which of course means it's much easier to play it without counting/calculating too much. However do you have bridge tv coverage in England? In Switzerland I've actually discovered that the most famous local card game (Jassen) is being covered in primetime or afternoon tv every now and then.

(Reply) (Thread)