by davijohn
I have been a huge fan of gamer's games ever since being introduced to them in grad school. I have played--and enjoyed--most everything on the Geek's Top-50 list (and plenty that didn't quite make the cut). It's a great feeling to totally hose your neighbor out of wood in Agricola, or finally shift your Dominion deck engine into 5th gear after a pair of Market purchases. I've had my share of Twilight Imperium all-nighters and San Juan quickies.
But I'm writing about duplicate bridge (NOT party bridge).
I lost my job in May of last year, and temporarily moved back in with my folks, where I could live cheap and work part-time, allowing me the free time to continue honing my career skills (I'm a music professor). I got in touch with an old high school buddy of mine, asked him if he would be interested in trying some board games, and he invited me to the bridge club. Since I didn't know how to play, he sent me several pages on when/how to make opening bids, how to respond when your partner opens, rebidding, knowing the roles of captaining vs. describing in a partnership, etc.--most of which didn't make any sense. There were lots of words like 'Jacoby transfer' and 'sign-off' which seemed from outer space. So I studied up and went to the club.
Woo-wee, only elderly people play this game! 99% of bridge players are geriatric. It was a small club, with 20 players, and many had trouble getting in and out of their chairs, or even just holding 13 cards in their hand. They were all really nice and would say things like 'It's sure nice to see a young face here.' Well, in spite of our 'feeble' competition, and my studying, my partner and I got our asses handed to us by this odd collection of senior citizens after 27 bridge hands. Last place out of 10 teams! What's going on? My gamer's mind is a strategic steel-trap!
So I took the plunge. I bought a used copy of Bridge Baron 18, I paid my $26 membership dues to the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and downloaded their bridge-learning program, and treated it like a college class. I spent afternoons reading and practicing with the computer programs, and took pages and pages of notes, which I would read and re-read before games. My old high school buddy was already a life master, so if I felt that I had learned one aspect of the game, he would point to another that needed work. Slowly but surely, I absorbed the Standard American Yellow Card (SAYC) system of bidding, and began to hold my own against the old people.
Less than a year later, I am totally addicted to bridge. I just got back from the Las Vegas sectional tournament, where I won 8 silver points in two days of intense card play. My partner and I now use a '2 Over 1' bidding system (which is based on SAYC) with lots of artificial bells and whistles to put the hurt on our opponents. Our entire partnership is designed to find our maximal card fit and totally obstruct our opponents from finding theirs. Duplicate bridge will be with me for life.
Having told you my abridged bridge story, here is the bullet-point version of bridge's pros and cons:
--Pros--
1. Depth--every hand is a new challenge. There are the occasional vanilla hands where there isn't much to say about your cards, but the city tournaments often use pre-sorted cards with bizarre deals. And even the vanilla hands often have unexpected surprises...
2. Partnership--I do not enjoy playing bridge with just any random player. I have spent hundreds of hours cultivating a bidding system and a defensive communication strategy with my regular partner. He and I have worked out complex agreements on every aspect of our play.
3. Competition--Most of your opponents are good, friendly people. Some are irritating--just like most gaming groups! But they are all out for blood. Duplicate bridge is hyper-competitive. Your opponents have their partnership agreements and experience, just as my partner and I have ours, and they will try to take you down.
4. Depth (again)--I will never, ever master bridge. There is too much to learn in just one lifetime. In 30 years, I will still be a student.
--Cons--
1. Commitment--Learning duplicate bridge takes lots of time, and lots of practice. It can be compared to learning a musical instrument, or a foreign language. You can have a good strategy figured out for Puerto Rico in three or four plays, but not duplicate bridge.
2. The game is dying. Young people don't play bridge. They have school or jobs, and aren't free for afternoon club games. They have Playstations and DVD players (things that didn't exist when the current crop of bridge players were young). Perhaps the game will make a resurgence one day, but right now the ranks of bridge players is rapidly thinning.
Thanks for reading my post. I look forward to any comments/questions.
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