bridge players, come here

[TCO]

How much do you play? How good? Hard to find partners?

I would like to get better and would like to play contract, not duplicate. I prefer to learn the Goren Bridge Complete methods

[Urban Ranger]

You mean the American Standard System of bidding, yes?

I used to be a member of ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) and competed on a number of levels.

Bridge is a game where you can get decent quickly, then you need to hit the books, I particualarly loath studying all the silly cases for various rare uses of squeezes.

Contract is fun but you can only horn your skills at duplicate or swiss team.

[Rex Little]

Bridge is my favorite game, but I haven't had a regular partner in over 20 years. I used to play duplicate a lot, and won a little over 50 Master Points (to put that in perspective, a real bridge pro will typically have over a thousand).

Ever since I got the Internet at home, my favorite activity has been playing bridge on Pogo. The only drawbacks are that you can only play rubber bridge, not duplicate; you always get different partners (although I suppose you could arrange to play with someone you know); and you usually don't get much chance to discuss conventions before play.

Internet bridge is also available on Yahoo, and probably other places as well. (Anyone else have recommendations?)

[TCO]

Pogo is OK. Let's go play there, Rex. You'll have to put up with my skill level and my wanting to play by Charles Goren methods. (about 95% agreement with Standard American). My 2's are strong. I will bid a 4 card major if I have 4 high card points in the suit and it's the right opening bid...

Plus, that's how my old man played...and I've got this book.

[Urban Ranger]

There are bridge lounges at Yahoo too.


GP,

Forget about 4-card majors length is definitely more important. That's why most bidding systems have some kind of "escape hatch" that you can use just in case you have some high card points but the wrong shape.

Also modern bidding is a little "lighter" than SA. Most people do open on 12, and so on.

[TCO]

I'd rather learn everything the old school Catholic way,
pre-Vatican 2.

If I can play as well as Charles Goren, I'll be fine. And then I'll also have the perspective to know if I want to play with these little changes (because they are little...modern bidding is so so much closer to Goren than he was to his predecessors).

[Urban Ranger]

Ever tried the Precision bidding system? It's very good.

Sure, you need a partner who understands your bids

[Rex Little]

You play Precision, UR? Awesome! That's what I used when I played Duplicate regularly. I haven't found a partner for it on Pogo; if we can get together there we should be able to confuse the hell out of the opposition, as hardly anyone is familiar with it.

GP, I can play Goren too. When I first learned bridge, nearly 40 years ago, I went to the library, took out Goren's New Contract Bridge Complete, and read it cover to cover five times before sitting down to play. (Not that I was a fanatic about preparation; it just took that long to find three other people to play with.) Other than Precision, standard Goren is the system I'm most comfortable with.

If either of you gets over to Pogo, look for me under the name InyoF. (I wanted InyoFace, but it was unavailable and I took the first alternate suggestion the computer gave me.)

[TCO]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Ever tried the Precision bidding system? It's very good.

Sure, you need a partner who understands your bids

I just want to try one thing at a time. Goren is fine.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Rex Little
You play Precision, UR? Awesome! That's what I used when I played Duplicate regularly. I haven't found a partner for it on Pogo; if we can get together there we should be able to confuse the hell out of the opposition, as hardly anyone is familiar with it.

GP, I can play Goren too. When I first learned bridge, nearly 40 years ago, I went to the library, took out Goren's New Contract Bridge Complete, and read it cover to cover five times before sitting down to play. (Not that I was a fanatic about preparation; it just took that long to find three other people to play with.) Other than Precision, standard Goren is the system I'm most comfortable with.

If either of you gets over to Pogo, look for me under the name InyoF. (I wanted InyoFace, but it was unavailable and I took the first alternate suggestion the computer gave me.)

Let's coordinate a meeting. I'm on the (proverbial) beach so I'm free whenever. I'd also like to chat before...just so that we make sure it's fun.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Rex Little
You play Precision, UR? Awesome! That's what I used when I played Duplicate regularly. I haven't found a partner for it on Pogo; if we can get together there we should be able to confuse the hell out of the opposition, as hardly anyone is familiar with it.

That meaans I need to dig out my Precision bidding books and have a go at them, since I haven't used it since I left university - thus my regular partners.

The hard part is the 1 club forcing plus all the responses, none of which is natural. Otherwise Precision is mostly natural.

[Urban Ranger]

I am not sure how Goren differs from SA. Can anybody explain?

[TCO]

It's basically the same. I only know Goren, so I can't describe the exact differences.

[Oldenbarnevelt]

Some unrelated remarks about that wonderful game.

I started playing bridge in 1992 and have been addicted to it ever since. I usually play twice a week, always some form of duplicate (pairs, IMPs, butler), 24 or 28 boards a night.

Bridge is very popular in the Netherlands, the NBB is the second largest national bridge association in the world, with over 100,000 members. Besides there are about half a million people who play bridge "unofficially".

Not many people play rubber bridge over here, and consequently not many people play for money. Dutch bridge clubs, of which there are many, are not profit-based. You can become a member for as little as $ 80 a year or so, non-members can join for 2 or 3 dollars a night if there's a table left.

Although SA (Standard American) has some influence, most people here play a Dutch variety of the Acol system, surprisingly called Dutch Acol or Niemeijer.

Don't read books about all kinds of squeezes, unless you're a top player. If you want to improve your game, read Kantar on defence and Mike Lawrence on everything else.

It's hard to make a good bridge computer program. Most programs are absolute crap. The best program there is (and it's improving all the time) is Matt Ginsberg's GIB. Very often, GIB's bidding is still a problem, but its play, both declarer play and defence, is quite good. Playing GIB is an excellent way to improve your skills (no, they don't pay me for saying that ), because in bridge, practice is almost as important as a good theoretical basis.

[Urban Ranger]

24 or 28 boards? Wow, that's a lot. If you spend 30 minutes playing each one that's 12 hours

That doesn't seem right.

Anyway, defence is a lot harder to play than offense. If you can play a solid defence you'd do well in duplicate.