Introduction
Bridge is a mentally stimulating game that can be played online or by groups of four people sitting round a table playing with cards.
This guide suggests ideas for how players can use Internet websites and videos to progress from rank beginner to playing confidently in online and face to face tournaments.
Bridge playing grandparents, too, can use this guide, together with a combination of Whatsapp calls and online bridge websites, to teach and play bridge with distant grandchildren they cannot visit.
You can click here to download a PDF version of this page.
Learning the Basics
The best place to start is to learn the simple game of Whist. The online Whist website at https://cardgames.io/whist/ teaches one about tricks, trumps, playing with a partner and getting a positive score for making 7 or more tricks. You will quickly realise that it helps you to do well to have aces, kings, queens and plenty of the trump suit. And, also, to have none (we refer to this as a void) in a non-trump suit.
Click here to go to a website where you will be given five short, simple lessons to reinforce what you have learned. At the end of each lesson, you will be asked three questions about what you have learned. Once you have answered them correctly you will go to the next lesson.
You are now ready to register on the Bridge Base Online (BBO) (https://www.bridgebase.com) website where you will be required to give yourself a BBO name (keep it simple) that you will be sharing with other players and a secret password for your own use only.
Now log on to BBO using your new BBO name and password. Click on the Solitaire / Bridge Master option and start at the bottom level. You will quickly realize it is just the same as Whist, only you get to choose the cards played by both your partner (the dummy) and yourself for each trick. Replay each hand until you master it, then move on to the next, slightly more difficult one.
While you are improving your hand playing skills, you should also learn about bidding. Again, log on to BBO and this time click on Practice and then Mini Bridge. Again, you can see your hand and your partner’s hand. Look at them both, decide if you can make most tricks with a trump suit or No Trumps (NT) and then click on the trump suit symbol or NT you want. Now you will be asked how many tricks more than 6 you think you can make with that suit as trumps; this is called bidding and the final combination of trump suit and number of tricks is your contract. Once you have played a hand you will be given a score. You should try to get the highest score possible. The more hands you play, the better you will get at choosing the best contract.
At the bridge table you can only see your own hand during the bidding process. Starting with the dealer and going clockwise round the table when viewed from above, players either pass or make a bid higher than the previous bid – at each level a bid of NT is higher than spades, hearts, diamonds or, the lowest, clubs - until three successive players have passed. The last bid made is the final contract.
The No Fear Bridge website provides a simple introduction to bidding:
https://www.nofearbridge.co.uk/minibridge/
Bridge teacher Andrew Robson has written a nice article on the Rule of Twenty which players use to decide whether to open the bidding: https://www.andrewrobson.co.uk/article/articles/792
As you watch and read, take note of the terms used, then Google them to reinforce your understanding, starting with: opening bid; overcall; bidding convention; double and redouble; vulnerable and non-vulnerable; opening lead; grand slam and small slam; major and minor suits. Incidentally, bridge players talk interchangeably about hands and boards.
Developing Your Skills
Now go back to the BBO website and select the Solitaire / Just Play option. Here you get to both bid and play hands. If your computer opponents bid higher than you and your partner, then you and your partner will be defenders and one of you must make the opening lead. It won’t take you long to become comfortable with this form of solitaire – in fact you could easily become addicted!
Ahead of each game they play, bridge partners agree on what conventions they are going to play. In South Africa, most players play the Standard American (SAYC) system where you open with five card majors and make a strong 15 to 17 point 1NT opening bid. Probably the only conventions you need initially are Stayman, Jacoby Transfers and Reverse Roman Keycard Blackwood. If those sound like Greek to you, then go to the Bridge Bums website:
https://www.bridgebum.com/bridge_bidding_conventions.php
and look them up. Incidentally, we recommend bookmarking this web page on your cell phone so you can look conventions up quickly when playing in online tournaments against opponents who announce they play conventions unfamiliar to you.
Playing Socially
Before you start playing with people, you need to know how the scoring system works, even though the computer will calculate the score at the end of each hand played online. The Duplicate Scoring section of:
https://www.acbl.org/learn/#scoring
shows you how to do the calculations.
Now you are ready to start playing with real, live human beings. However, it’s best to start playing with people you know – unfortunately online strangers can be quite rude when you make a mistake. So, find three friends who play bridge and get them to register to play on BBO. Click on the People sidebar on BBO and add them as friends. Now you will be able to see when they are logged on to BBO.
At a time agreed with the friends, go to Casual / Start a Table and enter their BBO names. Kibitzers are bridge spectators; we suggest you ban them from your table. When you press Start Table – Relaxed Game, each of your friends will receive an invitation to play. Once they have all accepted their invitations, each of you will be able to see the first hand and start bidding and playing. Each of you should also click on History on the right hand side of your screen so you can see the scores hand by hand.
Before you start playing, you might want to set up a Whatsapp group with your four numbers and make a group call so you can chat as you play. Obviously, this is not allowed once you start playing in bridge tournaments as it can lead to cheating and even a ban from playing bridge. Don’t go there!
An alternative to BBO is RealBridge where you can see the players at your table and talk to them. The Le Domaine Bridge Club has a social page on RealBridge open every day for beginners. To participate, please contact Louise Gibbon [email protected]
The great thing about playing on BBO and RealBridge is that the players at your table could be situated anywhere in the world. It’s a great way to bond with family members and friends living and playing elsewhere.
After you have finished playing, you and your partner can still view and discuss the hands you played previously by clicking on History and looking at Recent Hands.
Migrating to Competitive Bridge (Optional Step)
Once you and your friends are comfortable playing casually on BBO and are starting to feel happy with your skill level, then it’s time to start thinking of playing competitively with a larger circle of players, most of who you have never seen or heard of before.
If you can, find four more players and agree a time to play a team-of-four match with them. Each team consists of one pair playing North – South and the other pair playing East - West.
Before you start the game, log in to BBO, click on the People tab on the right hand side and list each of your players as friends; this way you can make sure they are online before you start the match. To set up the game, go to Competitive / Team Matches / Create Team Match. This pop-up window will appear:
Do NOT click on Create Team Match until you have given a name to your match, reserved seats and chosen from the Options.
After giving a name to your match, click on Reserve Seats and enter the BBO names of the players in each team, then click on Options and select number of boards and, again, disallow kibitzers. Only now should you click on Create Team Match and an invitation will be sent to each participant. Note, if you do this prematurely, BBO can get confused so be extra careful.
As with your game with three friends, you should all click on History as you start so you can see the results from both tables hand by hand as they are played. Now is the time to go back to:
https://www.acbl.org/learn/#scoring
and understand match point scoring. And, once again, after the match is over, you can go to History and analyse your performance.
Playing Competitive Bridge
In pairs tournaments, all the participants play the same hands in blocks of two or three against different opponents. All the North – South pairs compete to get a better score than all the other North – South pairs on each board. Similarly, each East – West pair strives to beat all the other pairs playing the same way on the same board.
You’ll probably get a shock the first time you play against BBO Robots, especially since they bid and play extremely rapidly. The secret to success against them is to relax and take your time. And they’re not perfect so you can get top board against them.
By now you are ready to take the plunge and start playing in the BBO and Real Bridge pairs tournaments organised by Bridge for Africa, the details of which can be found on the Upcoming and Calendar pages of the Bridge for Africa website https://bridgefor.africa.
However, when you play in these and other non-beginner tournaments you need to understand that the tournament director requires that you complete each hand within seven minutes which can be a challenge till you are comfortable. The results of most of these tournaments are recorded on the Bridge for Africa website and you can log on to Pianola for an analysis of your bidding and play.
We look forward to seeing you in our tournaments, not just playing, but winning!
Resources
The Bridge Tips page on the Bridge for Africa website is a useful starting point:
https://bridgefor.africa/bridge-tips
YouTube contains a host of bridge education videos. We are going to list those recommended by our players here starting with:
The Australian Bridge Federation and those of Learnbridge.nyc.
The NYC Bridge website contains three good videos on the 2 over 1 system which is becoming increasingly popular:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg5mW_AU9g4
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN0dD0MJkjs
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYtznbMEWiI
You can read Andrew Robson’s regular articles published in The Times and other newspapers.
Here are some bridge books we recommend (some are out of print but you can regularly find them in second hand bookshops or reprinted in electronic format) in order of difficulty:
Introduction to Bridge by Paul Marston is highly recommended for starting out.
Card Play Technique (or the Art of being Lucky) by Victor Mollo and Nico Gardener (Faber and Faber), although originally published decades ago, is still regarded as the best introductory book on declarer play and defence.
Bridge Play Unravelled by Freddie North (B. T. Batsford) gives a nice, simple analysis of declarer play.
Accurate Cardplay and Imaginative Cardplay both by Terence Reese and Roger Trezel (digital versions of both these books are available) are excellent for intermediate players wanting to improve.
The Joy of Bridge and the Golden Rules of Bridge by Paul Mendelson (who lives part of the year in Cape Town) have some great tips - however most of his insights on bidding are irrelevant as he plays the English Acol system.
Victor Mollo’s Winning Double published by Faber and Faber (now called Victor Mollo’s Bridge Quiz Book and available in electronic format) poses declarer problems that force you to think.
Killing Defence at Bridge by Hugh Kelsey (Cassell) is a classic, which turned top level defence upside down back in the 1960’s, and has been reprinted but needs intense concentration to read and absorb.
Bridge Teachers:
Bridge for Africa is in the process of compiling a directory of African bridge teachers. If you are a bridge teacher and would like to be included in the directory, please contact us.
Finally:
Thank you for reading this far. Please note that all the web pages and publications listed in this guide have been selected for their value; no payment has been made by any of them.
We welcome your feedback and ideas on this guide! If you like it, please send the address of this web page to friends and relations, including grandchildren, whom you think could benefit from joining our wonderful bridge playing community.
And may all your finesses succeed, as bridge players are wont to greet one another.
Brian Paxton
November 2024 edition