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is it possible to make a living from this game?

#1 User is offline   polarmatt 

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Posted 2018-July-08, 20:19

well is it? how hard would it be to do?
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#2 User is offline   Vampyr 

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Posted 2018-July-08, 23:32

Well, there are two ways. The first, playing rubber bridge, is rare and extremely hard. If the stakes are high you have a severe risk of ruin if you have a run of bad cards, and if the stakes are medium you pretty much have to play all day, every day.

The other way is by playing with clients. You must first establish a reputation, usually by playing with other experts, and then people may be willing to pay you to partner or team up with them, or if you are really lucky, to play on a team that they sponsor and don’t play on, so you get to play with other professionals and have the same as teammates.

I suppose you could make a living teaching bridge, but there are a lot of costs involved, such as a venue and equipment. Possibly also directing, but you would either have to find a full-time position at a large club or travel A LOT to tournaments. In many places the latter wouldn’t work, because there are not usually tournaments available every or even most days of the week. You could probably manage it in the US.

EDIT: I forgot that you could own a club or manage one full-time. Some clubs have paid hosts, but I don’t think you could make a living that way. But it is probably the only way to make money by playing where you have to be a decent player but not a top expert.
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#3 User is offline   The_Badger 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 01:42

The simple answer is "No"

Vampyr has covered most of the bases in her reply, and the reality of the situation is a lot more grim than that.

Admittedly, a number of top players can earn a living from the game. But their numbers are few. My estimate: probably no more than 100 worldwide. You only have to look at what happened to Omar Sharif, the film star and international bridge player to realise that playing for high stakes rubber bridge can be very dicey.

The reality of the situation is that, unlike football that has worldwide sponsorship and television rights, bridge has very little funding. I know of a young international British bridge player who I used to chat to on here - name withheld - who won a Junior World Championship, but was so disillusioned that there was no sponsorship he gave up the game.

But maybe, the easiest way to look at bridge, is that it is a valuable social asset and you can meet likeminded people through this game. It's not always about the money.

I won a number of prizes when I was a junior playing both chess and bridge. I won a local chess tournament and won £100, and a few other cash prizes. I came second in a regional bridge tournament, and I won a bottle of wine, and a naff one at that :(
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#4 User is offline   msjennifer 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 04:35

The normal answer is "very difficult".My uncles dearest friend became a professional Bridge player with annual contracts.He was a brilliant,accomplished player and was a thorough gentleman.He was only 24 yrs old when he became a professional and continued till he expired in Jan.17.at the age of 70 yrs.The point is one has to be an exceptional player to get professional offers.All other ways are already Very lucidly explained by colleague posters.
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#5 User is offline   gordontd 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 04:50

There are quite a number of bridge teachers who make a living from teaching bridge, but the emphasis is on teaching not playing. Many good bridge players would be poor teachers and conversely it's possible to be an excellent bridge teacher without being an exceptional player.
Gordon Rainsford
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#6 User is offline   diana_eva 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 04:51

I have friends in the USA who make nice money partnering beginner/intermediate players in regionals, sectionals and local tourneys (not in big shot professional teams). I think in the States it;'s not that uncommon to pay someone to partner-teach you. I don't know if this is enough to actually make a living off it.

#7 User is offline   The_Badger 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 05:22

View Postdiana_eva, on 2018-July-09, 04:51, said:

I have friends in the USA who make nice money partnering beginner/intermediate players in regionals, sectionals and local tourneys (not in big shot professional teams). I think in the States it;'s not that uncommon to pay someone to partner-teach you. I don't know if this is enough to actually make a living off it.


That's a fair point, Diana. I think it is possible to make a decent second income from bridge, but as for making a living exclusively from bridge that's a different matter.
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#8 User is offline   Cyberyeti 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 06:08

View PostThe_Badger, on 2018-July-09, 01:42, said:

The simple answer is "No"

Vampyr has covered most of the bases in her reply, and the reality of the situation is a lot more grim than that.

Admittedly, a number of top players can earn a living from the game. But their numbers are few. My estimate: probably no more than 100 worldwide. You only have to look at what happened to Omar Sharif, the film star and international bridge player to realise that playing for high stakes rubber bridge can be very dicey.

The reality of the situation is that, unlike football that has worldwide sponsorship and television rights, bridge has very little funding. I know of a young international British bridge player who I used to chat to on here - name withheld - who won a Junior World Championship, but was so disillusioned that there was no sponsorship he gave up the game.

But maybe, the easiest way to look at bridge, is that it is a valuable social asset and you can meet likeminded people through this game. It's not always about the money.

I won a number of prizes when I was a junior playing both chess and bridge. I won a local chess tournament and won £100, and a few other cash prizes. I came second in a regional bridge tournament, and I won a bottle of wine, and a naff one at that :(


This is so true, I was a much better bridge player than chess player as a student, but for a long time the £100 I won at chess was bigger than any prize at bridge, and that wasn't an EBU event when it came (MSO).

I look at some of the people I played bridge with at uni (junior world champions, gold cup winners), and one gave up bridge and hasn't returned, one played a bit after uni but I haven't seen for a long time, and another gave up bridge after uni and has relatively recently returned (sometimes with Lamford).
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#9 User is offline   sfi 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 07:03

View PostThe_Badger, on 2018-July-09, 01:42, said:

Admittedly, a number of top players can earn a living from the game. But their numbers are few. My estimate: probably no more than 100 worldwide.


That seems like a big underestimate. A quick review of the Australian bridge scene gave me about 25 names, and we're a very small market compared to Europe or the US. I would have estimated a couple of thousand bridge professionals worldwide.

On top of that, people can make money as a director, a teacher, by leading bridge holidays or by running a bridge club. Many of the people who do make a living from the bridge world have more than one role.
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#10 User is offline   diana_eva 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 07:40

View Postsfi, on 2018-July-09, 07:03, said:


On top of that, people can make money as a director, a teacher, by leading bridge holidays or by running a bridge club. Many of the people who do make a living from the bridge world have more than one role.


Agree. You can make a business around bridge like around pretty much anything else. Bridge cruises can be organized in franchise AFAIK. French and Italy have quite a lot of "bridge holidays". There are many ways to develop a business that happens to have something to do with bridge. A Romanian friend of mine was living in France and making a sweet living off teaching + bridge holidays. I never thought of him as a pro though. He worked his ass off for his business which mostly consisted in being a good organizer and a graceful host.

#11 User is offline   Tramticket 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 08:38

Other bridge related incomes include bridge administration and bridge writing (books, magazine articles, newspaper columns), as well as the ways already mentioned (teaching, club management, bridge holidays, directing).

It is pretty difficult to earn a living from purely playing bridge. What is the source of income? There is little sponsorship in the game, there is very little (paying) spectator interest, rubber bridge gambling is a gamble, so that just leaves clients paying professionals to partner them or play as team mates (and this is primarily in the US). And maybe these pro-client relationships are really just bridge teaching in another form?

On a positive note, I am not nearly good enough to earn any money, even if there was any!
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#12 User is offline   The_Badger 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 21:00

View Postsfi, on 2018-July-09, 07:03, said:

That seems like a big underestimate. A quick review of the Australian bridge scene gave me about 25 names, and we're a very small market compared to Europe or the US. I would have estimated a couple of thousand bridge professionals worldwide.

On top of that, people can make money as a director, a teacher, by leading bridge holidays or by running a bridge club. Many of the people who do make a living from the bridge world have more than one role.


Ok, sfi, I concede that my estimate was perhaps wrong. But I do bet that many of the bridge professionals that earn a living today have spent many years not earning a living from the game. It's only their knowledge and experience after so many years of playing and participating in the game that enable them to now earn a living from bridge. And I would also bet that plenty of these professionals have other streams of income available to them. There's scraping a living from doing what you enjoy, and making a reasonable income to support a growing family, etc. I spoke to an French international chess player years ago who loved playing chess so much that he sofa-surfed, slept in a van, did agency work, but earned less than 50% of what I was earning in a conventional job.
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#13 User is offline   sfi 

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Posted 2018-July-09, 21:42

I did pick only the people who I thought didn't have a non-bridge source of income, but I could easily be wrong about some of them. You are right that the maximum income as a bridge pro is lower than other professions that require a similar level of intelligence and dedication, although there are a small number of top pros, mainly in the US, that do quite well. It's one of the reasons that the big events (Vanderbilt, Spingold and Reisinger) have so many top internationals.
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#14 User is offline   zemp 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 01:56

I ran a small club during it hay day we played 5 times a week, I also taught adults education, rented myself at tournaments. I made a nice second income for 28 years but as I said a small club.
Friends of mine had a club that ran 6-8 times a week with 3-4 sections of 12+ tables, gave both groups and private lessons, rented themselves out at tournaments. Husband also was an ACBL NATIONAL DIRECTOR. They made a very nice living for years.
Not all clubs make money, RENTS are killers, also Insurance. Now the large drop in attendance do to aging population.
I closed my club about 5 years ago. Someone else tried to take it over but isn't drawing players. Personality and the ability of running one properly is also a major issue.
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#15 User is offline   Cyberyeti 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 03:31

One of the UK's TDs a few years ago moved to Peru (warm and cheap) to make a living directing bridge cruises. I haven't seen him since he went, don't know if anybody's still in touch with him.
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#16 User is offline   gordontd 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 04:04

View PostCyberyeti, on 2018-July-10, 03:31, said:

One of the UK's TDs a few years ago moved to Peru (warm and cheap) to make a living directing bridge cruises. I haven't seen him since he went, don't know if anybody's still in touch with him.

Carl (I assume it is he you mean) has been back to England occasionally but is very happy in Peru, where I believe he is coach or NPC for their Junior team and has been seen at junior world events in that capacity. I also see him listed among the top scorers in Funbridge games.

He was also an example of someone who made a living from bridge for many years, once he stopped being a school teacher, by combining teaching bridge with directing and for a time running a club of his own.
Gordon Rainsford
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#17 User is offline   Cyberyeti 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 06:37

View Postgordontd, on 2018-July-10, 04:04, said:

Carl (I assume it is he you mean) has been back to England occasionally but is very happy in Peru, where I believe he is coach or NPC for their Junior team and has been seen at junior world events in that capacity. I also see him listed among the top scorers in Funbridge games.

He was also an example of someone who made a living from bridge for many years, once he stopped being a school teacher, by combining teaching bridge with directing and for a time running a club of his own.


Yup, I thought it was unlikely there was anybody else it could be.
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#18 User is offline   Joe_Old 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 07:10

If you want to get an idea of how many pros earn a good living from just playing bridge, check the rosters for the last few Spingolds and Vanderbilts - NABC premier events that attract international fields possibly equal in quality to top world championship events. There are easily 200 pros in each event every year, and that doesn't include a probably equal number of pros playing in simultaneous lesser events. Worldwide, the number of pros who earn their living exclusively from bridge certainly exceeds 1,000, and probably by a very wide margin.

Total the number of people who earn a living from bridge related activities, including: employees of BBO, OKbridge and other bridge sites; publishing (writing, producing and selling bridge material); club management; cruises and other social events; teaching; employees, including directors, of national and international bridge organizations; bridge themed clothing and jewelry design and sales; and probably other categories. I would be shocked if less than another 10,000 people were involved.

Yes, it is certainly possible to earn a good living from playing bridge, but remember that it is dependent upon both your bridge skills and people skills.

However, go back to the rosters of the major events mentioned above. You won't find many, and probably no, bridge pros who have anything like the assets of the team sponsors. If I had the drive and smarts necessary to be a top player, I'd prefer to be someone like Jimmy Cayne or Frank Nickell.
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#19 User is offline   Cyberyeti 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 07:49

View PostJoe_Old, on 2018-July-10, 07:10, said:


However, go back to the rosters of the major events mentioned above. You won't find many, and probably no, bridge pros who have anything like the assets of the team sponsors. If I had the drive and smarts necessary to be a top player, I'd prefer to be someone like Jimmy Cayne or Frank Nickell.


I don't know how much money Hamman made out of his company, a lot more if he ever got the cash it paid out to Lance Armstrong back.
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#20 User is offline   Rain 

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Posted 2018-July-10, 07:57

It's definitely possible to make a living from Bridge. But it is a harder path because it is non traditional and because the demographic is aging so fast. I do wonder if this is just a USA centric view though. Maybe in other countries it is not possible. IIRC Singapore used to have all of 1 pro player/bridge manager/teacher before 2 top players left their normal jobs to become pros based in China so now the whole of Singapore has like...3 people making a living from Bridge afaik.

Musing: If Bridge celebs can have Nike endorsement deals it'll make everything much easier. I'll totally buy Fiji water if Bob Hamman tells me it'll make me smarter.
"More and more these days I find myself pondering how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits."

John Nelson.
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