[bid_em_up]

How old were you when you first learned to play bridge?

What got you started in the game?

[goobers]

I was 21, in college, and one day I just said to myself, "I think I'll play bridge." I'm 23 now.

So I did. I had to drag 3 of my friends into it though; playing by myself was fairly uninteresting. No bridge club or bridge players at my campus.

[bid_em_up]

I started in high school at the age of 17. We had a free hour during the day my senior year, and the science teacher offered to teach several of us during this time.

I have been hooked ever since, even though I can't get to games as frequently as I would like.

[pclayton]

Learned at 13, played my first duplicate game at 16.

[jdonn]

I started at 14.

You should start the poll earlier. Tom Carmichael started when he was 4.

[bid_em_up]

jdonn, on Apr 17 2007, 01:05 PM, said:

I started at 14.

You should start the poll earlier. Tom Carmichael started when he was 4.

My daughter was wanting to learn at 5, unfortunately she couldn't add to 13 yet.

(you're right, but i can't go back and change it).

Moderator, if you can, add an option for Under 10 please.

[Apollo81]

18, kitchen bridge friends

[kenrexford]

I was 10, but my brother was 8. Our parents played, and we demanded to be taught to understand the bizarre code bickering when they played bridge.

My brother, while 8, played with Mr. Berry, who was about 104 at the time, or so. This may have been the widest age gap between partners ever.

We played our first NABC, then called nationals, at 8 and 11. We won that right by not coming in last at our first sectional event. We had a 111 on a 156 average, beating out a 110.5 and a 110.

I quit during high school but returned when visiting Gatlinburg for hiking while the folks played bridge. Two feet of snow fell, killing the hiking. Snowball fights only last so long, and we lost all of our money on the quarter-pusher things. So, while checking in on the folks, I was asked to fill in with Grant Baze's wife (cannot remember her name) and we won a bottle of wine (section top award). My buddies now thought you won alcohol playing bridge, so they also learned how to play.

I've never won a single drink since then, dammit!

[Badmonster]

I tried to learn at about 33 years old. It was about a year before the internet exploded. That's significant. I loved playing spades but none of my friends played. There were bridge clubs where you could go to play bridge and no spades clubs where you could go to play spades, so I figured what the heck, I'd try it. I played for about a year, but eventually got tired of paying $8 to be yelled at until I cried. So, I stopped.

[SoTired]

My parents were semi-famous local players. They started a duplicate game in our basement when I was 15. All the top local players attended. I can think of at least 2 future world champions that regularly played there. I learned to matchpoint and some directing before I learned how to play. My older brother was a bridge prodigy but said he would not play with me until I read "Goren's Contract Bridge Complete" twice. So I did! He still did not play with me, which was just as well.

[Aberlour10]

18, I started to learn it while we waited in the mountains for a better weather conditions, my older friends nicknamed me immediately "Rob The Overbidder"

Robert

[bid_em_up]

kenrexford, on Apr 17 2007, 01:35 PM, said:

I was asked to fill in with Grant Baze's wife (cannot remember her name) and we won a bottle of wine (section top award).

My guess is that it was Shelly (Notaru?), I dont remember how she spelled her maiden name. They were married when he lived in Atlanta in the early to mid 80's.

[SoTired]

Badmonster, on Apr 17 2007, 01:45 PM, said:

I played for about a year, but eventually got tired of paying $8 to be yelled at until I cried. So, I stopped.

I am sorry for your bad experience, but it takes 2 people for an abuser to hurt. It also takes a victim that accepts the abuse. Bridge is a partnership game and like marraige, there is the possibility of an abuser and the abuser's victim. If you refused to accept the abuse, it would not have occurred (or continued).

You could have said something like, "If you ever criticize me publicly, or say anything to me in an insulting, disrespectful or abusive fashion, I will leave in the middle of the game, and never play with you again." In addition, there will be NO lessons during the game. Only afterwards and then only for 10 minutes, so you better carefully choose which of my mistakes to correct."

[ArcLight]

40.

I played Spades (a Whist derivative) for 1 year prior to that. The GOOD Spades players tended to be bridge players. One of them spent a little time with me teaching me Standard American.

[whereagles]

I started at university. Always wanted to learn because it was side-to-side with chess problems in the newspaper, so I thought it should be interesting

[SoTired]

Jlall, on Apr 17 2007, 02:54 PM, said:

SoTired, on Apr 17 2007, 02:45 PM, said:

Badmonster, on Apr 17 2007, 01:45 PM, said:

I played for about a year, but eventually got tired of paying $8 to be yelled at until I cried. So, I stopped.

I am sorry for your bad experience, but it takes 2 people for an abuser to hurt. It also takes a victim that accepts the abuse. Bridge is a partnership game and like marraige, there is the possibility of an abuser and the abuser's victim. If you refused to accept the abuse, it would not have occurred (or continued).

You could have said something like, "If you ever criticize me publicly, or say anything to me in an insulting, disrespectful or abusive fashion, I will leave in the middle of the game, and never play with you again." In addition, there will be NO lessons during the game. Only afterwards and then only for 10 minutes, so you better carefully choose which of my mistakes to correct."

What are you talking about? She quit, I think that was her solution to "stopping the abuse."

Unless I am reading her post wrong, she put up with abusive bridge partner(s) for a year and finally quit bridge. I can understand that. Why would anyone play a game that brings them misery. She associated bridge to the abuse, rather than the abuser. Although abusive partners occur far too often, not all bridge partners are abusive nor disrespectful. And condoning the abuse contributes to its continuance.

Unfortuneately, her story is hardly unique or even unusual. As a victim myself, I understand how difficult it is to stand up to the abuser. But bridge is a game that brings intellectual joy and challenge and I am saddened to lose a player because of some A-H.

[BillHiggin]

My first year in college. My new roommate had 2 bridge buddies in the same dorm. They clearly had a need and decided that it was my role in life to fill that need. It took nearly 6 months of intense study before I started whupping them

[awm]

I started at about 13, learned at a summer math/science camp. Perhaps this makes me a rare example of someone who started really young, despite neither parent (and no close relative) playing bridge. Then again, maybe it just makes me another example of a math nerd who plays cards.

I didn't play competitive duplicate until college.