With my most regular partner, nearly 100% of the time we make the same opening bid as SAYC. Maybe 50% of the time our entire auction would be the same as SAYC. But when different, it might be very different.
Very simple example: after a one spade opening by dealer:
SAYC says a 3 spade response should be about 10-12 points, with at least 3 card support.
We play that a 3 spade response is weaker, always with at least 4 card support, never with as many as 7 high card points. (With most hands where SAYC would respond 3 spades, we respond 3 diamonds if we have 4 spades, 1NT if we have only 3).
Despite that difference, responses at the 2-level and 4-level are all the same as SAYC (except that some SAYC 2 level responses we bid 1NT).
That distinction about 2 level new suit responses to 1H or 1S would be by far the most common difference from SAYC. Many, quite possibly most, would treat those as game forcing.
What book are you using about SAYC? (No chance I will be familiar with it, but curious. And my bridge clubs has some books available for borrowing. Outside chance it would have that one.)
Is it designed as a book for someone who knows nothing about bidding, or a book to teach SAYC specifically to someone who knows how to bid?
At the moment, I’m just using an app that teaches the basics via educational modules. I have reserved some library books but don’t know what to expect there.
If I still enjoy it after my self-learning, I did find an 8-week course on Tuesday nights here, that starts quarterly. That would like be in mid April. Although with vacations, may wait until a time when I wouldn’t have to skip any of the weeks.
I haven’t read it, but from the picture it looks far too advanced for a beginner. Here is one on-line review I found
Still, from the library the price is right, and you would learn some from it.
Ditto for the second, I suspect, but I didn’t look for on-line reviews.
For the fourth, Audrey Grant has written lots of books for beginners and advancing players, as mentioned by Klaymen above
So it is likely the best for you.
For the third, I suspect it will be very helpful. I learned an awful lot from Goren’s books, and I suspect that by 1985 he was teaching something similar to SAYC. (As opposed when I first read them, and he was still suggested frequently opening 1 heart or 1 spade on a 4-card suit, and that an opening 2 of any suit was strong, forcing to game. Now in SAYC, a 1 heart or 1 spade opening shows 5, and an opening of 2 of suit, except clubs, is a hand weaker in high cards that an opening of 1 of the suit),
That was over 50 years, but my impression is that Goren is far more about what to bid (with very good advice for that) with much less discussion of why.
It is true, that book, or a good portion of it, is probably too advanced. That being said you can still benefit from reading it. If it gets confusing then dial that book back and switch to another.
That was also the case when I used to play in grad school over 20 years ago. The fact that clubs still exist suggest that the death of bridge is over stated.
Yes, but it also isn’t that a little over half are at least 60. Far more than that. Interest factoid: tomorrow there is a ACBL seniors pairs special event in clubs, only players over 60 eligible. Same hands will be played nationwide. But the interesting thing is that it was originally announced as for over 65, and changed to 60 (nationwide) because too many clubs protested that too many of their players couldn’t play. Maybe that’s good, since a significant number of players 60-65. OTOH, not so many 55-60 that they had to lower it that far. Either way, the stats must be influenced by the fact that this is a weekday afternoon game, so many employed people could not play.
OTOH, most games a weekday afternoons now. Little demand for evening games.
When it was confirmed Thursday (in a weekday afternoon game) that the age limit was 60, there were 44 people playing. Max 4 were under 60
So how does a person typically learn bridge? They know someone who plays who teaches them? They make friends who play and decide to take classes to play with them? Some light switch in their brains flips on at retirement and suddenly they know how to play? Always seemed like something that everyone knew how to play 100 years ago, and not many know how to play now.
I should see if my grandparents play. They’re very big on card games in general, and play cards socially. But then, we wouldn’t have a fourth; my husband is not interested.
Also I wonder if the intersection of women who quilt, women who go on cruises, and women who play bridge is large. If I can learn how to play decently by August, well then that could be an opportunity.
So long ago I don’t really remember the who. My parents definitely played with their friends, but I vaguely think it was my uncle (who lived only 3 houses away) who first taught my brother, my cousin and me a little. My parents had a copy of Goren’s Bridge Complete, and most of my early learning came from that. I progressed to playing sometimes with a parent and their friends, but maybe that was only after at least one year at college, where I played far more than was good for me. But memories about timing are pretty garbled. My dad was a college professor, and I played some with my parents and a foreign college student from Sweden, and that must have been while I was still in high school, and I’m sure I must have read bridge books other that Goren’s by then.
But most of the source of learning was MANY bridge books and gaining experience through playing.
I remember we had a teaching tool called auto bridge. I don’t remember exactly how it worked. It was a mechanical device where you saw your cards and had to predict the recommended order for your bids and cards to play. For the play, you were the declarer. You couldn’t deviate from the recommended plays. I.e., you chose your first bid, perhaps 1H. Then you saw what your first bid was. even if you chose something other than 1H, your first bid was 1H. Then it showed you the next three players’ bids, and you chose your next bid. But right or wrong choice, it then revealed what your second bid was. Lather, rinse, repeat, until you always became declarer. Then you would see the dummy, and the process continued. Each time it was your turn to play from your hand or dummy, you chose what you wanted to play, then it told you what the right play was, and that was your play.
I enjoyed auto bridge, and thought at the time it was helpful. The deals were all preset (just printed pictures of cards), and were set up to be instructive. You made your contract if you played correctly (which you always did, since you had to adopt their play even if it wasn’t your choice), and you usually would have gone down had you played differently. No text explanations. You could see that you did make your contract, but it didn’t explain why their line of play was better than others.
Back when far more people played bridge, that does not mean most of them understood the nuance of bidding. The more nuances you and your partner understand and remember, the more successful your bidding will be. But much of the time you need few of the nuances.
There is also lots to learn about playing the cards well to take the most tricks, but you can relatively easily learn enough to play most hands OK. (OK, not necessarily best). Plus during the play (and in bidding too), an inferior choice may produce the best effect.
Bidding “rules” are somewhat different, in that they are a communication process, and partner may get pissed if you are not on the same wavelength.
It really is like learning a foreign language. If you watch someone have a complicated auction, it is because they are fluent in a language. I’m not fluent in French, but in 7th grade it started out “Je vais a la plage.” and early on your bidding will be imprecise and limited because you don’t yet know advanced communication. Once you get the basics down you will be in a position to add on more.
My mom taught me and my younger brother (older siblings were not interested). Rainy days were an excuse for a fun bridge session, learning the tricks of tricks, and basic bidding (Mom was not into fancy bidding techniques – Blackwood, Jacoby transfers, Stayman were her limit, she played strong-two bids, not weak-two bids and I couldn’t get her off it literally to her dying day – and played only in weekly social settings of eight players).
If you are looking for a shortcut to learning, I’m not sure there is one. You can get a book, play an old Hoyle Card Games disk. it helps that you are smart and will pick up on things, like there are 13 cars in each suit, and if you have five of them, that is likely more than any other player has, and that having more of the trump suit for your partnership than your opponents is a good thing, and if not, then you won’t want that suit as your trump suit, etc.
You could probably just ask questions here. I’m more than happy to help up to a point, and then Steve White or 4sigma or those others in the “Bridge” threads will have to take over.
Is there a “Bridge for Dummies” book? I mean, the dummy in Bridge doesn’t usually play, so just blank pages, I guess.
(That’s a Bridge joke.)
