Last night I got lots of abuse for not playing Bridge. Here are my reasons:
- There are too many other good games to be wedded to just one.
- You have to read books to be good at it.
- My short-term memory is poor.
- In my only game, a friend turned to me and correctly told me the last five cards in my hand. There’s a major learning curve.
- I don’t like losing.
Can you persuade me otherwise?
Reason 1 is reason enough. Plus there are many complex games that are more engaging thematically than Bridge.
Bridge is ok but if you’ve got four players why wouldn’t you play Tichu
Or Tigris and Euphrates
I think most ‘classic’ games require you to devote a lifetime to study so it becomes dependent on whether you like to specialise or generalise. I’ll never be a master Go player as a result
@valis: You’re right. There are only two reasons really (1) Lots of other games (2) Can’t be bothered to master it.
@steerpike: I disagree with Tichu, but totally agree about T&E!
I’m perfectly happy if you don’t want to play bridge… as Steerpike points out there are lots of other things you could do.
But I will say this in defense of Bridge. Since I learned to play Bridge (not well) I no longer enjoy other card games like I used to because every time I play a card game I find myself thinking “well, this is WAY less interesting and challenging than Bridge”. If you LIKE that, then you might enjoy Bridge.
A good point, well made. I wonder how much of this is due to the difficulty of learning? After wrapping your head around the unintuitive rules and the complicated bidding systems – your patience with playing simpler card games is bound to be lower. It’s like trying to play a simple tactical WWII game with an Advanced Squad Leader player. My “why I don’t play ASL” post will be very similar to this one.