The Bridge Club of Madison offers many activities and learning opportunities for new players.

Lessons targeted to new players are offered throughout the year (See the Lessons page for details). The lessons of most interest to new players are the intro classes that are offered at least twice a year and the Duplicate Bridge Workshop which is offered on an "on demand" basis.

Special Events list unique opportunities to learn and play. (See the Special Events page for details)

Supervised Play: Experienced players available during play to answer questions. Click Here

Duplicate bridge scares me because it's difficult and players aren't always nice, but others tell me I should try it. Your suggestions please.

New bridge players often find duplicate is an excellent learning tool. After you play duplicate, you can go home and see all the games results by going onto the Bridge Club website. It shows each hand and what each pair in the room bid. Seeing how other people handled the same hand helps you decide if you should spend more time on bidding, play or defense.

In addition to our chalk talks and classes offered by qualified teachers, we offer a wonderful bridge library that allows you to take books home and improve at your own pace.

Unfortunately, bridge like every other game people play, requires certain guidelines and rules for people to follow. New players sometimes resent having to learn so many new things at the very beginning. Like any new thing you do in life, be prepared to spend a certain amount of time learning all the rules and expectations of the game.  Once you take the time to learn these things,  you'll love duplicate!

Which conventions do I need to know to be a good player?

The most important part of bridge is knowing which bids are forcing, invitational and close out and the point ranges for both opening and responding bids.  When you know all of that (and that is a considerable amount of information), learn Stayman, Jacoby Transfers, Blackwood and Negative Doubles. After that, you can add anything you and your partner think will help you or be fun.

Should I play in the Open or in the Limited Point games?

The answer depends on your goals.

To become a better bridge player:

Start out in Limited Point Games. Play Open Games as quickly as you are comfortable. Watching what more experienced players do will help you to grow. Also, the more experienced players love to give their ideas and opinions to anyone who will listen. Take advantage of that.

To have fun playing bridge in a relatively stress-free environment:

Play in Limited Point Games until you earn so many masterpoints that you don’t qualify. Then ‘play up’. 

To earn your Life master ranking:

500 masterpoints including 50 black, 50 silver, 50 red, 25 gold/platinum. Play in tournaments (see Tournament Jargon for more information)