Re: The Decline and (Impending Fall) of the ACBL and Bridge In the U.S.A.

stevts@xxxxxxx wrote:
I appreciate you comments, Richard, but I think that you haven't given
my suggestion sufficient thought.

(1) If "they" (I assume that you mean the "younger generation") would
"rather spend their money playing World of Warcraft or watching the
latest movie on Netflix," then how do you account for the fact that
both Texas Hold 'Em poker, and Spades, are taking high school and
college campuses by storm? These are both card games -- NOT video
games or TV -- and they are at all-time peaks of popularity in the U.S.
right now. What they have in common is that they are simple to learn
(although requiring considerable skill to play well), not
mind-numbingly complex.

Spades players could learn the differences in the RULES of the two
games, Spades and Contract Bridge, in an afternoon. However, even basic
5CM system bidding is very complex and most students never get past
that barrier. Most bridge students never get to the point where it
would matter if their opponents were playing Roman or Relay Precision.

The game is too hard to start playing. It takes no time at all to start
actually playing Spades. It does take time to get good at it but people
don't mind as long as they get past being embarrassingly bad rather
quickly. People can learn not to be embarrisingly bad at Holdem,
especially tournament NL Holdem fairly quickly also. Oh, they are still
dogfood, bless them, but they can sit there and actually play the game.
One does not play bridge the first day.

The parallel to Little League baseball is odd but rather compelling.
Kids are very often embarrassed and unhappy in LL. They find being the
center of attention, whether at bad or in the field, really
anguish-making. The contrast with youth soccer, where most of the kids
can, although some don't, run around and never kick the ball much or
interrupt the other team at all and never feel that they were
embarrassed is interesting.


(2) What "return on investment for the entertainment dollar?" Maybe to
play in tournaments, but certainly NOT to sit around and play with
friends. All you need is a table, four chairs, and a pack of cards.
What could be cheaper? Bridge is in a death spiral not just on the
tournament scene, but as a game played socially in homes and campuses.
If you actually talk to the few younger players who play the game, they
will tell you that their friends have the perception that the game is
too hard to learn, in large part because of all of the bidding
complexity.

Bridge started its decline in homes and campuses long before the ACBL
felt the pinch. Over the course of my bridge life, the ACBL has tried
to move heaven and earth to get the home bridge player involved in the
tournament scene. Now the home bridge player hardly exists.



(3) Of course the ACBL's previous attempts at "restricted bidding"
events have failed miserably. The ACBL has always made these events
into "poor sister" events. Who wants to play in an event that is
perceived to have little or no prestige, and consisting of unskilled
players? I believe that the whole perception of "restricted bidding"
events would be changed if they were made equal in prestige to the
"unrestricted" events. You think that the ACBL would have difficulty
in getting people to play in a "limited bidding systems" Vanderbilt
championship, or Grand National Team championship? I don't think so.

Prestige is not granted by the ACBL. People get to decide how much
prestige to assign an event. I would not think that the "restricted
bidding" Vanderbilt was the Vanderbilt. I would think it was a
restricted event opposite an unrestricted event and would not play in
it, any more than I would play in a Seniors event opposite and open
event or, if I were a woman, a Women's event opposite an open event. I
think most players, even those playing fairly natural systems would
agree.


(4) I agree that people become partial to their own pet conventions,
but I think that they would be willing to give these up if the playing
field was leveled for everyone, and the events had some meaning. I,
for one, think that there would be lots of players who would be
intrigued by the concept of a world championship team event with a very
limited bidding system allowed. It would be fascinating to see how the
best players compete when restricted to natural bidding and only a
handful of conventions. By the way, if the US sent a highly regarded
team to a "limited bidding systems" world championship event, you won't
have to worry about other countries showing up -- they would be
thrilled to participate.

I don't think it would work. I think that the only way that this could
be made to work would be to make all of tournament bridge
convention-restricted. I also think that would lead to interesting
competition but a SMALLER group of players playing. I think it would
have the opposite impact of what you intend.


(5) I can assure you that I am not "obsessing about recapturing past
glories." I am worried about how many people will be left to play this
great game when 80% of the existing players pass away over the next 20
years. Maybe those who don't expect to be around more than 10 or 20
more years are satisfied with things the way they are, but I think that
more forward thinking is required to revive interest in this game
across the country.

I have played rubber bridge twice in the past ten years or so. Both
times were in somewhat interesting circumstances.

Once I was at a gaming convention. People at that convention competed
in a wide variety of games. The mainstays were wargames and
role-playing games but there was a little poker tournament and a very
weak backgammon tournament. The organizers of the convention had
contacted the ACBL for advice concerning a little bridge tournament.
One of the convention organizers knew I played bridge and mentioned to
me that the ACBL had not replied. We got up a two-table rubber-bridge
session between my sessions running a roleplaying game. The other seven
people were all youngsters who had learned the game as teenagers and
knew NO ONE who played the game at all. Players like that die off
through isolation. I told them that they could find local clubs and
friendly players if they looked at the ACBL website and they said that
they might.

Last fall, at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, two young poker pros
remembered that they had been pretty good bridge players. They decided
that some bridge would be good to relax and they talked me and a young
woman who had learned bridge in college into playing a few hands. It
was fun but none of them evinced any interest in playing regularly.

I think an occasional bridge game will happen from time to time long
after we are gone from this plane and I know the game is doing better
overseas but I don't think it will be an important cultural feature in
this country again.

I think slow play is a big culprit in turning people off but that might
just be me.

Will in New Haven

--


All change for round ten; slow players please go home.



Thank you for your reply - Steve

.

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