Teach your kids bridge, not poker
It&#x27;s a shame that Bridge&#x27;s popularity is waning because it is a very interesting and skilful game. It suffers from having a relatively high barrier to entry. A lot of comments here are from people who clearly have never played the game.<p>In bidding there are 48 calls you can make (1-7 of each suit plus notrumps, X ie double, XX ie redouble and pass). The bids (1-7 of each suit and no trump) are ordered meaning once someone bids 2D you have to bid 2H or higher so you&#x27;ve lost the 1 bids and 2C). The two teams are interleaved and are trying to convey information to your partner but your opponents have access to that information too.<p>It&#x27;s kind of amazing how much information you can convey within this simple system. It&#x27;s not even just about what bids were made but what bids <i>weren&#x27;t</i> made. Bidding is a deep, deep topic.<p>Additionally you can lie to your partner (within limits) and in competition play there are rules around what you can and can&#x27;t do. This can confuse your opponents but will also confuse your partner (if it doesn&#x27;t it&#x27;s often ruled as &quot;illegal information&quot;).<p>After all this and the opening lead the dummy hand is placed on the table. Every player can see it. The defending team has the auction to inform the defense. So it&#x27;s not just a simple trick-taking game. The auction and the play are inextricably intertwined.<p>The defenders can convey information to each other through which cards they play. The declarer can see this too but has less context on the meaning.<p>In both the auction and the play Bayesian reasoning comes into play. What <i>didn&#x27;t</i> happen? How does that affect the probability space?<p>Building partnerships takes time although experienced players can sit down with a new player, agree on some fairly standard conventions (eg 2&#x2F;1, upside down carding) and be at a reasonable point.<p>But the high barrier to entry, fixed numbers of players and the reliance on partnerships make it a tough game to play casually.