Bridge is a game that is played in groups. It takes a minimum 4 people. You compete as a team of 2 with a partner. Most bridge groups have 12 to 52 people. There is nothing more social than playing bridge with a group of 7 tables. By the end of the evening you have had a chance to play against and mingle with nearly everyone.
When you sign up for classes you will want to sign up as a group. Those that are the most successful when learning to play rely on their fellow students and bridge friends as an outlet for discussion and support. Your group will enjoy practice sessions and rumination between lessons.

Class sizes are a minimum of 8 people. If your group is only 4 people I can frequently find another group to put you with to complete the class. Sometimes I can accommodate a pair. If you are only one person interested in learning to play bridge talk with your friends. It can be difficult to find a class that needs just one extra. E-mail or call us for the latest schedule and tuition costs.

Beginning Bridge Classes

Introduction to Bridge
You've heard of bridge, but not the modern version! Now you can actually play in a game your very first lesson. After 6 weeks of lessons and games you will be playing bridge better than those people who learned bridge 20 years ago. You will meet interesting people, undertake new challenges and adventures, and have fun at every session! It's not necessary to bring a partner. Meet interesting people. Many singles - many couples. Fun! Sharpen your memory. Surprise your friends. Challenging! Exciting!  At the completion of this class you are prepared to play in the games onboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 or play at any of the bridge clubs in San Francisco.

Bridge Bidding Intensive
This class meets once per week for eight weeks. It will last approximately two hours. The lessons closely follow the popular book written by Audry Grant titled, 'Bridge: The Club Series'. The class covers all the basics of good bidding and prepares you to play well, even in the toughest competition.

Bridge Play Intensive
This class meets once per week for eight weeks. It will last approximately two hours. The lessons closely follow the popular book written by Audry Grant titled, 'Bridge: The Diamond Series'. The class covers all the basics of good card play and prepares you to declare well.

Bridge Defense Intensive
This class meets once per week for eight weeks. It will last approximately two hours. The lessons closely follow the popular book written by Audry Grant titled, 'Bridge: The Heart Series'. The class covers all the basics for a strong defense. Good defensive technique is learned over time.  This class will get you noticed by those aggressive bidders as dangerous defenders and they will select their bids with care.

Supervised Play, Review and Advanced Topics
This is an individually designed class with topics specifically planned to meet the special interest of a group of 4 people. Two hours are spent discussing bridge and playing hands.

Individual Playing Lessons
All of us -- beginners to veterans -- can improve our bridge game. We improve by eliminating errors. We learn not to make these mistakes through practice and sitting at the bridge table and playing with a good mentor. In this sense, the beginner can learn much more than the old pro simply because the beginner has more mistakes to remove. The old pro has habits and fundamental mistakes that have been reinforced through years of unguided playing. It takes hard work to correct these mistakes, but everyone can improve. You may argue that you can't "teach" card sense. And while the argument may technically be true, in practice it just doesn't wash. You can't teach that innate something that makes an athlete a baseball player, a football player or a tennis star, yet every professional team has high paid coaches who teach players how to field ground balls, or how to block or how to hit an overhead smash. Each of us can be taught to use our talent more efficiently and more intelligently. If the only people who took piano lessons were those who were assured of becoming virtuosos, the world would be deprived of a lot of music.

Advanced Bridge Classes

What's the Secret to Wining at Bridge?
I've had a ball playing bridge. I've played on my kitchen table, bridge tournaments, North American Championships; I've played international tournaments in Venice, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Germany, Canada and Mexico.I have played very good bridge and I have played lousy. And always, I was delighted with every minute of play!
The overriding message here is that bridge should be fun. It's capitalized FUN…and underlined FUN. It's FUN in italics, and fun in foreign languages: C'est tres amusant, es muy divertido, es macht mir Freude.
The better we play the more we enjoy the game. When I caught the "bridge bug" I endeavored on a search to determine the secret to winning bridge. I ask every national champion I could find. I wondered just what secrets their teams discussed between big matches. I wanted to know what special conventions or carding systems or technique made it all possible. My investigation lead to one startling secret, "Be well schooled in the fundamental's."

Partnership Agreements and Understandings
Successful tournament bridge is dependent on the relationship you have with your partner. Specifically each player's understandings relating to system agreements and conventional treatments are critical.  When you and your partner know and understand your convention card well you will greatly increase your competitive advantage. Through two separate meetings we work together to critically review the conventions and treatments you are playing and recommend changes or additions as needed. Then each person in the partnership is given a lengthy questionnaire about specific actions and their meaning.  There are no right and wrong answers. After the partners complete the surveys separately we work through these questions together.  The goal is to ensure that each member of the partnership has the same understandings and agreements relating to competitive actions and advanced bidding.

Individual Private Lessons
Private playing lessons are one of the best tools for improving your bridge game.  Playing with an experienced partner in a duplicated bridge game is both exciting and informative. Prior to the game we will discuss and complete a convention card outlining our system agreements. Together we compete as a partnership in a duplicate bridge event.  At the conclusion of the game we discuss each hand one by one. We look at the bids and plays that worked well and were successful.  We also discuss mistakes and develop a plan to improve our technique and correct reoccurring problems.