[7thaccount]

Lol. I tried. Went to several classes and somehow still never learned to play. I can't tell if all the structure and complexity is worth the extra headache compared to games like Spades or other bidding/trick games. I have heard that it's supposedly by far the best there is though, so perhaps I should try again. I do play Texas 42, which is kind of like bridge with dominos. It's wildly popular in Texas, but hasn't reached much further. There's a lot of strategy to the bidding, but I'm not sure how closely it ranks to Bridge.

[bombcar]

The best is often to have one player who knows some of the conventions, and the rest know nothing, and all learn to play together.

Whist is basically no-bid bridge, which can be fun, too.

[7thaccount]

Good recommendation thanks. With whist, I wonder if taking out the bidding takes away some of the fun. Spades still has the bidding, it just doesn't allow for the selection of the trump suit.

Some of the conventions in Bridge seem weird too. Why not just say 8 club instead of 2 club. I get that there is a 6 trick minimum, but the convention doesn't seem necessary. There might be a good reason though.