[barmar]

Last night's "Family Guy" (titled "Bend or Blockbuster") has a scene where Lois is trying to teach the family how to play euchre, by reading instructions from a web site. Everyone in the family has blank stares, and Peter shoots himself to get out of the misery (but he goes to Hell where the Devil just continues reading the rules, so he shoots himself again to return to the kitchen).

The scene ends with a voiceover that says "Family Guy is brought to you by Contract Bridge: Way simpler than euchre" and then starts describing the rules of bridge.

I learned euchre when I was in high school (I went to a regional Mathletes tournament and stayed with a host family, and they taught us the game), but I haven't played it since then and have totally forgotten it (I couldn't have even told you it was a trick-taking game if Lois hadn't mentioned it). Is it really more complicated than bridge?

Of course, what makes bridge interesting isn't in the mechanics of the game, which aren't much more complicated than other trick-taking games. The complexity comes from the strategy of assigning conventional meanings to bids and plays, which arises out of the partnership part of the game. Euchre is also played in partnerships, but the process of naming the trump suit is much simpler so there's little ability to pass information.

[mycroft]

1. No, if you're just playing the "normal" euchre, it's much easier to learn than Bridge. Learning one makes it much easier to learn the other, however, as the concepts of partnerships, bidding, "declarer assistance" (different, but still, the concept that you take more tricks declaring than defending), and trump are already known, and that's a huge part of the game.

However, nobody just plays "normal" euchre. Sure, they will when things line up, but "5-person", "7-person", "blind", ... are all played when desired. Which is fine - easy enough to learn - but different from each other in ways that dwarf "MPs vs rubber".

Having said all of that, trying to learn the rules to euchre from Hoyle or equivalent rather than being taught by someone who already knows how to play is probably just as desperation-inducing as doing that for Bridge (which, IIRC from my 1970's edition Hoyle, at least warns you that "you can't learn Bridge from just learning the rules."

2. Paging Mr. Bennett. Mr. Bennett, to the ghostly white courtesy phone, please.

[michel444]

There are many game with mechanic ressembling Bridge : Kanasta (Spanish), bellote and Tarot (French) and Whist the Grandfather of Bridge ...
I like Dominion

[Gilithin]

Canasta (Spanish for basket) is absolutely nothing like bridge other than that you play as partners. It is a member of the rummy family, not the whist family, and therefore involves melds and drawing as its key mechanics. Ironically, it was once a popular put-down in bridge circles to tell a player to "go back to playing canasta" if bridge was too difficult for them.

[sfi]

Gilithin, on 2022-October-08, 13:31, said:

Ironically, it was once a popular put-down in bridge circles to tell a player to "go back to playing canasta" if bridge was too difficult for them.

Don’t knock canasta - it’s how I learned to count. For a while the numbers went up to ace and then stopped.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2022-October-08, 17:37, said:

Don’t knock canasta - it’s how I learned to count.

The dominant strain of Rummy in Italy was Pinnacolo, now replaced by Burraco (considerably better). It is indeed good training for memory (each card has a duplicate and some cards are taken face up, so you can build a clear picture of what partner and opponents hold and what is left in the pack) and partnership play. Bridge players do disparage Burraco but in my experience the same people win at both (in the long term, once luck evens out).

Quite a few bridge clubs host a Burraco circle too, although it is usually considered just a way of making ends meet and there is little if any interaction between the two sets of players.

[barmar]

pescetom, on 2022-October-09, 03:09, said:

The dominant strain of Rummy in Italy was Pinnacolo, now replaced by Burraco (considerably better). It is indeed good training for memory (each card has a duplicate and some cards are taken face up, so you can build a clear picture of what partner and opponents hold and what is left in the pack) and partnership play. Bridge players do disparage Burraco but in my experience the same people win at both (in the long term, once luck evens out).

Most card games are good memory training. And some people are simply good at cards in general -- there are a number of bridge champions who are also successful poker players, even though the games have practically nothing in common.

[thepossum]

All I remember from my card game experimentation days was that it was fun
- I like games that leave a lot up to bluff and all kinds of other tactics

[pescetom]

There's more room for bluff in bridge than in most card games.
Burraco is interesting in that it is a partnership game with considerable room for strategy: a single hand can last twenty minutes or more.

[thepossum]

Personally I find Bridge far too structured for fun and bluff, and regulated

Maybe I hung out in the wrong clubs

What happens in your club Pescetom. Fights guns drawn, duels, challenges, tables upturned

[pescetom]

thepossum, on 2022-October-15, 18:59, said:

What happens in your club Pescetom. Fights guns drawn, duels, challenges, tables upturned

It's got rather tame since I became a director
But I still have had to deal recently with insults to an opponent and with refusal to accept a penalty.
A few years ago things were more lively and we even made the local papers when a player was downed by a punch, reported to police.
Our Friday evening game was preceded by dinner with abundant wine and it was considered unsporting to play completely sober, but unfortunately that tradition died out with covid.

[thepossum]

pescetom, on 2022-October-16, 07:05, said:

It's got rather tame since I became a director
But I still have had to deal recently with insults to an opponent and with refusal to accept a penalty.
A few years ago things were more lively and we even made the local papers when a player was downed by a punch, reported to police.
Our Friday evening game was preceded by dinner with abundant wine and it was considered unsporting to play completely sober, but unfortunately that tradition died out with covid.

rough club