A Bridge Not Far Enough

[Ham]

Anyone play bridge? There's clearly shedloads of stuff about, I'm interested to know what online resources/app exist without having to kiss too many frogs along the way (and unbidden, an image of La Farage has just popped into my head, yechhhhh)

I'm soon to be retired, and I have been thinking to take up Bridge again. Thing is, I haven't played for 30 years or so, Mrs Ham not being a partaker. I used to be quite reasonable, I could hold my own in most company (I even started a bridge club with a couple of mates in my early 20's). As a penniless oaf I used to play Hideous Hog style at the 10p tables in St John's Wood to supplement my income, time was I could play duplicate with some confidence of being in the upper quartile (and yes, if I'm honest, bottom too, but that's the nature of duplicate).

That all means I know how shit I must be a the moment, I'd like to try to play myself in before turning up anywhere. Any thoughts or recommendations appreciated.

[T42]

Used to when I was at university: we usually had a four in our digs of an evening and once I was working in Paris another chap and I started teaching as many of the others there at lunch-time.  Haven't played since 1979, though, and my short-term memory is too buggered for it now.

[JonBuoy]

My father (91) has played a fair bit of bridge for many years.  When Covid arrived I set him up with a free account at https://www.bridgebase.com/ so that he could continue to play his mates but online rather than in person.  They still use it for their weekly match although now they also meet up for a meal once a month but after they have played the bridge online 

I think you can just drop in to other games with random strangers or play against robots if you haven't got three mates.

He does have problems with it but it is my dad and a computer    There is a good chance that it isn't the computer's fault.

[Ham]

 

There's a forum there that should help with this question, thanks. Ideally I'd prefer to be playing a computer for the moment, I've no real idea how bad I am, or how fast I can regain some measure of competence, playing humans at my curent (expected) level is unlikely to be rewarding, and I won't have my errors flagged up.

[Morat]

Bridge is fun! I'm rubbish but I do enjoy it if not taken too seriously. Bad losers are soon shown up...

[Ham]

....I do enjoy it if not taken too seriously....

This was the premise behind the club I started with a couple of mates (let's be clear, my focus was on catering rather than play ) - it was to be a "Friendly Bridge Club" - argument was stamped down hard. It actually made for a really nice environment, which had the potential to be quite successful, unfortunately one of my mates turned out to be less than stable. Nice guy, very bright, but ....

As it happens, playing mine host in a club turned out to be the most exciting thing I could have done for my social life.