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- Minibridge
- Wikipedia
- Like other forms of bridge, Minibridge is played by four players in fixed partnerships, sitting crosswise. A full pack of 52 cards is dealt to the players, each receiving 13 cards. As in contract bridge, it is then decided which player becomes declarer, but a key innovation of Minibridge is that this decision is taken out of the players' hands. Declarer's partner then lays open their hand, and declarer announces a contract. This is a trump suit or no trumps, together with an undertaking to win more than half the tricks (partscore) or even to win 100 trick points or more (game). The remainder of the game is very similar to contract bridge. In particular, declarer's partner becomes dummy (i.e., declarer plays both hands).
- Each player adds all high-card points in their hand and announces the result. The partnership with more combined high-card points then plays the hand. If both partnerships have the same number of high-card points (i.e., 20 each), the hand is redealt. Of this partnership, the partner with more high-card points becomes the declarer.
- So it seems like it just gets rid of the initial bidding part of the game.
- Praise
- Ben Bateson @ BoardGameGeek: I can't think of a better game to teach a range of good skills than bridge. MiniBridge of course, is an easier game to learn, but when I teach bridge, I start with Mini and work upwards in any case. Surprised that not everyone does. (Source)
- This is what Buffett / Gates are using to teach bridge (Source)
- Wikipedia
- Spades
- Geeky McGeekface @ BoardGameGeek : One path might be to start the kids on something like Spades, then move on to Bridge. (Source)
- I found these instructions easy enough to follow: https://www.pagat.com/boston/spades.html
- Pinochle
- Doug Cooley @ BoardGameGeek: while I love Bridge, I think you'd be much better off teaching Pinochle so that kids can get the ideas of bidding and trick-taking in a much easier environment. (Source)
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