The game of bridge is a lot of fun to talk about, and there are thousands of users who do it every day on the forums and message boards of bridge.

But some discussions about the game of bridge are almost as old as the game itself.

When I used to play guitar, there were a handful of questions that haunted every message board related to the instrument. “Telecaster, Stratocaster, or Les Paul?” was one. I remember that “Tube amp versus solid state?” was another.

A user could easily Google the question and come up with a thousand people who asked before them. But instead, they add one more thread to the pot. Answers are usually scattered in all directions, with every player being quick to give their opinion.

When I moved to bridge, I realized that the game has the same collection of standard forum or message board questions.

Discussions or questions that could be Googled by the person asking it, but often aren’t. Historically, these questions have been asked by new bridge players since the very start of the game.

What do we do with these questions?

Well, answer them. If you’re lucky enough to be able to direct a new player in the direction of resources (even if it is a previous forum thread), then do it! It helps the game go forward.

Here are some of the discussions about bridge that we’ll probably continue to see.

What’s the best place to play bridge online?

I’ve seen this question asked by many players who would like to recommend a bridge platform for their friends, their parents, or their grandparents (and sometimes themselves), but aren’t sure where to start looking.

If you ask anyone here, the answer will almost certainly be synonymous.

Join BBO!

How many bridge conventions are there?

This is a loaded question, and I don’t think that anyone has officially counted all of them. There are hundreds of them, all from different eras of bridge or parts of the world.

What people really want to know when they ask this is whether or not it’s necessary to know all of these conventions to be a good or great bridge player.

The short answer is no.

Learn the conventions that you see the most, and don’t place any added pressure on yourself. Learning conventions on top of these will come naturally as you play, at least most of the time.

Is bridge difficult to learn?

Before many people get to know how to play the game, they want to know about its difficulty level.

Bridge seems difficult from far away, especially if you’ve spent a lifetime playing other card games – I mean, what the heck is Stayman supposed to mean if you’re used to poker or Go Fish?

The good news for everyone who has ever asked this is that bridge isn’t hard to learn. Try a simpler version of the game (such as Just Declare) if you would like to get to know the very basics first.

What is contract bridge?

I’ve seen this question appear a lot on general forums outside of the BBO Forum – for example, on sites like Quora.

If you’ve just arrived at this page via a search engine (and you’re probably reading this from the Prime Archive), welcome to the game.

If you’re the player who spotted this question anywhere else online, just point the player in the direction of BBO or invite them to a bridge game!