Learning bridge? Welcome to the club! While I don’t think anyone is ever entirely done  mastering the game no matter how many Masterpoints they’ve accumulated over the years, there are many tips that can help neophytes to pick up the game faster and easier.

If you’re newer to the game than some of the other members on BBO Prime, here are 10 tasty tips for bridge students that can make your journey an easier one.

1. Get to Know a Card Deck

Get to know a card deck – and well – whether you play most of your games at physical events and clubs or online instead. Carry one with you, learn the rules of a few other games while you’re at it, practice a few basic card tricks and know how to cut and shuffle.

It’s all knowledge that’ll serve you well and a great way to practice hand dexterity at the same time.

2. Support Streaming and Viewing

There are some great bridge documentaries out there: Some are new and some were new twenty years ago. Watch all of them in your journey to becoming a better bridge player – and support good viewing and streaming channels when you find them.

Most of them can help you learn something, even if they’re not in traditional lesson format, and the more cool stuff new bridge players support, the more demand there will be for people to create these resources.

3. Hey, Teacher!

When you’re a self taught guitar player, you can occasionally pick up bad playing habits just because there’s nobody there to show you not to: Holding a pick wrong, finding a weird way to press an F-chord that’s not standard or practical for anyone… There are thousands of examples.

The same can be true for someone learning bridge.

Find a bridge teacher, even if you only take a few lessons to supplement what you already know (or ask specific questions you’ve wondered about): It can make you a better player in the long run, and a teacher can always help to point out where any bad habits lie and what you should do instead.

4. Play Online and Offline

Online games can be radically different from offline ones in terms of the dynamic: If you want to be a better player, mix up your online and offline play. Even if you’re not a regular offline player, take some time every year and look around for bridge events to go to.

5. Kibitz – and Regularly

Other than playing, you can learn a lot from watching.

Using another guitar-related example, guitarists usually spend a lot of time watching the guitarists they admire: Especially what they’re doing with their hands.

If you want to be a better bridge player, become a regular kibitzer too.

6. Practice Bidding Drills

Bidding and play are separate disciplines.

Always take some time to learn and practice bidding separately. If you don’t, you’re going to run into a more experienced bridge partner who asks you what the hell you were thinking after the game – and you’ll realize you don’t have an answer.

Start with the most common conventions and work your way up from there.

7. More Bridge Puzzles

Bridge puzzles are a lot of fun, and they happen to be pretty useful for learning more about bidding and play. Commit yourself to at least one of these per day – or a few once they start to get addictive – and you’ll notice that you’ll learn to think about the game in varying ways pretty soon.

8. Read the Rules

Every beginner should have a copy of the rules near the bridge table, whether you’re playing Contract, Duplicate, Chicago or Strip. Read the rules regularly, and eventually they’ll start to feel as natural as the alphabet.

9. Write It All Down

Sometimes repetition isn’t enough to learn something new: Someone might have told you a hundred times (or you might have read it a thousand times in a row), but this doesn’t mean it’s going into your long-term memory.

It’s often easier to recall information when we write it down: In our own words, and in our own handwriting.

Every student should have a bridge notebook or file for recording new info. Add to it as you learn over the years and you could eventually pass this tome down to another learning bridge player as their start at the game.

10. A Finger on the Pulse

Check forums, newsletters, magazines and newsletters regularly. It’s a good way to keep in touch with everything that’s happening in bridge now – and a great way to connect with more players, teachers and sites.