Welcome

Bridge is a fantastic game for young people. It’s fun, strategic, cooperative, and a great way to meet new friends. We hope you enjoy your experience playing bridge as much as us!

Meet some of our youth players

George

Kate

Grace

When and how did you learn bridge?	2 and a half years ago, I learned off my mother, and both my grandmas play.
Apart from bridge, what do you love doing?	Travelling – best places are Dublin where I’m from, Italy, and Dubai
What do you like about bridge?	It’s challenging and never boring because the hands are different every time.
Favourite memory / achievement in bridge?	Qualifying for the Australian youth team trials
Would you rather be able to be invisible, or read people’s minds?	…but I can already read people’s minds!
Let’s play paper scissors rock. But I’m going to choose rock. Ready?… …Why did you choose scissors?	<laughter> … I thought you were BLUFFING!

Zac

Wednesday youth bridge

We run a weekly session suitable for all experience levels, even if you’ve never played.

Details

4 – 8pm each Wednesday
Come when you can and leave when you need
Free pizza for dinner
Have fun playing cards, and meet other bridge players

School holiday bridge lessons

We run a set of introductory bridge lessons in the December school holidays each year. These lessons are free and provide an interesting and enjoyable introduction to the game. If that’s too long to wait, come along to our Wednesday sessions and we’ll gladly show you the ropes there too.

Where else can I play?

You can play sessions at your local bridge club. There are also plenty of congress events throughout the year that you can enter.

Join the ABF Youth Club (it’s free!), and you:

do not pay any ABF or QBA annual fees
get a 50% discount on entry fees in most congresses and club sessions.

Contact Michael Gearing for more details.

National youth bridge events

Australian Youth Bridge Championships (each January in Canberra) – also known as Youth Week. The QBA provides a travel subsidy for Queensland-based U/25 players who attend. Highly recommend!!

Youth Interstate Teams (each July). Queensland selects an U/25 representative team to compete in the Australian National Championships.

Our vision

Queensland Youth Bridge is a group where every person is safe, feels valued, and has fun at each event or meeting.
Each player is on a journey towards autonomy, knowing what they enjoy about bridge, what they would like to achieve in the game, and how to pursue these goals.
Other states look to us to learn how to set up a good organisation and culture, and how to attract, retain and develop players long term.

Our mission

To promote social, emotional, and intellectual wellbeing in school-aged kids and young adults through playing bridge and belonging to a wider bridge community.
To provide opportunities for youth players to develop and excel at bridge.

Our values

Fun	We ensure everyone enjoys their experiences playing bridge and being in the community.
Belonging	We cultivate a safe and welcoming environment for all players.
Respect	We are cooperative, patient, and considerate of the needs of others in our interactions.
Improvement	We eliminate barriers so everyone has fair access to opportunities to pursue their goals.
Equity	We eliminate barriers so everyone has fair access to opportunities to pursue their goals

Contact and feedback

We want to hear from you about your positive and negative experiences in the bridge world because we can always be improving. Please contact Michael Gearing directly, or send your comments via our contact page.

When and how did you learn bridge?	I think 3 or 4 years ago? It’s been a while. My dad knows how to play but I learnt at some lessons at the club.
Apart from bridge, what do you love doing?	Hiking, inline skating, gym, world affairs, D&D, hanging out with my friends
What do you like about bridge?	The fact that it’s played in a partnership and you’ve got to communicate and coordinate. There’s a lot of guesswork but also deduction as well. Also just cardplay is fun.
Favourite memory / achievement in bridge?	Youth week 2024 – that was pretty fun
Would you rather be able to be invisible, or read people’s minds?	I dunno, neither are my first pick for a superpower. Reading people’s minds? I don’t know if i want to know what people think of me. So maybe invisibility, there’s no negatives about it.
Let’s play paper scissors rock. But I’m going to choose rock. Ready?… Why did you choose rock?	I just always choose rock the first time – that’s my strategy.

When and how did you learn bridge?	My grandma taught me when I was 17, then I went to a youth bridge event, and realised other young people play bridge too!
Apart from bridge, what do you love doing?	Cooking, running, sewing, and Netflix (current favourites: Arcane, and The Glory)
What do you like about bridge?	It’s really logical, but also very social. That’s what keeps me coming back
Favourite memory / achievement in bridge?	Representing Australia in the world championships in Poland, and playing in the final
Would you rather be able to be invisible, or read people’s minds?	Invisible – I don’t want to know what anyone’s thinking. That’s too much of a burden!
Let’s play paper scissors rock. But I’m going to choose rock. Ready?… …Why did you choose paper?	Because I believe you, and I wanna win.

When and how did you learn bridge?	5 years ago, one of my mates was playing and I just came along too.
Apart from bridge, what do you love doing?	Football (the real kind), cricket, building engineering stuff
What do you like about bridge?	I like the social aspect of it, coming to see my friends
Favourite memory / achievement in bridge?	Going to different places with bridge, it’s just like a holiday with your friends with a bit of bridge on the side
Would you rather be able to be invisible, or read people’s minds?	I think I’d rather invisibility – if I read someone’s mind and they didn’t like me I’d be very self-conscious
Let’s play paper scissors rock. But I’m going to choose rock. Ready?…	Z: Well, Michael, I’m going to choose… scissors. <Rock beats scissors> M: Why did you choose scissors? Z: Well, I watched this TV show, Catalyst, and they said going in the reverse cycle twice from your opponent’s previous choice was mathematically giving you the best odds to win. M: But we only played once..

Youth