Regular Sessions, Lessons and Workshops

Regular Sessions

We believe bridge is a healthy hobby, a game to connect people, and a sports for those who would like to keep their mind sharp. The Sydney Bridge Centre is the Clubroom of the New South Wales Bridge Association, we run regular Face-to-Face sessions at our City venue on Goulburn Street and Canada Bay Club in Five Dock.

Face-to-Face session @ City, Goulburn Street

DayTimeSession
Monday 10.00am – 1.15pmOpen Inclusive (Rookie & Intermediate friendly)
Monday 10.00am – 12.30pm💕 Lesson plus Supervised play
Tuesday 10.00am – 1.15pmOpen Inclusive (Rookie & Intermediate friendly)
Tuesday🌙 7.15pm – 10.00pmFriendly competitive with Phil and Martin
Tuesday🌙 6.30pm – 9.00pm💕 Lesson plus Supervised play
Wednesday 10.00am – 1.15pmIntermediate / Open duplicate
(pre-game talk at 9.45pm)
Wednesday 10.00am – 12.30pm🗨️Advanced Supervised play
Wednesday🌙 6.30pm – lateFamily Game Night – Youth
Thursday 10.00am – 1.15pmOpen Inclusive (Rookie & Intermediate friendly)
Sunday (occasion)🍸1.30pm – 4.30pm Funday (snack and drinks included)
The Rookie session will be at the normal table fees of $16 member / $13 concession member / $20 visitor, & the Lesson plus Supervised sessions will be the usual $20 member / $17 concession member / $24 visitor.
Sunday Funday is held every two weeks, at $20 member / $17 concession member / $24 visitor.

We host our regular sessions at our own premises at New South Wales Bridge Association. Parking are available at the corner of Goulburn Street and Elizabeth Street, please purchase the validation ticket at the club at $17 whole day parking.

You don’t need to have a partner, visitors and walk-ins are welcome.

Face-to-Face session @ Canada Bay Club, Five Dock

DayTimeSession
Monday 10.00am – 1.15pmOpen Inclusive
Thursday 10.00am – 1.15pmOpen Inclusive
Thursday 10.00am – 12.30pm💕 Lesson plus Supervised play
Normal table fee $16 member / $20 visitor. The Lesson plus Supervised sessions will be $20 member / $24 visitor.
Concession table money fee is not applicable in Canada Bay venue.

We host these sessions at the venue of Canada Bay Club, Five Dock. You’re required to become a member of Canada Bay Club if you live within a 5km radius of the venue before you can join our bridge session. The Canada Bay Club membership costs $3.3 a year or $11 for 5 years, and you will be able to enjoy discount at their restaurant outlets. Canada Bay Club opens at 10am. Extensive parking outside the club for free.

You don’t need a partner, visitors and walk-ins are welcome.

Beginners Course & Improvers Course 2024

Our next Beginners Courses will start by end of May – options of time and venue!

Beginners Course (May / June 2024)

  • City – 6 Monday Mornings 20th May – 24th June 2024, 10.00am – 12.15pm
  • City – 6 Tuesday Evenings 21st May – 25th June 2024, 6.30pm – 9.15pm
  • Canada Bay – 6 Thursday Mornings 23rd May – 27th June, 10.30am – 12.45pm

After completing our Beginners Course, you will have a choice of continuing your bridge journey in either City or Canada Bay. There are regular play sessions running in parallel to the Beginners Course. Both of our venues also provide on-going Supervised Sessions for Beginners Graduates in City (Wednesday morning and evening) and Canada Bay (Thursday morning). New Supervised sessions will be added to the timetable after the conclusion of the Beginners Courses.

Please feel free to enrol using the booking form. You can also use the form to express interest if the upcoming courses don’t suit you, so we can include you in the mailing list of the next Beginners Courses.

If you need further information, please call Wing on 9264 6884 or email her on office@sydneybridgecentre.com.

Friday Workshops by Will Jenner-O’Shea

The SBC Workshop runs approximately once a month, usually on a Friday. It is a combination of lessons and practice hands – a fun learning for all levels of players.

FRIDAY 12th April 2024 [Flyer]
Solid Suits, Strong Suits, Decisive Bidding. Opening and Overcalling at the Four- and Five-level. Opening 2♣ and further bidding. Hand evaluation beyond HCP and length.

FRIDAY 8th March 2024 [Flyer]
Defence Techniques Card Placing and Counting Tricks. Using Logic, and some Conventions to help you defend better. Work out where missing honours are. Opening leads and Mid-game leads.

FRIDAY 9th February 2024 [Flyer]
Improve Your Judgement and Tweak Your System. Make a few small changes to your system to improve your results. How to evaluate close decisions better. Learn to be more conservative in some auctions, and more aggressive in other auctions.

Suitable for Intermediate / Open / Advanced level

SATURDAY 10th February 2024 [Flyer]
Interfering with their 1NT Opening and Handling Interference Over Our 1NT Opening. The Landy Convention. What do Doubles and Bids mean? The Lebensohl Convention.

Suitable for Intermediate / Open / Advanced level

More to come…
More workshops are under schedule! Let us know if you would like to be included in the mailing list.

We plan to run workshop once a month, more are under schedule. The whole day workshops run from 10am until around 3pm (later if you wish to practise more. Half day workshop finishes at about 1pm) at Goulburn Street. An all-day practical lesson with Notes and Tips provided.

You can purchase the booklet at $10 if you missed the workshop. They are only available after workshop, please contact office:

  • 10th February 2023: Refresh your bridge
  • 11th February 2023: Arm yourself with Tournament Skills
  • 10th March 2023: Declarer Play in Focus
  • 14th April 2023: Competitive Bidding and How to Handle It
  • 15th April 2023: Practice Your Fundamental Skills
  • 19th May 2023: Defend Better with Signals
  • 23rd June 2023: Bidding Strong Hands and Slams
  • 28th July 2023: Making the Most of Weak Hands
  • 25th August 2023: The Main Rules of Bridge
  • 26th August 2023: Two-Over-One (advanced)
  • 15th September 2023: Improve Your Declarer Play
  • 6th October 2023: How Do Competitive Bids Change at Different Levels
  • 7th October 2023: Newer Players Fundamentals
  • 3rd November 2023: A Few Useful Conventions to Learn and Improve
  • 1st December 2023: End of Year Summary. Practice a Variety of Topics and Revise 2023

Friday Workshop $60 for members $65 for visitors (A delicious morning tea and a light lunch included). Saturday Workshop $30 for members $35 for visitors (A substantial morning tea included).

Please book in advance for catering purposes.

Open Inclusive

All of our regular sessions are OPEN to everyone! Yes players in these sessions may have a little bit more experience and prefer to have a more challenging game, but that doesn’t mean that the session is limited to them. We all have to start somewhere in our bridge journey – The fact is, you don’t get good to play in the Open; you play in the Open and then get good. If you feel like you are a bit out of depth at your first few attempts, please feel free to ask Director for a protection sticker – no, the protection system doesn’t mean that the Open players will give the game to you (that’s humiliating), however they will understand that you may not understand all the rules & etiquettes and will happily share their experience with you.

The Evening Specials

The Tuesday Evening (7.15pm start) is a special session hosted by Phil Halloran and Martin Clear. This session provides a friendly competitive environment, 7.15pm start. We play 24-28 boards. An aprés-hand discussion with drinks and snacks. You must contact office if you are new to the group as we try to avoid sit-out.

The Wednesday Evening (6.30pm start) offers you another interesting night out. There is a Just Play! Family Game Night for Rookies (Advanced Supervised Players) to mix with the Youth players. FREE for Youth. For Just Play! table money fee $16 (member) / $13 (concession members) / $20 (visitors).

Wednesday Pre-game Talk / Lesson plus Game at both City and Canada Bay

— IN THE CITY —

There are three separate sessions on Wednesday morning – there will be two fields (Open A and Open B) in the regular duplicate, they are specially designed for Open and Intermediate players. A 15-minutes pre-game talk starts at 9.45am to expand your knowledge, followed by a duplicate game at 10.00am.

A separate Advanced Supervised session is run in parallel on Wednesday morning. The Supervised session starts with an interesting hand from a real competition, then followed by a duplicate game. This session is slower comparing to Open A and B but faster than Beginners Supervised session. It is perfect for those who would like to gain more confidence before they progress to the next stage.

The Tuesday Evening Supervised session runs alongside the main Open duplicate, 6.30pm start. The Session also comes with a Lesson with 4 practice hands, then followed by a duplicate game. If you have a friend who has more experience in bridge, please feel free to bring them to the Open duplicate, so both of you can have a game at a level you feel comfortable with!

For those who have young one who are interested in learning or playing bridge, please feel free to bring them in to the Youth group on Wednesday evening 6.30pm start. Sydney Bridge Centre sponsors the venue to the youth players, so they can have a FREE card game night out in a safe environment.

— IN CANADA BAY —

A separate Beginners Supervised session will be run alongside the main Open field on Thursday morning. The Supervised session comes with a Lesson with 4 practice hands, then followed by a duplicate game, 10.00am start. There will be a theme for each month and a different topic for each week. Notes and tips are included.

Topics for Lesson plus Game sessions

We include the following topics for our on-going Lesson plus Supervised game sessions. We present them with new materials and from different perspective:

  • Bidding Fundamentals
  • Hand Evaluation
  • Introduction to Weak Two Opening
  • Learn how to open with strong hands – Strong 2C Opening
  • 1NT Responses – simple Stayman 2C and Transfers
  • Fundamental Declarer Play – Entry Management, Establish Long Suit, Unblocking, Making Extra Tricks by Ruffing, Finesse
  • Basic Defence principles – Lead, Signal and Discard
  • Get competitive and strategic! More on Doubles and Overcalls.
  • Introduction of some bridge rules and etiquette – table announcement and alerts. A more encouraging setting for you to get used to duplicate movements and the use of bridgemate (the scoring device).

State Championships events timetable

The Sydney Bridge Centre is the clubroom of the New South Wales Bridge Association. These State Championships are now run both F2F on Goulburn Street and online on RealBridge. Please visit www.nswba.com.au to view all the events listed under Tournaments / Calendar (filtered with “NSWBA”).