Ep. 105: Teaching Bridge to a New Generation with Maya Jonas-Silver

I was inspired to interview Maya Jonas-Silver, because of this post she made on Bridge Winners bemoaning the lack of playing opportunities for her recent bridge initiates. After winning the 2023 20-50 Mini McKenney award Maya hasn’t stopped. She has become a passionate advocate for bringing young adults into the game.

Here she shares her journey from learning bridge at summer camp to becoming a bridge teacher and director at Honors Bridge Club in New York City. Her teaching philosophy, that bridge doesn't need to be intimidating or require years of study before you can actually play and enjoy the game, has helped me be more willing to introduce friends to the game using her framework. Maya believes in getting beginners to the table quickly, and no feedback!

We discuss the barriers facing young bridge players, from finding affordable games to navigating the tournament scene without mentors. Maya reflects on the critical moments in her own bridge career, when someone like Yoko Sobel stepped in to encourage her and her husband Jack. She also shares her vision for growing the game, including making beginner classes more accessible, creating online teaching modules, and building a network of bridge mentors to help newcomers transition from lessons to competitive play.

Plus, we touch on the joys and challenges of playing bridge with your spouse and balancing bridge with parenthood.

_____________________________________________________________

Key Highlights:

🎓 Teaching Bridge Fast: Maya's approach to teaching beginners focuses on getting people playing right away. She believes bridge is simple enough to learn in an hour and emphasizes playing over endless study.

🏆 From Beginner to National Competitor: Maya shares how she went from playing kitchen table bridge to qualifying for Nationals in GNT, finishing second and sending teams to represent New York, including students who had only been playing for 6-18 months.

💡 The Mentorship Gap: Maya discusses how critical it was to have people like Yoko Sobel, Alan Davidson, and Drew Cavalier invest in her development, and why building a network of mentors for young adults is essential for growing the game.

🎯 Making Bridge Accessible: Maya advocates for free or low-cost beginner games, online teaching modules, and better pathways from lessons to duplicate play. She sees young adults as an underserved demographic in the bridge world who need structured support.

❤️ Playing with Your Partner: Maya and her husband Jack navigate the joys and tensions of being bridge partners and life partners. She shares their philosophy: she can handle being the better player, but when he's better, expectations get too high!

🎲 Bridge vs. Board Games: Maya compares bridge to popular board games like Settlers of Catan, arguing that bridge is actually simpler than many games people willingly spend hours learning.

_____________________________________________________________

Resources & Next Steps:

📱 Practice your skills on FunBridge - Maya's favorite app for beginners because you can replay hands and learn from mistakes.

🎯 Bid with your partner asynchronously using Cuebids - A great tool for getting more practice without needing to coordinate schedules.

🏛️ Visit Maya at Honors Bridge Club in New York City (110 East 55th Street) for beginner classes and supervised play.

📱 Maya’s Instructions for teaching bridge to beginners

🎧 More Stories Like This - Subscribe to The Setting Trick wherever you listen to podcasts for more deep dives into the world of bridge.

📱 Follow @thesettingtrick - Stay connected on Instagram for episode drops, tournament pics, and more.

_____________________________________________________________

Chapter Timestamps:

0:00 Start

1:40 Mini McKenney win

2:40 Teaching young adults and the gap in bridge programs

5:00 Maya's 10-week teaching structure

6:20 GNT success: students qualifying for Nationals

8:20 Losing to the eventual GNT champions

11:00 Learning bridge at summer camp

14:00 Moving to New York and finding the bridge community

15:00 Meeting Yoko Sobel and bar bridge in Brooklyn

18:00 Becoming a director at Honors Bridge Club

19:00 Playing in the Mixed Trials

21:00 The importance of GNT for young players

23:00 Katie Sullivan and rare young bridge success stories

26:00 Playing with Omar in NAP

28:00 Playing with James Holzhauer (Jeopardy champion)

31:40 Bridge as a career and overcoming existential dread

35:00 Learning bridge at summer camp and teaching philosophy

36:40 Bridge as a victim of its own success

38:30 Teaching beginners: no trump, suited play, then bidding

40:00 Document for teaching friends in one hour

45:00 Teaching David Ger's friend at the bridge club

48:20 The importance of not giving too much feedback

53:00 Teaching quantitative traders how to bid

54:20 Working at Honors Bridge Club and directing

56:40 The Revenge Mitchell movement

1:00:30 Playing rubber bridge at the Regency

1:07:00 Making bridge free for young adults

1:09:40 Creating a compelling bridge film or series

1:11:00 Favorite resources: FunBridge and Cubits

1:16:20 Bridge fights and playing with your spouse

1:19:30 Bridge and parenthood

1:26:00 Getting hired to play vs. teaching

1:28:00 Studying human evolutionary biology at Harvard

1:30:00 The evolution of cooperation and bridge strategy