So I played club bridge and the odd ACBL tournament for several years so can speak to this. Let me start by saying Bridge is a great game. I always liked the b

So I played club bridge and the odd ACBL tournament for several years so can speak to this. Let me start by saying Bridge is a great game. I always liked the biding side of the game more than the card play. The former informs the latter. The poster said something strange where players and directors objected to systems they wanted to play and mentioned specifically "2/1 GF". I don't know where they were playing but that's a pretty standard system. In North America, people generally play what are called "5 card majors", meaning you don't open 1 heart or 1 spade unless you have 5+ in that suit (with opening hand strength). 2/1 GF simply means if your partner responds with a 2 bid of a lower suit (eg 1S-2C) you now can't stop bidding until you reach a game level contract (3N, 4H/S, 5C/D). That has some consequences but it isn't that different to the NA 5 card majors and everywhere I played that was standard. There are systems you can't play in certain events. In any ACBL sanctioned event you can play what are called "general card" systems so no one can object to a system that is permitted in an event. A club game will typically be 21-27 boards, last about 3 hours and involve anywhere from 3 to 30+ tables. The ACBL is in the business of selling masterpoints. This is as close as you get to a ratings system but it doesn't reflect skill, just how much you've been to ACBL events. Some events bracket you on masterpoints. There are different colours (eg silver for local tournaments, gold/red for regional and I think platinum for certain national events). The ACBL makes money by you going to those events where, at least prepandemic, you typically paid $20-30 per half-day session. Clubs in NA are very much set up to cater to a very old crowd. Like the poster says, most events are during the workday. Only the largest clubs had evening or weekend games and they tended to have smaller attendance. I agree finding a reliable Bridge partner is the biggest hurdle. Playing with pick up partners is way less common and less satisfying. All competitive Bridge is with fixed partnerships or teams. What's interesting about Bridge is that it's been fairly resistant to AI. Of course any computer can remember all the cards they've seen but even I as a fairly mediocre player saw the flaws in both biding and play of pretty much every computer Bridge game I tried. The ACBL has, at every opportunity, chosen to cater to their existing base rather than expanding it and it's been a running joke for years that every year the average age of an ACBL member goes up by 1 year. It's not too far from the truth. I can't speak to discrimination. This probably depends on area to some degree. But club Bridge players are (IME), at best, a cantankerous and disagreeable lot.