[fred]

It is very hard to make a good living as a bridge writer. The vast majority of bridge books sell no more than a few 1000 copies and if you go through a publisher you make roughly $1 per book. You can do better if you publish the book yourself, but there is also a lot more risk (and a lot more work) involved.

There is a lot more money to be made from bridge software (mostly because the margins are significantly more attractive).

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[Free]

fred, on Mar 24 2005, 07:18 PM, said:

It is very hard to make a good living as a bridge writer. The vast majority of bridge books sell no more than a few 1000 copies and if you go through a publisher you make roughly $1 per book. You can do better if you publish the book yourself, but there is also a lot more risk (and a lot more work) involved.

Ok, didn't know that...

[MickyB]

fred, on Mar 24 2005, 06:18 PM, said:

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

[fred]

MickyB, on Mar 24 2005, 07:00 PM, said:

fred, on Mar 24 2005, 06:18 PM, said:

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

I would guess that in the recent Vanderbilt in Pittsburgh there were roughly 15 teams in which more than one player was getting paid at least $10,000. Probably close to half of the professional players in the Vanderbilt were not Americans.

Another guess is that there are roughly 25 American players USA who make over $100,000 per year playing professionally.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[cheech]

MickyB, on Mar 24 2005, 02:00 PM, said:

fred, on Mar 24 2005, 06:18 PM, said:

Nowadays top players can easily make 6 figure incomes by playing professionally in ACBL Regional and National tournaments. Expect to pay roughly $15,000 per person if you want to hire a contending team for a Vanderbilt or Spingold. The going rate for hiring a leading pro for an entire Regional is roughly $5,000.

Interesting. How many people do you reckon fall into this bracket in the US? In the UK I understand there are maybe 4 such players!

Just out of interest, who are the "maybe 4" u are thinking of? (not that I'll probably have heard of them)

[Rain]

I'd like to watch pro bridgers in action, as in, in a high stakes rubber game. But I remember asking at vegas hotels and nobody has bridge games going on. So where are these high stake bridge games? Its considered gambling I guess, so presumably not held in normal clubs? Does anyone noe enuff to list the rubber clubs in major cities?

[Walddk]

Rain, on Apr 14 2005, 09:29 PM, said:

Does anyone noe enuff to list the rubber clubs in major cities?

I can contribute with one:

The TGR in London. TGR is short for The Great Rose, named after the late English international, Irving Rose, who managed the club until his death in 1996.

Roland

[mr1303]

Quote

Just out of interest, who are the "maybe 4" u are thinking of? (not that I'll probably have heard of them)

I can name 2 of them for certain.

Hackett, Jason
Hackett, Justin

There are several others in Manchester who get paid for playing bridge (e.g John Holland, Michelle Brunner) but I'm not sure if this is their main income source or if they have other jobs. I know Michelle runs a bridge school somewhere.

By the way, what do people consider high stakes? At Manchester bridge club we play frequently for £5 a hundred Chicago style, and whilst it's a bit rich for me I play the £1 game 2/3 nights a week.

[Walddk]

mr1303, on Apr 15 2005, 03:18 AM, said:

Quote

Just out of interest, who are the "maybe 4" u are thinking of? (not that I'll probably have heard of them)

I can name 2 of them for certain.

Hackett, Jason
Hackett, Justin

There are several others in Manchester who get paid for playing bridge (e.g John Holland, Michelle Brunner) but I'm not sure if this is their main income source or if they have other jobs. I know Michelle runs a bridge school somewhere.

By the way, what do people consider high stakes? At Manchester bridge club we play frequently for £5 a hundred Chicago style, and whilst it's a bit rich for me I play the £1 game 2/3 nights a week.

The other 2 could be

Andrew Robson
Tony Forrester

But both have other bridge jobs as well. Andrew Robson for instance runs a very successful bridge club in Fulham, London, and is the bridge columnist in The Times.

Other English professionals are

Paul Hackett (father of J&J)
Neil Rosen (manager of the Acol Bridge Club in North London)
Rob Sheehan
Nick Sandqvist (originally from Sweden)
Artur Malinowski (orginally from Poland and Norway)
Andrew McIntosh (originally from Scotland)
Gunnar Hallberg (originally from Sweden)
David Gold (manager of the St. John's Wood Bridge Club)

I could name a few more, but let's stop here.

Roland

[pclayton]

I've heard from very reliable sources that Meckwell make roughly $400K each.

Its not unlikely for top pros to be paid a "retainer" on an annual basis, so that clients can play with them at their leisure. A Barry Crane top 20 pro I know gets 100K / year from one client alone.

[jdulmage]

TimG, on Mar 19 2005, 02:23 PM, said:

puidedac, on Mar 19 2005, 10:20 AM, said:

do they end up earning enough out of the prizes to cover all expenses?

Certainly not in America, and I doubt elsewhere. The big money made playing bridge comes mostly from being paid to play as a partner or team mate. There is also the possibility of making money by teaching bridge, or running bridge games, but I don't think this is what you were really asking about.

How not? I know of at least 2 players alone (friends of mine) who make loads of cash, well, not loads, but more than they would be working a dead end job.

And trust me, if you plan on wanting to make a career out of it, don't bother going around and playing in money games all the time, often they a couple hundred bucks, not enough to even fly home. You want to do a "pay to play" service. But trust me on this one, you will have had to win some pretty recognizable events like a GNT or something and maybe a Blue Ribbon to get your name on the map.

The last time I went to a regional, I was fortunate to get $50.00 from one lady for a session of "play and lecture" and $20.00 from another lady to play with her and I wasn't even there looking for that. Extra money always helps and it paid for my entry fees (I only pay $5-6, I am a junior)