Bridging the gap: This card game is building connection and community

Baton Rouge’s bridge community has quietly built something people increasingly struggle to find: real-life connection and community. At the Baton Rouge Duplicate Bridge Club, players gather around card tables not only for the challenge of one of the world’s most strategic games, but also for the friendships that keep them coming back day after day, week after week. The four-player card game is centered around strategy, critical thinking and partnership. But for many players, the biggest draw is the community built around it.

“First of all, you have to love the game. If you don’t love the game, it’s not going to work,” says Vicki Kellum, president of the Baton Rouge Duplicate Bridge Club. “Then I think it’s a safe place. It’s a fun place. We have people that come after they retire, relocate to Baton Rouge, are visiting family, or after the loss of a spouse because they are lonely. If you move here to Baton Rouge, it’s a great place to play bridge and join the community.”

Although bridge has been played for generations, from casual kitchen tables to regional and national tournaments, Kellum says its staying power comes from more than the game itself. “There are a lot of [groups of] four ladies playing bridge in their kitchen,” Kellum says.

Keith Sliman first learned bridge while attending LSU, but decades passed before he returned to the game after retiring. Today, he and his wife Sherri play together at the Bridge Club. “It’s the one thing my wife and I do together,” Sliman says. “We go home, and we say, ‘Okay, what happened? What can we do?’ And we study together. It’s really good for us.”

Games take several hours to play, with players breaking for lunch together before getting back to their cards. Over time, competitors become companions.

“We’ve made friends,” Sliman says. “There’s another couple, Barbara and Jack. They don’t play together, but she agreed to mentor me and my wife, so Sherri and I go to Barbara and Jack’s house on Saturday afternoons and we play for a couple hours, and she teaches us, then we go eat dinner. And now we’re talking about going on vacation together.”

While most players are 55 and older, the Bridge Club is working to introduce the game to a new generation. Through the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), the club supports youth bridge programs and offers beginner lessons locally for adults interested in learning.

“Bridge Club endures because of the community and the competitiveness,” Kellum says. “It’s good for your mind, and it’s good for your soul.”

This article was originally published in the September 2026 issue of 225 Magazine.