ACBL Software - Learn to play Bridge

[Lesh18]

Hi. Is the ACBL software (How to play Bridge 1, 2) any good? If I cover both programs thoroughly, can I be deemed an intermediate player (at least theoretical knowledge-wise, since practice is important too)?

 

If those teaching programs are not good, are there any better out there?

 

Thanks

[mycroft]

Hi. If you know nothing about bridge, then the answers are yes, and no, and no (to my knowledge). They will take you from "can't play bridge" to "can play bridge". That's about it, but "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" - and that step is the biggest.

 

People still play hands that are normal, and hands that are tricky, and hands they messed up last year, every day. People who are world champions.

 

Also, bridge is a partnership game. It is impossible to be a good bridge player, even theoretically, solely by oneself.

 

If you know something about bridge, it's still worth going through them (maybe at some speed), as you could have played for 10 years and still learn something (maybe only one thing) from them.

[kenberg]

I just checked to see if this is the same program that Fred wrote, it seems to be. A few years back my wife, who enjoys games but does not know bridge, downloaded it and gave it a brief shot.

 

She liked it, she did not stick with it, but I think if she were to try to learn bridge she would go back to it. At the time, she was still working. We are both retired now but she decided not to do it anyway. But, I repeat, she liked the program.

 

Now I see you have been a bbo member for over a year, so I am guessing that you already know some basics. Beyond basics, everyone has his own learning style. I think iot is safe to say that the software can't hurt. If you try it for a couple of weeks, you will have your own idea of whether it is worth the effort. For me, absolutely the most effective route to implrovement is to go back over hands that I have played and look at them with as open a mind as possible. And then chat with others about some of these hands. But I can imagine the software being useful, Fred certainly knows what he is talking about and he appears to me to have a good way of expressing himself.

 

Good luck to you. I promise you, this is a very enjoyable game. My wife understands this to be true, she just has other fish to fry.

[Lesh18]

Thanks. There is one thing I wanted to ask, but I don't want to make a new thread: In rubber bridge, where is the point in bidding high contracts, when equal points are given for overtricks? Let's say mine and my partner's hand can do 4♠, but we bid 1♠ and win 10 tricks, so we get 30*3 = 90 points for over tricks and 30*1 = 30 for a completed contract. If we bid 4♠ and made 4♠, we could have 4*30 = 120 points anyway.

 

I know that those points for over tricks and under tricks are added above the line and not into the played game, but in the end, that team with most points wins, not the one with most won games.

 

I think it would only make sense to get only points for the succeeded contract. If you bid 1♠ and make 10 tricks, you should get only 30 points (because you bid only 1♠)

 

Am I getting something wrong? Or is this the disadvantage of rubber bridge and that's why duplicate is more preferred?

[GreenMan]

In rubber bridge you get a bonus of hundreds of extra points for winning the rubber, i.e., scoring two games before the other pair does. So scoring 100+ below the line is important; it increases your potential. You just don't get the actual benefits until you score the second game.

 

You don't want to be sitting there with 60 below the line and 180 above when your opponents score 120 and then another 120 below.

[TimWarren]

Hi, I also am looking for bridge software, but not to support full-scale bidding & play, I just want something that will deal appropriate hands and enable us to bid them; i.e., I don't need the software itself to be able to play or bid according to a system.

 

Idealy, what I'd like is an app (i.e. on our phones) that two of use can use to mimic real-life bidding. It would:

(1) deal hands within user-specified parameters of points and distribution;

(2) enable us to bid our respective hands, preferably without being able to see the rest of the deal;

(3) at the end, show all four hands, until we deal another set.

 

I'd be happy to pay a reasonable amount. Does anyone have some advice on this?

Thanks in advance,

[Zelandakh]

Hello and welcome to the BBO forums Tim. What you are looking for sounds like the Partnership Bidding feature within BBO. I do not use BBO via a mobile phone but I believe this is available via the BBO app.

[TimWarren]

Hello and welcome to the BBO forums Tim. What you are looking for sounds like the Partnership Bidding feature within BBO. I do not use BBO via a mobile phone but I believe this is available via the BBO app.

Thanks, Zel, much appreciated

T