HeavyDluxe Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Which, if any, of the bridge-playing computer applications out there would you all recommend for some non-BBO practice? I love BBO, but I like the idea of having hands where I can think and reason things through slowly while I'm learning... The cheap bots on BBO are a little random in the cardplay for my liking, and the better bots are a little too steep for the amount of time/days I want to play. Anyone have any thoughts on the varied programs out there for practice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eyedjack Posted July 27, 2015 Report Share Posted July 27, 2015 "Jack" is widely considered to be the best one around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etha Posted August 2, 2015 Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 If you want free the best is Wbridge. It is French but it is pretty much translated. Its only drawback is no fancy systems such as precision if you play one of those. Wbridge has won the world computer champs at least 3 times and is very nearly as good as jack. It isn't as nice or user friendly as jack. It also has a bridge club associated with it where you can play match points with 3 computer opps scored against the other humans doing the same. It does have a few annoying things like it insists on French stayman and it didn't understand RKCB for queens last time I tried it. getting 60% regularly in this event makes you a good player. The Computer World championship is in August 2015. Jack isn't currently the world champion but it didn't play in the last one. I expect it will probably win however. Jack plays most things you will want it to and is more user friendly than the other top programs. I quite like qplus which tends to come approximately 4th and has a more human style and you can set up simulations more easily than the others. It will play most systems and conventions too.It also has enter what your bid means feature which tells the opps what your bid means. This is less good than it sounds in that the opps often ignore this knowledge or have no way to bid differently as a result of knowing it anyway, but if you play something complicated it will at least tend to avoid playing in your suit with this. I think the current world champion is Shark which I had a bit of a look at and it didn't have many options for systems and things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eyedjack Posted August 2, 2015 Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 I quite like qplus which tends to come approximately 4th and has a more human style and you can set up simulations more easily than the others.Purely out of curiosity, how many contestants does this event attract? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etha Posted August 3, 2015 Report Share Posted August 3, 2015 Purely out of curiosity, how many contestants does this event attract? There are only 8 this year. http://www.allevybridge.com/allevy/computerbridge/results2015.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1eyedjack Posted August 3, 2015 Report Share Posted August 3, 2015 Tell you what, if you really want a hoot, and have an android phone or tablet, you can try out the free game Bridge_3D by Olina.com https://play.google....om.Olina.BRIDGE You will be uninstalling it pretty rapidly after trying it out, but you HAVE to try it out just once. Hint: make sure you have the volume set to max Oh, and don't expect to see it in the computer world championships any time soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeavyDluxe Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Sorry for the delay in replying, everybody. Thanks for your comments/posts. Wound up buying Jack, and currently working my way up the flights (in challenge mode) as outlined earlier. It's certainly a rather spartan bit of software, and there are definitely a couple oddities I wish were different - particular those around reviewing a hand just played. But, for all the major boxes I had ticked, it's been a fine purchase. Thanks for the tips, everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
etha Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Sorry for the delay in replying, everybody. Thanks for your comments/posts. Wound up buying Jack, and currently working my way up the flights (in challenge mode) as outlined earlier. It's certainly a rather spartan bit of software, and there are definitely a couple oddities I wish were different - particular those around reviewing a hand just played. But, for all the major boxes I had ticked, it's been a fine purchase. Thanks for the tips, everyone. You can save the deals as a PBN and review them later or how you want if that helps. I suspect you wouldn't have liked the others much if you think Jack is "Spartan". Glad to have been of some help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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