[kla52]

I am coming back to bridge after a 15 year hiatus--I was an average duplicate bridge player at the time, and grew up playing rubber bridge in the 60s and 70s.

I need practice with both bidding and playing. I'm looking for a program that allows me to choose the type of deals, choose my own conventions, gives feedbacks or hints, and generally comes as close to being a bridge teacher that a computer can be. Ideally I don't want the computer playing at an expert level that is way way above my ability.

I've been reading about GIB, which claims is available on BBO, but I don't see it. Everything about their web site seems old. It's not clear whether it is still popular.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[JoAnneM]

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack. Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice. Jack is good for general practice. It will give you your bidding and play mistakes after the hand.

Both programs have lots of tournaments to play, or you can generate your own hands. Both are pretty good with conventions and systems available.

[barmar]

kla52, on Sep 26 2008, 06:26 PM, said:

I've been reading about GIB, which claims is available on BBO, but I don't see it. Everything about their web site seems old. It's not clear whether it is still popular.

You have to use the Windows app rather than the Flash client in the browser to be able to play against GIB (except for Money Bridge Tournamens and Robot Races). When you start a table, there are checkboxes for the seats where GIB plays.

[EricK]

JoAnneM, on Sep 27 2008, 01:58 AM, said:

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack. Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice.

If I have understood you correctly, you can do that in Jack as well.

[P_Marlowe]

barmar, on Sep 26 2008, 10:42 PM, said:

kla52, on Sep 26 2008, 06:26 PM, said:

I've been reading about GIB, which claims is available on BBO, but I don't see it. Everything about their web site seems old. It's not clear whether it is still popular.

You have to use the Windows app rather than the Flash client in the browser to be able to play against GIB (except for Money Bridge Tournamens and Robot Races). When you start a table, there are checkboxes for the seats where GIB plays.

you have to pay to use this service, it is not free,
but fairly cheap, 1$ per day.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[Gerardo]

$1/week, I think.

[Free]

EricK, on Sep 27 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

JoAnneM, on Sep 27 2008, 01:58 AM, said:

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack.   Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice.

If I have understood you correctly, you can do that in Jack as well.

Yes, with the deal profiler...

I haven't tested BB, but I'm very happy about Jack 4.0! You can also play over the internet to practice with your partner.

[P_Marlowe]

Gerardo, on Sep 28 2008, 12:11 AM, said:

$1/week, I think.

Yes, you are right.

Actually it is something like $1 for 10 days,
if you pay $3 at once.

I stopped a moment as I wrote my first post,
since this seemed more expensive than I
remembered, but I was to lazy, to look the
real number up.

Sry.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[pigpenz]

Gerardo, on Sep 28 2008, 12:11 AM, said:

$1/week, I think.

$3 for month
I have done it for about 3 months now enjoy it
dont have to worry about lessons from opps
no well played partner or nice def partner

takes awhile to get used to how gib bids but, gib defends very well
plays the hands ok, with some occasional glitches, weakes it probably its bidding.

[JoAnneM]

Free, on Sep 28 2008, 07:10 AM, said:

EricK, on Sep 27 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

JoAnneM, on Sep 27 2008, 01:58 AM, said:

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack.   Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice.

If I have understood you correctly, you can do that in Jack as well.

Yes, with the deal profiler...

I haven't tested BB, but I'm very happy about Jack 4.0! You can also play over the internet to practice with your partner.

I don't see where Profile is going to let someone learn how to play Lebensohl, for instance, without actually typing in some hands. Whereas with BB you just choose the convention and tell the program how many hands you want to generate while learning to play that convention.

It looks like profile is just setting the system for the computer.

Am I missing something?

[EricK]

JoAnneM, on Sep 28 2008, 08:00 PM, said:

Free, on Sep 28 2008, 07:10 AM, said:

EricK, on Sep 27 2008, 10:52 AM, said:

JoAnneM, on Sep 27 2008, 01:58 AM, said:

I have used both Bridge Baron and Jack.   Bridge Baron is good for learning conventions because you can specify hands be dealt that will have those cards, for practice.

If I have understood you correctly, you can do that in Jack as well.

Yes, with the deal profiler...

I haven't tested BB, but I'm very happy about Jack 4.0! You can also play over the internet to practice with your partner.

I don't see where Profile is going to let someone learn how to play Lebensohl, for instance, without actually typing in some hands. Whereas with BB you just choose the convention and tell the program how many hands you want to generate while learning to play that convention.

It looks like profile is just setting the system for the computer.

Am I missing something?

You can enter a bidding sequence and it will generate hands which comform to that. But that's not quite the same thing.