Just release in May 2013

BridgeTrainer

Bridge is a trick-taking game played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table.

The game starts by dealing a pack of 52 cards one card at a time to each players. Each player will have 13 cards on hand. Card ranking starts from Ace highest, then King, ..down to Two lowest.

Each player starting from the one left to the dealer will “bid” according to the strength and distribution pattern of his/her cards, and the number of tricks its partnership expect to take more than 6 tricks. Each player in a clockwise direction will then take turn to bid. If a player does not want to bid, he/she says “Pass”.

The partnership who bid the highest contract has to win tricks equal to its level of contract plus 6. If the partnership makes the contract, it gains score. Otherwise the other partnership gains score.

The challenge of the game is how a partnership bid the highest contract according the strength and distribution pattern of their cards and how to play to make the contract.

The BridgeTrainer is designed to help you to learn and improve playing bridge. It has three modes of playing. The Learning Mode lets you see all the cards and give you suggestion on how to bid and play. The Practice Mode lets you see only your cards but still give you suggestion on how to bid and play. The Compete Mode simulates the real game where you play with a robot as your partner and two robots as your opponents.

To play the game :-

1. On the Welcome Page, select either the Quick or Slow Mode and one of the playing mode and then click option Start.
2. The playing starts with the bidding. When it’s your turn to bid, if there is a suggested bidding and you agree with it, you just click Option Bid. If you want to input your own bidding you input the level and the suit of the bidding and then click option Bid. For example if you want to bid 1 club, you input 1 in the level box and “c” in the suit box. If you want to bid 1 notrump, you input 1 and “n”. If you want to double, you input “x” in the level box. If you want to redouble you input “xx” in the level box.
3. If you have no bid, you click option Pass.
4. In the Learning Mode, point is shown for each bidder. For notrump bid, the point is the overall high card point. For trump bid, the point includes high card point plus distribution point plus 2 points for each extra trump card the partnership has above 8 trump card. The high card point is 4 for an ace, 3 for a king, 2 for a queen, and 1 for a jack. The distribution point is 1 for a doubleton, 2 for a singleton which is not king, queen, or jack, 3 for void in a suit. You don’t count the distribution point when you have a void or singleton or doubleton in partner’s bid suit. You add 2 more point for a void and 1 more point for a singleton when you have trump fit with your partner.
6. When the bidding stop (Pass for three consecutive players), the player who made the first bid of the highest bidding suit is the Declarer. The player left to the Declarer lead the first card to play the game. Then the player opposite the Declarer called the Dummy shows all its cards. The player who wins the trick make the next lead.
7. When it’s your turn to play, if there is a suggestion on the card you should play and you agree with it, you simply click option Play. If you do not agree or there is no suggestion, you need to input the position of the card you want to play and then click option Play.
8. If you do not want to input the card position and just want the system to play for you, you click option Claim.
9. When all the cards are played. The system shows the scores of both partnerships, scores for the partnership who makes the contract or the partnership who defeats the contract.
10. If you want to observe again how the last hand is bid and played, you click option Last.
11. If you want to play a new hand, click option Next.

Its bidding system is based mostly on SAYC with the following conventions :-

1. Stayman response to one notrump opening only.
2. Jacoby transfer resposne to one notrump opening only.
3. Unusual two notrump overcall against a major suit openning only.
4. Slam bidding based on choice of Quantitative Four Notrump, Control-Bid, Blackwood convention, and Gerber convention.
5. Use DOP1 converntion when asking for ace of either Blackwood or Gerber is interfered.
6. It recognizes the value of long trump suit. The player of the game can see how it evaluates the long trump during the bidding.
7. Its scoring system is based on rubber bridge scoring.

For more knowledge about playing bridge, please refer to

www.hegerm.ch/textes/sayc.html

www.rpbridge.net

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oEFXmtUIxhS7lT13gYa2rjQDG9FZ38lnHy8aRtZMSvE/edit?pli=1

www.bridge7.com/xbric8.aspx (Stayman convention)

www.bridgeguys.com/Conventions/JacobyTransfer.html (Jacoby Transfer)

www.bridgebum.com/unusual_notrump.php (Unusual Two Notrump)

http://www.acbl.org/learn/scoreRubber.html