SmartBridge: Bridge Practice

Bridge is a game of odds. Where most of us play the cards by rules of thumb, SmartBridge does the arithmetic instead.

Give it a suit and it works out how that suit should be played against best defense, tells you the exact chance of success, and then lets you play it yourself.

One suit at a time, so you can actually see why a line is right. See https://gjsoft.info/smartbridge for a full description.

WHAT IS INSIDE

• Probability tables — how the missing cards are likely to split between the defenders, for 2 to 9 missing cards. Set the vacant places when the auction has told you one defender is long somewhere else, and watch the odds move to the ones that apply at your table.

• Enter your own suit — tap in any holding, north and south. Set how many times you can still reach each hand from outside the suit, add what the bidding told you, and read back the best line of play with its exact success percentage.

• Practice — you are dealt a suit, an entry limit and a goal. Play it out card by card. Every card is marked as you play it: play the best one and it says so, play an inferior one and you are told which card was better and exactly what yours cost. At the end you see the whole deal, including both defenders' hands, and the line you should have taken.

• The reasoning, not just the answer — the line is written out trick by trick, with the branches that matter: what to do if the finesse loses, which card to put up when a particular honour appears, and what to switch to if a defender turns up with none. Where a line is a genuine safety play, it says so.

HOW IT WORKS

Every percentage is computed while you watch, not looked up in a table. SmartBridge evaluates every layout of the missing cards that is still possible, weighted by how likely it is, and plays each one out against best defence. Nothing is rounded off to make you feel better — and where two lines are worth exactly the same, it tells you that too.

FOUR PLAY LEVELS

• Beginner — the simplest hands: a single finesse, one real decision

• Club — a two-way guess, a finesse to repeat, a safety play to spot

• Advanced — several rounds of decisions, with awkward breaks to guard against

• Mixed — shows them all

ALSO

• English and Dutch

• Adjustable text size throughout — useful at a club table in poor light

• Works completely offline. No account, no sign-up, no advertising, no tracking. The app does not even ask for internet access.

SmartBridge is about the play of the cards, not the bidding, and it deals with one suit at a time.

Found a better line? SmartBridge computes its answers rather than quoting a book, so if you think one of the card combinations should be played differently, please write — gjsoftinfo@gmail.com. We read every message.