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SimiliBridge is a free program intended to help people to easily learn to play bridge. By its minibridge option, it is of course designed for beginners or those who have just been introduced to the game. The bidding system is progressive. You check the bids you already know (for instance, the No Trump openings and their first responses), and the program will let you play hands dealt at random, but selected so as to show you only bidding sequences that you master.
The techniques of the card play are optional too. That way, you play against machine players that are more or less of the same level as yours (even if they memorize the cards played better than a beginner). And thus you can understand what they do or try to do. You'll then enjoy the pleasure of collaborating with your partner, who will play in a way corresponding to your knowledge. And you will fight on equal terms against your two opponents, since they will not apply techniques that you don't know yet. But since 2006, the year of its first release, SimiliBridge has improved a lot, and now it includes an option to play full bridge at the intermediate level. So, the program is now intended for a larger audience, and especially for players who take up bridge again after a rather long interruption. These ones will most likely be happy to find among the options the main bids of their younger days, and they will take the opportunity to easily get to know the new bids of today.The playing level is still under improvement and will probably remain limited. But the tools to study the game are of good quality. You can replay a deal step by step, by going up to the previous card or down to the next one, with the 4 hands in view. You can ask to see a short explanation about the decision made by the player on lead, as well as his visualization of the hidden hands when playing. And you can save the deals you have played, or build new ones on your own. Finally, each deal can be compared to what the computer would have done with your hand in South, which will allow you to either improve yourself, or help the program to improve if you spot big mistakes in the playing. The playing engine works in an analytic way from criteria and decision rules. Therefore, a machine player can explain his game plan, sometimes by detailing the different steps. He can also often justify his card choice in a rather precise way. Which helps the user to make progress since he understands the machine player's intention. Feel free to contact me in case of difficulty. I'll be glad to help you as much as I can.
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