chickenfeet

I've finally found a Bridge program that I like. Bridge Baron 15 is really rather good. It plays a pretty high standard game. I'm playing it somewhere just above the middle of its ability range and finding it quite challenging. It has a reasonably comprehensive set of bidding conventions; Standard American, ACOL, Precision, French 5 card majors and a couple of other base systems are included plus a pretty comprehensive array of add ons. Leads and signals are fully customisable.

It also seems to have a decent array of tutorial options that allow for a complete beginner to be walked through a hand up to specialised bidding and play tutorials that allow a more advanced player to practice a particular bidding situation (say intervention over 1NT) or specific types of play such as squeezes or coups.

The AI plays a pretty sound game. Only once has it done something totally screwball of the kind that would make me assault a human partner. Compared to some other programs I've tried that's good.

I played a reasonably serious afternoon's bridge today for the first time in twenty years. We finished about 2/3rds of the way down the field which isn't stellar but isn't horrible either. I am fairly shattered from concentrating so hard for so long though. Looks like I'm on for a game again next week so i guess i can't have scared my partner off.