What is aaBridge ?

aaBridge is a free program for Win, Mac and Linux.    You can download it from http://rogerpf.com/aaBridge .     I think of it as 5 different things in one.

  
1.  A "Jukebox" that will play .lin files.   It contains a large collection of bridge tutorial .lin files, many thanks to Hondo717, Kia and Karen10.   For a sample, from the aaBridge Welcome screen, click on  Index of Useful Lins.

2.  An after play (postmortem) Hand Analyser. If you have played on BBO you can get your hands into aaBridge see the post  How do I - get a BBO hand into aaBridge.  Now you can use the Double Analyser - see this post.
More importantly you can re-create how the hand looked to you and your partner to re-think yourself back to when that hand was being played - see this this post. A question to ask is - Now I have more time to think, would I act differently ?

3.  Learning to Count the hand - to me, if you think of aaBridge as a goose, this is the  Golden Egg. 
Inside aaBridge is a .pdf file. Can get to the file from the Welcome screen and then clicking, How to - Defend Like an Expert. The next screen gives you a button to click that will copy the .pdf to your desktop. That file includes detailed instructions and many screen shots. Think of it as a - must read.
To build your counting skills there is also 'hand distribution' training feature.  On the welcome page click on Distribution Flash Cards.      For instructions - Watch the Video.

4.    For  Novices and Beginners.  aaBridge is good for playing HUGE hands until you get bored with them.  So no more 'HUGE hand fright'.  From the Welcome screen click on - Play Bridge and Show Deal Choices.
In the right hand column is now a list of the New Deals choices select  37+  7NT
The main  Play Bridge  window is also showing.  Click the New Board  button.
You will now asked to play the hand in 7NT.  It will be easy !  When you are bored with this. Reduce the number of points you will be given by selecting a harder option.
32+  6NT  -  will produce a few difficult hands.  This is where a developing player can benefit. Look for throw-in's and simple squeezes and other end plays. Such end plays are easier to find and practice in high lever contracts where you have a lot of control.

5.  aaBridge contains (as internal lin files) all the instructions you need to write you own lin file.
To learn about lin files click on any of the books menus on the menu bar and choose the very last entry, What goes on - inside a lin file.

Finally - for New aaBridge Users
Please follow the instructions on the Welcome Page, click the   Flow   button and read all the
New user tutorial pages.

How do I - Get aaBridge hands up to BBO

A pdf file is provided so you do not need to re-visit this blog post.

      http://RogerPf.com/Get_aaBridge_hands_up_to_BBO_-_a_How_to.pdf

The link will either download the pdf file or display it depending on your browser settings.  It is is shown to you can can choose to save it from the inside that viewer app.

The pdf file contains clear images and gives a full account including how to convert a deal on paper into a lin file that can be easily uploaded to BBO.

The ultra short version is
         First login to BBO, go to Hands and Results and create a folder.
My BBO > Hands and Results > (blue button) Create new folder
Click the (blue button) Import LIN file (a dialog will appear)
Click the Select button for the folder you want to fill.
Click the (white) Choose file button and select the .lin where ever it is on your computer. (not shown)

Click import (purple dots)


To add hands that are not in a lin file see the post

         How do I - Enter (Type) Hands into aaBridge
--
Roger

How do I - get a BBO hand into aaBridge

There are three ways to get a hand from BBO to aaBridge   (labeled   A, B, C)

A.   The hand is under "Hand Records"

You recently played a hand on BBO (or watched one being played) and now you want to get that deal and see it in aaBridge.      Go to:

          http://www.bridgebase.com/myhands

and if needed, login to BBO.

On the next screen select the name of the user who played the hand and select the dates between which it was played.

Here the BBO username entered is that of Bridge Teacher Hondo717.

Click the   Get hands   button  (not shown)

You will now see a table of played hands, like the example below.

Click on the   Lin   link
            for the hand you want.

That lin file will now be downloaded, as your browser normally downloads files.

The left image shows Chrome.

Windows users can click on the file name.

Also Win, MAC and Linux users can all click on the drop down box and then click on Show in folder.

In the now opened folder you can  Drag and Drop  the file you want on to any open aaBridge window.

or  Drag & Drop the  lin link  on to  aaBridge

Also with many Browsers (but not IE) you can Grab the lin link and Drag and Drop it on to any open aaBridge window.

aaBridge will then download that lin file and show it to you.

B.   The hand is still in "My Results"

You are playing or watching on BBO and the hand finishes and you can see the deal in the My Results area (bottom right).

Here is how to get that hand quickly into aaBridge.


1.  click the  Options  button

2.  hover over   Export deal

3.  click on   Handviewer link

Once the  Handviewer link  box is showing (takes a couple of seconds).

Select the full line of the URL text (shown in progress here).

Do   Ctrl-C   or  use your mouse button (menu) to do a  Copy  in the normal way.

Now in the  green baize   near the   Step and Flow   buttons.

Do a  Mouse Right Click.

You can think of this right click as an  aaBridge   Quick  Paste.

That deal will now open.

On some laptops a light   "two finger tap"   gesture will do a "Right Click".
ALSO

under File there is a Paste option

Note     You can save the link, in a text file, for later use.   Later you can use a more normal Drag & Drop  to drop that text into aaBridge.

C.   You have saved the Hand on BBO

You already have the hand on BBO either by uploading it as lin file  or  by using the BBO hand editor to make it  or  by saving it directly to BBO from "My Results" as in
  Options   >   Export Deal   >   Save deal as ...

Now you want to download that deal into aaBridge.

  My BBO   >   Hands and Results

click the (blue) "Show"  button for the BBO folder that holds the deal you want to get into aaBridge.

Select the actual deal from the deals in that folder and then Click the  Options button.  Now you can follow the instructions given in  section   B.  above.

--
Roger

Debugging BBO Bridge Dealer Scripts

Way back in the 1990s, Hans van Staveren wrote a small yet very powerful bridge hand dealing program. 

Later it was taken up by BBO and is now incorporated into their teaching and partnership bidding tables.

This means that you can write, in just a few lines, a script that will generate an endless sequence of a particular "difficult to bid" pair of hands.

For example a very strong hand opposite a weak hand with a void.

Getting such scripts to work exactly as you wish can be a little tricky.  Particularly on BBO where all they do is tell you  ERROR...  meaning there is a "problem somewhere".   This is where the original dealer app can be very useful.

I am not going to give details here in this blog post but instead direct you to where you can download a zip file which contains  

The  dealer app  (currently Windows only) and documentation as to how to write scripts and how to debug them.  Also included are a number of completed scripts.

You can find more information and the link to the zip file at

           http://rogerpf.com/aaBridge

Scroll down until you see  - OCP Dealer Scripts for BBO

Once you have a working script you can copy it to a BBO teaching or partnership bidding tables and use it to generate hands for you and your partner to bid.

Watch a Closed Torunament on BBO - How to

The EBU have started running tournaments on BBO. They are not allowing any one to watch (kibitz).  But you can still see the tournament and watch the play of the cards the moment the event finishes.  Any BBO tournament can be viewed this way.

The solution is in two parts -
   1.  -  Find the 'lin' files of hands you want to watch.
   2.  -  Watch them on a good lin file viewer.

Part 2.  is covered by some the posts of the series titled Counting the Hand.
Part 1.  is below -

Finding the lin files of your tournament

The quick way is to google  -  BBO hands  -  or one step longer, is to go to the home page of BBO and click the Hand Records item in the top bar.



then - click on

Click here for results of recent tournaments

Next you will see the list of organizations that run tournaments. As this post was inspired by the new EBU tournaments, click on the EBU link showing in the first column, ringed.


This opens the current list of recent tournaments. Currently they go back about a week.

I picked the oldest in the list. Played on - Sun Oct 20 4:00 PM. Here you have a choice.  Assuming that you want to view the better players click the Leaderboard entry, as marked above.  This open a window on the same browser page -



 The winners of the event were  Red Ace7  and  VMO60.  To watch their play click their percentage score. This opens the table of boards they played showing their scores.

Success - this is the list of lin files that we wanted to find.

See  Counting the Hand for all the details as to your choices.

If you have installed the Opera Browser and you have set it to automatically run aaBridge for lin files.  The with just one click it will download the lin file and show you the deal exactly as you want to see it.

On board 4 the winners got 65.38% playing in 4H.  In Opera I did a single click on the Lin, circled above, it downloaded the file and opened aaBridge to show -

Cornelia's Free Bridge Class

For my face-to-face bridge I play at a small club in the UK.  Only a few of the other members play on-line. The EBU have just started running master points earning competitions on BBO. I hope this will give BBO more credibility in the eyes of those in the UK who are new to on-line bridge.

See my previous post - Acol Club on BBO - for hints on getting started.

One of the many great things about BBO is that there are a number of teachers giving classes.  This post is a shameless promotion of Cornelia Yoda's classes. Not only are they high quality but her free class (a shop window for her pay-for classes) is held at a time when us Brits are still awake and that is a BIG plus.

Cornelia's Free Bridge classes are held (almost) every week on Monday. Her class (2015) starts at 5:30 pm EDT.  10:30 pm  UK time (Except the two weeks a year when the US and UK daylight saving times are different).

You can hear Cornelia speak while she gives the class

This is an audio class - you can hear the teacher  but any questions (if you have any) need to be typed in the normal BBO way (more on this later).

How to - find the class

Register and get a Login ID for BBO.  OK - if you really don't want to do this you can follow the instructions in my Acol Club on BBO post except that you need to go -

       List all tables
       All Public and Private Clubs
       All Public Clubs

then on the line with  -   BILies Retreat  -  click  - Show Tables

Now set BBO to show Full Tables 1. If the time is about 5 minutes before the class then Cornelia's teaching table will be visible with Chick sitting in all four seats. Chick is Cornelia's BBO ID.

Once you have a BBO login ID the best way is to 'Friend' Chick.  You can do this at anytime even when she is not logged on. So do this well before your first ever class.

Login to BBO - your screen should be something like -

1. Click on the - Friends tab - so it is visible
2. Click on the - My BBO - (menu button)
3. Click on - Manage friends and enemies
4. Enter  Chick  in the input box.
5. Click - Add
6. She will then appear in your permanent friends list
7. LATER - when she is on line, Chick will appear under Friends 1.

When you see that Chick is online -

Click on her name 7. (above) and something like the adjacent box will appear.

Click on the Join table button (bottom left) and you will be taken to her table.

During the class you will told to view only the East or the West hands.  To do this click on the NAME BAR of the seat in question and with the mouse menu select  - Kibitz <seat name>

I suggest BEFORE your first class you go to a table (anywhere) and practice the above.

If you are not used to the BBO table settings, I recommend -

(Mouse menu button)  click on the cards / card area and select

      Display deal using pictures of cards

then (Mouse menu button)  click on a card and select

      Use bigger cards

You can hear Cornelia speak while she gives the class

This is an audio class. At the start of the class Cornelia will put up a link on BBO chat area of her room and all you have to do is to click it.  The link is -

http://corneliayoder.listen2myradio.com/

Note - this link only works while the class is in progress.  When working the link shows a web page which you need to keep open to keep hearing her voice.  (BBO has its own voice system which Cornelia DOES NOT USE, so you can ignore any 'voice options' you see on the BBO table page.)

I know that this way of sending out sound works for Windows, Macs and Linux. I don't know what listen2myradio.com system is like for iPads or other pad/portables.  If you know the answer (or find out the answer) why not leave a comment and tell us all.


Don't worry if all this appears a bit daunting, it will all be obvious come the second week.

Acol Club on BBO - How to find it

We all know BBO is a top online Bridge site.  So you go there and log in or use the 'Look around our site' button.

Click   -   List all tables

Click   - 

All public and Private Clubs


 

Click  - 

The Acol Bridge Club  (public)

Once there you can click on  Full Tables numbered 1 and on Kibitzers numbered 2. Then click Join on a table with a few kibitzers to watch the play.

Having Lots of Kibbers can mean the play is more interesting.

Have a look under Option (top center) - More Options, for - you guessed it - interesting options.
 

Counting the Hand 3

Using the BBO Web-Based Hand Viewer

The previous post covered how to find viewable hands (.lin files) that have been played by expert players.  This post covers how to view them with the BBO web-based hand viewer.

Follow the method given in the previous post and open a table just like the example shown above. The next bit is both important and slightly silly. Click on any of the Movie links.  The web-based hand viewer will open showing you

the hand.  As it opens squint so you can hardly see anything except a blur.  Now try to click on one of the player name zones. The South name zone is circled in the adjacent image.

When you successfully click on a name zone the other hands will become hidden. Now it is safe to look. I said it was slightly silly.

If you look back at the table you will see that there is a results column that shows both the contract and who was declarer.  You can use this to decide in advance which seat you want to make visible while you squint.  For example the third hand in the table was played by West. So if you wanted to count the hand from the point of view of the declarer's right-hand opponent (which would be South) then it is the South name zone you are trying to click on as you squint. As we will see later using aaBridge avoids all this fun.

Using the next and previous buttons you can now watch the play.  I agree that the BBO online hand viewer is infinitely better than a list of the cards played.  But in many ways it just does not work for me.  When I look at the South hand my brain tells me that South has more cards in clubs than in spades. I can clearly see that the clubs are one card longer than the spades.  But my brain is being fooled, there are exactly 4 cards in both suits.

Alternatives

Windows users have the alternative of installing the BBO client and clicking on the Lin link. A couple of clicks later and they should see something like -

This old NetBridgeVu.exe application can be very pretty.  (I am still a regular user of it as a client for playing on BBO.)  However, it fails disastrously as an 'Off-line Counting Trainer' because you always get to see all four hands!

The next post will cover aaBridge.

Counting the Hand 2

Where to find hands played by top players

Go to the BBO (Bridge Base Online) website. If for some reason you do not want to open a free account, you can still access their site by clicking the Look around our site button.

On the main site page drag the slider marked 1 to the center. In the Who's Online section the list of star players, those with yellow stars, should be showing. If it is not showing click the Stars tab (marked with a check mark and the number 2).

Now click the the light blue Sort by status button ( marked with the number 3). It will go red when the list is sorted.

Scroll down the sorted list until you get to the area where the players are marked as Playing Tournaments or Matches. 

At this point, if you wanted to, you could click on the player’s name and then when the next dialog opens you could click on the Join table button and go and watch them play live.  But this is not what we are here to do. 

Make a note of some of these players' BBO IDs (usernames).  Open another browser window and go to the BBO hands records page at -

http://www.bridgebase.com/myhands/index.php

Into this dialog you can enter any of the BBO user IDs you found earlier.  If there is some other good player such as a teacher whose BBO ID you know then you could always use that. The logic we are using here is; given we have found a good player playing in a match now, it is quite likely that they have played a match or two in the recent past. 

I suggest you choose matches and tournaments because that is where players tend to try their hardest.
In the resulting table you can see a Movie column and a Lin column. The use of the Movie column is covered in the next post.

(Yes there is a real player with a BBO ID of  'fake'.)

P.S. Occasionally, normally in what would be the middle of the night in the US, the BBO Hand Record service is suspended for maintenance.  So if you find it is not operating, try again later.

Counting the Hand 1

A clearer and more up-to-date version of this sequence of posts is now contained within aaBridge.  On the  aaBridge  Welcome Screen  click on

             How to  –  Defend like an Expert

you can download  aaBridge  from      http://rogerpf.com/aaBridge
             ___________________________________________________

This and the following posts form a series on how to count the hand.

You can jump to the other posts by using the Menu on the right.

You have a count on the hand when you know the original distribution of the suits in the unseen hands, ideally including the placement of all the hidden honors.

The aim is to give advice on how to practice counting and so train yourself to do this very difficult task.  You will get none of the “all you have to do is to count up to 13” nonsense, here.

 

Learning to count and in particular, trying to practice counting, is very difficult.  You need to treat it as a piece of “high level home study”.  Think of it as an elective on a degree course.  Pick a time of day when you are not too tired or have only just woken up.  I suggest that at first you allow at least an hour and try to have a quiet space with just you and your computer.  Of course, in an ideal world you won’t have any distractions.

Overview

I am going to show, in detail, a fully web-based way of finding and stepping through hands played by world-class players where you be able to see only one hand and the dummy.  Hopefully being experts their bridge will be sound.

The BBO web-based, all online hand display app, is way better than nothing. However I think that aaBridge can do better as it can be a clearer and easier-to-use method of viewing the files. Using aaBridge also allows you to replay the hand exploring alternate lines.

I will also give two complete examples of slowly 'counting a hand' then with practice we can all get faster.

The next post covers how and where to find the hands of the experts.

Swap between aaBridge and another App as the .lin file player

Windows users have at least two pc applications that can read and play .lin files.

How do I change the program that runs when you double click on a .lin file ?

Find a .lin file and do a Right Click on your mouse. On the mouse menu that opens there are two alternatives.

Either - hover over Open with and then go to Choose default program... - OR - at the bottom of the menu select - Properties.

On the Open with dialog click on the application of your choice and remember to check the "Always use the selected..." checkbox before you click OK.

If the program you want to use does not show but is already installed on your machine you can add it with the browse button.

aaBridge and .Lin files

The .lin file format is a text based format used to store bridge deals and their play.  It has long been the format of choice of BBO (Bridge Base Online).  If there is anyone reading this who hasn't been to BBO then follow the above link to go there now and open an account.  You can play or just watch Bridge, it's all free.

BBO provides a web-based client as the main interface to their service.

In addition the Windows-based client, which installs the NetBridgeVu.exe application, is still available from their site.  Anyone who runs a Windows system and wants to study bridge hands (.lin files) should also install it.  Link to BBO Window's client installer.

Currently BBO offer the last few months worth of played hands as .lin files.  See here.  You will need to type in the BBO username of a player whose hands you want to look at. If no player springs to mind try "Chick".

For any particular deal you can click the Movie link and step through that deal in the web based player OR click the Lin link, download the .lin file and play it in a 'Bridge Movie' player that runs on your own computer. BBO calls .lin files 'Bridge Movies'.  I assume this comes from the fact that you can move backwards and forwards through the play of the hand.

You might like to download a .lin file and look at it in a standard text editor.  It's possible to make out what's going on. The hand layouts can normally be spotted as can the bidding and the actual play of the cards.

Another application that can play .lin files is aaBridge. This free application runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. It can be downloaded from my bridge site.  While there is only one .lin file format, the files themselves tend to fall into three groups.

Type I - A Single Deal

If you download a .lin file from BBO as described above then that is a type I file. It contains a single deal normally with all of the play of that hand.   aaBridge can also play these files.

Type II - Multiple Deals

These are very like type I except that there are multiple deals in the one file. Windows users who run the NetBridgeVu as their BBO client will find that when they kibitz (watch) any View Graph presentation the app will create a single .lin file containing all of the deals from that session and the play from both the open and closed rooms. This type of .lin file can be replayed with the NetBridgeVu program itself. aaBridge can also play these files.

A zip containing two example Type II files can be downloaded here.

Type III - Complex Tutorials    (aka Bridge Movies)

These are normally long complex tutorials with many stages during which a lot of play can be displayed along with questions and answers. Up to now the NetBridgeVu program has been the only standalone application that can play these files.   aaBridge can also play these files.

The major source for these 'Tutorial Bridge Movies' is the website of expert bridge player and teacher hondo717. Howard's site contains a huge number of downloadable type III tutorial .lin files. You do not need to have a lin file player to view his 'Bridge Movies' because all of his lin files can be viewed online with his web-based  'hondoplayer'.