Bridge On The Internet Revisited Part 3

In case you are wondering I am not sure how many “parts” there will be but I am sure there will be several more since there is so much to see and do on the Internet.  Today I am going to finish up my second look at the remaining six sites that I picked as top sites last time.

Next up is Jude Goodwin Hanson’s Great Bridge Links.  This is one site where you can go to get links to all sort of bridge resources on the web.  There are some problems with it.  For example, many of the links no longer work.  Now of course this is the type of problem you would always see on sites like this and I recognize the work in checking them all out.  Maybe we call give Jude a hand and report broken links.  Hey Jude (is that a song) why don’t you add a place for people to report problems.  My personal favorite part of this website is the news on the front page.  Definitely improved since last time and very worthwhile.

I like Jeff Goldsmith’s site last time particularly for the bridge movies.  I notice that there is material being added if slowly with the most recent update March 29, 2009.  Jeff’s site is not the most visually interesting.  But there is a lot of good stuff here.  Of course I am drawn to the movies and you will be too along with all the other goodies.  So I figure I might as well try the most recent one while I am here (columnist should have fun too you know).  I wish that the problems had buttons where I could put in my answer (and compare to other people’s answers) but this is still fun.   Here is one of these real life problems for you to try.

IMPs, both vul, you hold

AKQxxxx x — AQ10xx

Partner passes and RHO opens 3

What do you like?  Here are my personal choices as I try to narrow it down assuming I am playing nothing special over a minor preempt.  a) 6 b) 4NT c)4 d)4 e) 5

For good or bad I reject anything but a) and e). The problem with bidding 5 is how is partner supposed to make an intelligent decision.  Would he bid six with red aces?  Anyway I bid 6.  When I look at the answer I see the comments of many people.  Besides the choices I have listed someone actually bid 3.  (I would like to meet this mouse).  The consensus answer is 4 but I don’t know which bids actually work or what the result is.  Hey Jeff, we want to know what works in real life.  Jeff personally prefers 5.  The discussion of the bids are interesting but a lot of it depends on the general agreements you have with your partner about what correcting bids means when you have shown a two suiter.  When you are in this site don’t miss the conventions section.

Bridge World is my favorite bridge magazine so let’s see if the site has kept pace.

Bridge World

There is a section for magazine subscribers which seems like a reasonable idea and while I am a subscriber this blog is about free content so for now I will ignore it.  The site seems more or less as I remember it.  The best component is the glossary which defines many bridge terms.  There is also a detailed description of Bridge World Standard 2001.  There is also a section on bridge estoerica, puzzles, mysteries and articles.  There is also a collection of Sample Bridge World articles in different categories.  It all seems the same as I remember it from before.  So if you are not a subscriber there is some interesting stuff on the site but don’t expect many (any?) updates.

Bridge Guys seem to have a new look with two home pages.  It appears that there was a major update on June 9, 2009.  Make sure to go to home page 2 for the best information.  Apparently the Bridge Guys can be downloaded as an iphone app (cool).  I still don’t like the organization very much.  There is a whole big block of large graphics which seem to be an ad for Marty Bergen.  I would prefer it if they didn’t use huge blocks as navigation buttons.  It just makes it harder to find things.  But that aside the information is great.  The most useful and interesting parts being the glossary of bridge terms and the description of conventions.  I usually come here when I am trying to look something up.   I see for example that a flower bid is what I know as a fit showing jump.  That makes sense.  The other day someone referred to a flower bid and I worked that out at the time.  They have attempted to group some material by topic (like preemptive bids) and the rest is in alphabetical order.  Still a great site.

So there we go.  Pretty well all the good sites from last time are still good sites and miraculously they are still all up and running.   As I check out more sites though they may be dropped off the top list.  We will see.  I am thinking this year to go to about the top 15.

If you have any sites you would like me to review send me and email (linda@masterpointpress.com) or leave a comment below.  I have already received a couple of suggestions.

Websites Reviewed: Great Bridge Links, Jeff Goldsmith, Bridge World, Bridge Guys