Autobridge anybody … try out this new bridge site

When I was starting out as an oh so young bridge player I ran into a game called Autobridge.  Autobridge was a nechanical device that let you play a bridge hand by yourself.  An expert provided a set of deals which you could play through.

This is a 1950 version of the game with deals by Charles Goren.

The game could be fun and instructive but it did have some problems.  The biggest problem was that you had to guess the exact card it wanted you to play.  If you were drawing trump and had all the honors you had to figure out which order Autobridge expected you to play them in even if it didn’t matter.  You would push down the tab for the Ace at trick two and it would have a four on it or a six.  that number represented the trick where you were SUPPOSED to use the spade ace. 

Over the years friends who knew I was a bridge player gave me Autobridge that they inherited when a bridge playing relative died.  So I still have various sets.  I haven’t played it in years but I did find that it was fun at the time.  How technology has changed things.  Now there is a new Autobridge website called Vu-Bridge.

This is a free site that has garnered a huge following already.  If you are a bridge player you can play a lot of hands with expert comments, many from major events.  Sometimes the order that you play the cards doesn’t matter and Vu-bridge like Autobridge can be expecting a specific order but the software handles this much better than the mechnical Autobridge and I didn’t find it detracted from playing the deals at all.  There are a huge number of deals up there now from some very talened people.  According to the website as of December 2011 16,000 visitors hadn played over 96,000 hands.

Bridge teachers can use the site for free for their students or others and it can be used by bloggers too.  I haven’t explored any of this yet but I admit I often go and play deals on the Vubridge website.

Sometime soon I am going to try to create a vubridge deal and post it to this website.  It may take a while for me to do this because the weather in Sarasota is perfect and the outside keeps calling me.

Have fun playing deals on the website.  I am on the mailing list (you can be too) and get emails when some new series of deals are posted.  Today I got an email called Series 61, Anthony Moon squeeze you. I had to try a deal (being a squeeze lover)  Board 1 was a criss-cross squeeze.  Knowing what it was in advance did make it a bit easier but I was happy to figure it out.

 For more information email didier@vubridge.com