Bridge Baron 2000 version 11

Bridge Baron version 11 has continued the high quality that has made it one of the top three bridge ‘bid and play’ packages in the world. Whilst it contains only three of the most popular bidding systems, ACOL, Standard American and 2-over-1, its standard of play at the higher levels, depending on the power of your PC, is based on ‘artificial intelligence’ calculations or algorithms. This makes it a very powerful player either as your partner, or as an opponent. Version 11 has also added 9 more conventions or treatments to the previous 20 something further extending its’ versatility.

The opening screen of Bridge Baron version 11 is new, featuring a bridge table with 4 icons. You select whether you want to Compete, Learn, Play or use the Tools menu. You must initially set the facilities that you want to have as defaults. This includes which of the three bidding systems you want to play, and the conventions you want to use. Whilst 9 new conventions have been added some of them will not be all that familiar to New Zealand players. Conventions like Capelletti, Liebensohl, Smolen, Flannery and Drury add a range of possibilities that are in use in the main bridge playing centres around the world and can undoubtedly improve the bidding of partnerships willing and able to implement their abilities.

Two new bridge tournaments and 24 new challenge problem deals have been added giving a total of 5 tournaments and 72 challenge hands. The bidding, declarer and defensive play facilities have all been improved and a new facility called Conventions has been introduced. Conventions lets you practice the bidding of specific conventions on millions of different deals.

The new ACBL tournaments Bridge Baron version 11 incorporates are those for Summer 1994 San Diego and Summer 1997 Alberquerque. You select a tournament and session, enter your name and then play the hands as if you were actually competing, with the computer or a human partner against all the other partnerships.. This can be a real eye opener! Playing the tournaments lets you see how you would have fared hand by hand, and overall at 3 different grades of play which you can view after each hand if you want to. As each tournament covers something like 14 sessions, with each session containing up to 32 boards, just playing the tournaments will take quite some time! You may be pleasantly surprised at how well you, playing with Bridge Baron, or your regular partner, could have done in some of the sessions. Additional tournaments can be bought as add-ons to version 11(and to previous versions 9 and 10), and Bridge Baron have also issued a complete CD of tournaments.(see the separate review below).

Bridge Baron version 11 has retained the facility to play a bridge match of up to 16 hands against the computer program and you can have the computer play the hands individually or in batch mode after you’ve played all the hands. It is also possible to have your bridge partner join you in playing a bridge match by alternating which hand is open to view for bidding. This feature also enable the two of you to practice your particular system together by covering/uncovering the relevant hands by means of a click on the mouse.

A new innovation with version 11 is a program called ‘Conventions’. This program allows the player to select and practice bidding specific conventions on the 2 billion plus deals that Bridge Baron can generate. Players who have limited bridge experience find it very educational to be able to select certain conventions and see whether they like them or not before they start playing them at club events or tournaments. So if you and your partner want to introduce more sophistication to your bidding this an excellent way of doing it. Click on the ‘Learn’ icon in the opening screen. A window showing all the conventions you can practice is displayed. Firstly you set how many deals you want to practice. Then you select one or more ( it is preferable to do only one at a time) of the conventions, then click the ‘generate’ button. The program then searches it’s deals for hands that will allow the player to practice the bidding using the selected convention. Next, click ‘practice’ and the first hand is displayed. Bidding takes place. If your bid is incorrect a description of the convention and the correct bid are displayed. This is a very useful addition to the Bridge Baron repertoire.

The Blackwood Challenge Hands program consists of three lots of 24 difficult hands to play. The bidding is shown, each one ending in a game or slam, and the challenge is to make the contract. Another eye opener even for expert players!

To the best of my knowledge players with iMac or Mac PCs have been poorly served with access to bridge ‘bid and play’ systems, however, Bridge Baron can be used with virtually all PCs including Mac or iMac PCs.

There are a number of other facilities within Bridge Baron that make it very suitable for beginners as well as more experienced players. For beginners it has, via the ‘Learn’ icon or Help Menu, a basic introduction to the game, its strategy and objectives, conducting the auction, scoring etc, so makes an excellent gift for someone who is interested in learning the game, but who may not wish to attend beginners lessons. There are also hints on how best to use Bridge Baron for Beginners, Intermediates and Advanced players. One of the features of Bridge Baron is the flowchart method of showing the player how a particular bid is selected.