Version 2023-08-19
My name is Rene Grothmann. I am an experienced Bridge player from Ingolstadt, Germany. I wrote this program because I could not find a similar one with the same features and ease of use. Enjoy, and contact me via email in case of questions or suggestions!
This program is a Java program and needs a Java Runtime Environment. You can download and install a current JRE from Oracle.
You should then be able to click on the bridge.jar file that you downloaded from Sourceforge and start the program. If that does not work you can start the program from a command line, using the command
java -jar bridge.jar
You can make life easier by creating a batch file and starting a reference to this batch file. I describe this process for Windows only. Start a text editor like Notepad and enter the text
start javaw -jar %USERPROFILE%\bridge.jar
I assumed that you downloaded the jar-file to "C:\users\yourname". Save the new text file under "bridge.bat". Double clicking this file should already start the program. You can now create a reference to "bridge.bat" with the right mouse button. Open the preferences of this reference and set it to open minimized. You can also select one of the icons for it.
After the start of the program, a new random hand will be generrated, and the bidding will start. Only the current bidding hand will be visible. You can bid by clicking in the bidding box.
After three passes, the bidding ends and the playing starts. The contract is in the upper right corner, the number of tricks for each side in the upper left corner. Play by clicking the cards. You can hide hands like at the real table with Alt-H.
At any point, a replay can be started by pressing Ctrl-R. Use the left and right cursor keys and the home or end key to move within the replay. Pressing Escape will discard the replay actions and continue bidding or playing at the current point.
You can save or load PBN or LIN files. After loading a file the replay will start at the beginning of the bidding. Pressing Ctrl-P at this point will discard the bidding and play and you see the full board. You will then be asked to enter a contract.
LIN files can be saved by the double dummy solver in the net. The IntoBridge web site does copy a clipboard string containing the LIN format. The program can read and interpret that too.
There are numerous keyboard shortcuts for bidding and playing. Read the following sections for more information.
To export the hand into a blog, you can generate HTML output and open the browser. Then paste and copy a screen crop to your blog, or the content if your blogging software allows. The formatting uses DIVs. Only visible hands will be visible in the HTML output. So press Ctrl-P after loading a board with bids. Bids will display below the hand. Rotation will be in effect.
This program has the following features.
There are three modes which the program can be in.
The interface of this program can be handled by mouse clicks alone. But power users can also enter bids and play cards using the keyboard. You can find the keyboard shortcuts in the menu or in this help file.
Note, that pressing the left cursor key will bring you into replay mode from bidding or playing. Forwarding to the end of the replay will bring you back to where you were before.
The double dummy solver in the Web is a friendly service by John Goacher with code from Jo Haglund. Calling it will pass the bid and the play. You can check each step in your play by selecting the contract and forwarding through the play.
For German users, the program can use suit shortcuts P, C, K, T, cards A, K, D, B, Z, and translate keyboard shortcuts. This mode is set with Alt-G or the command line argument "-g". Note that all letters can be entered in small caps. To avoid confusion with k(aro) the K(ing) is entered as a capital letter or with the letter G. German deal constraints start with the constraint "G".
The program will save a properties file when the window is closed. This file is named ".bridgereplay" and is located in the home directory of the user. Currently, the German state and the most recent constraint for the deal are saved in that file.
You will see the current hand and the bidding box. Click on the clickspots in the lower part of the box to place a bid, or use the keyboard shortcuts. Bids will be checked if they are legal. Double and Redouble is only shown if they are legally possible.
The biddding box can only show the last five rounds of bids. If you need to see older biddings, click at the upper edge of the box or press the up or down cursor key.
You can use the following keyboard shortcuts.
When the bidding is over, the program will automatically switch to playing mode, the declarer will be shown, and the leading hand will be marked.
While playing, all hands are visible, unless "Hide other Hands" is enabled. The player to play the next card is indicated by a black rectangle around the hand label. Cards can be clicked with the mouse. Only legal cards can be played.
There are also the following keyboard shortcuts.
In replay mode, the player can review the bidding and the playing of the hand. As an indication for this mode, small boxes will be displayed in the lower corners to indicate which direction of movement is possible.
Bidding notes found in PBN files can be seen during the replay of the bidding.
To get to the replay mode, press ctrl-R or use the menu. To exit the replay mode, press ctrl-R again or use the menu. This will advance to the end of the replay and bidding or playing can be continued. It is also possible to exit the replay at the current position by pressing Esc or using the menu, and continue at this position. Further actions will be lost.
The best way to fix a bidding or a card play is to press the left cursor key. This will enter replay mode. You can walk back a few steps and press Esc to continue at that position.
The following keyboard shortcuts can be used in the replay mode.
Clicking on the left or right hand side of the board display does also a move the replay back or forward.
Hint: The dialog for constraints contains a text area to enter the constraints. You can use multiple lines with the Enter key. To focus on the OK button, press TAB, and to activate the OK button, press the space key.
Simple constraints can be obtained by the menu items in the Deal menu. This will deal the N/S hands accordingly.
For more advanced constraints, you have to enter the constraints in a special syntax. The items in the contraints are strings separated by blanks. The following options are currently available. Capitalization does not matter. For some constraints, we show only examples.
Constraints are processed from left to right. Thus you should first fix cards in suits and then add a points restriction. You can fix suits in all hands, and after that restrict points for each hand, by repeating "N:" etc.
The constraints can be loaded from a file. This should be a text file with extension "txt". It can contain multiple lines. The recent constraints are also saved in the properties file of the application after the window is closed.
Note that German constraints need to be set if the German mode is active. In this mode, you need to write the suit names in small letters to avoid confusion between König and Karo.
The most flexible and complete files for storing bridge hands and plays is the PBN standard. It is an open standard and you can find a good documentation in the net. It is used by various bridge programs in the net, e.g., the Bridge Composer, a payware program. The double dummy solver in the net can also save PBN files. This way, you can save BBO hands in PBN format.
BBO uses the LIN format. It is much more compact format. This format can be loaded by the double dummy solver. It is also used in the LIN parameter for the double dummy solver. Unfortunately the solver will ignore the bidding and the play in PBN files.
Bridge Replay can load and save PBN files. LIN files can only be saved, but the LIN format is used in the LIN parameter to call the double dummy solver.