Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

International Bridge on the Internet

In my 20’s, I was a bridge enthusiast. Having learned in college and continuing afterward, I enjoyed this game. I even played duplicate for a while, accumulating a few fractions of a Masters point. Although I do not play at all in recent years, I will read an occasional bridge column and understand it. Now, on to the point of this article. Recently, a student asked me to teach her how to play bridge on the Internet.

This column is being written for any bridge players out there who would like to play a game or more any time they wish, without having to call friends to invite them over.

All you need is your computer and a way to get on-line. As for your bridge skills, beginners through experts may play. One location is www.yahoo.com. When you arrive at that site, look for Games after Fun below the Yahoo name near the middle of the page. Select Bridge from the list of games. When you have gotten this far, you will have been asked to log in. This means you have to register with Yahoo (if you have not done so previuously). This costs nothing except the time to do it, which will be under 5 minutes. They ask you for information about yourself which they hope to use to improve their marketing. Moreover, as they offer the opportunity for so many of us to play bridge, I cannot begrudge them a few morsels of marketing information.

You will see a number of choices as to the level of play. You will actually have to play few games to get the feel for that, as many people appear to play at a level somewhat less than is designated. But, what the hay, you are out to improve your bridge game and this is a great place to do it. Truth is your play of the game will be a great workout, but you may find, as I did, the bidding seems irregular. (Whose conventions are they playing anyway?)

When you have done that, you may be told that you must down load a Java program to play bridge. This one-time download can take up to 45 minutes depending on the speed of your modem. As this process starts, just keep clicking on “Yes” until you see the little graphic that shows the files being transferred and a rough estimate of the time remaining in the process. Hang in there! In addition to this one time download, each time you go to the bridge program, you will also be downloading another much smaller program to “see” and “play” the game. This download, (applet) will take about a minute or less.

Then you will start to see all the games being played. The people in the games are being designated by their user names in a line of 4 for each game. If there is an opening in any game, there will be the word “Join” in the foursome. You will click there to join the game. First time out, though, I suggest clicking on Watch so you can get a feel for how the play goes. Once you are watching, you can see the play of the game, who has won the bid and who has how many tricks. After you have watched a while and come to the conclusion that these people are not playing a whole lot better than you do, you will be ready to play.

When you are willing to join a game, click on Quit in the lower left and you will come back to the lists of all the games playing and look for one that has a missing person and click on Join. If the game is in play when you join the play, you will be taking over a hand that has been abandoned. Your hand is at the bottom of the screen and you can select the card to play by clicking on it. An arrow will point to your hand when it is your time to play. Play out the rest of the hand and then stay for the bidding of the next hand. After the “deal,” you will see your cards in front of you at the lower part of the screen. You will also see what your partner has bid at the top of the screen. When it is your turn to bid, a small window opens with all the possible bids you can make. You just click on the one you want and the bid moves to the next hand. When all pass after the final bid, the play begins. If you win the bid, you will see your partner’s open hand exposed and you will play both hands, again clicking on the cards that you wish to play. The play is similar to a real game, although I am often puzzled when someone takes forever to bid when they have no choices. The play of the hand is obvious and when the hand is over, a message appears in what I would call a “chat” window below the hand indicating who won and the points involved. That window can also be used during the play to talk (chat) with the other players. Mostly, I saw only a little of this except where the players appear to play in the same group regularly.

If you feel the play of the hand was not your speed, move to a beginner’s game or to a higher-level game if you think you can handle it. My student bid and made her first grand slam just recently and it sounded if she had played in a regular bridge game instead of what I would call a cyber bridge tournament. Have fun sharpening your skills anytime of the day or night.

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant. He can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com and previous articles are at http://mouseclix.tripod.com.