[toastlots]

I appear to have reached a roadblock and cannot seem to improve my play just playing on BBO.
I have even tried the new BBO trainer app, but it doesnt give the sort of feedback needed.
Does anyone here play (even pay) on a site etc that provides over the shoulder guidance to stop one from playing the wrong cards and more importantly to explain why?
Thank you.

[Cyberyeti]

The best way to do this is to find a better player to play with, who is prepared to go through the hands with you afterwards.

[P_Marlowe]

toastlots, on 2026-April-13, 03:04, said:

I appear to have reached a roadblock and cannot seem to improve my play just playing on BBO.
I have even tried the new BBO trainer app, but it doesnt give the sort of feedback needed.
Does anyone here play (even pay) on a site etc that provides over the shoulder guidance to stop one from playing the wrong cards and more importantly to explain why?
Thank you.

# Bridge Master App, found at BBO ... the problem is, the deals are constructed, and it is "only" declarer play
sometimes you also need to take bidding seq. into account, and seq. can differ
# Books, ..., they are not for everyone, I find it hard to learn from books, some books (even good ones) are dated,
and you need to know, what to ignore, and what not
# Find a regular p, play in larger groups, after the end, ask stronger players ..., try to stick with one or two,
opinions vary across the field, and a specific opion may not be bad, provided you take the rest of the advice from the
same person / source, otherwise it will be just mixed garbage

Good luck.

[cencio]

toastlots, on 2026-April-13, 03:04, said:

I appear to have reached a roadblock and cannot seem to improve my play just playing on BBO.
I have even tried the new BBO trainer app, but it doesnt give the sort of feedback needed.
Does anyone here play (even pay) on a site etc that provides over the shoulder guidance to stop one from playing the wrong cards and more importantly to explain why?
Thank you.

Save your hand, export in double dummy solver, and look for your play. From double dummy solver save as a pbn file and look the bid of the best software wbridge5 (That is free) or jack and bridge baron by payment,ù.
also amici del bridge lessons ,but are in Italian language, but a player may understand the same

[toastlots]

Thank you everyone, a lot to consider. I might give that Master Bridge a try, see if it helps.
I always struggle to make the extra trick or two which makes a difference between 80% or 15% score.
Just making contract appears never enough, I need to learn to set my sights on +1 or 2 every hand.
Thank you all again:)

[P_Marlowe]

toastlots, on 2026-April-13, 08:01, said:

Thank you everyone, a lot to consider. I might give that Master Bridge a try, see if it helps.
I always struggle to make the extra trick or two which makes a difference between 80% or 15% score.
Just making contract appears never enough, I need to learn to set my sights on +1 or 2 every hand.
Thank you all again:)

Master Bridge is targeted at making the contract.
But they are tight.

[toastlots]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-April-13, 08:41, said:

Master Bridge is targeted at making the contract.
But they are tight.

[toastlots]

Thank you, yes just tried out the Master Bridge, and it is quite good for a player of my low level, it points out obvious plays that are sort of "Doh" moments.
I have learned a few things already, but when I try to apply that in a tournament just now (not on this player) it all goes out the window, my mind goes blank.
I think it is because I spent many early years playing just with the Gibs because if I fail no real person is harmed by my bad play.
The problem is they play so fast I got into the habit also of playing fast, and I do better when I play fast.
When I slow down and try to think about what I learned in the Bridge Master, that is when is goes horribly wrong.
Do I now train to play slower or do it stick with faster play in the hope what I have learned will sink in eventually?
Maybe I am just too old to learn new tricks!

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I like Bill Roots book "How to Play a Bridge Hand", his Defence book is also good, but Play is great.

#1 At the first trick try to formulate a plan, take your time pause 10sec, ..., it is even required by the rules.
#2 IMPs is a game, when "make or break" matters most, the overtricks are MP stuff, ..., but even MP, first try to focus
at getting to the right contract, and then try to make it.
#3 If you are looking at the scores, try to pick a pair / a player of your strength you want to beat regular in the rankings,
ignore the overall ranking

#4 Have patience

#0 enjoy the game, best if you have a partner you like to be around, have fun

[toastlots]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-April-14, 07:34, said:

Hi,

I like Bill Roots book "How to Play a Bridge Hand", his Defence book is also good, but Play is great.

#1 At the first trick try to formulate a plan, take your time pause 10sec, ..., it is even required by the rules.
#2 IMPs is a game, when "make or break" matters most, the overtricks are MP stuff, ..., but even MP, first try to focus
at getting to the right contract, and then try to make it.
#3 If you are looking at the scores, try to pick a pair / a player of your strength you want to beat regular in the rankings,
ignore the overall ranking

#4 Have patience

#0 enjoy the game, best if you have a partner you like to be around, have fun

[toastlots]

Thank you Uwe

I can see the sense in pausing a few seconds to see exactly what is in the dummy, the Gibs dont need long, but I am human and need a bit longer,lol.
I will try to exercise more patience going forward.

[P_Marlowe]

toastlots, on 2026-April-14, 07:52, said:

Thank you Uwe

I can see the sense in pausing a few seconds to see exactly what is in the dummy, the Gibs dont need long, but I am human and need a bit longer,lol.
I will try to exercise more patience going forward.

The 10sec wait should also be taken as defender, when dummy hits the table.

#1 Count the points in dummy, try to estimate the points declarer has, get an estimate of the points p has in his hand
From this you will know, if p may have attacked from an empty suit or from strength
#2 Count the shape, try to approx, determine the shape of declarer, from this you can determine partners shape
There are only at most 6 likely patters, that declarer can have, and with this you get an approx on p shape.
You get this information from the bidding.

Now it takes time to fine tune this, ..., and consequence and discipline to update the estimate, it is stressfull,
I know, I sometimes (more often than I should) stop doing it, but even the first estimate will help you to improve.

You dont need length signal, but obv. length signal speed up the fine tuning process.
But length signal req. a partner, who you trust, the robots dont give length.

[blackshoe]

Cyberyeti, on 2026-April-13, 04:37, said:

The best way to do this is to find a better player to play with, who is prepared to go through the hands with you afterwards.

Twenty or thirty years ago, a local expert came to me with a proposition: he would mentor me at bridge if I would help him overcome his fear of computers. However, there was a catch: I had to be willing to work hard. We would play a three hour session at the club, and then we would go usually to a local restaurant and spend three hours going over the hands. I quickly learned one thing: if I didn't have a headache after the session, I wasn't working hard enough.

Early example of what happened after the session:

Mentor: okay, board twelve. Do you remember your hand?
Me: No.
Mentor: you had <rattles off the hand>. Do you remember the bidding?
Me: No.
Mentor: <rattles off the bidding>.

Then we would get into what I did wrong. Going over the play was similar. I learned a lot.

The second best thing to do is to read a lot.

There is an expert player and "master teacher" named Adam Parrish who has a website, a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, and two books under the rubric "Parrish The Thought". He's worth checking out.

[akwoo]

toastlots, on 2026-April-14, 03:34, said:

Thank you, yes just tried out the Master Bridge, and it is quite good for a player of my low level, it points out obvious plays that are sort of "Doh" moments.
I have learned a few things already, but when I try to apply that in a tournament just now (not on this player) it all goes out the window, my mind goes blank.
I think it is because I spent many early years playing just with the Gibs because if I fail no real person is harmed by my bad play.
The problem is they play so fast I got into the habit also of playing fast, and I do better when I play fast.
When I slow down and try to think about what I learned in the Bridge Master, that is when is goes horribly wrong.
Do I now train to play slower or do it stick with faster play in the hope what I have learned will sink in eventually?
Maybe I am just too old to learn new tricks!

The experts have internalized all the tricks you're thinking about, and they still play quite slowly.

You have to train yourself to think about the hand, keep all your thought coherent, make a plan, and follow through with it (or adjust it if something unusual happens). You will have to keep doing this because as you learn some things about play, more new things will come up for you to think about.

So, in addition to the specific bridge techniques you learn by thinking about a hand and playing slowly, you also learn the skill of actually thinking about a hand.

Think of it this way: if you're playing against 3 robots, when you play slowly, no real person is harmed by your slow play.

[pescetom]

blackshoe, on 2026-April-15, 07:54, said:

Twenty or thirty years ago, a local expert came to me with a proposition: he would mentor me at bridge if I would help him overcome his fear of computers. However, there was a catch: I had to be willing to work hard. We would play a three hour session at the club, and then we would go usually to a local restaurant and spend three hours going over the hands. I quickly learned one thing: if I didn't have a headache after the session, I wasn't working hard enough.

Did you ever suspect that three hours was too long, for both the sessions?
My experience is that few beginners or intermediates can really sustain 3 hours of bridge, let alone any further analysis before sleeping.

[AL78]

blackshoe, on 2026-April-15, 07:54, said:

Twenty or thirty years ago, a local expert came to me with a proposition: he would mentor me at bridge if I would help him overcome his fear of computers. However, there was a catch: I had to be willing to work hard. We would play a three hour session at the club, and then we would go usually to a local restaurant and spend three hours going over the hands. I quickly learned one thing: if I didn't have a headache after the session, I wasn't working hard enough.

Early example of what happened after the session:

Mentor: okay, board twelve. Do you remember your hand?
Me: No.
Mentor: you had <rattles off the hand>. Do you remember the bidding?
Me: No.
Mentor: <rattles off the bidding>.

Then we would get into what I did wrong. Going over the play was similar. I learned a lot.

The second best thing to do is to read a lot.

There is an expert player and "master teacher" named Adam Parrish who has a website, a podcast, a blog, a newsletter, and two books under the rubric "Parrish The Thought". He's worth checking out.

Six hours of high mental demand, playing bridge followed by bridge analysis? I'm not sure many players could manage that properly.

[AL78]

P_Marlowe, on 2026-April-14, 08:23, said:

The 10sec wait should also be taken as defender, when dummy hits the table.

What should happen and what does happen aren't always the same thing. I've lost count of the number of times my partner has led and declarer plays from dummy at near relativistic speed whilst I am trying to formulate a plan based on the available information.

[P_Marlowe]

AL78, on 2026-April-16, 06:19, said:

What should happen and what does happen aren't always the same thing. I've lost count of the number of times my partner has led and declarer plays from dummy at near relativistic speed whilst I am trying to formulate a plan based on the available information.

Than you have the right to wait.
And declarer cannot claim, that you hesitated.
The rules are similar to the stop card usage, if the stop is not respected,
you still have the right to take your time.
Not respecting the stop card procedure is basically waving the right to ask
for redress in case of a BIT.

[paulg]

AL78, on 2026-April-16, 06:19, said:

What should happen and what does happen aren't always the same thing. I've lost count of the number of times my partner has led and declarer plays from dummy at near relativistic speed whilst I am trying to formulate a plan based on the available information.

P_Marlowe, on 2026-April-16, 07:44, said:

Than you have the right to wait.
And declarer cannot claim, that you hesitated.
The rules are similar to the stop card usage, if the stop is not respected,
you still have the right to take your time.
Not respecting the stop card procedure is basically waving the right to ask
for redress in case of a BIT.

The problem is that this is not clearly addressed in the Laws and only a few NBOs address the issues of trick one play in their local regulations. And, of course, at least one NBO has removed Stop cards completely to make the situation more complex.

And whoever wants to wait at a club for someone to think?

[P_Marlowe]

paulg, on 2026-April-16, 08:15, said:

The problem is that this is not clearly addressed in the Laws and only a few NBOs address the issues of trick one play in their local regulations. And, of course, at least one NBO has removed Stop cards completely to make the situation more complex.

And whoever wants to wait at a club for someone to think?

You may be right, ... may have confused this with good ethickets.