SmartBridge

Give it any holding and SmartBridge works out the best line against best defence, tells you what it is worth, and then deals you hand after hand to play it yourself.

SmartBridge is a card play trainer. Not the bidding - the play.

Most of us learn card play from rules of thumb: finesse into the danger hand, eight ever nine never. SmartBridge does the arithmetic instead. Give it any holding and it works out the best line of play against best defence, tells you the exact chance that line succeeds, and then lets you play it yourself on an endless supply of hands.

One suit at a time, so you can actually see why a line is right.

SEE THE ODDS How the missing cards are likely to split between the defenders, each distribution with its exact chance and the number of ways it can happen - and how that shifts once the auction has told you one defender is long somewhere else. Set the vacant places and watch the whole column move from the a-priori figures to the odds that apply at your table.

SEE THE BEST LINE The line that wins most often against best defence, written out as instructions rather than as one narrated hand: what to lead, what to do about each card a defender might produce, and what to do when someone shows out. With the exact percentage, or the average number of tricks.

THEN PLAY IT YOURSELF Practice deals hand after hand of a holding and you play the suit out card by card. Every card is marked against the written line, and where a card costs you something you are told what it cost. Where two cards are worth exactly the same, it says so rather than pretending one is better.

YOUR OWN SUIT Tap the cards to give each one to North, to South or to the defenders, set how many entries you have, and ask for the line. The hand you actually held last night, answered properly.

EVERY FIGURE IS COMPUTED Nothing is looked up and nothing is rounded off to make you feel better. SmartBridge evaluates every layout of the missing cards that is still possible, weighted by how likely it is, and plays each one out against best defence.

SmartBridge is free, with nothing to buy. It contains no advertising, no analytics and no tracking, and it does not ask for internet access - it cannot send anything anywhere. Available in English and Dutch.