BBO – Bridge Base Online 17+

Not a good learning tool for beginners

App tries to use all conventions, including some that aren’t found in a search of other references. And clicking on your partners bid, it doesn’t fully describe the possible bid interpretations. For instance, partner bids 1 club, description says 3+ clubs, but doesn’t suggest it’s a possible short club bid. So you’re left guessing does partner have 3 only or more?

Respuesta del desarrollador ,

Thank you for your feedback. We are working to provide a better experience.
Meanwhile, please be sure you are using the last version of BBO.

Irritatingly close to great

The mechanics and variety of ways to play and watch pros is outstanding. However, it has enough irritating Bridge-specific systemic flaws to be frustrating. It has been close to great for so long and the flaws are not bugs so they don’t get addressed.
First, it tries to make the sampling of hands more interesting for the individual player by making most games based on the player having the best hand, but to keep the bidding competitive, it compensates by including a lot more distributional hands so there is a much greater likelihood of bad splits which frequently penalizes players who understand and play for the higher probabilities of actual random deals.
Second, and more important, there are terrible quirks in the AI bidding. You will frequently feel less like you are playing with an AI partner and more like playing against three AI opponents. It does not handle doubles well, frequently passing takeout doubles or bidding over your penalty doubles. It fails to place your bid into the context of prior bids often attributing outrageous values to a bid despite the hand having previously passed our competing with preemptive bids. It tries to help by describing what each bid is supposed to mean, but you will notice it’s flaws occasionally as it will describe your hand as having completely incompatible holdings such as: 1 or fewer AND 5 or more in the same suit; showing 25+ hcp by a passed hand and other frustrating inconsistencies.

Trouble with app

Several times during play on the afternoon of January 12, all four of us at our table were knocked off of BridgeBase though none of us had any Internet issues. One player just had to quit playing because she couldn’t get the application to respond. This morning I was set to play in a tournament. Something happened while I was waiting for the tournament to begin and bridge base sent my partner a message saying I was not online. I was indeed online I can see how many tables had signed up I can see how many minutes it was going to be before the game started. This resulted in my partnership being canceled from the tournament. I like BridgeBase but I think this iOS application has way too many bugs in it.I ended up having to use the Internet version of the game and play in a different tournament.

Respuesta del desarrollador ,

Sorry to hear you are experiencing disconnection issues. Our tech team is working on improving your experience