Theo Todman's Bridge Page
(Text as at 10/10/2019 23:58:34)
*** THIS IS NOT THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS NOTE ***
(For the live version and other versions of this Note, see the tables at the end)
I returned to bridge in December 2007 after a long lay-off (effectively from my Cambridge days3, then 30 years prior). I played with some enthusiasm but rather mixed results for just under a decade after my “return” at a number of the clubs in the table below, and explored the weekend tournament scene. I took most of 2015 off, but became involved in the ECBA as webmaster in compensation, then returned to serious play in 4Q15. Ultimately I decided I’d had enough in July 2017, and intended to play only the occasional social game from then on. However, I started playing again socially towards the end of 2018, and have been playing quite seriously since the middle of 2019.
Bridge Computer Resources
The mini-table below is just a set of links for my own convenience (and for pointing others to). The first link is to the “Computers and Bridge” section on the Bridge Guys website. It is a huge set of links, with descriptions, but no appraisal. The second is to a paper put out by a bridge club at MIT; it’s a bit out of date (May 2013) but still useful. The other two links are to the best free Bridge Playing and Double-dummy programs.
Counting the Hands
Someone said that one "really arrives" as a bridge-player when one fully counts the hand. That is, keeps track of the points and distribution in all 4 hands, both by making inferences from the bidding and play, as well as keeping track of what's gone on in the play of the hand thus far. I find counting difficult - particularly distribution. I'd like to find an on-line application to help me practice this skill. There are a couple featuring Mike Lawrence, which look promising. Links to some material I've found on-line appear in the table below – on-line originals and / or consolidated pdfs I created lest the originals get lost.
I’ve also a couple of useful books:-
LOCAL DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUBS
Below is a table of Bridge clubs in the neighbourhood of Billericay, Essex with ready access to recent results. The left-hand column provides links to small - and unofficial - websites that I created using my own routines, which contain the then results files (usually for the last 4-5 years) and Individual and Partnership ladders for the same period. The next column links to the official websites for these clubs, where they have one. The "latest results" column provides links directly to the latest results, where there is one, and indicates when the clubs meet, and the right-hand column gives my opinionated assessment of the standard of the clubs, which errs on the side of not over-egging and frightening inexperienced or otherwise non-expert players away.
As of January 2018 I have no longer been maintaining these Data Repositories, as I no longer play bridge.
See Essex Bridge Results for a stand-alone page with the above table.
CONVENTION CARDS
Partners and I have drawn up various Benjaminised Acol convention cards, of varying degrees of sophistication. They appear in both MS Word and PDF formats. Follow the links below.
I also play an artificial Strong Diamond system with one partner:-
I also play a 5-card Majors / Strong NT system with two partners:-
Finally, I play a very basic Standard Acol system on rare occasions with one partner:-
USEFUL LINKS
Butler IMP & Cross-IMP Scored Results
I wrote a suite of programs to calculate Partnership results in Teams tournaments, using either Butler IMPs or Cross-IMPs (the latter as advised by the EBU to be used for the NGS). It currently extracts data (via screen-scraping) from Bridgewebs, and (in two instances) Butler Pairs (Jeff Smith (Defunct) format). It has now been overtaken by the deliverances of Bridgewebs, with which it reconciles exactly, apart from for 60-40% adjustments, which I ignore. I don’t intend to produce any more of these.
ECBA Master Point Promotions
The EBU publishes a monthly “national” list of Master Point promotions. I produced the items below to make it easier to see all the promotions specific to the ECBA in two documents – one by date and the other by Club. Their production requires access to the ECBA members’ database, which I might not continue to enjoy. So, these are here as a record as at a point in time – namely December 2017.
ECBA Master Point Lists - 2016
Because the EBU annual master-point lists are rather a jumble, I developed routines to output the items below to make it easier to find who’s done well, and who is of which rank. I also developed the reports by Club, which have no parallel in the EBU reports. The production of the reports by Club requires access to the ECBA members’ database, which I might not continue to enjoy. So, these are here as a record as at a point in time – namely as at the end of 2016 (currently the latest published).
In-Page Footnotes
Footnote 4:
- This club struggled for attendees, and expired in 2016.
Live Version of this Archived Note
Table of the 10 Earlier Versions of this Note
Table of the 4 Later Versions of this Note
| This version updated |
Reference for this Topic |
Parent Topic |
| 10/10/2019 23:58:34 |
1146 (Theo Todman's Bridge Page) |
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Summary of Note Links to this Page
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Text Colour Conventions
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025