Theo Todman's Web Page

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Control - Theo Todman's Bridge Page

Status Report Consolidated Results Local Clubs Convention Cards
Useful Links Defensive Play My Bridge Books Bidding Practice
Butler IMP & Cross-IMP Counting the Hands Search ECBA Website Generator Documentation
Bridge Computing Partnership Checklist Teams & Pairs Tactics Why Play Bridge?
ECBA Master Points   


I returned to bridge in December 2007 after a long lay-off (effectively from my Cambridge days, 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 (http://www.bridgeguys.com/) 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 The second is to a paper put out by a bridge club at MIT; it’s a bit out of date (May 2013) but still useful.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.

Computers and Bridge (http://www.bridgeguys.com/links/computer_bridge_online.html)Bridge Software Review (http://web.mit.edu/mitdlbc/www/articles/Bridge_Playing_Software_Review.pdf)WBridge5 (http://www.wbridge5.com/)Deep Finesse (http://www.deepfinesse.com/)


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.

Robert Frick - The Subtle Joy of Counting (http://rfrick.info/bridge/count.htm) (pdf) Howard Schutzman - Counting Distribution (http://www.bridgesights.com/hondobridge/counting.pdf) (pdf) Karen Walker - Developing Counting Skills (http://kwbridge.com/counting.htm) (pdf)
Tom Kniest - Count, Count, Count (http://kwbridge.com/c_count.htm) (pdf) Bill Doroshow - The One That Got Away (http://kwbridge.com/c_doro.htm) (pdf) Mike Lawrence - Counting at Bridge (https://www.andrewrobson.co.uk/shop/product/computerbridge/counting-at-bridge-by-mike-lawrence)
Danny’s Musings and the Joy of Counting in Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/orillia/Dannys%20Musings%20and%20The%20Joy%20of%20Counting.pdf) (pdf) Memory Systems at Bridge (pdf) Bridge Winners Counting Games (http://bridgewinners.com/games/)

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.


Club + Data Repository Official Website Day / Latest Results Standard
Monday Club Monday Club (https://www.bridgewebs.com/mondayclubbillericay/) Monday Afternoon Intermediate.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Monday Evening Introductory - Intermediate.
Pilgrim Bridge Club Pilgrim Bridge Club (http://pilgrim-bridge-club.org/index.html) Monday Evening Introductory.
Hutton Hutton Bridge Club (http://www.bridgewebs.com/hutton.html) Monday Evening Intermediate.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Tuesday Afternoon Elementary. No Fear.
Ann Owen Bridge Club None Tuesday Afternoon (http://www.bridgeresults.org.uk/ANNOWENS.htm) Introductory.
Mayflower Bridge Club Mayflower Bridge Club (https://www.bridgewebs.com/billericaymayflower/) Tuesday Evening Intermediate.
Apple Apple Wednesday Morning Introductory.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Wednesday Afternoon4 Introductory - Intermediate.
St. Edith's Hutton Bridge Club (http://www.bridgewebs.com/hutton.html) Wednesday Evening Intermediate.
Jubilee Club None Wednesday Evening (http://www.bridgeresults.org.uk/stockbrookresults.htm) Introductory.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Thursday Morning Elementary. No Fear.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Thursday Evening Elementary.
Mountnessing (Archive) Mountnessing Bridge Club (http://www.bridgewebs.com/mountnessingbc/) Thursday Evening Intermediate - Strong.
Hutton Union None Friday Afternoon (http://www.bridgeresults.org.uk/huttonunionresults.htm) Intermediate.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Friday Morning Elementary. No Fear.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Friday Evening Intermediate - Strong.
First Class Bridge Academy First Class Bridge (http://www.bridgewebs.com/firstclassbridge/) Saturday Morning Elementary. No Fear.

See Essex Bridge Results (http://www.theotodman.com/Bridge/index.htm) 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.

CS (MSW) AK (MSW)TF (MSW)LF (MSW) AS (MSW) DaTu (MSW) KS (MSW) DV (MSW) LW (MSW) MR (MSW) MH (MSW)
CS (PDF) AK (PDF)TF (PDF)LF (PDF) AS (PDF) DaTu (PDF) KS (PDF) DV (PDF) LW (PDF) MR (PDF) MH (PDF)


I also play an artificial Strong Diamond system with one partner:-


SD CC (MS Word) SD CC (PDF)


I also play a 5-card Majors / Strong NT system with two partners:-


MH CC (MS Word) RC CC (MS Word)
MH CC (PDF) RC CC (PDF)

Finally, I play a very basic Standard Acol system on rare occasions with one partner:-

RB (MS Word) RB (PDF)

USEFUL LINKS

Bridge Base Online (https://www.bridgebase.com/index.php) OK Bridge (http://www.okbridge.com/) Bridge Club Live (https://www.bridgeclublive.com/)
Essex Contract Bridge Association (http://www.bridgewebs.com/essex/) English Bridge Union (https://www.ebu.co.uk/) Bridge Shop (https://bridgeshop.com/)
Maureen's Essex Results Site (http://www.bridgeresults.org.uk/) Young Chelsea Bridge Club (http://ycbc.co.uk/) Great Bridge Links (http://greatbridgelinks.com/)
Bridge Great Britain (http://www.bridgegreatbritain.org/) Bridge Conventions (http://www.gwilliams.org.uk/index.html) ECATS Bridge (http://www.ecatsbridge.com/)
Bridge Winners (http://bridgewinners.com/) New In Bridge (http://ubid.newinbridge.com/) Bridge Guys (http://www.bridgeguys.com/)

Butler IMP & Cross-IMP Scored Results

I wrote a suite of programs to calculate Partnership results in Teams tournaments, using either Butler IMPs (http://www.bridgewebs.com/westmids/What%20is%20Butler%20Scoring.pdf) or Cross-IMPs (https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/miscellaneous/ngs/ngs-for-teams.pdf) (the latter as advised by the EBU to be used for the NGS). It currently extracts data (via screen-scraping) from Bridgewebs (http://www.bridgewebs.com/), and (in two instances) Butler Pairs (Jeff Smith (http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~jasmith/) 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.





Ray Cornell (Helliar Trophy) Feb 2014 Essex Mixed Teams May 2014 Kent GP Swiss Teams May 2014
Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams July 2014 Essex Fletcher Sept 2014 Essex Club Trophy Sept 2014
Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams Sept 2014 Felixstowe GP Swiss Teams Oct 2014 Mountnessing Butler Pairs Oct 2014
Essex Tony Kelvin Teams Nov 2014 Mountnessing Butler Pairs Dec 2014 Chelmsford Autumn Teams December 2014
Woodham Ferrers Swiss Teams January 2015 Ray Cornell (Helliar Trophy) Feb 2015 Essex Mixed Teams May 2015
Collier Row Open Teams May 2015 Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams July 2015 Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams September 2015
George Curtis BP Swiss Teams Oct 2015 Felixstowe GP Swiss Teams Oct 2015 Essex Fletcher Oct 2015
Essex Club Trophy Oct 2015 Bernie Butler Pairs Oct 2015 Bernie Butler Pairs Nov 2015
Essex Tony Kelvin Teams Nov 2015 Woodham Ferrers Swiss Teams January 2016 Ray Cornell Trophy February 2016
Collier Row Open Teams May 2016 Essex Mixed Teams 2016 George Curtis BP Teams 2016
Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams July 2016 Collier Row Random Teams July 2016 Essex/Herts GP Swiss Teams September 2016
Felixstowe GP Swiss Teams October 2016 Essex Fletcher Oct 2016 Essex Club Trophy Oct 2016
Sue Taylor Memorial Teams Nov 2016 ECL C&H July 2016 Ray Cornell Trophy February 2017
Collier Row Random Teams June 2017 George Curtis Teams June 2017 Warboys Heat 1, June 2017
Warboys Heat 2, July 2017   

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.

By ClubBy Date

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).

2016 GPs by ClubTotal GPs by Club2016 LPs by ClubTotal LPs by ClubTotal LPs by Name
2016 GPs (ECBA)Total GPs (ECBA)2016 LPs (ECBA)Total LPs (ECBA) 


In-Page Footnotes

Footnote 4:
  • This club struggled for attendees, and expired in 2016.


Note last updated: 01/05/2020 10:49:26


Text Colour Conventions

  1. Black: Printable Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020
  2. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2020

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Timestamp: 01/05/2020 10:55:33. Comments to theo@theotodman.com.