Bridge Ace - now PLAY LIVE‪!‬ 4+

Unique Bridge App

Although I am a terrible bridge player, I am enjoying practicing on this app. Each “round” of duplicate deals 8 hands to up to 8 players. Your score is compared to the AI player, and also shows your rank among the other players. I intend on improving since I am competing against so many! I DO wish that this was similar to another app I use where it is possible to replay and replay the same hand and, if unable to make the contract, have the tutor explain what needs to happen. For now, though, it is an addicting game to play. I enjoy it unless I end up 8th out of 8😢but that’s my fault, not the app!

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the fabulous comments.
You CAN replay any hand over and over ... and over!! Whenever you are on a hand, at any point, select Menu - then select 'Make Notes' (in the left bank of Menu options) Annotate the hand, and select 'save'. the hand is now saved and can be accessed whenever you wish from the Home page (the small button to the left of the large bank of buttons)
there's a dedicated video called 'My Hands' - (Select documents for a list of all the videos)
Can we now have the last star ?? :-) - Thank you :-)

Makes outrageous errors

Bridge Ace has some nice features. Its bidding is all right, but it makes errors on play and defense that are absurd and frustrating. When the player is on defense, it has no idea how to handle opening leads. For example, in a suit contract I led a small heart from Qxxxx. Dummy came down with K9 in hearts, good trumps, and six solid clubs. Declarer played the hK and partner won the hA. It’s obvious that it’s time to cash the defense’s winners before declarer can pitch his losers on the clubs. What did partner do? He returned a club from xxxxx! That was the end of the defense. When the app is defending, it generally plays okay in the open room, but makes ridiculous mistakes in the closed room. For example, it might lead the king from Kxxxx in an unbid suit, handing declarer the contact. And it often ducks the setting trick, even when it’s obvious that declarer has the rest of the tricks. iBridge Plus made a lot of errors, too, but it was less frustrating than Bridge Ace. I’m going back to iBridge.

LATER - I’ve updated the critical review above from 2 to 5 stars because: Bridge Ace has significantly upgraded the software. It has been a long time since I’ve seen errors such as I mentioned above; I play Bridge Ace almost every day. It’s fun and it improves my game.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for your review.
If you would be kind enough to email us directly I’ll gladly discuss your critique with you. App reviews are not the forum for user/developer discussions.

Not so Stellar as is Marketed

While the user interface is well designed and while I enjoy playing, I find myself frustrated in the following areas this leading to a 3 star review:
1-As in most bridge programs of this type, the authors use too many conventions. How about enabling a mode where most of these are turned off to support beginners who do not know or care not to learn them? Stayman and Jacoby xfer are the basics most of us learn early. Too many conventions are used here leading to a frustrating experience.
2-Where do you come off supporting an opening bid of one in a major with four cards? SAYC mandates a promise of five yet no matter what the setting your program continues to open with four in many cases. Never heard of this and also very frustrating.
3-It can be a bit frustrating replaying a hand to see how the ‘computer’ played it to earn so many points. After following many of these once again I get frustrated for it appears these conventions are coming out of nowhere leading to a contract that in no way would I have ever dreamed of playing in. In many cases it actually doesn’t even make sense. Many more times the play of the cards seems to be based on pure luck rather than strategy/ skill
4-Please - no program is bug free. Your recent email suggests otherwise.