Haverfordwest Bridge Club, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK

Haverfordwest Bridge Club

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BENEFITS of BRIDGE

Bridge – what is it all about?

Bridge is a fun and challenging card game which combines skill with fortune. Played in tables of four people, the rules of the game are relatively straightforward, allowing even debutantes with a few lessons under their belt to play with confidence – although becoming an expert can take a lifetime!

Bridge has changed from the early days when it was the game of choice in exclusive clubs and high society. It remains a popular social game in homes but is now also played competitively in clubs (duplicate bridge) and on the Internet. Recent years have seen the development of the professional game with sponsors creating teams to vie for the world’s top prizes and Bridge holidays on cruises and exotic locations.

Bridge not only has a social side but it’s good for the brain or so it seems!
Link Bridge for Brain Health

Refresher or Improver

Maybe you’ve just done some lessons, or learnt bridge at home. Or you played bridge before and want to get back into it there are many options such as ‘supervised play’ where you play duplicate in a more relaxed pace with advice from experts. Improver lessons that explore beyond the basics to improve your techniques and understanding of the game. Individual or small groups’ tuition which typically happens in a more social environment

Club Level Player?
There are clubs throughout the country both WBU Affiliated and Non Affiliated. All the clubs welcome guests and they operate on different days of the week so there should be able to find a club that suits your needs. Some clubs run afternoon sessions and some evening, all with parking facilities or arrangements.
The clubs vary in location and standards but all are friendly and welcoming.

Tips for Scorers

Please take care when entering scores

As you know, we had a problem 31/10, with an incorrect score being entered onto the bridgemate at one of the arrow-switch tables. It wasn’t noticed until the results were published and the masterpoints uploaded, which required extra work to correct the problem. As a result of this and also due to some other queries regarding playing procedures, our President has asked me to say a few words to remind everybody of the laws and protocols to be followed. I know this will be old hat to many, but please bear with me.

I will start with the initial table procedures. North is in charge of the table and should start by ensuring that they have the right players, in the right seats, with the correct boards. In the first round, North should tell both pairs what their pair number is.
Once that has been done, the cards are removed from the first board and the bidding starts. The board in play must remain on the table, in the right orientation, so all can see who the dealer is and what the vulnerability is for both pairs. This also helps to prevent the cards from being put back into the board incorrectly.
Once the bidding has finished, the bidding cards are left on the table until any questions have been answered, North has entered the contract into the bridgemate and the opposition has put their lead card face down on the table. Some players have gotten into the habit of putting away their bidding cards immediately after the bidding ends, but this is not correct.
Once the board has been played, North enters the result into the bridgemate and offers it to East/West, to verify the details. This verification is important, as it is the last chance to correct any errors before the director’s assistance is required. East and West pairs - please make sure that you check the full details of the contract, including the orientation, and not just the score.
Once the score has been accepted, the bridgemate should be returned to North, without pressing any further buttons. It is then North’s responsibility to tell everybody what happened in previous rounds and to move the bridgemate on to the next board.
At the end of the round, North tells everybody where they are going next. Please do not advance the bridgemate any further than that screen. It may seem helpful to press on, to find what boards are required at the table next, but this causes a problem for the next North, as they will be unable to check that they have the right people at the table.

Where there is an arrow-switch at the table, it is acceptable to turn the boards, rather than for the remaining pair to swap seats. However, this puts an extra responsibility on North to ensure that the contract is entered with the new orientation and for the East/West pair to double check this when they are asked to verify the score.
Finally, a few words on end of play. If there is a half-table and you are the last sit out pair. Please would you clear your table before making an early exit. For the remainder, again it would be much appreciated if you could help to clear away the room before heading for the carpark.

Thank you for your patience – does anybody have any questions on what I have just said?

Tips for Scorers

Feb 2018. You can access information on the use of the PlayBridgeDealer4+ dealing machine here.

Please access the Abbreviated step-by-step instructions here.

November 2015: abbreviated instructions for using PairsScorer and Bridgemates here. Any problems - see the links below plus what to do about communication problems here; they are also printed out and kept in the lid of the Bridgemate storage case. NB to print out handsheets (a few players prefer this to using the Internet), use the Dealer4 program with pdfprinter, and print 2-side because the program unfortunately won't put more than 24 boards on a page.

June 2015. Our new Bridgemates have arrived.

I am proposing to use PairsScorer to run these rather than Scorebridge, because it is free of charge.

Preliminary notes on the use of PairsScorer and Bridgemate II are here, Jeffrey Smith's very useful instructions are here, and Tony Haworth's even more detailed instructions written for the WBU here.

The notes below about using Scorebridge have been kept in case of future use, for example using BOS to place the handsheet on the desktop for importing into the event.

However, currently the method being used for handsheet printing is the menu option in the Dealer4 program. This has the disadvantage that it doesn't allow more than 24 boards per page so that printing it requires setting up the print to be two-sided, so is slightly cumbersome. However, using BOS needs conversion of pbn to dlm files which is even more cumbersome.

Peter Milewski June-Nov 2015

Dear Scorer,

Gone are the days of extensive instructions and trying to get to grips with uploads and html. BridgeWebs makes it easy because there is a menu option in Scorebridge to send results up instantaneously (assuming you are using Scorebridge of course, and connected to the internet).

Note: I finally sussed out getting connected at the Club. It's "The Cloud" and you connect with username haverfordwestbc@live.co.uk (which happens to be the club's email address) and a password which you won't get any prizes for guessing. So you can instantly upload the results once you have finished scoring. But do remember when you get home to check the travellers. If you have to make a correction, do so, then "Send" the results to BridgeWebs again. The old result will be overwritten.

** Addendum April 2015: the Cloud has just started asking for a computer identity as well as everything else; I have used "hbc". **

So, having scored up, just click "Send" and then the "Send results to BridgeWebs" option. It may ask for our login name and password (see above), but usually doesn't.

If you are also planning to upload Master Points, you will, having uploaded the last event's points, need to "Make File" ' "P2P file".

Just one tip for BridgeWebs in particular - that is, how to get the handsheets (preferably with makeable contracts calculated) into Bridgewebs. This is how:

In BOS load up the event and run Dupsoft, then make sure the "Makeable Contracts" have been calculated (it will show 28/28 boards or whatever the number of boards is for that deal).
If that calculation hasn't been completed then click "Makeable Contracts". It takes a few minutes.
Then click "Print". Make sure that the box for saving to the desktop is ticked.
A pdf of the handsheet will appear, and you can check that it actually shows the makeable contracts (also the relevant files will have been saved to the desktop for easy finding).
You don't actually need to print this, just close the pdf window.
In Scorebridge, get to the Scoresheet page and click "Preferences/Options – This Event Only"; this gets you a File Manager window.
Find the event folder on the desktop (usually identified by its date) and open it.
Now comes the special bit for BridgeWebs: click the ".pbn" file. That is the one that contains the makeable contracts and is understood by both Scorebridge and BridgeWebs - if you click any of the others, BridgeWebs may not get the information (I know it recognizes .pbn, but not some or all of the others).
The handsheets will be incorporated into the scoring pages in Scorebridge, but you can't see the makeable contracts yet.
However, after you have sent the results to BridgeWebs, the makeable contracts will be on the handsheets there.

Hey Presto!

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