[csdenmark]

[tt]Deal generator and analyzer for estimating probability
Bridgelys, a deal generator and analyzer for estimating probability is available for download. The output of Bridgelys and the theoretical probability calculations above have been checked for mutual consistency. This console application, based on the C++ language random function, has been specifically designed to estimate probability in a pre-bid situation, rather than generating deals for play.[/tt]

I have downloaded this above mentioned tool from:

http://www.absoftwar.../kkbridgel.html

I hoped it was a deal generator handy to customize. Pity I cannot and I really dont understand what it really is. The installation takes place in BridgeVu so some kind of connection to BBO I assume.

Anybody able to help explaining what it really is and perhaps how I will be able to generate a deal generator from this?

[ack_hh]

>> I hoped it was a deal generator handy to customize.

No, it's more a hand analyzer --> "[..] has been specifically designed to estimate probability in a pre-bid situation, rather than generating deals for play"

>> The installation takes place in BridgeVu so some kind of connection to BBO I assume.

No, the program and the accompanying help file will be extracted to any folder you specify.

>> Anybody able to help explaining what it really is and perhaps how I will be able to generate a deal generator from this?

Open a DOS window (command prompt, also known as console) - change to the folder where the application has been extracted to, and enter "bridgelys".
Select the mode you wish to use (1 - 4, or 0), then enter the south hand (e.g. SA, SK, H10, H9, ...), then follow the on-screen instructions.

If you are looking for a deal generator, I'd suggest the following link:
http://www.google.co...+hand+generator
(or some similar search criteria)

Edit: see Deal 3.0 --> http://thomaso.best....et/bridge/deal/

Regards
Andreas

[csdenmark]

Thank you Andreas - you did what I ought to have done myself before asking.

I now see it is not a deal generator I am looking for it is a hand-generator. I have links for 2 of those and this one is for Currified Precision:

http://home.san.rr.c...ler/Dealer.html

What I intend to is to try to modify so it can be used in standard Precision and also to add preempts so it will be suited for Belladonna/Garozzo version.

I am also interested to try to see if possible to create something for the polish pass systems and maybe defensive bidding.

I have no idea of this - and of course it is more simple just to specify the wishes than to try to do something.

Your Google links seems to have some interesting adresses and I intend to pursue this way.

Thank you for your kind help Andreas!

[hrothgar]

Hi Claus

My favorite deal generator is Hans Van Stavern's "Dealer". Its an excellent freeware program that "only" suffers from one major problem. I've never been able to get the thing to run under Windows XP.

[csdenmark]

Maybe something like that instead of convention cards Richard? A specific online convention card tool requiring no skills.

If it will be possible to modify for defensive, e.i. it will also be able to use for continuations. Technically that ought to be the same - a decision dependent of the outcome of another decision. Right?

If right then the decision maybe will be able to be forwarded by a script-generator.

[hrothgar]

Hi Claus

I don’t think that a hand generator is an effective substitute or even complement for a convention card. While a hand generator can be used to produce representative examples of a 1S opening, this really isn’t useful information.

Looking at a single 1S opening bid doesn’t tell me anything about the minimum/maximum strength for the bid, the frequency distribution for expected strength, expected suit length, allowed hand shapes, or a host of other critical data points. In principle, the hand generator could be used to produce a large sample of hands. However, in practice I doubt that I would be willing to stare at the hands and try to extract the relevant information.

Potentially, it might be possible to develop a program that would take 1000 examples of a 1S opening as input and then generate an appropriate set of summary statistics that could be quickly digested at a glance (a picture is worth a 1000 words). I argue that this type of data mining could provide better information about partnership understandings than is currently available to all but the most finely tuned partnerships.

Here once again, I have doubts whether a hand generator is the best source of raw data. I really doubt that most pairs will go to the time/effort to code a hand generator that is an accurate match for their judgment. I actually have a set of scripts that I think come pretty close to modeling my judgement, however, even after a lot of tinkering I am still finding outliers.

As an alterative, consider feeding a database of hand records for a given partnership into the same program. For example, extract 1000 examples where “Hrothgar” chose to open 1H in first seat playing MOSCITO and use this to generate the summary statistics. My guess is that such a program would have some real value, assuming, of course that the database was able to support this type of requirement. Who knows, 15 years from now, we might have all this available.

I am somewhat amused that some of these same themes are being discussed on the bridge laws mailing list.

[Gerardo]

Richard, do you mean "BigDeal" (by HvS)?
I'm running it right now in XP, no problems.

Also, Kaj G Backas made a frontend for Windows, and also version for Windows, I assume based on (freely available) HvS's code.

But it has different goals than Andrews's "Deal". This one is scriptable to generate hands based on customizable criteria, while "BigDeal" just generates random hands, using a strong random function.

Oops, stand corrected: "Dealer" is a program, also by HvS, similar to "Deal".

Richard, the dealer.exe is compiled under the cygwin environment, you need to install it for dealer.exe to work. Else, type the mdealer.exe

[hrothgar]

Hi Geraldo

BigDeal is a program that Hans wrote to generate hands for use in tournaments.
As you noted, the major design goal was to implement a cryptograhpically secure pseudo-random number generator. [There were some interesting discussions about the feasibility of "cracking" a set of deals over a dinner break]

Dealer was an earlier program designed for simulation experiments. Dealer allows users to write quite complicated scripts to simulate differ bidding systems.