[SimonFa]

I know my declarer play is weak at the table, mainly because I tend to be tired at the end of the day and counting all suits and hands isn't instinctive yet. I'm OK with puzzles in books and magazines and discussions on the forums, but then I am not under time pressure, which I find a problem in the real world and on BBO.

I have read a number of books (Including Golden Rules of Declare Play by Julian Pottage and Marc Smith) and know its all about practice and was wondering about buying software that will take me through some of the more intermediate to advanced techniques.

I'm generally OK when dummy goes down: count my winners, count my losers, count the sides and make a quick estimation of how the suits break and then come up with a plan. The problem is that after the first couple of tricks I find I lose the plot and by half way through if the plan comes off the rails I find I've forgotten who played what, especially the spot cards so it become impossible to think about end plays or the results of squeezes.

Any software recommendations?

Thanks in advance,

Simon

[diana_eva]

BM2000 and variations - the best IMO

A free Demo here to try your hand:

http://bbi.bridgebas...kdemo_setup.exe

But there are several editions for various levels of play on the BBI site:

http://bbi.bridgebas...m/bbiindex.html

[semeai]

I second Bridgemaster 2000 for improving your declarer play. Many of the hands are oriented towards learning specific techniques, so it's slightly more to the theoretical side than the practical side, but getting to play the cards out and also getting to redo it if your solution was not correct (without having spoiled the problem) is a huge advantage over book problems.

For something slightly closer to practical real-world declarer play, I think the robot duplicate tournaments are pretty good for improving your declarer play. You get the best hand at the table, so you declare often (and when you're dummy it's very quick). Then afterwards you can compare with a bunch of humans playing the same opposition to see if there's anything they did differently. The bbombadmin ones are 25 cents for 8 hands in 25 minutes (pretty quick if you take time to think) and the ACBL ones are 1 dollar for 12 hands in 55 minutes (lots of time to think given that you're the only one taking any time at the table).

An alternative I haven't tried is renting a robot and playing duplicate imps in the main bridge club vs 3 robots: you still get to compare with others but don't have the strict time limit or the same fee per hand.