What is this site?

Bridge Problems is a collection of Bridge problems (surprise!) from various sources.

Wait, what's Bridge?

If you're totally new to Bridge, then you're about to learn the world's best card game! You can download the LearnBridge app for iOS or Android to learn the game, and then come back here to practice!

How far along in development is Bridge Problems?

The core functionality is complete, though there's still some visual polish missing. There are only around 20 problems currently, but I have many more to add. (This statement was last updated Dec. 11, 2024)

Why does Bridge Problems exist?

I'm an avid consumer of Bridge problems. I own over 150 Bridge books and a lot of Bridge software. However, there are a variety of issues I want to address with this site:

1. Some books have answers on the same page as the problems. Even when books put the answers on the back of the page, the paper can be thin enough that it's easy to see the full hand diagram. Modern books typically avoid these problems by putting the answers a few pages away from the problems, though that still involves a bit of page-flipping.
   Bridge Problems completely hides answers from you until you're ready to see them.
2. Some problems have multiple parts (What do you play at trick 1? After you find out trumps split 4-1, what do you do?), and sometimes the later parts contain spoilers or hints for the earlier parts. It can be hard to avoid those spoilers when the questions are printed in succession on a page.
   Bridge software does a great job of presenting problems one piece at a time. Unfortunately, Bridge software accounts for a small minority of published Bridge problems, and is frequently platform-specific (most of it is Windows-only).
   Bridge Problems presents problems piece-by-piece, allowing you to think through the problem without spoilers until you're ready with your answer. Bridge Problems is also available anywhere you have a web browser.
3. Many Bridge problems are in themed collections that give you a clue about how to solve the problem. If the problem is in a book called "Squeezes", you have a pretty strong clue as to what'll be involved. If the problem is in a book called "101 Easy Bridge Problems", you probably won't spend much time looking for small improvements to your line.
   Bridge Problems lets you study problems at random without any indication of the difficulty or techniques involved, just like when you encounter Bridge problems in real life. Bridge Problems also lets you study a particular topic or difficulty of problem if you desire.
4. Bridge books don't make it easy to track which problems you've solved and which you need more practice with. Some Bridge software tracks this a bit, but most of it doesn't.
   Bridge Problems keeps track of the problems you've solved, and presents you with problems you either haven't seen, or that you failed to solve some time ago. Bridge Problems also tries to give you problems of an appropriate difficulty based on what you've succeeded or failed at previously.

How should I use Bridge Problems?

To begin with, I highly recommend making an account by hitting Log In in the upper-right corner. When you're logged in, Bridge Problems tracks which problems you've solved and how recently you've seen them. It uses this information to suggest problems that are around the right difficulty for you.

I've assigned each problem a difficulty level from 1 to 5, generally calibrated to the same scale that Bridge Master uses.

• Level 1: These problems are for new players. They cover very fundamental concepts such as planning at trick 1, counting winners and losers, establishing suits, and finessing.
• Level 2: These problems are for intermediate players. Common topics include inferences from the auction and play, suit combinations, entry management, and combining chances across different lines of play.
• Level 3: These problems are for advanced players. Common topics include throw-ins and endplays, complicated suit combinations, safety plays, and proactively anticipating bad layouts.
• Level 4: These problems are for budding experts. Common topics include standard squeezes, trump coups, elopement, and deceptive play.
• Level 5: These problems are for very strong players. They cover niche topics that do not appear frequently in real play, and frequently involve very careful counting or very careful analysis between lines with similar probabilities of success.

If you're a relatively new Bridge player, I recommend going to the Problems page and selecting just level 1. Then hit List Problems to see all of the level 1 problems. Once you've gone through those, go through the level 2 problems.

If you're an experienced Bridge player, I recommend going to the Problems page and just hitting Random Problem. This will most accurately simulate the experience of encountering a random hand at the table, where you have no idea in advance about how difficult the hand will be, or what themes will be involved. You can turn off some of higher-level problems as desired, of course.

Note that easier problems tend to be explained more thoroughly for the sake of learning. If you find the easy problems to be too long-winded, you can skim the answer to confirm that you have the right line, or just filter out the lower-level problems.

Who are you?

I'm a competitive Bridge player (ACBL Life Master) in the California Bay Area, and I'm the author of LearnBridge. I enjoy teaching others as well as improving my own game.

I have questions / feedback!

I'm always happy to hear from people! You can email me at wesley@learnbridge.com. If you have any comments about a particular problem, please provide a link or the problem number.