BriJ

  BJ Bridge for Android, iPhone and iPad

Home page: Introduction to BriJ

BJ Bridge ( BriJ for short) is a unique duplicate bridge bidding and playing game for Apple iPhones, iPads and Android devices including Kindle Fire. 

  Watch introduction
                          Also 'How To' videos - YouTube
get it from the AppStore get it from Amazon Get it on Google Play
                                           Look out for more symbols on these pages.


   

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  • BriJ is designed both for beginners and those who know a bit about the game. There's copious help at every stage. If you decide to turn on hinting, there is guidance and detailed explanation for each bid and play of the cards, whether it's you or the computer playing the cards.

    Touching any bidding or playing card opens a window to explain why the play was made. There is also an automatic "Did you know" feature to offer basic guidance in the early stages of getting to know the game

  • There are two free versions. BriJ Lite follows a Benjaminised Acol style of bidding, conforming in the main to the "Bridge for All" method recommended by the English Bridge Union. Another version of BriJ, designed for beginners to the Acol style of bidding is Duplicate Bridge Beginner. This is based around the English Bridge Union Foundation Level.
    See BriJ Bidding and Playing Conventions

  • The PRO version of BriJ has further options to choose a bidding method from any of 

        ▶ Acol -     Absoulte beginner; Foundation level for EBU students; Level 2 for EBU students, Advanced ACOL (with many added conventions).
        ▶ SAYC (Standard American Yellow Card) -     Beginner; SAYC with common conventions; Advanced SAYC (with many added conventions)
        ▶ Benj Acol -     Basic or Advanced

    Within your chosen system, the PRO version also lets you select or reject individual conventions and lets you adjust point ranges assumed for opening bids, e.g. for 1NT or 2NT

  • BriJ is optimised for the type of device you are using, whether Android tablet or mobile phone. 
    Layouts change automatically in the mobile mode to fit in with limited screen space.

     


    This example shows BriJ running on various android devices with varying operating systems: iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPad 2, 10.1 inch Motorola Xoom 2 tablet, Nexus 7, 8.2 inch Motorola Xoom 2ME tablet, Nexus 4 (4.7 inch) and Nexus 5 (4.95 inch), galaxy S4 (5 inch), San Francisco II (3.5 inch) Nook (7 inch).
    It also shows some of the varying layouts you can choose to play the game.

    At the time of writing, you can purchase a 7 inch tablet with decent screen resolution and bluetooth for under £50, so if you find BriJ useful, this could be a good option

  • If you have bluetooth you can connect up with other players to practice bidding and playing as a partnership. If your partner wins the contract you get the option to play in defence (against your partner) or to play the contract at the same time and independently of partner. Connect with bluetooth and play anywhere, without Internet access!

  • You can play in one or more seats at the same time, optionally choosing to see hands one at a time. You can also rotate the table to play an alternative hand, for example to mirror your seating position at a club match

  • BriJ is oriented towards Duplicate Bridge. It provides realism by showing a proper bidding box. Tricks are also laid out as you would expect in a normal game. Results of your playing efforts are converted to Duplicate scores against two opponents and you can see your running average as a percentage

  • Experienced club players can download hands from their club website (when using BridgeWebs). BriJ will then include double-dummy results if shown on your club site, as well as individual pairs results actually achieved. You can replay the hands against BriJ opposition to find out where you went wrong!

  • You can also download Tournament deals and results and pitch yourself against champion bridge players. BriJ comes with a number of examples of tournament heats pre-loaded

  • BriJ bidding and BriJ playing engines use the same logic as real human players. You have a reasonable chance of beating your computer opponents, because BriJ does not cheat by peeking at the hidden cards to find that impossible play! Like a real player, BriJ will improve all the time. Look out for later releases!

  • BriJ deals are totally random. You can ask BriJ to show predictions of what contracts are likely in a particular deal and how many tricks ought to be made. Use this information before you start bidding if you want to use it as a target for your own play. Or see it only after you have played the contract

  • In the PRO version, you can ask BriJ to select from random deals one that illustrates a particular convention such as Puppet Stayman, for learning / practice purposes
     
  • Any deal can be saved for playing at a later date and can be passed to other BriJ players via email

  • During bidding or play, you can cancel a card drawn in error, or UNDO bidding or play to any earlier point if you want to try an alternative strategy. There's a Claim button to avoid playing out to the last trick

  • There is plenty of tutorial material to help you get used to the BriJ game and its many option settings, both within the game and on this website (see  User Guide,  Bridge Beginners and FAQ). Please use the Support page to leave feedback on things that you like/dislike, suggestions for future BriJ releases and to provide details of any problems you find.

  • You can also browse the BriJ Forum to get help from other BriJ users or to offer your expertise to others