Help Center
Everything you need to get started and make the most of BridgeTricks
Getting Started
BridgeTricks offers four main tools: the Bidding Architect for building bidding systems, a Deal Generator, a Simulator, and Double Dummy Analysis. Create a free account to get 7 starter credits and start using the tools.
- Sign up for free to receive 7 starter credits. You can explore the platform without an account, but an account is required to run any tool.
- Credits are consumed each time you generate deals, run simulations, or use AI-powered analysis. They never expire.
- The Bidding Architect does not consume credits - it uses a subscription model (free, Builder, or Pro) for advanced features.
- Use the navigation bar at the top to access the Bidding Architect and the Toolkit (Deal Generator, Simulator, DD Analysis).
- The Dashboard gives you an overview of your account, credit balance, and recent activity.
- Your credit balance is also displayed in the top-right corner of the navigation bar - click it to go to the Billing page.
Build, organize, and share your bridge bidding systems with our interactive visual editor. Create full systems or standalone conventions, add variations for different seats and vulnerabilities, and collaborate with your partner.
- Organize your systems and conventions into folders. Rename, duplicate, move, or delete items from the context menu.
- Import a file from community and create an editable copy to build on top of it.
- Guest users can create and edit systems locally in the browser without signing in, but data is stored only on that device.
- Each system is built as a tree of bidding nodes. Click a node to expand it and add child bids.
- Add a meaning or description to each bid, plus optional annotations and color highlights.
- Add free-form text chapters between bidding sequences for notes and explanations.
- Undo and redo are available for all edits. The total bid count is displayed in the toolbar.
- Create variations to define different bidding trees based on seat position (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) and vulnerability.
- When adding a bid, you can choose to insert an opponent bid instead - useful for documenting your agreements after interference.
- Share any system with other users by email. Choose between View (read-only) or Edit permissions.
- Shared systems appear in the recipient's file browser. Multiple users can edit simultaneously with real-time sync.
- Manage or revoke shares from the context menu at any time.
- Save snapshots of your system at any point. Each version is numbered and timestamped.
- View the full version history and restore any previous version.
- Useful for tracking changes over time or reverting experiments.
- Publish your systems to the Community tab so other users can discover and copy them.
- Browse community systems sorted by name, author, date, or popularity. Filter by tags like "Standard American", "Precision", "Acol", and more.
- Copying a community system creates a linked copy that tracks updates - you'll see a badge when the author publishes a new version.
- You can update to the latest version with one click, or make an editable copy to break the link and customize independently.
- Free - Create and edit systems up to 500 nodes. Browse and copy from the community.
- Builder - Removes the 500-node limit so you can build systems of any size.
- Pro - Everything in Builder, plus sharing, version history, community publishing, and linked copies.
Create up to 1,000 random bridge deals in a single request, with optional constraints on any or all four players.
- The Deal Generator has two main tabs: Setup (configure hands) and Results (view generated deals).
- In Setup, select a player (North, East, South, or West) and choose an input mode - Cards or Constraints.
- Set the number of deals to generate (1-1,000) and click "Run Generation" when ready. Results appear in the Results tab where you can browse each deal and export them.
- Click individual cards from each suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs) to assign them to the selected player's hand.
- Selected cards are highlighted. Click again to deselect. A counter shows how many cards you have selected out of 13.
- Cards assigned to one player are no longer available for other players.
Instead of picking exact cards, define rules that generated hands must satisfy. Constraints are organized in sets, each containing four tabs: Shapes, Suits, Honors, and HCP.
- A constraint set is a group of rules that a generated hand must satisfy.
- Create multiple sets per player using the "+ New Set" button. When multiple sets exist, a hand only needs to match one of them (OR logic).
- This lets you describe complex hand profiles - for example, Set 1: "balanced with 15-17 HCP" OR Set 2: "any shape with 20+ HCP".
- Each set can be renamed, duplicated, or deleted. The "Active Constraints" summary at the bottom shows your current rules at a glance.
Control the hand distribution shape. Contains four tools:
- Choose from hand distributions organized by category: Balanced (4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, 5-3-3-2), Semi-balanced (5-4-2-2, 6-3-2-2), Two-suited, Three-suited, and One-suited.
- Use the Allowed / Excluded toggle to control how selected shapes are applied.
- Allowed mode: only the selected shapes will appear in generated hands.
- Excluded mode: the selected shapes are filtered out; all other shapes are allowed.
- Set a minimum and maximum number of cards for each suit independently (e.g., 5-7 Spades, 0-2 Hearts).
- Each range can be toggled as Required (hands must satisfy it) or Excluded (hands matching it are filtered out).
- Click "Add" to activate the range. You can add multiple ranges to the same set.
- Useful when predefined shapes are too broad - for example, requiring exactly 5+ spades and 4+ hearts.
- Constrain the combined length of two or more suits together.
- Select the suits to include (e.g., Spades + Hearts for majors), then set a min and max total.
- Example: require that the two major suits total 8-10 cards.
- Compare the lengths of two suits using an operator and an offset.
- Select the first suit(s), an operator (=, ≥, ≤, >, <), the second suit(s), and an optional offset.
- Example: Spades ≥ Hearts + 2, meaning the hand must have at least 2 more spades than hearts.
Define card-level requirements and controls for slam analysis:
- Require that the hand holds a certain number of specific cards from a defined pool.
- Select one or more suits and one or more card ranks (A, K, Q, J, T, 9-2), then set a min and max count.
- Cards within the same suit use OR logic (hand needs any of those cards in that suit). Cards across different suits use AND logic.
- Example: require at least 2 of the top 3 spades (A, K, Q of Spades, min 2).
- Define first-round and second-round controls per suit - useful for slam-oriented hand generation.
- First Round Control: requires the Ace or a void in the selected suit.
- Second Round Control: requires the Ace, King, void, or singleton in the selected suit.
- Select one or more suits to apply each control type.
- Require specific honor cards (Ace, King, Queen, Jack) in each suit.
- Click the honor card buttons per suit to toggle them on or off. A counter shows how many honors are required (up to 5).
- Example: require the hand to hold the Ace and King of Spades and the Ace of Hearts.
- Set a minimum and maximum HCP range for the hand (0-37).
- Standard counting: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1.
- Click "Confirm HCP" to apply the range to the constraint set.
- Combine with shape and suit constraints for precise hand types - for example, "balanced with 15-17 HCP".
The Simulator runs large-scale deal generation and double-dummy analysis to produce statistical insights. It follows a guided 5-step flow.
- Contract Simulation - Analyze how often each contract makes, average tricks taken, constraint distributions, and more across thousands of random deals.
- Lead Simulation - Evaluate all 13 possible opening leads for a specific contract. Find the best lead based on average tricks given to declarer.
Define hands for each player. You can mix Cards mode and Constraints mode across different players.
- Click individual cards from each suit (Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs) to assign them to the selected player's hand.
- Selected cards are highlighted. Click again to deselect. A counter shows how many cards you have selected out of 13.
- Cards assigned to one player are no longer available for other players.
Instead of picking exact cards, define rules that generated hands must satisfy. Constraints are organized in sets, each containing four tabs: Shapes, Suits, Honors, and HCP.
- A constraint set is a group of rules that a generated hand must satisfy.
- Create multiple sets per player using the "+ New Set" button. When multiple sets exist, a hand only needs to match one of them (OR logic).
- This lets you describe complex hand profiles - for example, Set 1: "balanced with 15-17 HCP" OR Set 2: "any shape with 20+ HCP".
- Each set can be renamed, duplicated, or deleted. The "Active Constraints" summary at the bottom shows your current rules at a glance.
Control the hand distribution shape. Contains four tools:
- Choose from hand distributions organized by category: Balanced (4-3-3-3, 4-4-3-2, 5-3-3-2), Semi-balanced (5-4-2-2, 6-3-2-2), Two-suited, Three-suited, and One-suited.
- Use the Allowed / Excluded toggle to control how selected shapes are applied.
- Allowed mode: only the selected shapes will appear in generated hands.
- Excluded mode: the selected shapes are filtered out; all other shapes are allowed.
- Set a minimum and maximum number of cards for each suit independently (e.g., 5-7 Spades, 0-2 Hearts).
- Each range can be toggled as Required (hands must satisfy it) or Excluded (hands matching it are filtered out).
- Click "Add" to activate the range. You can add multiple ranges to the same set.
- Useful when predefined shapes are too broad - for example, requiring exactly 5+ spades and 4+ hearts.
- Constrain the combined length of two or more suits together.
- Select the suits to include (e.g., Spades + Hearts for majors), then set a min and max total.
- Example: require that the two major suits total 8-10 cards.
- Compare the lengths of two suits using an operator and an offset.
- Select the first suit(s), an operator (=, ≥, ≤, >, <), the second suit(s), and an optional offset.
- Example: Spades ≥ Hearts + 2, meaning the hand must have at least 2 more spades than hearts.
Define card-level requirements and controls for slam analysis:
- Require that the hand holds a certain number of specific cards from a defined pool.
- Select one or more suits and one or more card ranks (A, K, Q, J, T, 9-2), then set a min and max count.
- Cards within the same suit use OR logic (hand needs any of those cards in that suit). Cards across different suits use AND logic.
- Example: require at least 2 of the top 3 spades (A, K, Q of Spades, min 2).
- Define first-round and second-round controls per suit - useful for slam-oriented hand generation.
- First Round Control: requires the Ace or a void in the selected suit.
- Second Round Control: requires the Ace, King, void, or singleton in the selected suit.
- Select one or more suits to apply each control type.
- Require specific honor cards (Ace, King, Queen, Jack) in each suit.
- Click the honor card buttons per suit to toggle them on or off. A counter shows how many honors are required (up to 5).
- Example: require the hand to hold the Ace and King of Spades and the Ace of Hearts.
- Set a minimum and maximum HCP range for the hand (0-37).
- Standard counting: Ace = 4, King = 3, Queen = 2, Jack = 1.
- Click "Confirm HCP" to apply the range to the constraint set.
- Combine with shape and suit constraints for precise hand types - for example, "balanced with 15-17 HCP".
- Pick the declarer: North, East, South, or West.
- Select one or two contracts from the full grid - all levels (1-7) across all five strains (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades, No Trump).
- Choose the contract status: undoubled, doubled, or redoubled.
- Set the vulnerability for each side (Non-Vulnerable or Vulnerable).
- For Lead Simulation, the contract determines which opening leads are evaluated.
- Choose how many hands to simulate: 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000.
- Larger simulations produce more reliable statistics but cost more credits.
- Maximum duration is 10 minutes.
- Review detailed statistical output including distribution charts, probability tables, and double-dummy results.
- For Contract Simulation: see how often the contract makes, average tricks taken, and how constraints are distributed.
- For Lead Simulation: compare all 13 opening leads ranked by average tricks given to declarer.
Enter a bridge deal using one of three input methods, then view the optimal number of tricks for every contract and player combination assuming perfect play.
- Upload a screenshot or photo of a hand diagram (JPG, PNG, JPEG). The AI detection works with hand diagrams only - it does not recognize real playing cards.
- The AI will detect and extract all four hands automatically.
- For best results: ensure the image is good quality, all four hands are visible, and the diagram is preferably centered in the picture.
- Describe the hands verbally using your microphone with standard bridge terminology.
- The voice recognition system parses your input into a complete deal.
- Useful for quickly entering deals without typing or clicking.
- Click cards from an interactive picker to build each player's hand.
- Select a player, then click cards suit by suit.
- This method gives you complete control over the deal.
- Once the deal is entered, you can play the hand interactively using the built-in DD solver.
- Toggle the DD table to see the maximum number of tricks for each makable contract.
Credits are the currency for using BridgeTricks tools. Every new account gets 7 free credits. Credits never expire.
- Deal Generator - 1 credit per request (up to 1,000 deals).
- Simulation - 2 credits (1K deals), 4 credits (5K), 7 credits (10K), or 10 credits (20K).
- DD Analysis - 2 credits for image upload or voice input; manual card entry is free.
- Small pack - 20 credits for €3.50.
- Medium pack - 55 credits for €8.50 - save 12%.
- Large pack - 120 credits for €17.50 - save 17%.
- Credits are added instantly after payment and never expire.
- The Bidding Architect offers three plans: Free, Builder, and Pro.
- Free - Create and edit systems up to 500 bids. Browse and copy from the community.
- Builder - Removes the 500-bid limit so you can build systems of any size.
- Pro - Everything in Builder, plus sharing with partners, version history, community publishing, and linked copies.
- Plans are billed monthly or yearly. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time from the Billing page.
General
BridgeTricks is an online platform for bridge players. It includes the Bidding Architect for building and sharing bidding systems, a Deal Generator, a Simulator for contract and lead simulations, and Double Dummy Analysis powered by AI card recognition.
It is designed for bridge players of all levels - from beginners analyzing hands with the double dummy solver to advanced players building complete bidding systems, studying hand distributions, and running simulations.
You can explore the platform and build bidding systems as a guest, but you need to sign up to run tools that consume credits. Creating a free account gives you 7 starter credits and persistent storage for your bidding systems.
Bidding Architect
Yes. When adding a bid, you can choose to insert an opponent bid instead of your own. This lets you document your agreements after overcalls, doubles, and other interference.
Free accounts can create systems with up to 500 nodes. The Builder plan removes this limit so you can build systems of any size. Your existing data is preserved if you downgrade - systems over 500 nodes simply become read-only.
With the Pro plan, you can share any system with other users by email. Choose View (read-only) or Edit permissions. Shared systems appear in the recipient's file browser. Only Pro users can edit shared systems, a non Pro can view them in read-only mode. Multiple Pro users can edit simultaneously with real-time sync.
When you copy a system from the Community, you get a linked copy that tracks the original. When the author publishes a new version, you'll see an "Update available" badge and can update with one click. You can also break the link to customize independently.
Yes. Guest users can create and edit systems locally in the browser. However, data is stored only on that device and limited to 500 nodes. Sign in for persistent cloud storage and additional features.
No. The Bidding Architect is free to use with a 500-node limit. Advanced features (unlimited nodes, sharing, version history, community) are available through the Builder and Pro subscription plans.
Credits & Pricing
Every new account starts with 7 free credits.
Deal generation costs 1 credit per request (up to 1,000 deals). Simulation costs vary by deal count: 2 credits for 1K deals, 4 for 5K, 7 for 10K, and 10 for 20K. DD Analysis via image upload or voice input costs 2 credits; manual card entry is free.
Visit the Billing page from your dashboard or the credits button in the navigation bar. We offer several credit packs at different price points - larger packs provide better value per credit.
No. Credits remain in your account until you use them.
Since credits are a digital product consumed immediately, we generally do not offer refunds. If you experience a technical issue that caused credits to be lost, please contact our support team.
Deal Generator
Yes. The Deal Generator lets you export results so you can play them on different platforms or share them with your bridge partners.
See the Constraints mode section in the Guidelines tab for full details on each type.
A constraint set is a group of rules (shapes, suits, honors, HCP) that a hand must satisfy. You can create multiple sets per player to describe hands that fit different profiles - for example, "balanced with 15-17 HCP" OR "any shape with 20+ HCP". The generator will produce deals matching any of the defined sets.
This usually means the constraints you set are too restrictive and no valid deal can be found. Try relaxing one or more constraints and regenerate.
Simulator
Contract Simulation analyzes how often a contract makes across thousands of random deals matching your constraints, showing success rates, average tricks, and statistical distributions. Lead Simulation evaluates all 13 possible opening leads for a specific contract and finds the best lead based on average tricks given to declarer.
See the Constraints mode section in the Guidelines tab for full details on each type.
You can choose between 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, or 20,000 hands. Larger simulations produce more reliable statistics but cost more credits.
Double Dummy Solver
The AI model is highly accurate with clear hand diagrams. For best results, use a good quality image with all four hands visible and the diagram centered. Note that the detection works with hand diagrams only, not real playing cards.
Make sure you are uploading a hand diagram, not a photo of real cards. Ensure the image is good quality with all four hands visible and the diagram centered. You can also switch to manual input to enter the deal by hand.
Once the deal is entered, you can play the hand interactively using the built-in DD solver. Toggle the DD table to see the maximum number of tricks for each makable contract, assuming perfect play by all four players.
Account
Click "Forgot password" on the login page and enter your email. You will receive a link to set a new password.
Yes. We only store the minimum data needed to operate your account. Card images uploaded for analysis are processed and not stored permanently. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
You can request account deletion from your Dashboard settings. This will permanently remove your account and all associated data.
Credits are added once the payment is confirmed. If your balance has not updated after a few minutes, try refreshing the page. If the issue persists, contact support.