Playing the Cards

Once the auction is done there are three main possibilities:

• You are the declarer: your Left Hand Opponent (LHO) has played a card and you see the Dummy
• You are on lead against an opponent’s contract: initially you only see your hand.
• Your partner leads and you can see his card and the Dummy

Here you are the declarer

You have all the time you need to plan your play, so don't rush! Vu-Bridge is a very patient teacher. Often you will see the "Show Comment" button at the top left corner of the "table mat".

Important: When the "Show Comment" is displayed the play is stopped until you read the comment below (scroll down the page if necessary) and you tap the "Play On" button.



On a Smartphone the cards are rather small and it would be tricky to tap one of them with enough precision, therefore you should proceed in two steps to play a card:

Choose from which suit you want to play a card and tap ANY card in that suit! Here's what will happen:



Notice that since you must follow suit all the Spades has been pre-selected for you. Tapping the card you want to play is now easy, even for those with fat fingers or those wearing boxing gloves! If you've got no more cards (or a void) in the suit to follow, then no card will be automatically raised. You must then tap on the suit you want to play from and it will raise. Then tap the chosen card.

What happens when there is only one card remaining in a suit?

If you must follow suit, the first tap will suffice and the card is played. When you are on lead (playing the first card in a trick) and you have a choice of suits, then the single card will raise, but you must tap it again to play it.

Self-raised suit: when Vu-Bridge knows which suit you must play from, the cards in that suit are automatically raised for you, hence you only have to tap the chosen card once.

Important: If the suit has only one card left that card is raised too, but not played: you will notice that is is slightly larger than usual until you tap it. We've done this so that you don't feel like the play is slipping through without you having enough time to see what's hapening.

During the play there are several commands available to you in the Menu:

• Show Auction let's you review the auction.
• Review Last Trick will show the former trick for 3 seconds
• Comment On toggles the comments "On" or "Off"
• Show 4 Hands wil let you play double dummy. Sometimes when there are very long suits in one hand this feature is not very legible on a smartphone.
• Replay let's you start this hand again from the bidding
• Undo Last Trick cancels the cards played in the current trick, and puts the play back one trick. This is very useful if you want to read some previous comment again. You can undo one or several tricks.
• Auto Next toggles between automatic and manual play. When "Off" you will see a "Next" button appear after the 4th card of a trick is played. The current (finished) trick will remain on display until you click "Next", so that you can play at your own pace.
• Return will stop playing the current board and return to the list of hands - the Series - where it comes from.

Vu-Bridge is interactive: sometimes a comment, a hint or a question will show during the play.

Vu-Bridge is like a teacher sitting over your shoulder. He will tell you how to plan your play, when to pause to think, and guide you through the whole playing of the hand.

This is the best way to improve your bridge skills: getting used to planning and thinking like the champions will help you construct a better, sounder play in the real life.

At key points during the play, you will see the "Show Comment" button appear. Click on it and the page will scroll down so you can read the comment attached to the current card.

Important: the play is on halt while a comment is shown and you must tap the "Play On" button to dismiss that text and continue playing.

Some comments are like Russian Dolls: they contain a first paragraph, and hidden answers inside it. When you see a Think and Click button, you should refrain from clicking it at once! Instead, try to find out what the point is and understand what the author says. Then only you will click to reveal the answer. Sometimes the answer text is too low and you can't see it. Scroll down the page with your finger.

Once the play is over...

After the last card is played, or if your hand is high and you click the "Claim" button, the play stops and a final comment is shown below the hand. It will usually summarize what you've learnt from the hand and will emphazise on key points. If you scroll a bit more down the page you'll see a list of all the boards available in the current series. Click on the numbers to the left to go directly from one hand to another, without having to display the main page again.