If you are reading this post in an email, the links to the deal generator may not work due to the way Substack modifies them for emails. To avoid that problem, click on or near the title of this post above in your email and read the post directly on the blog.
Hi, bridge pals.
A few bridge pals have told me that they find the deal generator overwhelming, and the user guide and tutorials don’t help them get started. In this post, I’m going to demonstrate some basic things with a minimum of explanation. If you are having trouble getting started, I ask you to follow along with the generator web page opened in your browser, and do as I do in this post.
Generate a random deal and save it to a file in Portable Bridge Notation (PBN) format.
Find the Generated Deal panel on the left side of the web page:
Click the “Random Deal” button at the top of the panel. You should see a deal. Here’s mine (yours should be unique):
Find the File Saver panel at the bottom left side of the web page. You will see an automatically-generated file name:
You can user the generated file name, or key in your own. Here, I key in my own file name. You don’t need to key a file extension—it is assigned based on which Save button you click:
Click the PBN button to save the file in Portable Bridge Notation. Files are saved in the Downloads folder; the location of that folder depends on how you have defined it in your browser preferences/settings.
Most browsers show you the result of saving a file. Here’s what my browser shows me:
Random deals aren’t all that useful, but now you know how to save your deals.
Generate a deal in which dealer has a hand suitable for opening 1 spade, with no interference from dealer’s LHO, and a partner with 6-9 HCP and support in spades.
Find the Deal Shaper panel at the top middle of the web page. Set shapes and point ranges as shown here:
For north, I selected a shape of “Spades Long” and 12 to 14 HCP. For east, I select 0 to 5 HCP. For south I selected 6 to 9 HCP. I left default values in west.
Find the Deal Recipe Maker panel at the middle of the web page. Key in placeholder values of “X” as shown here in the north and south hands:
I keyed “XXXXX” in north’s spades to request at least 5 spades. The “Spades Long” shape that I selected for north in the Deal Shaper panel will ensure that north has no other suit longer than spades.
I keyed “XXXB” in south’s spades to request exactly 3 spades. Keying a “B” at the end of a suit limits the length to however many placeholders you have keyed in.
Click the red “= Recipe, = Shaper” button of the Deal Recipe Maker panel.
You should now see a deal in the Generated Deal panel on the left side of the web page. The deal should have the shapes, points, and number of spades that you specified in the shaper and recipe panels:
Generate a deal in which dealer has a hand suitable for opening 1NT, with no interference from dealer’s LHO, and a partner with 8+ HCP and two four-card majors.
In the Deal Shaper panel, I selected a Balanced shape and 15 to 17 HCP for north, 0 to 5 HCP for east, and 8 to 37 HCP for south.
I keyed “XXXXB” in south’s spades and hearts to guarantee two 4-card major suits.
Click the red “= Recipe, = Shaper” button of the Deal Recipe Maker panel.
You should now see a deal in the Generated Deal panel on the left side of the web page. The deal should have the shapes, points, and number of spades and hearts that you specified in the shaper and recipe panels:
The generator has many more features that you may find useful. I hope this post gives you the confidence to start making your own deals and exploring other capabilities.
Let me hear from you. I want to remove all obstacles to easy bridge deal generation.
Happy dealing!