Creating your own deal files

Then, the editor window opens :

Next, it becomes possible to deal each card :

• either by a simple click to give the card to the highlighted player.

• either by dragging the card and dropping it onto the hand of your choice.

Some buttons are provided to pick up all the cards, to deal them at random or to finish an incomplete dealing. The Adjust to the board button allows, after having entered a deal number, to make sure that the dealer and the vulnerability are in accordance with the official boards.

Tips

• Before opening the editor window, you'd do well to set the type of deal by the Preferences menu. This is the way you will get either the scores of the different games (rubber bridge), or the vulnerability parameter (bridge like in tournaments).

  You can also change this game type by the Preferences / Rule preferences menu at the Scoring tab. A right click on the MB button (Minibridge) even lets you directly open the rule preferences.

• You can duplicate a deal found on the Internet or displayed by another program. For that, the best is to reduce the SimiliBridge window to its minimum size, and to move it to one side of the screen. Then, when opening the editor, the window will be very small. You'll be able to move it so as to see on the screen the two deals : the one you want to duplicate, and the one you are editing.

Little tips for creating a deal

1. Set the rule options for the first deal
   When you create an empty file and edit the first deal, the rule options are by default the ones used during a game. So, once your first deal is built (or even before), it is a good idea to change its rule options (type of game, bidding and playing techniques) if it is designed for a specific group of players.

   Next, any new deal being inserted gets the options of the current deal. That way, the leader can easily create a file of deals for a given level.

   By using Copy/Paste, you can also add to a file a deal with the same options as another one. Then, you simply have to edit the deal you've just pasted, pick up the cards and deal them again.

   New! In the rule preferences pages, you can now check or uncheck all the options at the same time, by pressing and holding the Control key (Ctrl).

2. Don't hesitate to tweak your deals
   There are still many mistakes made by SimiliBridge when bidding and playing, either because they have not been fixed yet, or they correspond to the playing level set by the technique options. So, the leader will sometimes be disappointed that a well built deal is in the end not well played. But with a bit of experience, he will learn to bypass bugs and limitations and tweak his deals by :
   • adding card sequences
   • adjusting the suit distribution
   • putting key cards in the right hand
     etc.

   With some practice, you can rather easily manage to build the deals you need to illustrate a presentation. And if those deals are to be played by beginners, you may agree that it is a task you often have to do : making a deal interesting for both lines, while avoiding that a big mistake in the playing makes it suddenly quite uninteresting.

3. Make the machine players play the highest part-score contracts
   The deals like in tournaments have a small defect in minibridge. When a team has the points to bid 2 NT for example, the machine player bids 1 NT since he won't score more points by bidding a higher part-score. It is logical as far as the scoring is concerned, but sometimes annoying for the leader who would like to have 2 NT played on the deal.

   The solution ? Change to rubber bridge mode with the scores set to 0 at the beginning, for then the machine players bid the highest part-score contracts. If the scoring is not really important for your presentation, this solution may prove to be satisfactory.

4. Showing bidding sequences that really look like full bridge
   By making relatively simple deals, you can show full bidding sequences. But there is still a problem : when opening the bidding, a player with no system bid available still has the two minibridge bids : Pass and Open. The leader might want that the player has the normal bidding box and that he passes like a real bridge player.

   New! There is now a solution : check the Don't use the Open bid in the rule preferences at the Bidding 1 tab. Then, the procedure is simplified, and the bidding slip is automatically given to a player with an opening hand but no system bid. There is no longer need to use the Open bid.

---

Where are the deal files located ?

The leader can rapidly build for himself a little collection of deal files that, if they are well classified and well named, will help him on numerous occasions. The deal files are by default saved to the My deals folder which is located here :

On XP

On Vista

On Windows 7

But of course you can save your deal files to the folder of your choice, and if possible classified in sub-folders. The box for opening a file includes the Folder button that allows you to easily move between your 10 last favorite folders.

Next page:

Letting a player play on computer