Tools to practice bridge skills
Whether you're a curious bridge beginner, a bridge teacher, or someone looking to sharpen your skills, you’re in the right place! This page includes the BBO tools that are great for practicing play and bidding skills. Let's keep it simple, fun, and focused on making your bridge journey an enjoyable one. Use the navigation below to jump to the topic you’re looking for.
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Teaching Tables and Bidding Tables | Practice Tools
Teaching Tables and Bidding Tables
Teaching and bidding tables on BBO (Bridge Base Online) are perfect for practicing bridge with a partner or helping someone new learn the ropes. These tools let you focus on specific strategies—whether bidding or card play. If you subscribe to BBO+ you’ll have the added flexibility of using video chat and advanced robot opponents at the table.
Setting Up a Teaching Table
- Log in to BBO and select the Practice section from the menu.
- Choose either a Teaching Table (for all aspects of play) or a Bidding Table (to focus on bidding).
- Reserve seats for players
- If you’re a BBO+ subscriber, you can turn on Video Chat and also choose the robot system. The person who is joins your table doesn’t need to be a BBO+ subscriber to use video chat at your table.
- Use prepared deals to practice specific scenarios. Learn more about prepared deals here.
For a visual step-by-step guide, watch these videos:
How to Create Teaching Tables
How to Use Bidding Tables
Why Upgrade to BBO+?
BBO+ offers fantastic features for bridge players and teachers:
- Unlimited Video Chat: Connect face-to-face for a personal, friendly experience. Great for teachers and students of bridge alike.
- Advanced Robots: Practice with robots that play 2/1, 5-Card Majors, or Precision Systems.
- Free Access to Bridgerama+: Dive into expert articles, quizzes, and tips to improve your game.
Want to see BBO+ in action? Watch this quick video:
Discover BBO+
Practice Tools
Once you’ve learned the basics, these tools are here to help you keep learning—at your own pace, no pressure. Most of these are free to play and a great way to warm up before a tournament, or just practice when you’ve got some downtime.
Mini Bridge
MiniBridge simplifies bridge, making it perfect for beginners. Learn to assess your hand, declare, and play as a pair. The bidding is simplified too, and it's much easier to learn than bridge, but is still a great game in its own right. It’s widely used by teachers to introduce bridge concepts to their students.
To play, go to Practice > MiniBridge on BBO.
Watch this video for a walkthrough: MiniBridge Guide
Just Declare
Focus on playing the hand as declarer—no bidding required. This tool is great for all skill levels and helps sharpen your declarer play while you aim to maximize tricks.
Find it under Solitaire > Just Declare in the BBO menu.
Watch this quick tutorial: Just Declare Overview
Bridge Master
Challenge yourself with hands designed to improve your declarer play. Don’t worry if you don’t get the right line of play first time, you can try again, use the undo button, and see the solution if needed. There are different levels to choose from, so you can start as a beginner and challenge yourself with more difficult scenarios as you progress.
Go to Practice > Bridge Master on BBO to get started.
Watch this video for tips: Bridge Master Explained
Premium and Vugraph Deals
Play real hands from famous Vugraph archives or past ACBL games. Compare your results with top players to see how you stack up. You can go through their hands to see how they played to improve your game. You can also invite friends to join the table and add robots if you need more players.
Go to Casual > Start a Table > Premium Deals and choose your preferred deals: Vugraph or ACBL.
Learn how to get started: Premium Deals Tutorial
7 Tricks Challenge
7 Tricks Challenge is a simple, fun game made for bridge beginners. It’s a perfect introduction to bridge, as it's approachable for new players. You'll play 8 prepared deals, and have the whole day to complete your boards at your own pace. The goal for each board is to take 7 tricks before your opponents. If you succeed you get a plus score, if you don't you get a minus score.
There's a new challenge every day on BBO, find it on Competitive > Free Tournaments :
Easy Bridge
If you're looking for a fun and less intimidating way to introduce your friends to bridge, Easy Bridge: Daily Beginner Challenge is a fun place to get started. There are 8 prepared deals to play every day, where the bidding is already done and the contracts are very easy to make – all you need to focus on is the card play and enjoying the game. You have up to 24 hours to play your 8 boards. It’s a great way to practice and build your skills without feeling overwhelmed.
A new challenge awaits you each day, find it on Competitive > Free Tournaments :
Challenges
When you're feeling ready for a little friendly competition, challenges are a fun way to play against others. Challenges let you play against a friend, a random BBOer, a robot, or even a star player. It’s a fun way to test your skills with a little bit more competitive. Every game is a chance to learn something new.
Click Challenges from BBO menu, and choose who you’d like to challenge.
Group Challenges
Group challenges allow you to challenge up to 4 friends. Click Group Challenge, then use the + button to start inviting your friends. Here, everyone plays the same hands and sees who comes out on top. It’s an easygoing way to learn, share, and grow as a player.
Video: How to Play BBO Challenges | Bridge Base Online Tutorial | Bridge Challenge
Based on feedback from my students, I really think BBO would greatly benefit from my tools as an addition to the current offer. I have however received so far no response from BBO to increase the audience on my tools. I believe these would really be significant in increasing the size and persistence of the bridge community. I can't do more, unfortunately. Anyway, many thanks to BBO for the existing! Just a pity they do not go all the way.