Bid Bridge is a Standard English Acol bidding tool to help bridge learners overcome the initial hurdle of getting to grips with the complexities of contract bridge bidding. It can only be used during a real game of bridge and requires the players to be dealing with and using a real deck of cards. It replaces the need for bidding advice sheets or something similiar to a bridge flipper.
Bid advice is provided by guiding the user through a series of simple questions about their hand (shape, points etc). This process reflects the way a more experienced player would gauge their hand prior to making a bid. The advice given provides information on "why this is the recommended bid" and may provide additional information for the player to consider when placing their bid.
As each player bids within the real world game these bids need to be input into Bid Bridge. Each bid typically has a very specific "meaning" within the bidding system. Bid Bridge uses a combination of information about your hand and the current bidding history to advise you on what to bid next.
The bidding system used by Bid Bridge is a simplified version of Standard English Acol. Detailed advice is provided for the first few bids from each player, then more general hints. Bid Bridge provides support for bids that are clearly identified within the Standard English Acol system description. Support for advanced conventions and slam bidding is not currently supported.
Bid Bridge assumes that a rubber bridge game is being played and provides rubber bridge scoring and handling of vulnerability. However this tool can quite adequately be used for a non-rubber bridge game (chicago, duplicate etc) for the purpose of gaining bid advice. In this scenario the handling of vulnerability will not necessarily be accurate, and the scoring should be ignored.