Manual for Bridge Hand Generator
for Autodealer 3 Card Dealer
Electronic Bridge Accessories P/L
July 2003
Introduction
This manual is written for the Hand Generator program designed by Nigel Dutton, of Perth, Western Australia. It generates random bridge files of the type suitable for use with either the EBA Autodealer 3, or the Jannersten Duplimate. The files haves a standard file name (usually a word, or date that describes the bridge session where the hands are to be played. For example, if you are generating hands for the Saturday afternoon duplicate session at your club, you might select the file name as PMSat). When the file is generated, it will automatically add a 3-digit file extension at the end of each file. In the above example, the file would be PMSat.bri or PMSat.dge. This file is stored in a folder in your computer (say, in a folder called Bridge). When the dealing software that your dealing machine uses wants the file it requires to deal, you select it from the folder called Bridge, and the one you would select for your Saturday afternoon session is the file called PMSat.bri or PMSat.dge.
The Hand Generator should be installed in a folder on your computer so you can find it easily. For example, put it in a folder called Bridge Hand Generator.
Getting Started
When you click on the file, the following screen will appear on your computer.
There are three Menu items: Generate Hands, About and Quit. The second two are self explanatory, so it is really only important to understand the first Menu item, Generate Hands.
When you move your cursor to this menu item and click, four options will appear: Deal Random Hands, Print Saved Hands, Enter Set Hands and Printer Setup. These will be explained separately.
Deal Random Hands
When you click on this menu item, the following screen appears:
There are a few options to consider: You can generate from 1 to 72 boards in a set, and you can generate up to 99 sets of boards. The dealer and vulnerability will be taken care of by the program. You can save the hands for later use (for instance, you might want to generate a month’s worth of deals for your club). You can print the hand record immediately, or do it later (see the section on dealing hands). You can also print an analysis sheet that shows the probabilities of high card points for each hand, and the distribution of suits. The program has been designed to meet the World Bridge Federation requirements for point and suit distribution as published in the Bridge Encyclopaedia.
There is space to type in a title for the hand record (printout heading) and details of where the files are to be stored for later use by the hand dealing software. (Note that if you do not designate a specific folder of directory for the hands, they will be stored where you have installed the hand generator).
Please note that if you move the cursor to most of the areas on this screen, a small window will appear with an explanation of what the words mean.
After you have filled in the appropriate information on the screen, click the OK button in the bottom right corner, and the hands will be generated.
Print Saved Hands
To print a set of hands that you have generated at some time, click on the next menu item, Print Saved Hands. A screen will appear that shows where the hands have been stored, similar to that shown below.
If you click on the file you want (for example the one shown is hands-1.dge), a new screen will appear that gives you options for printing the hand record.
You can print any number of the hands from the set (in this example, up to 32), and also the Analysis of the set for points and distributions. Many players are suspicious of “computer dealt” hands, so it is good to show them that the probabilities are very near to perfect randomness.
Enter Set Hands
Sometimes you want to have your players play hands that you set, for example when you are running teaching sessions. Another example is when you have a competition that has been set by someone else, and they have sent you the hands to prepare. This is easily done with this next option. Click on the Enter Set Hands from the menu, and a similar screen to the following will appear:
Click on a set of hands you want to change, and this screen will appear:
Click on any of the hands and type in the hands you want. Note that you only have to do three of the hands and the fourth will appear automatically. Save the new set of hands by clicking on the floppy disk icon when you have finished. Click OK when you have finished.