What is Bridge Master 2000?

That fact that you can only make your contract by playing correctly makes Bridge Master a fabulous learning medium. In real bridge (and with other computer bridge programs), a declarer's mistakes are often forgiven by imperfect defense or a lucky lie of the cards. With Bridge Master your mistakes will always be punished. You are "forced" to figure out the correct play if you want to make your contract. In turn, you learn something about bridge in the process. If you play a Bridge Master deal incorrectly, it is best to keep trying again until you get it right. If you give up, however, the bridge movie will make the answer clear. As you read through the bridge movie, images on your screen will reflect the bridge content in the text. For example, if the text reads, "if trumps break 4-1...", a large hand diagram will display the 4-1 break. There is no need to cross out cards or write down end positions. The bridge movie always displays whatever bridge illustration you need in order to understand the explanation.

Bridge Master's instructional deals are organized into 5 levels of difficulty.* Skill Level 1 is suitable for new bridge players. Deals on Skill Level 5 are extremely challenging, even for world class players. The deals on Skill Levels 2, 3, and 4 are suitable for most club and tournament players as well as experienced social bridge players. *The Sands/Janitschke Edition has only 4 skill levels, 1-4 which move from intermediate to advanced).

The user interface of Bridge Master has been designed to make using the program as simple and pleasant as possible. Everything is "over-sized" to accomodate those with vision problems. The user has a wide range of color choices. In addition there are several options customizing how Bridge Master will display bridge deals.

Bridge Master remembers how you played each deal and what your results were. In this way you can track your progress and go back and review deals that gave you trouble. It also remembers your color preferences and display options. If more than one person uses the program, their results and preferences are remembered separately.

The Standard Edition of Bridge Master 2000 comes with 180 lesson deals, 36 on each of the 5 levels of difficulty. When you have finished with the deals that come with Bridge Master , hundreds of refill deals are available on all skill levels.

Audrey Grant's Better Bridge Edition of Bridge Master 2000 contains 177 bridge deals intended as an introductory course on play of the hand. Audrey Grant, North America's premier bridge teacher and best-selling bridge author, created 117 of these deals and wrote the text for the bridge movies in this edition. Audrey's 117 deals are all on Skill Level 1. The program also includes 36 more deals at Skill Level 1 which are a little more difficult than the Audrey Grant deals and 6 deals at each of the other 4 Skill Levels. By the time a new player has worked through the Audrey Grant deals, they will have a solid foundation in declarer play. The user will then be ready for more challenging refill deals.

The Sands/Janitschke Edition of Bridge Master 2000 contains 100 bridge deals intended for intermediate to advanced players. Norma Sands in one of North America's leading bridge teachers and Jan Janitschke is a multiple US National champion. The deals in this Edition range from skill level 1 to 4, but the skill level 1 deals start at early intermediate and advance from there. Refill deals can be added into this Edition, but not level 5 refill sets.

For more information on which refill sets are available and which ones are applicable to the different Editions and releases of Bridge Master, click here.

All of the instructional deals in the Standard Edition of Bridge Master were created by Fred Gitelman. Fred has been a member of the Canadian National Bridge Team many times. He has won three silver medals in World Championship events (1991 World Junior Championship, 1995 Bermuda Bowl, 2000 Transnational Teams). Fred is also an experienced bridge author whose articles have appeared in The American Contract Bridge League Bulletin, The Bridge World, and several Canadian publications. Some of Fred's articles have been translated into Dutch and appeared in IMP Magazine. The deals in Bridge Master were extensively analyzed and tested by several top experts including Eric Rodwell, a many time World Champion.

Bridge Master is endorsed by many of the world's best bridge players including:

• Billy Eisenberg
• Benito Garazzo
• Bobby Goldman
• Bob Hamman
• Eric Kokish
• Mike Lawrence
• Zia Mahmood
• Jeff Meckstroth
• Eric Rodwell
• Kit Woolsey

Bridge Master is the only software product that Audrey Grant, North America's top bridge teacher, is willing to recommend her students. Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation and one of America's leading businessmen, is also an avid Bridge Master user.

Bridge Base Inc. introduced the DOS version of Bridge Master in 1992. Bridge Master for Windows was released August 1, 1996. Bridge Master 2000 was released November, 1999. Bridge Master 2000, Audrey Grant's Better Bridge Edition was released September, 2000. Bridge Master 2000, Sands/Janitschke Edition was realeased July, 2007. Bridge Master has been translated into Dutch and Danish as well as Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Romanian, and French.

Regardless of your level of bridge ability, Bridge Master is certain to improve your game.

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