Tricky Bridge Reviews

I didn’t know how to play bridge when I started TrickyBridge and I still don’t fully understand it. TrickyBridge teaches you the basics then it gets to the bidding, which is apparently like half the game and then just stops teaching you. I had to go online and look up what the bidding is and I still don’t fully understand it, so I guess that part was just too hard to fit in clever dialogue and stupid jokes. The AI is pretty unbalanced as well. Your “ally” will frequently choose bids he has no trump cards for and you will struggle while the other team has like 10 out of the 13 suit cards. If your AI bids for a trump suit you have less than 5 cards of between the two of you, it’s game over. This is an incredibly frustrating game and I’m definitely uninstalling it. Bad AI in a game where the whole point is playing with bots is kind of a deal breaker for me.

I love the bots and, even though I played quite a lot in college, I took all the lessons—there’s always something new to learn about Bridge. I love the interface…playing your last card in a suit automatically for you, and announcing when one set of partners has won all the remaining tricks and closing the hand out, etc.

One concern: the hand’s point count is also influenced by the length of a suit—longer or shorter than average—and that doesn’t seem to be taken into account. (Maybe it is, and I just didn’t see it in the lessons.)

Another thing that currently bugs me is that you’re going to realize an additional lesson. So every day, I dutifully tap on learn and then lesson 38–only to be told every day that it is coming soon. Pretty soon I won’t spend any time checking. Suggest you take that message off TrickyBridge until the lesson is actually in place.

I have the usual gripes Bridge players have: why does my partner always pass or throw us into no-trump every time I get a good suit/hand? Why doesn’t my partner ever match me in suit? Why does my partner always pass when I pass, while the opponents always seem to find a match-up? Why do I get so many less-than-six point hands? Why do 80% of the hands end up with no-trump distributions? (This may be normal, and I just never noticed it.) I’m sure all these things aren’t true, but it usually seems as if they are. 😍

I’ve never played bridge but I’ve played other trick bidding games. I got to say this is a well made app that is visually appealing. Having all the lessons to teach you how to play is a great idea. Unfortunately, bridge just isn’t for me. There’s a lot to the bidding and it just became overwhelming to try to keep up with everything. I will probably try again at some point to see if my viewpoint changes. However, this is not a reflection of the game itself. My only complaint after playing some of the regular game and doing all the training is I find it pretty annoying to have to tap the screen after every trick to clear the cards. So having an option to turn that off would be nice. If you’re looking to learn about bridge this is a great way to learn and practice. I’d also love to see these developers do some more card games like this!

TrickyBridge has to have one of the best tutorials I’ve ever seen in any game. Bridge can be a fairly tricky (heh) game to learn, but the devs here have managed to teach this incredibly rewarding and strategic card game in an accessible and fun way. The theme is a nice touch and the UX is impeccable—down to the perfectly concise tutorial messages. Each minute or so long lesson breaks down every major concept and rule in the game into a digestible and playable form. You’re not just being dictated rules and strategies, you’re actually playing them out as part of the teach. It’s really an entertaining and productive way to learn. Absolutely impressive UX and design work y’all, seriously. MOh and thankfully you can play this in portrait mode. Tricky Bridge is my Roman Empire.

It’s sad that Bridge seems to have become oddity that think you heard grandma mention or gets confused with Cribbage. But it’s apps like this that show how much more interesting and deep the classic games are than we younger peeps realize. This game is as deep (if not deeper) and worthwhile than your favorite TCG or deckbuilder. If you play chess or poker, I’d highly recommend you check this out, as Bridge has deductive strategy and tactics, juicy bidding verging on telepathy, and crunchy card play. Don’t worry too much that it’s a team game. Trickybot is an excellent partner.

Best tutorial ever is kind of an understatement because this game is kind of a teaching tool but the courses here are just amazing. This game doesn’t just teach you to play, it has lots of fun hands-on examples and games along the way. You really feel like you’re playing the game while you learn. I haven’t been offered anything to do with real money yet and I’ve been playing for quite a long time so I don’t know what if any paywall there is. I’m only about 30 lessons in and I’m already looking forward for the next title from this company.

I don’t write reviews for apps normally, but TrickyBridge is incredible! I’ve wanted to learn bridge for a long time, but every app I tried made it seem impossible that I would ever learn. TrickyBridge breaks down the game into small, manageable pieces. They also start you off with the less complicated parts of the game and make sure you master those before you move on to more complex things. Within a few hours of using TrickyBridge, I feel like I’ve mastered the game! I can’t say enough good things about TrickyBridge!!

The art, teaching and gameplay are great.

Only issue is pricing.
Would have loved to pay a reasonable amount for this game like $5-$15, but they want you to buy coins(deals). I don’t do consumables, sorry, and I’m definitely not lying $100/yr or $10/mo to play this game. You think it’s worth the same as some triple A title and then some? Add the ability to have at least unlimited AI play and you would have at least gotten some money out of me. I understand if running tournaments requires ongoing server costs, so charge for those if you must. Good Luck, I really want this to succeed but I’m not going to pay you monthly to do it.

Edit: I’m not sure what the difference is between Just Play and Practice as you mention. Just Play is playing against bots, change that to be cost money, but why a consumable, no thanks. Consumables are not how I play. I will continue to play until I run and, and maybe Practice mode. But I’m not going to buy consumable gameplays.

This is a great app. Please continue to work on spontaneous crashes. We have the most recent version but it crashes periodically. Update: even with the crashes, I’m learning a lot about bidding and playing the hands. I especially like the fact I can tap any bid to see what it means and I can choose a bid, see what it means and then back out if it doesn’t really meet the description of my hand. I sincerely appreciate the time the developer took to explain what is causing the crashes (the bidding engine and not Tricky Bridge) and the fact they are working hard to figure it out.

A great intro to Bridge for a Magic the Gathering or Hearthstone player. As someone who has tried and failed to learn bridge Tricky Bridge is perfect. The bite sized lessons have a great sense of momentum and get you playing right away.

TrickyBridge has a level of polish on par with MTG: Arena or Hearthstone. Once you have gotten you feet wet with the lessons the tournaments are a ton of fun and the scoring systems eliminates almost all of the RNG or luck of the draw.

It would be awesome if there where some more challenges to get extra practice after competing the lessons. Overall the Tricky Bridge is best way to learn bridge and a very sharp implementation of the game!

Love TrickyBridge and me and my husband play! But we’ve run out of deals or deal cards to play so quickly and there’s no daily renewal to allow us to at least play in some of the tournaments. I’m wondering if we are missing something? Maybe it would be great if you could retain your deals if you won the game or the tournament…or if there was a daily provision of 5 or 10 deals so that you could continue to pay. $3.99 for 50 is a bit steep. If it were 99cents I would more readily pay for those 50 deals. Just a suggestion to help players stay engaged and in love with the game!

I was new to bridge and this game taught it to me in a immersive way and I adore it. There is just one problem. Once I was done with the learning section I saw there was a set amount of deals. I shrugged it off and played and played until it said I had no more deals. I thought it would give some more the next day or something so I just left and there still wasn’t any more when I came back two days later. I feel like it’s disappointing to have to buy more deals. After the great time I had I was kind of annoyed. If there was a mechanic were the daily Bonus gave you 25 bids or something that would be great. Besides that I 100% recommend this game.

TrickyBridge is not just a game, it is truly an experience. I have been looking for an app to learn the craft of Bridge for a long time and was unsuccessful until now. From the moment I opened TrickyBridge for the first time, I truly felt like I was at the right place. The graphics are amazing, complemented with a creative scenery. As the doors opened I truly felt like I was entering a casino. The game teaches you how to play step-by-step if you’re new to bridge like I was, and will also give you a challenge if you’re more advanced like I am now after spending countless hours playing. TrickyBridge runs very smoothly and is easy to navigate, making this an unparalleled experience.

Tricky Bridge succeeds on several levels: beautiful interface, great competitive feedback and tournament modes, and a sure-footed bridge bot AI that makes few errors or head-scratching bids. For beginners, the lesson mode is a nice intro to basic concepts, more than sufficient to get someone into the shallow end of the pool. On the whole, TrickyBridge is a joy to use as a single-player bridge experience. I’ve played daily for several weeks and was almost immediately persuaded to sign up for the one-year package.

A few quibbles that I hope will be ironed out over time: The “nice bid” signal, which I gather is supposed to signify a “correct” bid under SAYC, does not seem to trigger nearly often enough, which leads to extraordinarily slow progress in mastering the various bids on the cheat sheet. The Knockouts Tournament function, which I generally like, seems to auto-enroll me in first-round matches, leading to forfeit losses after 24 hours without my knowing that I am matched. And a profile badge exists for winning a Knockouts Tournament, but it hasn’t checked off even after a few four-win successes.

I would also love to see more complex lessons, and implementation of a puzzle mode offering a challenging “deal of the day” that could be run through repeatedly. But none of these wish-list items detract from a much-deserved five-star review.

I’ve been waiting for something like this for years. I’ve had Bridge Baron years ago and multiple books and learned more in TrickyBridge from any other source. I look forward to future lessons!! Please add sections to reinforce some of the concepts you present later in the course.
Example after artificial bids are presented have a number of practice rounds to reinforce that. And when more advanced biding, transfer, doubling, etc. More reinforcement would help to drive those topics home. I look forward to more advanced biding, responses and interruptions from opponents etc.
This is a great app. And free as of now. I definitely think its worth paying for!! Thanks to the developers and their love burden for the game!!

I have downloaded many bridge games but none have come close to Tricky Bridge. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not perfect but after trying to play and learn from the others, this Tricky Bridge game is superior to all others that I am familiar with.

There are some improvements I would like to see made such as allowing the learner and/or player to go back a step to start a game over without having to go all the way through the lessons before the games start. We have to TAP our way through all the lessons we learn before playing the game that corresponds to the lesson learned; however, if one wants to start the game over, we sadly have to go back to the very beginning of the lessons to get back to the bridge game itself.

For a beginning player who wants to learn how to play bridge, they are NOT taught to bid before they are taught to play which, to me, seems to be backwards. I would think that learning to bid should come first and then learning to play, second.

Those are just two of the problems I have noted and I will update as I go through the lessons and the playing of the game.

I decided to learn the game, and came across Tricky Bridge. I found the lessons to be quite informative and well paced. I didn’t need, but found useful that the learning sessions start with the absolute basics for those folks that have never played a trick based game. I breezed through the first set and moved into the bidding and getting precise sections. I’d definitely like to see more lessons on partner communications and the implications behind certain bids. I always refer to the “meaning of the bid” but want more lessons to help me pick up on that a bit more intuitively.

One request for future versions of the game: I’d really like to see a different payment structure. $4 for 50 deals is fine, but the only other options jump to a subscription based model. I’d like to see 120 deals for $8 or some other sliding structure. Or just an option for unlimited deals for the month without subscription.

If you are just learning Bridge, start with the 57 lessons; but don't expect to learn all about Bridge in just those lessons. You will still need to use a lot of internet resources or a good book on Bridge (or a bridge-playing friend). One thing I love is you can play hands in the Practice mode forever for free. I played like that for a while and then bought an annual subscription to support this team.

If you are a beginner, after the lessons it will be a little tough. The Simple version of the SAYC convention still has a LOT of conventions. Luckily clicking on the bid tells you more about what it means and when you don't understand a convention you can look it up on the web or join the discord channel and ask questions. Be patient, recognize this is a complex (but really fun) game.

Once you get a little better, the Just Play mode lets you practice and compare how you did with both bots and other humans. You can examine how better players bid and played your hand.

When you want a little more, head-to-head competition against humans you can enter the tournaments. You always play with bot partners so no one ever gets mad at you! I do wish I could just play rubber bridge but that's a minor nit. I'm using TrickyBridge to learn and get better and to teach some friends how to play Bridge.

Kudos to the team that built this. Great job.

I’ve been trying to learn how to play bridge for years. I used to play Bridge Baron, which is a good program but not very beginner-friendly. I also went through much of the ACBL “Learn to play bridge” software, which was very helpful. I’ve only had Tricky Bridge for a short time, but I’ve already learned more than in either of the other programs. The learning is gradual and painless, and you really understand what’s going on when you’re done. I’ve completed the 37 lessons and I want more! I’d pay extra for more! Just get them done! :) There are a few annoyances. I can’t change my player name from “Your name”. The learning levels are easy to miss (swipe left on the home screen). There are weird visual glitches on the top of the learning levels, but they don’t interfere with the play. Developers: great job, but please fix the visuals and give us more lessons! Bridge is a great game but notoriously hard to learn; TrickyBridge fixes that.

I downloaded TrickyBridge in the hopes of learning how to play bridge and then be able to play with people online. At first, I was not disappointed. There was a wonderfully easy to use and understand tutorial/campaign. It began to lay the foundation for a campaign of five sections, each ending in a tournament, teaching the subtleties of bridge the whole way. If it had delivered, or even said the rest would come out in a future update, this would be a five star rating. I may have even paid to unlock the rest of the campaign. However, after the second segment, the campaign just... Ended. No conclusion, no “to be continued”, just nothing. There are many aspects of bridge that it claimed it would teach me later, and just didn’t. What is doubling? It said not to worry, it would teach me later. What is that thing one of the characters mentioned toward the beginning? Again, later. I find myself lost in the freeplay mode as bots exploit mechanics I had no idea existed. Please either finish the campaign, or add some explanation to why it ends so abruptly.

Also, I would love to see an online matchmaking system and a way to play with friends. These are not necessary though - It would just be nice.

Edit: I have received a response I am satisfied with. The review has been changed from three to five stars.

... I’m not interested in paying $100 a year for a game. The other option is to pay a little, frequently, for 50 new deals. I’d rather pay $20 to buy the game and even that seems like a lot for an app. I enjoyed the game but not worth continuing for $10 a month.

Edit: I just discovered you can still play in practice mode anytime you want. Very fair. I’m much more likely every now and then to give a few dollars in appreciation instead of a monthly subscription. Now worthy of five stars, thank you.