”;
or to include diamonds as well (like a “weak two-bid”) check the swap boxes for ,
and . Checking “All” will randomly permute the
settings among all four suits.Dealer — The default choice ‘D’ (duplicate bridge) follows the standard dealer rotation; Deal 1 = North, Deal 2 = East, etc., which cycles every four deals. You may instead choose a constant dealer (WNES) or ‘R’ to randomize the dealer.
Vulnerability — The default choice ‘D’ (duplicate bridge) follows the standard vulnerability rotation, which cycles every 16 deals. You may instead choose a constant vulnerability (ZNEB) or ‘R’ to randomize the vulnerability.
Hand settings — To create specialized deals, you can enter the HCP and/or suit-length requirements of any hand. For example, to create deals where North has 10-15 HCP with four spades and five or more hearts, enter North’s HCP (Min = 10, Max = 15), spade length (Min = 4, Max = 4) and heart length (Min = 5). You only need to fill in boxes that are pertinent; any box left blank is presumed to be zero for “Min” settings or the highest possible for “Max” settings. You can modify as many hands as you want.
Hand rotations and swaps — Normally, the hand settings you enter apply to a specific hand. If you check “Rotate” it will randomly rotate the hands for each deal; that is, the order of the settings will remain the same but they may start with any player. You can also randomly swap any of the hands. For example, if you check “Swap NS” it will randomly swap the settings for North and South. Any number of swaps may be checked. Checking “All” will randomly permute the settings among all four hands.
Suit rotations and swaps — This is similar to the above, but applies
to suits. Swapping suits is useful to apply the settings of one suit to two or more. For example, to specify a
six-card or longer major suit, enter only the spade length (Min = 6) and check “Swap ”;
or to include diamonds as well (like a “weak two-bid”) check the swap boxes for ,
and . Checking “All” will randomly permute the
settings among all four suits.
Number of deals — By default, 4 deals will be created. You may instead select 8, 12, or 16. Note: In the past I used to allow up to 100 at a time, but with multiple users this sometimes became too taxing on the server; so I had to cut it down.
Output format — By default, the output will be in HTML, which is best for online viewing. You may instead select “TXT” for plain text, or “RBN” (Richard’s Bridge Notation) for a database format.
Side settings — If you select one of the “Side” options (WNES) the settings for that hand (and only that hand) will be treated as a partnership side (26 cards). If this option is chosen, you cannot modify the other hand of the same side. For example, if you select “Side N” whatever you enter for North will apply to the combined North-South cards; you can also modify West or East (or both), but you cannot modify the South hand.
Seed — If you enter a seed (any number up to 12 digits) the sequence of deals can always be duplicated by that same seed. If the seed is left blank, the generator will be seeded randomly by an outside source and the deals cannot be reproduced.
Advanced settings — The minimum length setting of any suit may be followed by a letter (abcde) to affect the probability of longer lengths in the specified range. The letter ‘a’ will accelerate the chances, and so will ‘b’ but not as much. The letter ‘d’ will decelerate the chances, and ‘e’ will decelerate them even more. In effect, it’s a geometric scale (the midpoint letter ‘c’ is the same as no letter and does nothing). For example, the normal setting of (Min = 5, Max = 7) will average about 5.4 cards per deal; using ‘5a’ or ‘5b’ will increase this, and ‘5d’ or ‘5e’ will decrease it.
See also my Bidding Practice Dealer for creating just two hands, and my article on Randomization Techniques if you are interested in how these programs work.