Blogroll Update

The blogroll was becoming a little haphazard so I decided to organize and update it. It is now broken up into three categories; bridge blogs, other bridge sites, and non-bridge sites. I ended up reading over all of them again and decided that a review was in order.

Bridge Blogs

DavidC's Bridge Blog- Written by an English junior player, this blog deals mainly with bidding theory and system design. The author has a very good grasp on bidding theory and expresses himself clearly. Some of the principles he writes about have never been written about before though very sound theoretically. The content is mainly for advanced players or higher. He also writes about the laws of bridge. This is probably my favorite bridge blog and I really recommend it to anyone interested in bidding theory. Updates fairly often.

Gavin Wolpert's Blog- Written by a young bridge professional and recent star of a documentary. Gavin writes mainly about his life as a bridge professional but also has some system related material. If you are interested in the life of a bridge professional this is a great read. Updates frequently.

Stacy Jacobs- This blog has both bridge and non-bridge related material. Stacy is an excellent writer and posts frequently. Her bridge posts are generally short discussing tournaments she's been to or hands she's seen recently. The bridge content is mainly geared towards advanced or better players, but she has some great stuff about writing as well.

Jinzhou's Blog- Written by the star of Singapore's junior team, this blog outlines his run to the bronze medal at the World Youth Championships in Thailand. A great story to read, but it is obviously not updated anymore. Obviously I enjoyed it.

Mike Develin- Written by a former American junior internationalist, Mike pretty much discusses all of his recent sessions and includes lots of hands. The material is suited to players of all levels, and the blog is updated frequently.

The Korbels- Written by an expert Canadian junior couple, they write about interesting hands they play on BBO and in real life and include some tournament reports. Though one of the best written bridge blogs, it suffers from a lack of updates.

The Beer Card- Written by a keen Scottish player, Paul discusses lots of hands as well as random bridge news and issues. Lots of interesting content, and updated frequently and suitable for everyone.

Ulf Nilsson- Written by a Swedish internationalist, Ulf has great insight onto a lot of hands from high level play (though I don't always agree with what he says). He also discusses some theory. The only complaint I have is that his hand diagrams are hard on the eyes. Expert players will enjoy this blog a lot. Ulf updates almost every day.

McKenzie Myers- Written by a youngish bridge pro, mainly contains tournament reports and some hands. His writing style is very funny, and I think anyone with a sense of humor will like his posts. Updates frequently.

Jonathan Ferguson- Brand new bridge blog, but knowing Jon he will not be afraid to be very open and vocal about his thoughts. He says he will show you hands that are good, bad, and ugly. So far he averages about 5 posts a day; I doubt he will be able to keep that up though.

Jeff Miller- Written by an expert player from the Chicago area, Jeff posts very interesting hands and ideas and is very in depth. Mostly geared for advanced or better players, he doesn't update much anymore.

Glen Ashton- Glen covers some pretty esoteric conventions and systems. If that's your thing you will like his blog. Updates sporadically.

Badmonsters- The author of this blog is very unique because she is an intermediate player. She discusses her attempts at learning to become a better bridge player from that point of view. So if you're a beginner or intermediate you will really like reading her thoughts; you can probably relate.

Ken Rexford- Written by the author of Cuebidding at Bridge, Ken has a whole blog about cuebidding. His ideas are very far out in left field, but if you like reading about really strange ideas this is definitely the blog for you. He has not updated in a while though.

Raffles Bridge- A group blog written by intermediate or advanced players who are all part of the same bridge club. The content is mainly suitable for that level, and discusses some hands as well as theory. Updates are not frequent.

Other Bridge Sites

BBO Forums- By far the most active bridge related forum. Basically this is just a large community that discusses all aspects of bridge at all levels. I am slightly embarrassed to say that I have over 5,000 posts there. I really recommend this site.

Richard Pavlicek- The most comprehensive bridge site out there. Includes several features like a card combo analyzer, suit break calculator, teaching materials, and play contests. Easily the best bridge site on the web.

The Cavendish Invitational- Website of the only big money bridge tournament in the world. This event is coming up in May and is very exciting even as a spectator. If you don't know about this event or want to see who's playing in it, go now.

ACBL- The American Contract Bridge League runs all the tournaments in North America (except for things relating to international play). Lots of information about upcoming and past tournaments, masterpoint races, and other things involving the league.

USBF- The United States Bridge Federation runs all the trials to decide who represents the US in international competition. Mainly useful for information regarding those trials.

Matt Meckstroth- Personal webpage of the son of Jeff Meckstroth, some humorous content as well as interesting features like Hand of The Month and WWJD (what would Jeff do?). Hasn't been updated in a while though.

Bridge Is Cool- The ACBL's attempt to market the game to juniors. Although I have been critical of this site, it is at least a start in a proactive campaign to make the game attractive to my generation as well as the next. I know the ACBL is trying to improve on this site as well.

World Bridge Federation- The Federation that oversees all world competitions as well as world rankings. To see the rankings or news from upcoming or past international tournaments go here.

Jerry Helms- Personal site of expert player and teacher Jerry Helms. Includes articles and a biography, as well as information on his seminars.

Poor Bridge- Hilarious site with articles about bad bridge. Lots of articles and features like "Poor Bridge of The Week." I never fail to leave this site laughing.

Cocktail Bridge- Written in Croatian, but does have some english articles including an interview with me.

Mike Gill- Written by a former US junior player, includes a short biography as well as several interesting hands and a write-up of the World Youth Championships in Thailand. Mike has some really funny hands in the Amusing Deals section.

Siege- System notes for Mike Bell's system Siege. Very interesting system that has a natural base with lots of artificiality and transfer responses to 1 club. Similar to what I play with Josh Donn.

Inquiry 2/1- Inquiry's system notes. Includes some interesting stuff including MisIry transfer preempts.

Non Bridge Sites

Overcoming Bias- Great site which discusses many of the inherent and societal biases we have and how to try to overcome them in order to become more rational people. Updated every day and easily my favorite blog on the net.

God of The Machine- Written by a bridge player (using the term loosely) but containing no bridge content. Aaron writes about a lot of things including poetry, literature, ethics, philosophy, and culture. In my opinion his mini-blog is better than his actual blog. The mini-blog is updated frequently but his main blog updates are erratic at best these days.

If you have a good bridge related blog or website that I don't know about just e-mail me and I will consider blogrolling you.