¶ Casual Tables
Casual tables are the quickest way to play on Bridge Champ: with bots, with people from the waiting list, or at a table you set up yourself for friends and students.
📋 At a glance
What it is: Free, relaxed games outside tournaments: no registration, no rounds, leave whenever you like.
Who it is for: Everyone, from a first game against bots to a regular foursome with friends.
You will need: Nothing. Credits are only needed for Rated play.
¶ Overview
Open Casual in the left menu, or click Casual Games at the top of the Home page. The page lists every table being played right now. Use the All Tables, Free Seats and Full Tables filters to find one with a seat, and click the + on a free seat to sit down.
Two buttons at the top right start a game of your own: Play Now for a quick game with default settings, and Start New Table when you want to choose the players and the rules. A third button, Play with people, puts you on the waiting list for a table with other humans.
¶ Quick play: the Play Now button
Click Play Now and pick one of four cards:
- Play with bots (free): you sit South with three bots. Undo and kibitzers are on, you can replace players and preset your own boards.
- Rated play: 1 credit per game. The three top ranks out of every 16 games are rewarded. Undo, kibitzers, preset boards and player replacement are off. See Rated Games.
- Play Minibridge: the simplified game with three bots, as declarer or defender, in one of three variants. See Mini Bridge.
- Play with people: join the waiting list and be seated with other players as soon as enough of them are waiting.
¶ Play with people: the waiting list
This is the newest way to find a human game. Choose how you want to be seated:
- I am alone, find me a human partner
- I am alone, give me a bot partner against human opponents
- I have a partner, seat us together
The panel shows how many players are already waiting in each group. Click Join the waiting list. When enough players are waiting, a table opens and you are taken to it. You can carry on using the site meanwhile, and Leave the waiting list takes you off it again. The same button exists in the mobile app.
¶ How to set up your own table
¶ Step 1: Click Start New Table
The New Casual Table window opens. Across the top you choose the kind of table:
- Bridge: a normal game.
- Minibridge: no bidding, just the final contract. Pick a variant (Trick Taker, Dummy Peek or Blind Count) and decide whether to Count overtricks. Ticked means bridge scoring; unticked means traditional minibridge scoring, where overtricks do not count.
- Teaching: a table where you see and can play all four hands. Tick Seat me in all vacant seats to run it alone. See Teaching Tables.
- Bidding Practice: bid the hands, no card play. See Bidding Practice Tables.
¶ Step 2: Choose the settings
On the left: Scoring method (IMPs, MPs or BAM), Who can join and Kibitzers. Open More options for Allow undo (on by default), Invisible table, Allow players to invite other players, Allow kibitzers to chat with players and Assign Templates for generated hands.
The scoring you pick here is remembered: you can change the default for new casual tables under your profile picture, Account, Settings.
¶ Step 3: Fill the seats
Click the + on North, East, South or West. The Table Seating dialog offers three choices:
- SIT: take the seat yourself.
- INVITE: type a username and invite a player. They receive an invitation and the seat waits for them.
- BOT: fill the seat with a bot.
Seats you leave empty stay open for anyone allowed to join.
¶ Step 4: Click CREATE
The table opens straight away. Invited players get a notification and join when they accept. Once everyone is seated, the first board is dealt. To stop, click Leave at the bottom left of the table. If you are the last human at a bots table, Bridge Champ asks whether to Play on or Close Table.
¶ Good to know
- Table settings can change during the game. The Settings button on the left of the table opens the same options, plus the board theme and how the table behaves when your bot partner declares. See In Game.
- Sounds are controlled with the speaker icon on the right of the table, and in your Account settings.
- Queue your own boards. At your casual table you can add boards from your Deal Source to the table's queue (Add deals to table queue) and they come up one after the other. Open Deals Queue shows what is next and Clear Queue empties it. Queued boards do not show you their hands in advance.
- Leaving people stranded is recorded on your profile, so finish the board before you leave a table with other humans at it.
¶ Related guides
- In Game: the table, its menus and the new sound panel
- Rated Games
- Mini Bridge
- Teaching Tables
- User Menu: Account settings that follow you on every device
Questions? Write to info@bridgechamp.com.