Ep. 111: Alessandro Calmanovici Built Bridge Tricks to Make Bridge as Popular as Chess

<p>In this episode of <i><em>The Setting Trick</em></i>, I sit down with <b><strong>Alessandro Calmanovici</strong></b>, the <b><strong>founder of Bridge Tricks</strong></b>, a site that became a big part of my own bridge learning. His name rang a bell the first time I found it. He appears in <b><strong>Double Dummy</strong></b>, the film I made at the <b><strong>2012 World Junior Championships</strong></b>, winning imps on each of the last four boards to scrape into the knockout.</p><p>We dig into <b><strong>suit combinations</strong></b> and how a solver changes the way you think, the <b><strong>Survivor</strong></b> streaks that have players like <b><strong>Giovanni Donati</strong></b> obsessed, and the <b><strong>Bidding Architect</strong></b> that turns your own system into flashcards. Alessandro built all of it around a full time job and a new baby. We also get into why he thinks the game needs a better public image.</p><p>__________________________________________________</p><b><strong>Key Highlights</strong></b><p><br /></p><p>🎬 <b><strong>Finding Himself in Double Dummy</strong></b>: Alessandro watched the film years later, recognised the event, and realised the player on screen was <b><strong>him</strong></b>.</p><p>🧠 <b><strong>Fifty Suit Combinations in a Row</strong></b>: <b><strong>Giovanni Donati</strong></b> ran a <b><strong>Survivor</strong></b> streak of fifty and spent an hour on the last one.</p><p>📐 <b><strong>Commit to the Plan Before They Play</strong></b>: <b><strong>54% against 51.7%</strong></b> on a disputed combination, and why the plan you settle on first wins.</p><p>🤖 <b><strong>Built With AI, Starting From Nothing</strong></b>: His wife mentioned a tool at work. Turned down for help, he wrote the solver himself a year later.</p><p>♣️ <b><strong>As Popular as Chess</strong></b>: Juniors are close to extinct in Italy and the Swiss scene is thinner still. He wants to change the game's image.</p><p>__________________________________________________</p><b><strong>Resources &amp; Next Steps</strong></b><p><br /></p><p>🃏 <a href="https://bridgetricks.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bridge Tricks, Alessandro's platform</a></p><p>📝 <a href="https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bridgetricks-a-new-platform-for-bridge-players-2-mgqu5jwt7x/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bridge Tricks on BridgeWinners</a></p><p>📘 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak:_Secrets_from_the_New_Science_of_Expertise" rel="noopener no