Alessandro Calmanovici Built Bridge Tricks to Make Bridge as Popular as Chess

<p>In this episode of <i>The Setting Trick</i>, I sit down with <b>Alessandro Calmanovici</b>, the <b>founder of Bridge Tricks</b>, a site that quickly became a big part of my bridge learning journey. When I first discovered bridge tricks, Alessandro’s name rang a bell. He was featured in a scene from <b>Double Dummy</b>, the film I made at the <b>2012 World Junior Championships</b>. Where a much younger Alessandro is recounting winning imps on each of the last four boards to barely qualify for the knockout. </p><p>We dig into <b>suit combinations</b> and why an interactive solver changes how you think, the <b>Survivor</b> streaks that have players like <b>Giovanni Donati</b> obsessed, and the <b>Bidding Architect</b> that turns your own system into flashcards. Alessandro is building all of it around a full time job and a new baby. </p><p>__________________________________________________</p><h3><b>Key Highlights</b></h3><p><br /></p><p>🎬 <b>Finding Himself in Double Dummy</b>: Alessandro watched the film years after it came out, recognised the event, and realised the player on screen was <b>him</b>.</p><p>🧠 <b>Fifty Suit Combinations in a Row</b>: <b>Giovanni Donati</b> ran a <b>Survivor</b> streak of fifty, and spent an hour on the last one. Alessandro explains the talent behind it.</p><p>📐 <b>Commit to the Plan Before They Play</b>: A disputed combination that looks wrong: <b>54% against 51.7%</b>. Why the plan you settle on first beats what feels right at the table.</p><p>🤖 <b>Built With AI, Starting From Nothing</b>: It began when his wife mentioned a tool at work. A year later he had written the solver himself after being turned down for help.</p><p>♣️ <b>As Popular as Chess</b>: Juniors are close to extinct in Italy and the Swiss scene is thinner still. Alessandro wants to change the game’s public image.</p><p>__________________________________________________</p><h3><b>Resources &amp; Next Steps</b></h3><p></p><p>🃏 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bridgetricks.com/" target="_blank">Bridge Tricks, Alessandro's practice platform</a></p><p>📝 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bridgetricks-a-new-platform-for-bridge-players-2-mgqu5jwt7x/" target="_blank">Bridge Tricks on BridgeWinners</a></p><p>📘 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak:_Secrets_from_the_New_Science_of_Expertise" target="_blank">Peak, the book on deliberate practice</a></p><p>🎯 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://cuebids.com/" target="_blank">Cuebids, the bidding practice app</a></p><p>🎧 <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-setting-trick-conversations-with-world-class/id1345780835" target="_blank">Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts</a></p><p>__________________________________________________</p><h3><b>Chapter Timestamps</b><br /></h3><p>00:00 A clip from Double Dummy</p><p>03:00 Bridge With Ballers and athletes</p><p>04:30 Hooking beginners with BridgeMaster</p><p>09:00 Donati, Percario, Italy's pipeline</p><p>13:30 Survivor streaks, fifty in a row</p><p>16:30 Reading par in seconds</p><p>19:30 Launching the site, built with AI</p><p>21:00 Bridge Lab and Bidding Architect</p><p>22:30 Daily users, Fred Gitelman's message</p><p>25:30 Leonardo Cima says it is wrong</p><p>27:19 A possible Cuebids collaboration</p><p>31:49 Learning bridge at twelve, Cagliari</p><p>34:49 Why the Italian scene shrinks</p><p>39:19 Building the solver after a refusal</p><p>42:19 What a live platform costs</p><p>46:49 Flashcards for your bidding system</p><p>54:19 The dinners, not the squeezes</p><p>57:19 How Double Dummy got made</p><p>61:49 The cup and the daily combination</p><p>66:19 Survivor, Rush, where to start</p><p>69:19 Paying students, chasing <a rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://Chess.com" target="_blank">Chess.com</a></p>