Bridge Simulation Software and Hand Generators (2026)

A bridge simulation answers a question one deal cannot: which contract or which lead works best across all the layouts that fit what you know. You fix your hand, describe the other hands with constraints, generate many deals that match, solve each one double dummy, and compare the results.

Some tools do the whole job in a browser. Others are hand generators and solvers that you run from the command line or from code. This roundup starts with the tool that gives you the answer with no script to write, then covers the rest by type.

BridgeDummy simulations run in the browser and in the Android and iOS apps, with nothing to install and no script to write.

Set up the deal. You sit South and enter your 13 cards. For each of the other three hands you set constraints: HCP, suit lengths, exact shapes, balanced or not, a good suit, key cards, stoppers, cuebid suits, losers, controls, quick tricks, and cards a hand must or must not hold. A hand can also match one of several alternative descriptions, or must not match one (up to four in all). To skip the typing, enter the auction and the bidding engine works out the ranges for each seat in 2/1, SAYC, Acol, Precision or Polish Club. Ready-made templates cover common auctions.

Pick what to compare.

• Contracts: up to 4 contracts on the same deals, at the vulnerability you choose. A contract can depend on the other hands, for example 4♠ if partner has 3-card support, else 3NT.
• Opening leads: every lead from your hand against the contract, with East as declarer.

Read the results. Each run deals up to 1,000 hands that match your constraints in a 50-second budget, and it stops early once the numbers are stable. Every deal is solved double dummy. Contracts show their average score, making percentage, matchpoint percentage and average IMPs. Leads show the average tricks declarer takes and how often each card beats the contract. A board by board crosstable shows which layouts decided the result, and sample deals let you open single boards.

Every run is saved (the last 200 stay in My Simulations), and you can share any result with a link. A run costs 15 diamonds, and the diamonds come back if the constraints are too tight to deal enough hands. A free account gets 50 diamonds a month. More detail: how to use simulations.

Two more BridgeDummy tools deal or solve hands for you.

In the Bidding Room, you describe a situation, and the engine deals hands that fit it and bids them with you. You can save situations, share them with a link, and bid them with a partner. Each deal costs 1 diamond.

The Analyzer is a free double dummy solver for a single deal: paste a PBN deal or click the cards in, then see the full table and play the hand card by card.

Dealer, by Hans van Staveren and Henk Uijterwaal, is a command line hand generator. You write conditions, for example that North has 15 or more HCP and five or more spades, and it prints the deals that match, in PBN among other formats. It is in the public domain and packaged for Debian and Ubuntu. Its condition language is also what several other tools read.

Deal, by Thomas Andrews, is a hand generator you extend with Tcl scripts. It filters hands by HCP, balance, controls and properties you define, and writes PBN. It is free under the GNU GPL and packaged for Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora.

Redeal is a Python version of Deal. You write accept functions or use shape objects to filter hands, and it can call the DDS double dummy solver for each deal. It has a command line tool, a small GUI and a Python API, and runs on Unix and Windows. It is free and open source.

endplay is a Python library, installed with pip, for dealing, solving and scoring bridge deals. It generates deals from Python conditions or Dealer scripts, builds double dummy tables and par contracts with DDS, evaluates hands, and reads and writes PBN and LIN. It is free under the MIT license, with builds for Windows, Linux and macOS.

Lead Solver, by Matthew Kidd, is a command line tool for opening lead simulations. You give it a file of deals (PBN or GIB) and a contract, and it reports for each card the average tricks the defense takes and how often the lead sets the contract. It does not deal hands itself: its author pairs it with Deal. It is free under the GNU GPLv3, for Windows, Mac and Debian Linux.

BridgeSolver.com runs simulations to hand constraints you choose and compares contracts or opening leads by double dummy, with make rates, average scores and IMP values. It runs in the browser and in a Windows desktop app, and you start with a free account.

On Bridge Base Online, the Deal Source option of a bidding or practice table deals hands to the constraints you set, in a simple panel or in Dealer syntax, and you can save constraint sets. It deals hands to bid and play. It does not run a simulation or compare contracts for you.

Bridge by NeuralPlay lets you set up deals by points and distribution and load PBN files, then play them against its computer players, with a double dummy review of each deal. See BridgeDummy vs NeuralPlay.

You want an answer for a hand from your game. Use BridgeDummy simulations: enter your hand and the auction, pick the contracts or the lead, and read the result in matchpoints and IMPs.

You want to practice the decision, not only analyze it. BridgeDummy's lead puzzles and bidding puzzles are simulations that someone already set up: each one scores every option, and your answers build an ELO rating.

You write code. Use endplay or Redeal in Python, or Dealer and Deal from the command line, and add Lead Solver for lead tables.

You want hands to bid with a partner. Use BridgeDummy's Bidding Room situations, or the Deal Source option at a BBO table.

A simulation is only as good as its constraints. If the ranges you give an opponent do not match what the auction showed, the deals do not match the real table, and the result answers a different question. Taking the ranges from a bidding engine, as BridgeDummy does, keeps them consistent with the system you play.

Double dummy solving assumes that every player sees all four hands. Over many deals it is a fair benchmark, but it can favor a lead or a contract that needs a guess a real declarer would get wrong. More on this: double-dummy limitations.

Hand generators give you deals. A simulation turns those deals into an answer. BridgeDummy does the whole job for you: constraints from the auction, up to 1,000 deals solved double dummy, and contracts or leads ranked in matchpoints and IMPs. Run your first simulation on a free account.