We dig into suit combinations and why an interactive solver changes how you think, the Survivor streaks that have players like Giovanni Donati obsessed, and the Bidding Architect that turns your own system into flashcards. Alessandro is building all of it around a full time job and a new baby.
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Key Highlights
🎬 Finding Himself in Double Dummy: Alessandro watched the film years after it came out, recognised the event, and realised the player on screen was him.
🧠 Fifty Suit Combinations in a Row: Giovanni Donati ran a Survivor streak of fifty, and spent an hour on the last one. Alessandro explains the talent behind it.
📐 Commit to the Plan Before They Play: A disputed combination that looks wrong: 54% against 51.7%. Why the plan you settle on first beats what feels right at the table.
🤖 Built With AI, Starting From Nothing: 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.
♣️ As Popular as Chess: Juniors are close to extinct in Italy and the Swiss scene is thinner still. Alessandro wants to change the game’s public image.
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Resources & Next Steps
🃏 Bridge Tricks, Alessandro's practice platform: https://bridgetricks.com/
📝 Bridge Tricks on BridgeWinners: https://bridgewinners.com/article/view/bridgetricks-a-new-platform-for-bridge-players-2-mgqu5jwt7x/
📘 Peak, the book on deliberate practice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak:_Secrets_from_the_New_Science_of_Expertise
🎯 Cuebids, the bidding practice app: https://cuebids.com/
🎧 Subscribe to The Setting Trick on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-setting-trick-conversations-with-world-class/id1345780835
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YouTube Chapter Timestamps
00:00 A clip from Double Dummy
01:30 The 2012 scene, and two cuts of the film
03:00 Bridge With Ballers and getting athletes playing
04:30 Hooking complete beginners with BridgeMaster
06:00 Pisa, and teaching a classmate the first ten hands
07:30 Qualifying on the last four boards in Taicang
09:00 Donati, Percario and Italy's professional pipeline
10:30 Finding Bridge Tricks before the world championships
12:00 Suit combinations and the feedback loop
13:30 Survivor streaks, and fifty in a row
16:30 Reading the par of a hand in seconds
19:30 Launching the site, and building it with AI
21:00 Bridge Lab, Bidding Architect and learning patience
22:30 Daily users, and a message from Fred Gitelman
24:00 Why a solver beats an encyclopaedia
25:30 Leonardo Cima says the solver is wrong
27:19 A possible collaboration with Cuebids
31:49 Learning bridge at twelve in Cagliari
34:49 Why the Italian scene keeps shrinking
37:49 The dream of bridge as popular as chess
39:19 Building the solver after being turned down
42:19 What it costs to run a live playing platform
43:49 How Simon de Wijs became its best advocate
46:49 Flashcards for your own bidding system
49:49 Being copied, and what AI does to small builders
52:49 Starting a bridge class in Zurich
54:19 The dinners, not the squeezes
57:19 How Double Dummy got made
61:49 The cup, and the daily combination
66:19 Survivor, Rush and where to start
69:19 Paying students, and chasing Chess.com