Broad practice is good for discovering weaknesses. Focused practice is how you fix them. Once you know that a specific auction causes trouble, stop waiting for it to appear randomly and build a session around that topic.
In Cuebids, the two main tools for this are Deal Types and Scenarios. Deal Types are ready-made filters. Scenarios are custom practice filters that you create or save from the Scenario market.
Start with the topic, not the convention name
A convention name is often too broad. "Stayman" might mean weak hands, invitational hands, game-forcing hands, Smolen, auctions after interference, or slam tries after a fit. The better first step is to define the exact decision you want to improve.
- Do we miss games after opening 1NT?
- Do we stop too low after major-suit agreement?
- Do we overbid after partner preempts?
- Do we forget what competitive doubles show?
- Do we need more examples of a new system agreement?
Once the problem is this concrete, choosing the right practice tool is much easier.
Use Deal Types for ready-made practice
Deal Types are the fastest way to focus a session. In the session setup, choose Deal Types instead of random deals, search or scroll for the topic, and select the hands you want. You can use Deal Types in ordinary practice sessions and in friend challenges.
Deal Types are ideal when the situation already exists in Cuebids: slam tries, notrump auctions, defending Multi 2D, specific opening structures, or other common practice categories. They are quick, repeatable, and easy to combine with social practice.
| Goal | Use Deal Types when... | Use Scenarios when... |
|---|---|---|
| Learn a common auction | The topic is already listed as a Deal Type. | Your partnership plays a custom version. |
| Prepare for a match | You want quick repetition before playing. | You need hands that match a very specific agreement. |
| Review a mistake | The mistake belongs to a broad category. | You can describe the exact hand constraints. |
| Practice with friends | You want a friend challenge on a familiar topic. | You want a group session on a partnership-specific method. |
Use Scenarios for custom practice
Scenarios are custom Deal Types. They let you decide what each player can hold, what the dealer and vulnerability should be, whether the deal can rotate, and which robot system should be used when robots are part of the practice.
Both tools are mostly paid. Scenarios need Heart — to put one into a session, to create your own, and to save scenarios other players have shared. Deal Types are tiered: one is free, and the rest are spread fairly evenly across Club, Diamond and Heart. Check the tier on the topic you want before you plan a session around it.
This matters when the topic is not just "practice transfers" but something like this:
- Opener has a 15-17 balanced hand.
- Responder has a five-card major and invitational values.
- The partnership has enough combined strength for game.
- The deals sometimes rotate so both partners practice both sides.
That level of control is what makes scenarios useful for serious partnership work. You can turn one recurring error into a repeatable practice set.
Generate enough stock before you practice
Custom scenarios need generated deals in stock before they are useful in a session. The scenario manager shows how many deals are available, lets you generate more, and warns when selected scenarios have too few deals for the session size you chose.
A practical workflow is to create the scenario, test it, save it, generate stock, and then use it in a short practice session. If the scenario is rare, loosen one constraint before generating a large set. Extremely narrow filters can be hard to deal.
Turn event mistakes into focused sessions
The best focused practice loop starts in broad play. Bid a Daily event, Weekly event, friend challenge, or Ranked Challenge. Then look at the boards where the auction went wrong and decide whether the next practice should use a Deal Type or a Scenario.
- Find one repeated bidding problem.
- Search Deal Types for an existing topic.
- If the topic is too specific, build or save a Scenario instead.
- Bid a small focused session.
- Return to events or challenges and see if the mistake disappears.
Use the library as a checklist
The Convention Library and System Library are useful starting points when you are not sure what to practice next. Read the topic, identify the exact auction or hand type, then choose the Cuebids tool that matches it.
If the library page describes a general convention, start with Deal Types. If it describes a partnership-specific structure, use the Scenario Tool. That keeps practice narrow enough to help, but realistic enough to matter at the table.
Like this article?