Online bridge can be played from the comfort of your home – or sometimes, from any other place that you might wish to that has a still-standing smartphone and internet connection.

Playing at home can sometimes be a double-edged sword.

Working from home is a lot of the same.

See, our home are where we keep our stuff (in the words of an old George Carlin skit), and where we stash our daily conveniences. At home, for example, you might be happy in pyjamas for an entire day. Anywhere else, that might not go as well.

When you’re playing home bridge, it’s easy to get used to comfort.

Because we’re at home (and not in the bustle of the average tournament environment), it’s fine to scratch your nose in obvious ways, to sneeze with abandon, to eat peanut butter with a spoon while contemplating your last bridge game.

But, don’t let your bidding (or approach to tricks) become too comfortable!

Let’s look at 6 ways to keep your online bridge skills sharpened.

1: Solve Some Puzzles

Bridge puzzles are available from your nearest bridge magazine, bridge website, or right here on BBO. Excellent books on bridge puzzles are also available almost everywhere.

If you want to improve your online card skills, solve some puzzles.

Track your progress, and check your ratio of solved puzzles in a month.

2: Battle The Bots

GIB makes a great bridge partner, and an even better opponent. He’s a permanent insomniac, and his literal only function is to be ready for a game of bridge (at all times).

Battle the bots of bridge if you want to get better.

Remember to balance out your techniques by joining in games with human players, too.

3: Master Bridge Master

Bridge Master is a classic bit of bridge software that everyone should play at least once. Powered by GIB, Bridge Master is a collection of Declarer-specific puzzles. Guiding tips are optional.

For better online games, remember the importance of playing a decent game as declarer.

4: Save Your Games

Don’t underestimate the value of seeing your mistakes and successes at the table displayed at a glance. Save your games, and revisit them once per week or month as desired.

Games can be exported from BBO, and viewed or played backwards in the same place.

Seeing the game (instead of playing it) is a great way to see where you did well, did badly, and could generally improve your bridge game.

5: Import Other Games

For better bridge playing, it’s important to see how other players approach the game. Approach this as a spectator, and look around for other notable, famous, or just plain good games of bridge that you can import into BBO for viewing.

Importing other games is one of the best available ways to learn your bridge playing techniques by watching the greats.

6: Quizzes & Questions

Quizzes and questions are usually seen as a way of testing knowledge, but also happens to be a pretty damn good way to build knowledge too.

Use the few (or many) loose-end moments in your every day to answer some basic questions about bridge. There are many free quizzes about bridge available online, many of them right here on Bridge Base.

It seems almost too simple of a tip to impact real-life bridge playing, but I can attest to it: You’ll be surprised at the progress boost!