One of my favorite smartphone apps of all time was a simple game of Reversi that I used to play all the time a few years ago. Most games were a way to unwind as the sun set, and one thing I remember enjoying about it (other than an impressive AI) was the fact that it measured the wins versus losses of all your games.

Eventually, I had an impressive streak going – with wins finally outranking losses to a point where I felt I could say I had become a better player.

When I took to online bridge playing again later on, the first thing I noticed was that my wins-versus-losses ratio for this game was radically different. I was losing far more games than I was winning.

There were a lot of losses: Thankfully, against and partnered with bots for the most part.

It was an important initiation. Losing, I mean. It’s also how I learned how to win.

Here are some of the most important things I learned about bridge while getting kicked right in the deck.

1. Bots Are Great Practice

If you want to test the waters, test a new technique or see how you’ve improved over the past few weeks, bots make for great practice.

This is because bots don’t judge: In fact, bots don’t really care. They’re there, and they play. That’s it.

They’re great for testing the waters, and they’re especially great for nervous bridge players who feel like they’re still working on things.

If you’re more confident beating bots, you’ll be more likely to be able to beat real partnerships, too.

2. Record Your Own Games

It’s not enough to lose a bunch of bridge games in order to be a better player. That’s just not going to do it.

But seeing yourself lose on-screen is an entirely different experience. It allows you to see your plays, your successes, your mistakes – and your lost versus won tricks are right there.

Record as many of your own games as you can: Go through these, especially ones you lost, to see how things could have worked differently.

Seeing a recorded game with yourself as the participant is one way to step away and view it instead as a third-party kibitzer: When you see yourself lose, you’re more likely to think, “Oh, hell, what is this guy doing? Why didn’t he just play the ace?”

There’s the magic realization that only watching yourself lose can give you.

3. Winning and Losing Tricks

Winning and losing tricks sounds easy, but isn’t.

Other than bidding, it’s one of the great intricacies of the game: Easy to learn, hard to master.

Some tricks are sure tricks that have to be taken now, others are discards or not-so-sure tricks that set you up for the possibility of won tricks later; other moves just block your opponent’s avenues or guarantee that they play good cards into bad tricks for them (but better tricks for you).

Learning the ins and outs of tricks takes time, and takes losing, as I learned pretty quickly.

Just Declare turned out to be a good way to test the waters – and to test different ways to win or lose tricks in preparation for more serious games.

Once I felt like I had improved at taking tricks at the right times, my bidding had improved too.