JoAnneM

My criteria is - am I embarrassed by them. Yes, I am. I was proud of them for winning, but they have disappointed me as people. I wonder what their mothers would think.

What are the black numbers in white squares that are next to some player's names? I looked in Help and couldn't find info. Thanks

This is a negative free bid. You either have the agreement with your partner to play them, or you don't. Stick to your agreements. By the way, negative free bids are alertable.

What great responses - all very positive. I really expected some "if you don't like it, take a hike" answers. And I appreciate those responses because I was serious about my concerns. I will try some of the suggestions, and thank you all very much. :)

Yes, that was checked. Actually I have to confess - I have been playing online bridge since 1991. Anyone remember the Imagination Network and the Village where you entered the little house to play bridge? I was even a site administrator for Shawn Quinn when she managed another site, so I know my way around online bridge sites and I have lots of friends. Understand I am not putting down BBO, I am just trying to understand the draw. Some of my friends think it is because it doesn't have a rating system, which is a huge bone of contention on any other site which has one. I really doubt that the fees are such an issue. I know of another free site that had to ask for donations to keep going and the money just flowed in. To top it off BBO has a great Forum, I enjoy it very much.

The other night a friend invited me to play at BBO. I must admit I haven't played here in awhile, I play mostly at two other "pay" sites. We opened a table at the Main Bridge Club and I was totally appalled at what happened. For the first six or seven hands I don't think we finished one hand with the same two opponents, and they would come and go with no comments. This is totally unacceptable behaviour where I am used to playing and these people would not last long there. Finally the game settled down when two "experts" arrived at the table and we were able to play some hands. So, why are there so many people here? The ACBL tournies are more expensive, there don't seem to be any rules, it can be free, but not all of it is free. The Vugraph is fantastic. And I am not pushing any other site, I just really don't understand the draw to this one when I have had such disappointing experience with it, on several occasions.

At the 2006 Dallas NABC our opponents had left the table and I took my LHO cards from the last hand out of the pocket to look at them. She came flying back to the table from who knows where yelling, "Director! Director!", and then yelling at me " YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!" I was so startled I dropped the whole hand on the floor. The Director came and told me I was a very bad girl and might have to go home. Sheesh.

A couple of comments: 1. I don't believe anyone touched on something from Jillybean's original post, and that is her husband's bid after the hesitation. I hope she realizes that it probably was not a legal bid and if the director had been called something would have been done (assuming a competent director). Unlike online bridge where taking advantage of hesitations is not really enforced or proven, it is quite easy to establish it in a ftf game. 2. Having a "stationary e/w" table in a Mitchell movement is quite easy and at my game we do it quite frequently. It involves a pair who can neither move nor keep score. They are assigned their e/w number but sit at an unnumbered table off to the side and the n/s players take their table markers and boards to that table to play. 3. Every one of my games is seeded. Seats are assigned as people register, actually we have a fantastic partnership program and we know pretty much know down to the half table who is coming and we run 10-11 table games, so we can lay out the seeding ahead of time and make adjustments as necessary. It takes a while to learn who likes which direction but it all works out. And then we have the nicest players of all who don't care where they sit. My favorite quote: "Be part of the solution, not part of the problem"

This is what really gripes me. I am a playing director at a local club. Today two people came up to be and complained about infractions that occurred - after the fact. One was a behavior issue. Well, you know there is not a darn thing I can do if you don't call me to the table at the time. One lady was mad because the opponent pointed to the vulnerability on the board during the bidding. That's a terrible thing to do, but why tell me four hands later during the next round!!! Now, I can go to these people and do a "he said, she said" routine, but why not call me right now? These people need to be called on the carpet while they are doing this stuff. Let us directors do our jobs, then maybe there won't be so many posts about unfriendly games. One bad player can scare as many as 10 players away from a small club. Getting rid of that player only loses one player. Do the math.

What is the point of a wireless mouse? I just love it when one of my partners start losing control of their mouse in the middle of a game because they forgot to recharge it or put in batteries. Just get a USB hub.

I did notice that ACBL now has the hand records posted for all the sessions of the last two NABC's. On the rare occasions that we have pre-dealt hands with hand records at our club most of the hand records are still sitting on the table when I clean up after the game. BTW, doesn't a dealing machine cost about $5,000?

What kind of games are you going to? Our club games are deal and play. Non-profit, playing director, who is going to do all this writing up of the hands, anyway. I think you may be spoiled.

How do I turn off the chat popups while I am in Double Dummy and a few other places? It is very distracting, all the lobby chat pops up right on top of the cards.

Has anyone defined "shorts" for this discussion? I once played at a Sectional where a fellow was wearing loose gym shorts with his "you know what" hanging out.

Defense 45% Declarer Play 35% Bidding 20% These percentages, or close to it, have been around for years.

I found more info at the ACBL site. Juniors up to age 26, if still in school, pay $7.00 at NABC's for Regionally rated events. Check out www.acbl.org and click on the green box ACBL for Juniors for more info.

You are right, it is zonal. District 20 (Oregon, No. Calif., So. Washington, etc.) allows anyone 18 and under to play at Regionals for just $1.00. What a deal! I know this is right, I am the treasurer, lol. I just looked at the fee schedule for the Orlando NABC and saw no mention of discounts for Juniors.

I believe this particular forum is about offline or ftf bridge. I attended a director refresher course at a recent NABC and we had a discussion about slow play. It is the ACBL position (at least from the director leading this discussion) that it is the slow players who are to be accomodated, not the fast players. Of course extremes are not to be tolerated. But players who rush the game and start hovering with six minutes left in the round are just as annoying to directors as ones who are still finishing a hand as the round is called. The ideal players play in tempo and listen for the round to be called and then make their move. Oh, for a perfect world. :)

I did download Netscape, but only because I have this giant hard drive that is only about 20% filled. I probably will never use it and will stick to the "colors be gone" button until the new color scheme is implemented. Thanks for all your help.

Hi everyone, It is very easy to turn off the colors using the accessibility menu. Also, I have looked at the new beta screen for the Forum and the colors are wonderful. I can easily see everything and the light blue is very restful for the eyes. Good Job!!!

Thanks for all the great help. I am going to try doing the Netscape thing.

I have a very hard time seeing on the computer. The colors on this forum make it almost impossible for me to find and read the posts. Is there a way for me to change the colors on my computer?