aisha759

Very good discussion JRG, and one that should be taken very seriously.... I have hosted a few tournaments (notice i didnt use the word"direct")... Hosting is IMHO a very different concept, which anyone, given permission is allowed to do, and I am one of them... have stopped doing so, due to my lack of knowledge in rules and regulations(my choice btw). A "host" can sub and adjust scores when time runs out and that's pretty much all, very few are qualified to make important decisions, whereas a "Director" is expected to deal with a lot of complicated situations, which are beyond me :unsure: It's a must that TD's should have qualifications which also include special skills to deal with numerous personalities . They may need help, and thats where "hosts" come in handy because they can contribute with the "menial" yet very frustrating tasks. No offense taken by your post, and I'm not going to get into the "ohhh you don't appreciate us hosts/directors, who work so hard and dedicate our time and effort, bla bla bla", because those who do run those tourneys do it voluntarily, and get pleasure out of it, otherwise you wouldn't have 700 tourneys running at the same time :) Try a few of the tournaments available and see which director is the most capable at handling the complex situations you mentioned. There was a suggestion which was to give qualified directors a special colour or a star so that participants could have a choice...... Directing is really not an easy job, especially online... so if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen (i'm a lousy cook, and i'm staying out, unless someone twists my arm :lol: Aisha

Myself, and 2 other BBO members noticed something a bit unusual yesterday; if this has been asked or discussed before, please ignore, or delete Ben (but let me know where I can find the answer :) When announcements are made to lobby from any location (tourney, private table, kibber) you see <lobby> next to the name; yesterday there were many ads in lobby without that; it seemed as if people were talking at the table; I also noticed a player's name, adding in lobby with <kibbitzers> next to his nick. I usually have lobby chat turned off, but I don't remember any of this before.... as i said 2 other people commented on this. Is it a new feature, so we can tell where the announcement is coming from, or is it a bug? Thanks in advance :D Aisha

Alertable bids have evolved I noticed.... Take transfers as an example: nobody seems to alert those anymore, as we take them for granted....but should be alerted ( i was told) There was a time when 1nt opening bids were not alertable as they were known to be 16-18pts (that was a long time ago)... players now alert the weak 1nt and fail to alert the 16-18, because the standard (sayc) 1nt openings are 15-17. I played against opponents who bid a 1nt with 16-18pts, did not alert ( i automatically took it for 15-17)... my partner and myself were damaged by it, but didn't pursue the matter.... my question is? is a 1nt opening with 16-18pts alertable nowadays? I went into that link Claus, but its a very detailed one and will read it eventually. Self alerts are a bit different than alerting when playing live bridge, in the sense that if you make a bid, and your partner fails to alert, there is a possibility he did not understand the bid was an unusual one, which could give away some information (of course at the end of the bidding opps can always back track and ask what each bid meant). On line, partner does not see it, so the concept is totally different.... i may have gone off track here, but at least, it's still about alerts, so yes, what are BBO rules about alerts?

This one, is from the same turney i was co-hosting with Fo; it was sent to me as a private message in Italian... my italian is almost non existent but i sure undersdood this sentence; here it is (in english) he he " Why is my partner a "cretino" with capital letters?" Me: sorry i dont speak italian... I won't be directing for a while..... :unsure: Aisha

Please TD's tell me how to deal with this situation I encountered today... I was helping Fo(Fouad) and he witnessed part of it.. I get called to a table, the bidding is over, and the person on lead would not play... he said that opp alerted a X (which i could see, and it had no explanation) and they were asking him what it meant, and he wouldnt reply, so player decided he would NOT lead until he got an explanation... :unsure: I begged opp to explain the alerted X, this was our dialogue: player: i will not explain until the bidding is over! Me: you have to explain alert right away; since you failed to do that, pls do so now. player: not until the bidding is over Me: but the bidding is over, and time is running out player: if i explain now, it will give away the lead Me: what??? I am asking you nicely to alert your bid now, otherwise opps will not make the lead, and i might have to adjust in their favor if you dont finish this board on time... (in the meantime, i am begging opp to play..) player: its my first time to play bridge Me: oh! i hope you are enjoying, pls explain your alert (trying to stay polite) player: ok, its good hand 10+pts me: thank you very much, now please proceed to play. Is this funny? Aisha :D

I made a big mistake today too :unsure: but i'm not telling.... Actually might hide for a few days!

Hello Spiralscan; All tournaments specify that there is zero tolerance for rude behavior; IMHO voluntarily disconnecting is also considered to be rude... If a player is harassed by another member there are many other actions he/she can take other than disconnecting. Was this other member a partner, an opponent at the table? I didn't quite understand. If it's an opponent, one has to put up with them on the average of 16 minutes, therefore no reason to disconnect; if it is a partner, ah well! One has to bite ones tongue for the duration of the tournament, and deal with it in the proper manner afterwards... Any other member, from lobby, or kibbing, cannot chat to player, so impossible to get harrassed by them during a tournament. Did the player disconnect after he felt that TD did not take proper action? Also not a valid reason. TD's are very strict about rudeness, and if they are unable to solve the situation during the session, they definitely will afterwards.. It's true, one's emotions take over at times, and disconnecting is the easiest thing to do, it's some sort of automatic reaction. This where one takes a few deep breaths, counts to 20 and continues.. :o otherwise the whole tournament gets disrupted, which is not pleasant. :) I would take Hallway's suggestion if I were you, she has offered this service to another disgruntled player :D Have a nice day Aisha

too many choices there, if i could, i would vote for 3 :( I chose my worst TD experience, and voted accordingly..... being disconnected as a TD is a nightmare! The guilt!!!! I don't even want to go there! Good luck to all TD's Aisha

I love to play swiss, love to direct it too ( when im in the mood to direct) Of course, this doesnt mean I don't like other formats, and i join turneys according to how many boards and timing... swiss still my favorite!

Isnt quantiative usually looking for a slam in NT? I have noted down all the explanations on when 4nt is RKCB and when it is quantitative, but still a little confused.... with a pick up partnership, how can you tell which is which? I was taught, that quantitative was directly after a NT opening; and gerber asking for aces... was i taught the wrong thing? I play Acol with my "favorite" pd, and obviously quantitative does not come up very often, actually NEVER!! (well so far) There are so many opinions.... are they opinions, or rules? I am glad this subject was brought up. I just dont understand why a 4nt would be quantitative after a transfer, texas, south african, ottoman, greco roman, or byzantinian... please explain. After stayman, 4nt quantitative is logical, its after the transfer which has me confused... ( dont ask why, just explain pls) Thank you all in advance Aisha

:( he he I know Marc; you always post CC and i never bother to read it, even though i know how.... call me lazy, call me..... well, just call me ;) he he

HI xx ;)) 1- Your partner and yourself can fill in the card together. i.e agreeing on conventions etc....(filling your card is sufficient because your partner can open it to have a look at it... i think he can even edit what you already have in there and save; of course if you agree to that) 2- As far as I know it's allowed, thats what it's there for, especially since your pd can also open it and look at it. 3-Has been answered in 1 and 2 :( 4- When you are at the table and click on conv. card, you have the option to chose "ours" or "theirs" i believe, 5- Cant answer this one soooo sorry.. hope the first 4 helped though. Good luck, Aisha

Helping Marc in his tourneys is a real adventure! He is a very seasoned and professional director, but....... loves to pull pranks on his co-TD's: I get called to a table: (prompt message said) <player> "director, opp says his p is dead."(i've heard a lot of different terminologies for a disconnected player: frozen, stuck, red, red-dotted,booted) but dead??? That was a first for me! I was busy doing some very complicated adjustment at the time, and on a long distance call (adjustment was wrong by the way) I suddenly left what i was so eagerly doing, and ran to the table! Thank god the guy was alive and kicking, but not responding, so i proceeded to do my favorite : replacing disconnected player (whose nick by the way was something like jdrbd3Fmr....a bit of an exageration, but close :blink:) suddenly, i find myself sitting in the dead player's seat...the biding was over, the first card had been led and I had to make this contract which was a 3NT. As I was busy asking spwdo (mark) what happened and why i was playing rather than helping ( no reply from him which automatically made me think i had subbed myself... lack of confidence you see :lol:) I made that 3NT (out of pure luck), only to find out it was a surprise from Marc, to make me sub rather than let me help him out! In the meantime, I am still listed as TD so still recieving calls for subbing and adjusting etc..... there was nothing i could do about it, but to divert calls to the other co-hosts, and to my surprise!!!!!! Marc had done the same thing with another co-TD, and put him in as a sub! Thank god it was 2nd to last round and we were able to have fun with all this... I think Marc is a masochist ( slothy if the spelling is wrong please feel free to correct in next post) He asks for help, then subs the help! Intersting though.... when a player gets a TD as sub, the whole table starts behaving in a different manner (e.g. tempo, alerts, only english at table, even if they can't speak one word) evertything seems to fall into place.... You have all heard the saying "its good to be de king!" well i'll tell you," its good to be de directorrrrr" (sometimes) P.S. I added a lot of salt and pepper to this post to make it more interesting... the names have been changed to protect the innocent :) Keep your stories coming!

Hi everybody :blink: I am turkish living in Jordan.... how long does it take to become a good bridge player? I am on a plateau at the moment! I started out on yahoo, moved on to MSN, flew over to OKbridge (hated it) swam to BBO(not planning to leave it)... I love this game, I'm addicted to it, especially online.. I play SAYC and ACOL, and trying to learn 2/1. P.S. i learned how to play 10 years ago, but only took it up seriously 5 years ago (how stupid is that?) Patience is a virtue ( so they say) maybe I'm not cut out for excellence, but i should get a star for percevevence ( did i spell that right?)

lolll farfinatorrrrr :) its too late :blink: P.S. i tried so much to use your nick in this thread, sorry didnt manage to do it :))

JRG, i believe your post is in the wrong area :blink: this thread is about allowing kibbers or NOTTTTT! he he The only reason why a host would not allow kibbs in a tourney is for one reason only..... suspicion of cheating!!!!!! Other than that, kibbers are usually silent and are disabled from talking to the table. I just don't see the problem of allowing kibbers except for the above mentioned.. All tourneys allow kibbers (i have personally only encountered very few which did not) .. Not allowing kibbers in a tourney is the Host's choice, of course; just dont take away the kibbing privileges for those of us who want to learn and improve.... Thanks :) aisha

A poll was taken, people voted, Ben made a decision... it was all fair and square ;) We all got to know a few extra nicks on BBO we may never have noticed otherwise, it was fun! IMHO....time to move on! Aisha

It would be interesting to see how many females will participate in this betting process..... I know a few of the players (not personally) and would like to see the Egyptians win it (but I won't bet on it!) I'd rather spend my BBO$ on MasterBridge :) and shoes... This is a tough crowd.. I'm off ;)

It is very unfair to bar a player with poor internet connection from tournaments, even if its for a week! One should differentiate between intentional disconnects, and bad connections.... (Sometimes a red dot is not shown even though a player might be frozen), I don't know how one deals with that.. I am talking mostly about RED players...All that said and done, once a player realizes that his/her partner is truly having connection problems, they should accept the consequence of continuing the tourney with a sub. I have had a bad connection all week long... thank God I didnt play in more than 3 tourneys, otherwise I might have been barred ... It is very frustrating for the person with the bad connection, the partner, the opponents and the TD's ... you can't please everybody, this is fully understood; but barring them is a punishment which doesnt fit the crime ;) Unclocked tournaments are the solutions for such problems, as Marc suggested, but there arent that many out there.... All my sympathies go out to those who have been barred for poor connections :)

Congratulations Ben, both on your poster level, and your "yellow" status... I enjoy reading your posts.... most of all, I think you are a fair person.. Ayyy, this too serious :rolleyes: You do a wonderful job, Aisha

I will just have to move to other location then.... i still had $15 in my account and wanted to spend it... All jokes put aside, i will get in touch with sheri and explain the situation.. P.S. I don't have a microwave!

Hi Fred and/or Uday; I have purchased 3 masterbridge deals previously, from a different location I am on at the moment, and the transactions were successful. I tried to buy another one today, unsucessfully :) I got a prompt which said " internal error #16".... Of course, I have no idea what this means. I would greatly appreciate your help... Thank you in advance Aisha

:) I was helping tritri, ariakas, marc and luis in directing a turney last night... 16 boards, many disconnects and a lot of score adjustments being demanded at the same time... One player asked me to adjust board 6 at table 5, 5 HeartsX-1... after i checked it, i confidently adjusted, and got a "ty" from player... lo and behold, a few minutes later, I recieve a private message from the same player telling me, I had adjusted board 5 at table 6, 6 HeartsX-1 !!!! I was too embarassed to admit to my mistake, and would have loved to tell the player that another TD may have done it by mistake, but I didnt and said i would recheck to see how the mistake happened.... Of course, i did fix it, but ended up having to readjust boards 5 and 6 at 2 tables, and spent the whole evening doing that! Thank God we were a few directors and I was able to take my time :) It wasnt funny at the time, and maybe not funny now either B)

As one of the "players" and avid participants in this thread, I am glad you decided to take this poll Ben, and i voted for #2... This thread started out in good fun, and there were a few rules: it had to follow, (it didnt necessarily have to make sense) but most important, we wanted to bring in nicks of BBO players, bridge terminology which would be shown in red for readers to notice..... As I recall, Fred was reading the posts once, and he had a positive attitude about it... he actually said it was nice and that he liked it. It went haywire though, and i dont want to get into why, and it is not about it not making sense, it is about it not following the previous sentence, and not using correct BBO nicks and bridge terms.... anyway, I'm glad its over, and YESSSSSS it was a lot of fun, except for a few who tried to ruin it on purpose.... but to each his own i say! Have a nice day Aisha

After reading Fred's post on how a good bridge player gets a well deserved star, i doubt i qualify, since i only play on BBO (for now).... When i do get my star, you can have all the info shrike B) i hope you are patient Aisha