bbutcher85

We played in the 18 board match tonight #74491. Jean80301 went offline 3 times, at 9:17, 10:41, and 10:44 Eastern Standard Time. She is connected to the same 5 GHz wifi as I am. I play in a different room to avoid ethics issues. Both computers are the same distance from the router (about 20 feet). What is strange is that on my computer there is no indication she is offline, her name does not show reserved, and in the people box she shows up as playing in the tournament, but on her computer her screen reverts to the login screen with the blue Login bar and people playing bridge in the background. I suspect BBO does not show her logged off since no one at the table realizes she is offline. Frequently it takes her more than one attempt to get logged back in, causing many delays, director calls, and comments by the opponents. This happens many times each week, and has continued since we started playing in March 2020.

one of my partners, Jean80301 has the same problem. She will usually get knocked offline up to 5-10 times during an 18 board match. This has been happening for over a year and a half. Today we were reviewing our results from a game starting at 11:30 AM Eastern standard time, after the game ended. She was kicked off 6-7 times while reviewing the hands. She has a strong wifi signal with Xfinity. She was also knocked off at least 3-4 times during the game. I am playing on a computer using the same OS, same wifi, and same version of BBO (V3). I get knocked off perhaps once a month or less. It appears if there is a delay in bidding or play of perhaps 1-2 minutes she gets knocked off. bbutcher85

The same thing seems to apply if buying from an Android cell phone.

I was helping a friend with an Apple tablet and discovered you can buy BB$ from the "shop" menu, but if you do, you will pay 50% more for them since they are being resold by iTunes or some play store.

Hi, I noticed the same thing when helping a friend get started with BBO. He had an android cell phone and his wife had an Apple tablet. With both these products it seems when they buy BB$ they are forced to "shop" at iTunes or some playstore for them and are charged 50% more. When I buy them on my PC (any computer not made by Apple) I pay $10 US for 10 BB$. I emailed BBO support about this and they suggested buying the BB$ from a "computer" rather than the android or Apple product to avoid this excess fee.

The last time I bought BB$ the cost was one for one, but on an apple product the cost is 50% higher. Is this change for all systems, or what is going on?

My regular partner is playing ACBL tournaments on a laptop PC (not apple) running Windows 7 64 bit with the latest version of Google Chrome (V 87.0.4280.141) and V3 (HTML version) of BBO software. Her laptop is set up to never sleep, never hibernate, never turn off the disks, and is plugged into the AC power. She and I are in the same house with the same internet connection, but play in different rooms to be ethical. She experiences numerous problems with what appear to be disconnects, but they are not real disconnects. Her screen just fails to update when a bid is made or a card is played by me or an opponent. She does not see the play or bid for some reason. This sometimes happens several times in one hand, other times maybe 5-6 times during an 18 board match. This cause breaks in tempo and sometimes running out of time since there is no indication of a problem, it just appears to her to be a slow player. When I check the people box she is still online, but the only way to correct the problem seems to be her logging off and back on. I am playing on the same high speed internet using a Windows 7 32 bit desktop PC with V3 BBO software, and I almost never have a connection problem. I sometimes play on my ancient laptop computer running Windows XP with V2 software and again almost never have a problem with disconnects. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, but buying a new computer is not a viable option.

I am not sure if this helps answer the question but recently our local bridge club has begun organizing a Virtual Club game that is restricted to players from our club. I believe the club director organizes the game and entered a list of usernames of all players allowed to play. The price is higher than BBO ACBL tournaments with profits going to support the local club. I am not sure what is required to set this up, but if others want to do something similar, I could ask our director what he had to do.

I have been playing on BBO a lot during the Covid 19 pandemic, and one of my regular partners has many drop-outs. Her screen will fail to show a card that has been played, or will not allow her to bid or play a card from her hand. She usually has to log off and back on about every two hands. This plus similar problems that the opponents have frequently cause us to not be able to finish three hands in the allotted time, especially playing speedball. I almost never need to log out and back in. The only difference is that I am using a computer with Windows XP and she is using a computer with Windows 7 operating systems. We both are using Google Chrome as a browser. We have even tested this with both computers in the same house using the same high speed internet connection with the same results, so cannot blame it on the internet connection. The screens that appear on her computer are completely different from mine. One major difference is that I cannot find Virtual club games from my XP computer, the title is not listed. Some other features may be missing as well. I have a second computer using Windows 7, and it seems to work OK with few if any drop-outs. Has anyone else had this problem, and more important has anyone found a solution? Maybe a Chrome problem?

Some of us "new " players are long time ACBL members who adhere to the "zero tolerance" policy, and would never leave a tournament or a hand until the play is completed. I understand the problem as in "take me to the first available table" play I encounter many runners. Sometimes I have had 10-12 different opponents and/or partners on a single hand. That is very frustrating and not fun. I also realize that I and others sometimes lose internet connectivity or are dropped for some reason beyond our control. I have also run across players calling partner, or opponent "idiot" or similar, and if I am table host, I will boot them instantly. If you classify someone as "new" anytime they fail to play in 10 tournaments in the last 30 days, that is not fair. A better method is to classify someone as "accepted" when they have shown good behavior and have played in at least 10 tournaments without running. Please note that you have records of our ACBL player number connected to our username for members of ACBL. Bob Butcher ACBL Bronze Life Master over 40 years playing bridge

Some of us use a Kindle or similar small screen device, and it is very easy to click on the wrong card or bid since the finger is 2-3 times the width of the point on the screen. In ACBL tournament play and sanctioned club play the director will permit changing of a mistaken bid as long as the players partner has not bid. This is not to say you can change your mind, but you pulled the wrong card from the bidding box.