BudH

[hv=pc=n&s=sat84hkq9dkj9cqt4&w=sk72hjt643da8543c&n=sq6ha852dcak86532&e=sj953h7dqt762cj97&d=w&v=b&b=4&a=p1cp3np4cp4hp6cppp]399|300|(1) H7 to HK, (2) D9 to DA and ruffed, (3) low club to CQ, (4) "low spade", SK, "oh sh&@ from declarer", (5) heart ruffed by East[/hv]

In the "Oh sh@&!" ruling from the 1999 Vanderbilt, Joanna Stansby in a 6 club slam accidentally at trick 4 called "low spade" instead of "low club" in a position where she had 12 obvious tricks (and 13 when her RHO Dan Morse would have been squeezed in the majors. (See page 4 of http://web2.acbl.org/nabcbulletins/1999spring/db8.pdf). Morse grabbed the spade lead away from dummy's ace and gave Bobby Wolff a heart ruff for down 1. After the play was completed, the Director was called and later by a 3-2 margin, an appeals committee allowed the change of called card from dummy and changed the result to 6C making 6. Under the 2017 law change for Law 45C4(b), declarer is not allowed a correction of dummy's called card if a play from dummy or declarer's hand thereafter is made. Let's say this new law was applied to the case above. Pretend at trick 3 "low spade" was said instead of "low club", Morse plays the spade king and Stansby plays the club ace thinking she had called for a low club (never noticing the spade king play from RHO until later). As Wolff follows with a low spade, dummy asks of Stansby "no spades"? Stansby calls the director, saying she intended to call for a low club to draw trumps. Would her ILLEGAL play of the club ace count as playing to the trick such that it would prevent her from correcting her verbal error via Law 45C4(b)? (As a side comment, I disagree with this law change and makes it very likely that applying an allowed correction will nearly always happen when dummy plays third or fourth to a trick and seldom when playing first or second to a trick.)

With regards to the two laws 45B and 45C4(a) below, 45B: “Play of Card from Dummy - Declarer plays a card from dummy by naming the card, after which dummy picks up the card and faces it on the table. In playing from dummy’s hand declarer may, if necessary, pick up the desired card himself.” 45C4(a): “A card is played if a player names or otherwise designates it as the card he proposes to play (but see Law 47)” make a small change to make it crystal clear in the laws (and not via an interpretation) when a verbally called card from dummy is officially played. ACBL has told me previously that despite using the phrase "after which", the card is officially played after it is removed from dummy. Not when it is verbally called. Best to make a slight modification to the wording making it crystal clear when a verbally called card is officially played. Proposed phrasing: 45B - "Declarer plays a card from dummy by naming the card, dummy removing the card from dummy's remaining cards, and dummy facing the card on the table. In playing from dummy's hand, declarer may, if necessary, pick up the desired card himself." and 45C4(a) - "A card must be played (but is not yet deemed played) if a player names or otherwise designates it as the card he proposes to play (but see Law 47)."

HTML-button I would have inserted a picture but could not see how to do that.

I played an ACBL tournament on BBO for the first time in several months a few days ago. When I logged into Hand Records and saw a list of all 18 boards played with Movie, Lin, and Traveler links, I noticed in the upper right corner just above the Movie/Lin/Traveler links I have two buttons labelled "Download PBN" and "HTML". When I clicked on "HTML", saved the file, then opened it, I get an awesome full display of all the boards, played cards, and even how many seconds it took for each player's calls and plays. (Sometime last year I downloaded something I can't remember what which tells you how many seconds each player takes which you can see on the screen.) Question 1: I have a friend who wants that HTML button to show up on HIS screen. How can he do that? Question 2: What do you download/install to have the number of seconds show up for each call and play? Bud H

For the ACBL virtual club games, the Director can use the VPortal tool that is provided and quickly check the masterpoints of possible substitutes. (I have with experience been able to make this check in less than 10 seconds, and if the masterpoints are low enough, invite the substitute.) This means you in general would be looking for only USA or Canada players.

An extra question - if I create the teaching table and import a LIN file (in my case, it will be a LIN file of the 36 Common Game deals of which the first 22 will be played, finished less than 30 minutes earlier), is there any way the "teacher" can select which of the 36 boards to display without hitting "Redeal" a bunch of times? Is there any way to go backwards, so if after discussing Board 10 I want to go back to Board 5, how would I do that?

I'd like a few times a month to run a 20 to 30 minute post-game postmortem teaching session where I'd quickly discuss a few interesting boards plus take questions from others after an ACBL virtual club 199er or 399er game. I know many clubs do this occasionally. What is the best method of communication for this? Zoom? A BBO teaching table (which I know absolutely nothing about at the moment)?

How long does it take to be refunded? A minute? An hour? I have been encouraging my players to always keep at least TWO game fees in their BBO accounts in case something happens causing a game to crash or get cancelled and you want enough to re-register for a new game immediately (because I figured it would be several minutes, if not several hours, for your entry fee to be refunded to your account).

So has the issue with ios 14 been resolved? Can players now upgrade their iPads and phones and not have a problem playing with the most recent BBO app?

Doesn't the BBO system determine the number of tricks when there are only a few tricks (or a few cards on the last trick) when the clock expires? The only times I have had to override the BBO system are two times with four tricks to go, a defender had to discard a specific card to prevent declarer from taking the rest (discarding any of the other three cards in his hand would have been fatal), but the BBO system gave declarer the rest of the tricks. I had to go adjust the score. Remember this if you get a director call for the late board and then watch it disappear because the BBO system determined the number of tricks.

Interesting that I can use voice now on the Partnership Bidding tables!

So the voice chat is available only on team games (of 8 players at 2 tables) and the BBO virtual club games - and NOT available anywhere else (such as a casual table of four players)?

After I get a robot as a sub, can I put a human sub in place of the robot sub? Will the robot sub keep knocking the new human sub out of his/her seat? Will I need to "lock in" the human sub to stay in the seat?

A partner and I tried using this on a partnership bidding table, and we did get it to work. Look for a Voice button near the Chat button at right side of Chat line. Players will need microphones - that work - on their computers, obviously. It appears I could decide who to send voice messages to but all of this will eventually be told to us - according to the Monday Zoom BBO/ACBL virtual club director meeting last night which was a topic presented. Presumably by end of week we (ACBL virtual game directors) might get some instructions from BBO.

I have spotted a few times when the BBO system with four to five tricks to go awarded a certain result, but I disagreed with it. Usually this happens when the defense will get one trick if the defender who is about to play plays one specific card. If not, then declarer scores the rest. And often this means discarding an honor in a short suit and keeping all the cards in another suit - which means the defense gets their deserved one trick. So the double dummy result is not the result the BBO system gave for the adjusted score. The problem is I sometimes when directing don't catch which table had the BBO system adjusted score. Or there are three of them and I can't quickly jot them down because the Director call disappears. Not sure of a solution for this issue. Unless the Director call stayed visible, like it does when there is a sit-out.

A very fast player in my virtual club games has this happen about once every four or five games, when partner is taking forever to make the final pass and he’s got his opening lead practically “half clicked” during that wait.

When a game starts, it will say saved deals are being used if that is the case.

I would prefer any default to be set fo chat to Opponents.

I have a player Grantmikim who gets disconnected so often we joke, similar to baseball which has to go 5 innings, that our game isn’t official until the 5th disconnect of Grantmikim. Yet she tells me she has no problem with any other website. Any way to check her? She also plays on BBO frequently outside the vacb128801 games I direct involving her.

Are you certain settings for both of you are exactly the same? Including pictures of cards yes or no? Same web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, Safari, other) running standard version 3 of BBO?

Heading up a main virtual ACBL club with three pooled clubs, I receive a Rosters.csv file with player numbers, names, masterpoints, and for some of them, BBO usernames. I thought it might be a list of everyone who has played at the main club or the three pooled clubs within the last year, but if so, those on that 250 person list has about 100 with BBO names - but we have 140 who are on my member list which I have verified via the new VPortal link tool that all 140 are on my Include List. So it seems many names are missing. Any idea how that player list is generated for the Rosters.csv file?

31 pairs is particularly annoying for the Director, Assume I have 15 full tables where I tend to run 11 rounds and 2 boards a round. I set the game up with “22” and “2”. Just before the game begins, a 31st pair registers, which is going to cause two 8-table sections. If I see it in time, I quickly change to “21” and “3” for a 7x3 Mitchell. But if I don’t notice the 31st pair, it’s going to run 11x2 with 8 tables, so there will be THREE revenge rounds! And there’s no way to change the game movement after the game starts.

In my opinion, we should be allowing inclusion to the nearest club from a player’s documented home address that is associated with a virtual ACBL club. But for now, you should be obtaining permission from the club manager of a club you played at in 2019 or 2020 to play in your local virtual club. There is a process for that “poaching activity” to have you put on the “Include List” for your local club.

How does one give a weighted score in BBO? It appears I can choose only a number of tricks or an artificial Ave, Ave+, or Ave-.