guggie

I am a TD organising free tournaments. Your responsibility as a TD is more or less as you choose it, BUT uday or other BBO staff can take yr TD-license away if there are (too many?) complaints. There is a section about TD's on thsi forum with many more stuff on TD-ing.

Just put yrself in the place of Baraket. Your screenmate, who is dummy, peeps into yr hand, than lies on the table, tapping in an unusual way with 3 fingers on his arm and on the table, at least 2 times, in a way his p can see it, and consequently this partner plays against the odds you for having 3 trumps and wins a slam. Furthermore, why should we, admittedly NOT knowing all the facts, roll over the digital floor fighting? Let the normal procedures take their course. I was in Tenerife, but got more information from internet than in the playing grounds. There was a lot of hearsay, generally like a kind of relief they were caught at last, but that is only hearsay.

I am a non-playing TD. So I can and do come at a table when someone is really abusive (which is in my experience not frequently). The problem is you CANNOT read the previous conversation. Neither can the players with copy paste repeat it for you. So you have to take someone's word for it. That can be enough to sub someone out, make him an enemy, put him on yr private blacklist. But if someone is really abusive and you think he should be banned from BBO, you need the conversation as it took place. That is the reason that I ask the players to send a mail to abuse. The just unpolite & disagreeable players - alas very frequent -, like "very bad play p" get a scold-, a ♣ and a venomous remark in vernacular Dutch on their profile for my private amusement;-) My pet hate among the just unpolite & disagreeable players are the question marks bombers: "?????". I ask them in dulcet tones if their keyboard is stuck.

OOoops sure and H=K We dutch always go crazy playing with french cards were V=valet=jack, while we have V=vrouw=queen.

4h in 2nd seat should be serious, we play them with some serious hopes to make it) so I would need A and AV in spades en diamonds, as the hearts will have 2 losers if p has no support. I need just a Hx and HBx to open 1heart (Ax and VBx also ok). White vs red i open 3hearts with nothing else.

that s what my husband hopes;-)

The way as TD to prevent this, is to expand time in the last round (via modify tournament), to give clock-players no opportunity. If tables are extremely slow, you go there and adjust if necessary. Just an idea from a rookie-TD. By the way, since the upcome of the payed tournaments, no TD meeting had been announced anymore.

Wow, Helene, the dog idea did not occur to me yet. But 2 puppies arriving july2nd... what possibilities. Furthermore partner hates dogs. Pity partner lives 30 km away.

Just finished directing. My main trouble was by the subbing. It would be so easy if you could klick the name of the missing player, click a name of a player on the substitues list, and there you are. But no way. The click on the names does not work, thats point nr one. If you type in the name of the player you want to sub in correctly (try some of those nicks!!!), most times nothing happens, and several seconds later, sometimes even several minutes, nothing happens but a message toi the lobby to invite subs - while my list of subs is full but i cannot get them to the tables i want. this drives me crazy! One little subbing takes minutes!!! I really like to match te subs to their future partners, but i am happy now if i manage to get any sub playing...

Need to reply a lot to get rid of my fish Please can you also add the number of points needed to promote to a higher card symbol?

Wow I really need to reply to see my food dish;-) Oops I am allergic to fish

nah cant be, I get them :D Although I have 3 times now asked to be removed from the mailing list The TD than adked: from the BBOItalia list or from my private list (?). I said from both. Stil keep receiving them.

1. when directing this morning, I was not able to chat to the tournament while being on the tournament and viewing all tables. I could chat to tournament when kibitzing at a table. After t was finished, i could not chat to tournament wile looking at the results ( to announce the winners) 2. When i played a subsequent t (slowik's indy) i could not see my own results while looking at another table, neither later on when the t was finished and i was still "in" that tournament.

5♥ pass is an alternative. 4spades is a certainty. My hand is weak but I have support for both minors. As I play solid Michaels cuebids qua playing strenght, it should not cost nore than 500. 3♥ or 3♦ give opps plenty room to tell their strong and weak points, 5♥ puts a lot of pressure on them. Also I like spectacular actions;-) Replied first read other answers later: hotspot surely has a point. On the other hand, cuing possibilities on the 4 level are cut off, so its guesswork now.

I have until now directed on average 2 IMP tournaments a week. What do I do? 1. subbing 2. adjusting 3. mind the time (hurry up slow tables) 4. give warnings about non - alerts, with the odd adjusted score 5. give warnings about non-english 6. give warnings or remove players with rude behaviour Subbing is the most time consuming, anyway if you want to match the sub to the partner-to-be. Adjusting is the hardest part, especially (ofcourse) if only a few tricks are played. But if you do not adjust, you put a premium on intentionally slow play. Score correction based on non-alerts is a relatively rare phenomenon, and in my view the only part in which formal knowledge of the rules should be required. In my view, the other parts of directing are much more important to create a friendly athmosfere tournament. In about one of 10 tournamenst I give an adjusted score based on my non-certified interpretation of the bridge rules. If I have to study to be a certified international TD I will not be able to log in on BBO for the next 4 yrs. To make DrTodd happy that my 1-in-10 tournaments ruling is 95% correct instead of the 80% (rough estimate) it is now. Wow

I still dont get the point of Dr Todd. If you want to run a t on BBO with strict ruling, careful weighing of appeals, of alert failures, adjusts, you need 1 internationally qualified TD for 10 pairs, These TD's still would spend the main part of their highly qualified time with subbing en prodding slow tables on. Where do you find these TD's? How can you pay their value? Such a tournament (with appeal committee) would cost 10-20-50$? If Dr Todd just assumes that every tournament unless otherwise stated has no qualified TD and thus (in his view) inferior quality, he can skip al these tournaments and go to the qualified ones.

1. The dutch bridgesite is running tournaments with certified TD's. They have one tournament in three weeks, on average. 2. Even if I was a certified TD, it is very difficult to do some good ruling whilst running the tournament, you have to check te bidding, the different ways to paly out a hand, review previous hands of the players to see how good or bad they play to estimate the way they should play the hand and so on and so on. meanwhile you have to sub a few, hush some flamed up ego's, notice the time. 3. Rulings differ around the world. The ACBL rules are very strict and unfair in my european eyes, and their rules about conventions and psyches - well lets say i do not like them;-) OK i do not play in ACBL tourneys, no big deal. But i cannot and will not rule my tournaments according to their rules.

well bridge is my hobby not my job but I take it seriously too. But I am a TD without any formal knowledge of the rules, who does indeed arrange substitutes, minds the time, goes to tables where people complain and rules mainly by common sense. Luckily it is not possible to lead from the wrong hand and so on, spares a lot of complicated rulings. So far I have managed to keep 99,99% of the players in my tournaments happy. Maybe it is helpful they are received in Mrs. Guggenheims parlour and dont expect too much;-) If people like me were not allowed to TD, BBO would have far less tourneys. I would GREATLY object to read through pages full of dull juridical jargon (this is an eufemism for that i surely will not read them), although i read all posts on ruling.

Again, this was a BBO indy tournament without any importance But as a matter of principle, it would be very unjust if someone can make a "speculative" double (to use a kind adjective for this double), and if it doesnt work out, can run to the TD for an adjust. That is riskfree doubling, and as such in contrast with the spirit of the game. Also as a matter of principle, west should be warned about his alerting behaviour, but one must realise that for polish players wj2000 (~polish precision) is as normal and standard as is acol in the UK and SAYC in the USA, and furthermore that a lot of polish players have a serious language handicap.

OK, i should the result let stand: South made a silly double, when it didn t work out he called TD Alert was not correct so EW should get a warning, but the double remains silly and NS have no right on an adjusted score

My first psyche on BBO I subbed in Magic Mystic, last round. My p did not answer on my question about his cc, but np. I had: [hv=d=n&v=e&s=skqjt42hj854d4c82]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv]My p opened 2♠, weak. RHO called 3♦. My time had come! I rose to the occasion with 4♥. Everybody passed. The board was:[hv=d=n&v=e&n=sa9653h2dajt95c94&w=s87hkq973dkckt763&e=shat6dq87632caqj5&s=skqjt42hj854d4c82]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv] After p saw my hand he typed a handful of question marks, left, and was blacklisted. I told the TD I had psyched. Then I alsmost got blacklisted too, it was a "no psyche" tournament. Although IMHO 6♥ was cold, - anyway 6♣ was, we lost 2.6 IMPs with -300 (I managed to make 4 tricks) So far for my first psyche on BBO in >1000 hands;-) But I HAD fun...

Not that I am that advanced, but I will, you know that. Mt problem is dat I am online on irregular and unpredictable hours.

Well, my p had a problem too, she thought 4♥ was a retransfer. If I should have foreseen that problem, would 5♥ have been an idea? Would 4♦ have been a better reply, as it implyed both minor suit controls?

I subbed in a competetion team, f2f. Natural bidding. I had [hv=s=st9632ha9dqj8752c]133|100|[/hv] My partner openend with 2NT, after due consideration I bid 3♥, xfer, she bid 4♣, superaccept with club values. I bid 4♥, p 4♠. Well, club values did not improve my hand, and I I was really afraid of a lack of di control, and passed. Partner had [hv=s=st9632ha9dqj8752c]133|100|[/hv]. She said I sh have taken the ♦control for granted. Suggestion for a controlled way to reach 6 diamonds or 6 spades? The board was quite expensive, as at the other table 7♦x was reached, doubled by the player wi♥KQ and ♣A. The ace was led...

You have too much losers and not enough winners. You will score 4 or 5 diamond tricks, that is 5 or 6 down, doubled. It never can be good against a game, even if they are vulnerable and you are not it is 620 against 1100 or 1400. In this hand you were very lucky, yr partner brought 2 tricks in hearts and Jx in the trump suit. And 4S is cold.