oryctolagi

Don't know whether I should stick my neck out here. Just been kibitzing a table on BBO and came across the following snippet of 'chat'. To protect identities, I have substituted 'North' 'South' 'East' and 'West' for the actual players' usernames. (also removed expletive). At this point I felt I'd had enough of kibitsing this table, so I quit. It looks as if South has anger management issues! My point is, this is not really very nice for kibitzers who just happen upon a table by chance, expecting to see Bridge being played.... Do you monitor chat in any way?

Are we supposed to know what cards E and S played at trick 1?

I always thought, that if you use Blackwood before a suit has been agreed, it carries an implication that you are agreeing partner's suit, in this case Hearts. With a void.... :blink:

Thanks (belately) JAndrew, for your encouragement. I have joined in a few tables now, played a few hands: some successful, some rather less so :( . I've made many mistakes (don't we all?!). I now have a bit of a dilemma. I got a rather hostile private message from another member, after I'd made a poor bid. That individual has also added content to his/her profile, which may or may not have been there before, I don't know, but which I interpret as decidedly unfriendly. I've put that person on my 'ignore' list and will endeavour to keep clear of them, I don't want to get into a slanging match. Have I done the right thing? As I understood it, looking at the FAQs, it is 'not on' to engage in heavy criticism of other BBO players. Especially newbies - even if they're wrong.

OK. Thanks for the reply.

As a newbie, I've noticed that when I join a table to play, I'm always placed at the bottom of the screen, even though I may be sitting at E, W or N. I find this a bit confusing, especially when reviewing bids etc. Is there a way of being placed at the correct 'geographical' position?

Thanks Helene, I'll have another look around the BBO options. Pete.

I signed up for BBO some years ago but returned to the site only a few days ago. I've not played bridge 'properly' since I was a student, nearly 40 years ago, so I've probably forgotten a lot. Since then, I've not had contact with any fellow-players. I was never a very serious player even then, so I'm looking for something very informal. I've had a browse around and I'm thinking of using the 'join a table at random' facility, but I've got some questions. Some online third-party reviews of BBO, say you have support for Rubber Bridge but I don't see any. I've found some older posts which say this is not supported. Is this still the case? I would prefer to play Rubber, with the additional feature of being able to bid from a part-score, but if it's not available I can live without it. I only know ACOL, and I would be very much at sea if I found myself bidding with players using another convention - even the popular SAYC would quickly get me 'lost'. If I join a table at random, how can I limit myself to ACOL users? Cheers. Pete.