AAr

I understand about waiting time, although I do think that five minutes should be the standard as to how long to wait before removing a player from a table in either the MBC or a tournament. My question is this: These short ISP service disruptions occur about thirteen times a day. Is service disruptions that often normal, or do I likely have an equipment problem? I tried resetting the router. Should I do that again. Or, should I call my ISP and have a technician sent to my house, which is what people are telling me to do? Or, should I switch ISPs? Thanks

I love BBO, but this is my main problem. My ISP has complete outages about five minutes at a time and about thirteen times a day. I've had similar problems with all my past ISPs as well. Every time I get bugged out from my ISP, I get logged out of BBO. I talked to a yellow about this, and she said that the problem is strictly on my end and recommended that I call my ISP and have one of the their service technicans come out to my house and check out the wiring and equipment and fix/replace anything that my need it. My advice would be, and this would be the one thing that IMO, if it can be done, would really help my experience with BBO. That would be to somehow fix the servers (Again, if this is not possible, I understand.) that instead of getting logged out immediately when the ISP bugs out as it does now, that I can stay on BBO for about three to five minutes from the time my ISP goes out (even with lags and such, which is OK as it would serve as a warning) and then get logged out after that time passes. I am planning on eventually either calling my ISP to have a service technican come to my house, or to change ISPs completely within the next few weeks to months. I'm just wondering what you would advise. Thanks!

Well, I deposited BB$, and without even playing in a tourney, the ads are gone! (They do still appear in the log-in screen, though.) Maybe I just have to keep my BB$ account at/above a minimum amount. Again, I do like seeing the BBO bridge ads as that sometimes can give good updates and it'd be nice to know whether BBO is getting sponsors, and it'd be nice to see if/that BBO is getting sponsors. I just can't run BBO with Adchoice ads on my computer. Thanks! :)

I asked yellows this, posted this on the support forum, and really need this question answered. How to I just get regular BBO ads to appear instead of Adchoices ads and how to stop getting Adchoices to appear on the ad side of the BBO screen? BBO runs very sluggishly on my computer when Adchoices ads appear (which is about 80% of the time), but just fine when the normal-looking BBO bridge ads appear. On top of that, one of the Adchoice ads freeze, freezing not only BBO but also the flash player and requiring at least five to ten minutes just to get back on BBO. Other adchoice ads are just gross, or have moving annimations that seem to slow the servers, and most of them don't seem appropriate for a bridge website. I'm fine with the normal bridge ads. I think it's great if/that BBO is having sponsors. But, I do have to have to put a stop to adchoices ads appearing on the ad screen instead. Any advice and input is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Against a player who never BINGOs, all I have to do is not even to Bingo in the 25 minutes, but get so I only need to get one square to do it, in the entire 25 minutes. I don't run into them often. Against a player who BINGOs fifteen minutes in, I need to BINGO in fourteen minutes or less, which is still pretty easy with decent cards. Against a player who BINGOs ten minutes in, I need to BINGO in nine minutes or less, which seems OK enough with good cards. This is my question: Most of the opponents I run into in BINGO reward BINGO in less than five minutes. Since it appears that the tourney is essentially over once your opponent BINGO (or enough opponents BINGO in more player tourneys), since its impossible to beat or tie them: The strategy seems to be, in order to beat somebody who BINGOs in five minutes is to BINGO in four minutes. Since that seems the strategy to aim for with the opponents I get, what is the best strategy to accomplish this? A. Open only really strong hands? B. Try to use no more than six (or at most) seven hands (excluding passouts) to get a BINGO? B1) And, if this is the case, then should I commit to one line and stick with it, instead of going to alternate lines? C. Just play as fast as possible? D. Make unusual bids at times to get a square? E. Just hope and prey that this opponent doesn't BINGO in less than five minutes? I do tend to only open stronger hands, unless good partscore squares are available. I do like to go for alternate lines, which seems like good strategy for getting BINGOs in less than ten minutes, but bad strategy for getting BINGOs in less than five minutes, since you can't play as many hands. But, what is the best strategy to aim for, in BINGO, to try to get a BINGO in four minutes or less, even it such strategies might backfire if it fails. I'm not worried about taking ten minutes to BINGO instead of fifteen. BUT, I'm worried about taking four minutes to BINGO instead of six. It seems like whatever strategy I'm using to try to BINGO in less than five minutes is failing, and what I do need to do to consistently accomplish this? Thanks!

I've recently been having frequent problems with accidentially zooming in with my mouse. Here is my problem: I don't know how I'm doing this. I keep doing this by accident. However, I don't know to undo this and I can't seem anything on the Options Menu or Keyboard options to adjust the zoom to undo the accidential zoom with my mouse. Is there way you can undo accedential mouse zooms without having to know how to use the mouse to undo them? AFAIK, we must close, reopen, and log back into BBO to get the zoom back to the default level of 100%. It's just annoying to either do all this work or have to navigate and play BBO on 200% to 250% zoom levels for accidential mouse movements that I don't know how to undo. I just think that: A: There should be a way to undo accidential mouse movements. B: That software in 2015 should be able to tell the difference between accidential mouse movements and intentional mouse movements. Thanks!

In BINGO, I read that it is often good strategy to underbid in BINGO to get the low-level squares you need, but: When, if ever, and how often, is it good strategy to overbid in BINGO. When would the risk be worth the award? Example: You need a 3H and a 4H, and you figure a game is close. Is it better to try for the 4H square, even at the risk of one down, to get the 4H square and more points towards redeals, knowing the risk of going down, or is it better to just go for the 3H square? Thanks for your input. .

Suppose between your hand and dummy, in the key suit, this is the layout: Declarer Hand: KQJ9 Dummy: 1085 Suppose in order to make the bid, you don't have to run the suit for zero losers, but you MUST win the first trick of the suit. You can NOT let the opponents take the ace on the first trick of the suit. If they do, you're down. But, if you win the first trick, even if the opponents take the ace later, you make the bid. What is generally the best play to accomplish this on this 4-3 fit? Now, the tougher question: On the same above holding, if you say, overbid the hand, and now actually have to take four tricks in the mentioned suit to make the bid (Meaning: You must run the suit for zero losers), what would be the best bet? An endplay of some sorts? A squeeze? Is it even possible? What would be the best bet here? And, is it really as odds-against to work at is seems?

I love playing the IMP robot duplicate tourneys, with one minor issue. When I play the hand well, I make an overtrick while the rest of the Field just makes, scoring +650 while most of the Field scores +620, for a 1 IMP gain. When I misplay the hand, I go down one while the rest of the Field makes exactly, scoring -100 to the Field's +620, losing 12 IMPs. But, it doesn't seem like the 1 IMP gains make up for the 12 IMP losses. So, I'm getting punished more for the bad plays than awarded for the good ones. Am I just misplaying the hands at the wrongs times or what? Really, here are my points. A. Are some hands likely worth bigger swings than others, at IMPs, even against GIB? B: Will a 12 IMP loss be more likely to drop me in the standings than a 1 IMP gain is to boost me, even in Robot IMP tourneys? C: Shouldn't every board be of equal weight, even in IMPs? D: What should I do? I also play in the MP tourneys, which is slightly more boring (still fun enough though), but I do tend to fare slightly better in them. Thanks for your input. I'm just frustrated that when I play a hand well that the Field doesn't, I don't get awarded much (at least not in the IMP ones), but I misplay the hands, it's disasterous. It just seems like being -100 to the Field's +620 is a much bigger adverse effect than being +650 to the Field's +620 is being a good one. I just don't think it's fair that my bad plays are punished more than my good plays are awarded because of the timing of the bad plays vs. the timing of the good plays. Thanks!

Using the regular version of BBO, in the main screen, there is, in addition to the news icon, an ad icon that shows verious bridge-related ads (like that cruise and BBO updates and the like. I have no problems whatsoever with the news icon and menus. But I do have one with that ad thing in the top right hand corner of the screen. Usually, it requires a load from Internet Explorer, which takes three minutes to load, while AOL and BBO both going to "Program Not Responding" until that window has completely finished loading. Some of the news windows do to, but I do like that icon and will click on the thing if it seems interesting enough. But, that ad icon, I often click on it accidentally. Even if clicked on accidentally, it still takes three minutes to load, with AOL and BBO both vertually unusuable (and the rest of the computer severly slowed down) until that window is done loading. And, I don't find most of the things from that ad icon that intersting, but I click on it by accident often. I don't like having my computer freeze up for three minutes waiting to load a window I didn't intend to load. I know I'm being picky, but it too much to ask to replace that ad icon to a larger "BBO News Icon", which just pops up a menu that takes 15 seconds to load as opposed to (usually) a IE window that takes 3 minutes to load, and shows the news and advertisements that I could click on that could be an interest to me. Failing that, I'll settle for a changing ad screen like it is now, but just have the BBO News menu pop up, instead of an IE window for that particular ad, if I would click on it. I am just tired of having my computer freeze up for three minutes for an accidental click. Sorry about the pickiness and thanks.

Whenever all my other windows run normally, BBO seems to run fine. However, whenever my AOL window (And, this is a broadband connection) goes into "Program Not Responding" mode (which usually adds three minutes (sometimes more: Often as many as ten minutes), BBO also goes into PNR. It would seem nice while surfing to at least be able to look at BBO results or such while waiting for a slow internet connection to go, but it does not. Now, while this stuff seems normal on dial-up connections, I don't get why BBO always goes into PNR whenever my ISP window does when it's a Broadband connection and I can even log into BBO without logging into AOL. So, it is likely a problem on my end? Or, is it a BBO problem. It just seems weird that while BBO runs fine whenever AOL runs fine, and I can log into BBO without even opening the AOL window, that whenever the AOL window lags, the BBO window also lags simutaniously. Thanks!

My observations lately have been this: Normally, thin games in the GIB MP and IMP tourneys seem to usually make (at least if you play well). However, if you use Stayman and Transfers and the GIB opponents double for the lead, it seems to pay off to just settle for the partscore (even if points-wise, game is a favorite), as they often make the lead, hit the Ace, then return the lead for a ruff (or another trick), and the trumps and other key suits also seem to break badly often. It seems like thin games usually make when there is no interfearance, but when the opponents double Stayman and Transfers for leads, you're lucky that a partscore makes (and obviously, esp in MPs, going one down in partscore beats going three down in game. So, it is true to be more conservative in game bidding when the opponents double conventional bids for leads? Thanks!

I know PNRs are common if you're using a compute with malware problems and using an ISP with the same problem, but I when I log on to BBO, it goes into PNR mode for (and I'm not exaggerating) FOUR whole MINUTES at ONE time!!!. Usually, this happens immediately upon logging on to BBO, and happens most often when I just rebooted or turned on my computer. Essentially, what this does it turn a 20 second log-in time to a four-and-a-half minute (!) log-in time. I don't think, even with the malware my computer has and the ISP also having a simular problem that this lag should ever approach one minute at a time, let alone exceed three full minutes at one time. So, I think there might be some problem with the BBO server that if it goes to PNR, it does it for way longer than it should. Anybody else having this problem? (I'm not talking about going to PNRs frequently, but I'm am talking about staying at that mode for long periods at one time.) It seems to me they should do something to try to get this lag (when it comes up) reduced by at least 90%. It shouldn't ever take more than 20 seconds, not three minutes. OTOH, my ISP (AOL Broadband): I'm having the same problems with it. And, I also notice that whenever my ISP goes into PNR, so does0 BBO, and BBO won't come back until my ISP does. So, might it be better to close AOL (I can log onto BBO without logging on to AOL with my current Broadband device)? I still think there is something wrong with BBO's drivers for this lag to ever take this long, even with my ISP and malware problems, but I could be mistaken. ETA: I contacted a yellow (Georgi) and she showed me some links that connected BBO to a backup server which she said should help solve this problem. I'm giving it a try. Thanks!

Assuming you equally need both 2S and 4S on the Bingo Card: Say, you figure in the bidding that 2S is absouletly cold. 4S also figures to be a huge favorite to make, unless the trumps break 4-0, in which case 4S would go down. Should I be content to play safe and pass out in 2S, or bid 4S? Does it depend where the cards are in the BINGO card, or how often does it appear? Does it depend on where I stand in Redeals? Perhaps if 3S is also in the Bingo Card, should I bid that to invite? In MPs, IMPs, and TPs it is obvious to try to bid games if it seems that only a bad trump break or a bad lay of the cards would set it. Everybody else will, and you need the bigger scores. But, in BINGO, it seems to me like the popular belief if you need both partscores and games on your BINGO card, get the partscore now (even if game seems to be cold), just take the partscore, even if the higher points for making game would be helpful in getting a redeal, as getting a square covered is 100% guarenteed instead of 90% guarenteed. But, redeals can be valuable, especailly early. But, going down in game when I could have played in and made partscore seems more costly in Bingo than in the MP, IMP, and TP tourneys. Opinions on this, please? Should game bidding be far more conservative in Bingo than in other tourney types? I post this because I've been going down in many contacts going for game due to bad trump breaks and such when I could have played at lower levels, and this to be the main thing preventing me from doing well in BINGO tourneys. Is this bad strategy in BINGO as it seems to be?

No. As I stated in another thread, my AOL program also has the same problem.