LCarey13

I know this is very short notice, but I'm looking for a partner for tomorrow's 2/1 Game Force Bridge Festival here tomorrow. It's $40. First half is a lesson, then a break, then come back for a duplicate game using the lessons learned earlier. I'm a casual/intermediate player who plays Audrey Grant's traditional method. 12-13 points to open 15-17 points to open 1NT weak 2 openings Staymen and Transfers Blackwood and Gerber Here's the link: https://www.betterbridgefestivalregistration.com/

Hi everyone. I've really enjoyed playing on BBO, with my friends, and watching others play, and playing with Robots. It's been really a pleasure during this COVID shut down. I do have a question. When I play with paid robots, I'm very often the dummy. Why would the software set it up that way? I'd think that for humans playing with robots, you'd have to misbid to be the dummy. Otherwise, what's the point? So tonight, to get a handle on this, I dealt hands and kept score. Out of 36 hands dealt, I was dummy 8 times, declarer 4 times, and defender 24 times. Which seems in line with my general experience with playing with robots. Why is that happening? What's the point of making the only human player be dummy twice as often as they are declarer?

Thanks to everyone who responded! I just was surprised that this forum forced ALL the hands to be visible to the opponents when a claim is denied. I would understand the declarer's hand be exposed, but I was just surprised the both defenders hands were now visible to the defenders.

But that doesn't happen if you play bridge at a table with physical cards. You just claim, and the opponents can reject or accept. If they reject, the game continues as before. I don't understand why when someone claims on BBO, they suddenly have to show their hand and everyone's hand to the opponents, for the entire rest of the game.

I play a very friendly game with people I used to play in person with. Fairly early in a game, my opponent tried to claim all the remaining tricks, so the hands were revealed. We decided to go ahead and play it, so we rejected the claim. The hands remained visible to all for the remainder of the game. That didn't seem fair at all. Is that the way it's supposed to work?

Used to be, kibbitzers could discuss bids and play without interfering with the play of the players game. In the last week or so, I'm seeing players try to talk to each other as kibbitzers. So they're not even communicating with each other, AND the kibbitzers can't communicate because it would spoil the game. What's happened differently?

Thank you! That's what I sensed -

I play with regular partners, who I actually know and played "kitchen table bridge" with before COVID. We have a question. Can a player "claim" when they don't have the right to? That is, can a player "claim" when there's a chance the opponents could take another trick? Some of us say no, BBO won't allow a claim in the same way they won't allow you to not follow suit. But I sense you could claim tricks you're not entitled to and your opponents have to reject the claim if they think they might have a chance.

I'm really sorry if this has been brought up before and answered. When I play with robots on this site, I'm very often the dummy. I'd say nearly 1/2 of the time. That's a complete waste of time, obviously. Any possible learning experience from being a dummy and watching robots play is wiped away by the speed of play, so it's hard to even follow the game. It seems to me that the only human playing (and paying) to play with robots shouldn't EVER be in the position of dummy unless the hand has been misbid. Am I missing a setting? Is there a setting where I don't want to be sitting here doing nothing while the robots play? Thanks, and sorry if this has been asked before.

Could your connection to BBO have temporarily wobbled? That's happened to me when I've hosted - players just have a blip of connection and then they're off the table and I have to add them back on in their seat. I think this quarantine has taxed the capacity of this forum - sometimes it's hard to get on.

I guess I'm in your court. If your partner opened with only what he had promised - 13 points, 5 so so spades and likely representation in all suits, you'd be over your heads with a response of 4 spades. I use the Audrey Grant bidding system, and was taught a couple years ago that you don't respond 4 spades with the hand you had. I guess that's why it's important when playing to understand each other's bidding practices and agree with them, which is hard to do if you're dropping in to games with strangers. ;D You couldn't have known the strength of your partner's hand, only he was privy to that information, so "he who knows, goes" was appropriate for him, not you, to advance go 4 spades. Or anyway, that's how I play it.

smerriman, that makes sense, thanks!

Thanks, barmar. I guess the trick is to spend time trying to understand the IMP system, which seems confusing. When I play Duplicate Bridge in person, you get a listing of the players and how well they did against the others in their position, in order of excellence of play. So it's easy to see where you stand - out of 25 pairs, if you're 8th, that's easy to comprehend. In casual play here, is there any way to see the IMPs listed in ordinal rank at the end of a series of games?

I'm not sure what all you've tried, but here's how I do it. Log in, and you'll go to a screen that has a grouping of options. Click "Casual" that's under the heading "Play or watch bridge". Then, under "find your own game" heading, click "start a table". Click on the "south" name and choose "sit". Your name will appear there with a little crown icon next to it. Click on another seat and choose "reserve" and it'll prompt you to type your partner's name in. Your partner's name will appear in a red background. If your partner is online and chooses to join you, it will turn yellow. If your partner's name never turns yellow you might have to delete it and invite your partner again until she/he sees the invite. Go to the other seats and choose robot. That should start the game. If it doesn't, you might want to post this in the forum below, BBO Support for tech issue problems.

Do you have money in your account - called BB$? I play with robots, and it costs a dollar week to rent robots.

smerriman - when I say "playing for points", I mean you need 100 points to win a game at your table, and the partnership that is the quickest to win 2 games wins the rubber (they get a few more points if they win it in two consecutive games, instead of best 2 out of 3). When you are looking at scoring that way, it doesn't matter what anyone else in the room is doing. My bridge friends usually take the more "duplicate" bridge bidding philosophy in that we try to really wring the most bidding out of each hand, but we still are interested to know how those hands would be scored in the old fashioned kitchen table bridge scoring system. Just out of curiosity. Because it's a different way of viewing the bidding process to bid what you need to win, and not necessarily bid the highest bid you could possibly make every single hand. Anyway, thanks smerriman and jandrew for helping me navigate this BBO - we're enjoying playing.

Thank you for your response, Jandrew. I guess I've been unaware of how a "casual table" play works. I had guessed they just randomly dealt our hands and then compared us with data from other times when those hands were played on BBO. But are you saying that when you play in the Casual Room, with no possibility of points, you're playing the same hands in real time as other hands are being played for points on BBO? I hadn't considered that while we played in Casual we were playing the very same hands being played elsewhere at that moment, and that's why it was taking time for comparisons to be added up and factored in.

Thank you smerriman! Perfect! The thing is, I've played Duplicate bridge and understand the concept of comparing your play with others who have played the same hand, and then putting the players in ordinal rank as far as how well the pair did against the other pairs. What is so distracting to us is that the IMPs seem to change for no reason - after we've had a hand dealt but haven't begun bidding, for example.

Hello. I've been setting up games with people I know, in the "Casual" section. I've watched another table have scores reflected during their game, not just IMPs. I looked under "Table Options" and it looks like at the top of that tab is where I can choose to display points or IMPs, but that section is greyed out. Is there a way to get that space to display regular rubber bridge scores instead of IMPs, which continue to be a complete mystery to us as to their value in determining who really played the best? Thanks!