Whisty709

I had a fun and busy summer so I do not log onto BBO much this summer, not that it matters. Anyway I log in now and when I play games I see advertisements to the left of my game screen. Seriously? Turn it off please. Do not turn this site into yet another cheap distracting site that is simply not worthy of logging in. If BBO is desperate for revenue then invent some sort of 'gambling bridge' where people play for money, no different than poker, and the house (BBO) takes its cut. Seriously, playing bridge for money would beat poker any day. I'm surprised casinos don't already have it, or maybe they don; I don't go to casinos. And, or, maybe some sort of paid accounts that offer premium features, etc. But yeah, seriously, turn off the advertisements.

First, I am finding the casual section of the web site more useless than useful. My issues are simple: it is simply very hard to ad-hoc join tables at random for a certain group of users. 95% of the time I get booted out before the bidding starts. Plus a truly open table might be all ACOL when I am SAYC player or expert users when I am a beginner. Clicking on profiles to try to find players is a waste of a lot of time (can easily be an hour if you have the patience.) There needs to be a few options that like minded/skilled people can meet up with friendly open players. Some thoughts I have are: #1 - Under "Find your own game" to help people find friendly tables. For example: (a) Start / find a table with SAYC, Start a table using ACOL, Start a table using Bridge Base Basic, etc. (Just the top popular common ones.) This helps lump the various groups of players. (b) Start / find a table using a click-able list of skill levels. Ex: Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, etc. © Ideally (a) and (b) would be both done to create a near ideal table. Ex: SAYC - Beginner to Advance, for example. #2 - Under "Help me find a game, list interesting tables": (a) This is pretty much useless, every time I click on that all the tables are locked. Why give me a list of tables I cannot possibly join? (b) Make this "List interesting open tables". (Tables without all seats locked.) #3 - Under "Take me to first seat available". Same design here, list a few options: (a) Take me to SAYC, ACOL, etc tables. (b) Take me to novice, beginners, intermediate, etc table. #4 - Table seat creation behaviour: (a) When the table is created the default behaviour should be all seats automatically reserved (locked). The table owner then has to unlock any seats. (b) When someone leaves a seat, the table owner gets a pop-up asking if they want the table to go back into the "Open Table" list. (Too many times a game is finished, someone leaves, the table goes back to the "Open Table" list, but the other folks are either busy reviewing, and/or slow leaving, etc.) I join only to be told "sorry we are finished". I realize most of the meet-ups are predetermined, but surely the Casual page can be expanded with additional functionality to help various users create/find/join the 'near ideal' game. Thanks for reading and thinking and about this. Whisty709

The sign up form requires me to disclose a bunch of my BBO info like username and email address. In this day and age there are security concerns with that. Does BBO own/operate this web site? I'm guessing not, so who does? And is this a paid subscription service?

It's brutal to be honest. I join tables, ask politely if I may join, and poof I am booted out. I think BBO should have it set such that when you create a table, the seats are reserved by default. Yesterday was the same, I spent over an hour trying to join tables. The solution it seems would be for me to create my own table, but with my name starting with "W" I am often near the bottom of the list and I'm guessing most people won't scroll down too far and thus no one joins my tables. The good news is some folks are very polite and friendly and I seemed to have made a few BBO 'friends' so hopefully over time I will spend less time being rudely booted by people too lazy to set their seats to reserved.

Folks, a friendly ask: If you are creating a table and have three others already joining you, then please set the table so that the seats are reserved/locked so that your friends need permission to join. In the past few weeks I have joined many dozen tables, only to be booted out, most often without an explanation. It's rude, and its not very welcoming to new bridge players. Please take a moment to lock your seats, and even consider using a description too: "Reserved for other players". Easy, and people don't waste time trying to find tables to play with. Last week I literally spent over an hour, joined about two dozen tables, only to finally find a table of welcoming folks well after an hour had passed. Please consider this. Many thanks.

I realize this is an older thread, but I seem to be having this issue. I am trying to solve the hands, but defenders cards move around on me, depending on the order I play. Two contracts failed for Level A-10 because the 10/spades (10S) is moving from East to West. On one failure the 10S was in the West, but on another failure it was in the East. I realize both are possible in real games but how am I supposed to complete the puzzle if the 'pieces' keep moving depending on my approach? The A-level seems straight forward enough (I.e playing between long suits, ruffing, and 'managing' the use of trumps). Or is there another lesson being thought here? Okay fine, but shouldn't that be mentioned somewhere? The solution text make no sense either; its more complex than that. Level A4 and A7 also seem to be doing it too with other cards. I would upload pictures but it looks like I cannot upload directly from my PC. BTW, if it matters, I am not using Microsoft Windows OS. I am using Firefox on Linux Ubuntu OS.

Perhaps I am being too harsh. And perhaps BBO is growing on me. :) The free instant (solitaire) tournament seems to be a decent way to learn. Can review the hands afterwards. And there is a Bridge4 game;that really needs to be available as public tables.

Well in that case then BBO is pretty much 'dead on arrival' for me then. Chicago (4-play) is awesome, and I want to play with people of my skill level more-or-less. The site overall is really like something from 1997. I'll try to keep using it and make a few friend and hopefully it will grow on me, but I will say Trickstercards is already amazing. I still don't have the ability to play my skill level, but the ability to create various flavours of Chicago and Rubber tables, invite friends via Twitter, email, etc with a passcode is pretty darn slick and the graphics are simply awesome. And I'm really now liking people leaving the table when I join. If you are waiting for specific folks then reserve your tables! Anyway I will keep using it, I really hope it grows on me.

I got to say, I am struggling with BBO. Perhaps some fine folks can offer me some guidance; and perhaps even refer to past similar discussions. How do I create or find/join Chicago tables? (4 rounds, that's it.) How do I create or find/join tables of the same skill level? I find a table that has an empty seat, it says "Sit!". So I do and without even doing anything everyone else leaves? Why? The chat lobby? I see people posting stuff, but I can't see anything that resembles a conversation, and when I post a message nothing shows up, and no one responds. Why? Are there browser capability issues? My account profile says "Compatibility ***** (5 stars). What does that mean? When I create a table how do I show the convention card I wish to have used? Hate to start my first post with a negative tone, but honestly the BBO site seems like its from the 1990s; way overdue for an overhaul. Really hoping some folks can help me sort through a few things so I can enjoy BBO and keep returning.