macart

I personally find the new format ugly! and non informative. Bring back the old style please. As a Designer I find the site ugly.

Bravo to being declarer when playing with Robots!

I was playing this evening on BBO in a SKYCLUB Tourney being directed by The_Matrix. When I sat down at Board 1 - I had 2 star players N/S - the Auction went 1NT by RHO, pass by me, and 4♥ by LHO (no alert), pass by partner, 4♠by RHO, I asked for an explanation and was told it was Spades or TEXAS - I asked for a ruling by the director about the no alert - and was told in international rules there are no alerts after 3NT. I agree that this is an international site - but the Directors from outside North America seem to be remiss in their knowledge of the ACBL and the SAYC system. That puts the star players at an advantage and I was removed and not refunded for the game because the he meant international rules but not system. I am sure that many of the players from around the world are playing SAYC and 2/1 as well as other systems - but the Directors will kill this site if they are ignorant of the rules. Thankyou

When there is as auction, and you want an explanation, you click on the bid and the opps give you the information. Currently, there is no way for the director to see these conversations - as if the explanation is erronious and or an outright fib - the director has no way to review the whole auction and make a ruling at the end of the hand and/or the end of the tourney. Example - LHO, pard, RHO all passed. I have a stong 18 count. I open a grape and LHO bids 1nt. Should be balancing - correct. BUT I ASK - LHO says he made a mistake and the bid was a normal 15-17 NT - we settle in 2 clubs making 5 for a bottom as LHO has fibbed and has 8 HCPS. LHO gets away with such a bid because there is no way for the director to review the explanations - this has to be cleared up - period.

A problem that happens on BBO was solvable on either OKBridge or EBridge and that was if partner is declarer and loses their connection, the dummy becomes declarer. This is important specially in money games.

I play a great deal of tournament bridge on BBO - much of it in individuals and i can not get over how poorly the STARRED players both bid and play and the license they take in distorting the auctions. In many cases they play for no cost - even though they only collect as little as 50% of the prize money they are very destructive to the game. There are two ways to solve this problem - be more discerning as to who gets "STARS" or have the clubs/tourneys charge them like everyone else and maybe they will not be as reckless as they seem to be. I invite your comments