Booze

http://viewsfromthebridgetable.blogspot.com/

BBO has recently lost 3 TD machines as I know, Udcadenny, sh?? , foxwhiz may affect numbers of free tourneys a lot I think sadly its seems like quality of tourneys are worse then ever, as a sub I got blacklisted in one last week, when I notified a bidding to TD where opps passed at 5 level in an unbid suit with 4-4 Bo :P

Hi This is not so easy as some might think, I have discussed some with an EBL delegate They (according to him) prefers to threath Vugraph organisations as press and should be treathed like the press. For a lot of reasons, most online-bridge sites are commercial even BBO in some respect, Fred hopefully sells a lot of his excellent software thru BBO and BBO increases its market value with a lot of users online. If they are correct maybe BBO has to have their own operators and coordinators ( for commentators ((Roland, who has done an outstanding job)) and one for technical issues). If WBF or EBL pays an operator from one, do they have to pay for all who wants to broadcast ?? I dont know, but I understand it`s difficult. Bo

Hi I have been told they have just one internet connection at the venue, so not easy to do a Vu, but could be solved if there is any interest from WBF. Bo

yes u are correct Dave I have hundreds of hands, the problem is that normal players guess correct sometimes , others almost every time. None off them had any conventions in inf, I am 100 % convinced north havent heard of lebensohl, and doubt south plays it. Bo

Sadly the pay tourney TD:s have to fight for every player in their tourneys, that causes this enourmous "chatting" in Lobby, I was asked by one of the organisations to help them during one of their TD:s illness. Thank God she is better now because this was a scary expirence. For this reasons!! 1. Pay TD:s makes a few $ per tourney, in some of mine I lost money, honest TD:s dont have a chance in this "war". Its not the Pay tourney organisations that makes money. 2. SPAM a LOT and WILD in lobby and you get more players, lye and cheat with starting times and you do better. I didnt believe that before I tried it my self. I registred once for a tourney with 2 mins to start, it started 41 mins later, this was the worst I saw, but I often saw delaying 30 mins and so. Pay TD:s that dont do this doesnt surviwe if they are not willing to pay for direct this tourneys. 3. Pay TD:s have time slots where they can start their tourneys, some organisations didnt care, they started mins ahead of another org starting time without any respect to agreements or rules. Some pay TD:s starts free tourney mins ahead of other pay tourney organisations tourney , they know they get less players and they will have more players in theirs starting directly after their free. 4. The effect of such hard competion is even sadlier. Some pay tourneys makes conditions very hard to get a prize paid, next level is that only players that visited moon last week gets prizes payed. And even worse is if they are tempted to let only "friends" win. Maybe easiest way for them to make any money? 5. And what about "cheating" players in pay tourneys do they excist ?? In my humble opinion Yes a lot sadly and its impossible for most TD:s to check. [hv=d=s&v=b&s=sq72hjdk6432cq952]133|100|Scoring: IMP[/hv] This is a hand I witness from a IND together with 2 yellows, bid and played by one of the big winners in Pay tourneys. He started to pass and west opened 2♥ his partner doubles, east passes , he bids 2nt (maybe a not agreed convention, I dont think he knew his beginner P from other side of world), west passes and north bids 3 hearts ( I dont think anything was agreed this time either) , pass from east, now he finds the only possible game with 3 nt. I realy admire that table presence and read of layout, to guess that his single Jack is a stop enough. Or did he know norths hand? No wonder that he won a lot ! And this is also a way of saying bye to my friends at BBO, Booze has retired from BBO and pls dont send emails to Booze@bridgebase.com , email account closed. Booze

Hi I agree 100 % with Dean and I am very happy for the French Ladies success. Bo

This is realy a sad story, I asked during European CS in Malmö if scores could be on a ftp share, so Swan shouldnt have monopoly, I dont think a commerical site like Swan should have exclusive rights to scores. Its a press ethic issue IMO !! I dont know any other sport event where someone has monopol on scores B) Wont take a second to drag and drop to any webpage if we had access to scores. Bo

I realy dont know what has happen, havent seen the possible operators for a week, trying my best to get in touch with them. Bo

Thats similar to what Italian Federation pays as I have heard for operators, and I think its great. We had only 2 half time operators living in Malmö, Swedish federation was not interested in helping us at all , they have a contract with Swan Games. They were extremly lucky to have BBO staff at venue , the INtranet didnt work at all before we came, I had to tell them the solution of the problem. And think you agree it is worth a lot to have at least one expirenced operator and well informed of BBO software. Several times I have helped organisers from all of the world to converte files. And Rolands outstanding job has also to be done, I dont know if I ever seen a more dedicated person to his task. Bo

hi it was not my intention to start a topic if Vugraphs should be free or not , Fred has once decided that they should be , enough said in this. I didn`t intend to discuss commentators either, they are fine and doing well. If BBO thinks Vugraphs from Estoril will be good enough without Rolands presence there also OK. Malmö was a low budget project that worked rather OK in many ways. I tried to keep costs low as I could, we had 6 full time operators and 6 half time + Roland as coordinator, Wojela as web updater. BBO staff was very often the first to come to the venue in the morning and last to leave at night. During those 15 days we rather often got the question " How much do EBL pay you guys for this?" Sadly I had to answer not a cent. Everyone thought it was scandal. The boys and girls distrubuting hands or papers earned 10 Big Mac and company per day, while BBO folks got none. I stayed at a hostel in a 4 bed room, Roland stayed at a relatives home and Wojela and the other Poles slept at the floor in a friends house. We brought food to the venue , it was rather expensive eating there. None of us complained, we worked hard and did as I saw it a huge success. I estimated we had over 50 000 specs during the 2 weeks. I am very glad that BBO, the people who worked in Malmö and over 100 commentators could give you all this for free. As you all understand this is something that can`t happen several times a year, BBO cant afford it, the volunteers have to make a living and so on. If we want free high quality Vugraphs we have to let volunteers work under better circumstances and absolutely not pay for it. Thats why I started this topic, hoping we could find a solution!! Bo

Hi I have been at BBO since day one, seen it grow over the years and in my humble opinion BBO have not been what it is today without the excellent Vugraphs we have made. Both Roland and I have worked volunteerly with this, sometimes not even my expences paid as Vugraph operator and we never count what we could have earned if we had worked instead. I hope we will someday find a solution for this or do we have to accept Vugraphs of lower quality, maybe its wrong to have this high quality Vugraphs , I don`t know? PO Sundelin had an idea once, each team should send their own operator to the major events so they could get their matches broadcasted , a good idea if a lot of teams did. But that still doesn`t solve the coordinator problem. In Malmö we faced a lot of problems, not operator related or technical, it was a reliefe for me having Roland at Venue, taking care of them. I realy appreciated his presence. Broadcasting from Bermuda is just like showing any other major sportevent, the form is different tho (thru internet), sadly its payed by a few, BBO with their software, operators and coordinators by their hard job and all fantastic commentators from all over the world, but enjoyed by a lot of spectators. As commentator you can sit at home doing it, leave when you have to, not assign to times that doesn`t suit you. Big winners in this are all users that can enjoy the Vugraphs for free. BBO is a small winner if they sell more software because of this, I realy hope you all buy some of the excellent software!!! Commentators are mostly pros or journalists, its their job watching bridge. And BBO has made life easier for a lot of bridge journalists. All of this is great, I wish BBO could sell more tho. I know Roland never asks for any compensation for his time spent on BBO, but I dont think it`s fair that he or someone else should pay for doing a voluntarily job. I started this topic because I think it is a problem , not for BBO Owners they do more than enough to support this, it`s a problem for all of us thats loves bridge and love to watch good bridge. High quality Vugraphs are realy good entertainment, so let`s find some ideas how to solve this !! Bo

Hi I know Roland would prefer to go to Estoril and I want him to take his decision if we come up to some kind of good idea how to make it possible. Roland has the best expirence of us all in doing this and it is his judgement that it would be a lot better I respect. I know from the broadcasts from Malmö that he will have a busy time and my guess is that Estoril will double up in specs, thats 100 000 for both weeks. I did nominate Roland for the Ranik Halle* prize in Norway this year, because I knew he fancied going to Estoril. Sadly I think the rules for the prize only allowed Norweigans. * prize for best journalistic contribution in bridge I am still hoping someone comes up with realy good idea and I know its impossible for BBO to pay it, but we still have a lot of rich federations ?? Bo

Hi I know that Roland for many reasons believes he is more able to his coordination from Estoril and if he thinks so I trust him and its not up to us to judge that, Roland has done a fantastic job at BBO !! I have not suggested that BBO or BBO Italia should pay anything for him. I am looking for ideas! Someone might see this from a flightcompany and offer a free flight? Maybe someone has a big house in Estoril and can offer a free room? Or someone may have a bridgeplaying aunt that recently won 100 millions on lotto and her biggest dream in life is to go to Estoril as his paying assistant ? Or should we all email our federations and tell them what a wonder ful job he does for bridge as Vugraph coordinator and we would all like to give him optimal possibilities? At least tell them its not fair that he should pay for our entertainment. All ideas are welcome !!!! Bo

sry I thought everyone knew it is Roland Wald Bo