Posleda

Well....you do....so why can't we? Apologies, that's my poor English :( . Maybe "correct" instead of "good" will be better ? "good" was meant as "according to Laws and produced good result" or so. I am quite experienced on and off TD. I am not entitled to adjudicate whether a bid is good or bad. I may not. Sufficient, alerted, explained, made in tempo are my categories. No law has been broken in this case. Dusan

What do you mean is "standard X" or "takeout X" ? This may be a reason I dont understand your opinions. In our country standard takeout double means: 1) up to 15 PC with at least 3-card support in non-named suits OR 2) 16+ with any distribution. N's double is completely in accordance with this definition. From this point of view I have no suspicion about UI, MI or cheating at all. Dusan

Good/bad? Tthe bidding was unusual enough for me to spend time trying to talk to the players and to post the hand here for others to comment. I hate the equation unusual=suspicious when opps reach a good result. Do you want to force all people around the world to play in the manner you like ? Better play with GIBs in this case. NS cards are unusual. Except of one ("I'd have grit my teeth and bid 2 clubs") none of you said what are the usual (=good, don't ?) bids. What is the usual bid from N ? Is double completely out of consideration ? What is the usual bid from S ? Is pass completely out of consideration ? Stay in doubled contract with only 5 trumps is 100 % mistake from EW. Change the cards between N and S so that their bidding will be usual for you. EW's bidding remains bad. Forfeiture of your deposit at appeal committee. Procedural penalty may be assessed for doubleshot. Dusan

I would say to West to look at the pass by EAST. This bid could be a reason of their damage. I dont like when player blames on his opps because he would not bid/play the same way on their places. If they play bad, they cant have a good result, from his point of view. Who are you, player, to state which bid is good and which bad ? I dont like your support to investigate if they were cheating. No reason to do so. NS bidding was good - no cheating, no bad bid, no misclick. I was in similar position during finals of a teams tournament with rather high prizes (as regards me :lol: ) some years ago. Only my points were QJ not a K. With sweat on my forehead I decided to minimize damage with pass. The bidding was the same at the other table, only our defence was better and 5 IMPs from this board were enough to win by 4 later. My partner was with 22 PC. Do you think I am a cheater or a beginner ? Dusan

Nothing against broadcasts and your messages. But as you say "they can't avoid them". They can avoid subs messages, because they are in the heap of lobby chat. More: they can do it unknowingly. There is no possibility to stop lobby and receive subs messages. Suggestions how to manage this problem may be found in some previous threads. I think its important for me and other TDs too. I was several times "close to the edge" to cancel the tournament in the middle. Several players missing and no sub available for long time (long time=5 mins, in this case). From this point of view the importance is high. Dusan

The "overriding" method is the only one used now. People, I suggest to send the messages to, have no blocks of chat bec the lobby is off.

Not new what I am going to say, was discussed in some threads here earlier. Reminder: We need the message "Substitution players needed at tournament..." to be send to people with lobby chat off too. Its harder and harder to find a sub. There are many players who like to be sub but dont like to be polluted (Walddk's term) with lobby chat. At least one - me. From TD's point of view the "broadcast will start..." message is not more important than this. Thanks for your effort, Fred, Uday and others Dusan

An attempt to explain the bidding. I think they played polish club and wrote explanation about 1♣ to bad box. 1♣ 12-14 balanced, 15+ natural, 18+ any (need alert) 2♣ 15-17 5+♣-4♥ or 6+♣, 18+ 5+♣ and 0-2♠ (need alert) 2♥ 1st variant (alert not needed) I am in doubt whether 2♥ means 3-card ♠ from system, but possible. Player was trying to tell all about his cards, but a bit later then needed. There was not great misinformation, because his bids were natural (incidentally). I agree with the solution let the result stay, procedural penalty if possible. Dusan

1) Read some older threads in this forum - should be done first. or 2) Have a look at http://www.rpbridge.net/rpbr.htm Bridge File Converter from section Bridge Utilities works simply and correctly: a) Create deals using any programm you like. b) Convert file to LIN-format using BFC. c) Load pre-dealt hands in Tournament management window. Dusan

Will work, no doubt. Disadvantage: you will be able to play deals only from 1 to 8 regardless of the number of deals in lin-file. I like the possibility to load hands for team match too, add me Uday pls :-). Dusan

Have a look at http://www.rpbridge.net/rpbr.htm Bridge File Converter from section Bridge Utilities works simply and correctly. Dusan

My support. Nor TD may see these scores, though could be useful for him(her) from time to time. Dusan

Try Bridge File Converter (Bridge Utilities) on http://www.rpbridge.net/rpbr.htm And many other points of interest there. Posleda

Tens of subs needed in 1st round ? Night mare ! Possible if I have forgotten to unregister manually. If anybody needs this, give him such function in Create Tournament window, but let current behaviour as default pls !!! My experience is the number of missing players is significantly high. The pool is a bit unuseful for me, its only a part of truth. At start sw unregisters all players (pairs), which cant play in this tourney: disconnected or participating in other tourney. I am able to find out these 1st by clicking on registered pairs, no way to find out these 2nd. No way to manually unregister them. No way to set the number of tables. No way to avoid sitout pair at start (the number of pairs is random, 50 % chance to be odd). I WANT TO MANUALLY UNREGISTER ALL PAIRS WHICH ARE NOT ABLE TO PLAY ! I usually set the number of pairs to 30 and unregister offline pairs several times during last minutes, but the number of playing pairs vary from 22 to 28 (never 30 !!!). My regular tournament is 24-boards. Its a great trouble to find a sub-pair at start. Subs in long tournaments are unstable, often need to be subbed later too. Help me, Uday ! Tx, Posleda

This function is bad from other reason - it doesnt unregister pairs playing in another tournament. From "number of pairs prepared to play" point of view offline or playing T is the same - will be missing. Consequences are: 1) TD is unable to set the number of players, only a max. 2) Sitout pair is created in 50 % of tournaments right at the start (statistically; in individuals 75 %). I dont like both :( . I am not the first who pointed in this forum. Posleda

The size of the "gap" may change according to your wish. The non-response time ends when you click again. Try to click "Sub" quickly three times when only one sub is on the list. Two invitations and lobby-appeal will be send immediately. You may use this when you know the sub will refuse the invitation or to fill the sub list preventively. Posleda

Not correct AFAIK. After 2 rejections or 2 no-responses from some sub next sub or auto-appeal is used. Posleda

Offline bridge has a screen accross table to avoid UI from partner's hesitation. Online there could be different screens for every player. Each player receives LHO's and partner's bid at the same moment - this could be done without hard programming effort. Its not a good idea to delay all three bids: 1) Opp's hesitation is AI. 2) Wastes time to consider partner's bid. Do you agree ? Dusan

Whether you want or not, adjusted results for delayed tables are weighty and necessary. Loss 60 % from 100 to Ave- is story which can strongly decrease the fun from playing. No matter if reason was disconnection or slow play, but especially when player believes that opponents have played slow intentionally. My conclusion: results from delayed tables should be adjusted as often as possible. But awarding is a hard work now (for this time I leave aside new features of software). In many times the result is obvious and the only you need to do is to determine number of tricks, but you have to find the table's movie, investigate contract and declarer from auction, x-times click to see the final situation (finishing of next board will break you to start), determine the result, remember (write) board number, any player, contract and result, pass over to TABLE button and adjust. It takes some minutes instead of a half. New features are direct access to players movie (and better form there with "end of play" button) and New Tourney Director command in Tourney Management screen. "Display Tournament Status" will try to supply a snapshot of how the tourney stands. This may help the TD decide whether to add time to the clock. In unclocked events, it may help the TD to spot the slow tables that others are waiting for, so that he/she can then speed up the play. Very good steps, but in wrong direction. These functions shouldn't be in x-th level of TABLE button, but directly and constantly in the tournament window. Let me offer my conceptions. I am also a programmer so I'll try to estimate the difficulty to realize (1 to 5, 1=easiest). 1. Avoiding delayed tables 1.1 Once the 12th trick is cashed (at least), the result is given. Last trick may be played by computer = "Autoplay singletons" function for all players in last trick. Difficulty max. 2. 1.2 "Autoplay singletons" function for dummy during all play (difficulty 1). Autoplay from dummy when only consecutive cards are available (difficiulty 2). 1.3 Direct and permanent view of tourney state for TD, as discussed above and below. 2. Knowing of delayed tables Player should play, director should direct. I want to know about all delayed tables without any player's action. The word "Table" and column "Scoring" (should be in header instead) in tournament window are absolutely useless, only by reason of compatibility with clubs I think. In each row could be shown informations about the table instead. May be useful not only for TD and also in clubs. Often I walked as visitor through tournament from table to table only to see waiting players. How to find tables in action ? 2.1 Indication of delayed table. E.g. red clock may indicate, that at this table Ave- result was assigned (difficulty 2). Disappears when adjusted (difficulty 3-4) or by TD's click on it, after or without adjusting (difficulty 2). 2.2 Number of board played, round of auction or/and present contract during the auction, final contract and trick played during play (difficulty 3). Very useful for kibitzers too ! 2.3 Indication of "thinking" player (or changing his colour), when any player doesn't play more than defined time period, e.g. 2 minutes (difficulty 3-4). 3. Determining adjusted score 3.1 Contract, declarer and "End of play" button in table's movie (difficulty 2). 3.2 Don't close delayed tables after last board in tourney (difficulty 2-3). Forces adjusting through myhands. 3.3 Don't publish final results before TD's confirmation (difficulty 1). Only after awarding adjusted scores in last round (could be other reasons). Changing results several minutes later is very unsuitable. 3.4 Available time consumption for particular players (difficulty 3-4). Useful when no adjusted score can be awarded (many ways how to play). Who should become Ave- = + ? 4. Awarding 4.1 Awarding directly from movie (difficulty 4+). Thanks for your support, Dusan

Yes. Yes ! YES ! YES !!! ONLY per round, no need to have per board too. Dusan

Problem is solved. Mea culpa. I have omitted the word "each" and have inserted the tag only before the 1st board. So Posleda gets multiboards LIN file now too. THANKS Wayne, Ben and Erkson! [Gerardo wrote: Use the .DUP output option of BigDeal. That will generate a vugraph.lin file in your BBO directory suitable for vugraph (hands duplicated in open and closed rooms). Then open that file in the lobby, and save it, to get rid of the 2nd set.] Hard work, I have tried in 2 today's tournaments and is OK. Thanks Gerardo! I had no method how to play own cards, now I have two. Dusan

There are many differences between these files. Adding [EVENT], [sITE] or/and [DATE] tag doesn't change anything.

Yes, small part: % PBN 1.0 [Generator "Big Deal version 1.1"] [board "1"] [Dealer "N"] [Vulnerable "None"] [Deal "N:K76.QJ9863.AJT.A A9853.K2.95.Q643 42.4.K864.KT9752 QJT.AT75.Q732.J8"] [board "2"] [Dealer "E"] [Vulnerable "NS"] [Deal "N:9743.3.QT94.AJ65 KJT5.K872.A86.T4 .AQJT964.K7532.K AQ862.5.J.Q98732"] [board "3"] [Dealer "S"] [Vulnerable "EW"] [Deal "N:8.KT652.QT865.K3 974.A874.A3.AQT8 T65.QJ.J42.J6542 AKQJ32.93.K97.97"] Dusan

Nobody can learn how to organize tournaments only from book without practice, I think. I am no Hanner or Jannersten, but small director from small country with hundreds offline tournaments on account. Some months ago I offered my help on the tournaments field, I am sorry to say without answer. Dusan

The sample movement and all others I have sent to uday was taken from book, written by Andrzej Wachowski, well-known Polish organizer. He says the movements were chosen by computer (brute force I think). I believe him. I can send all movements to you too. There is no need to find other movements. Yes, you are right: N following N-1 is a principle, initial position may change tournament's behaviour (balance). The number of players is not limited. Besides Full Howell there are so called Short Howell od Three Quarter Howell movements. You can use them, when number of rounds is greater than half of players (if equals, you use Mitchell instead). In our example with 14 players you can play from 8 to 13 rounds. Initial position is always different, the less rounds, the more sitting pairs (near to Mitchell). Swiss pairs is another cup of tea. Dusan