New feature to identify "dealer" in teaching table

[QuiteACard]

Hi folks:

 

At a teaching table using uploaded hands, the software assigns the "dealer" based on the position of the uploaded hand in the .lin file. For the first hand in the .lin file, North is always the dealer; for the second hand in the .lin file, East is always the dealer, and so on.

 

There is no clean way for the teacher or the players to adjust the bidding starting point so that another player is assigned as the dealer. For example if the teacher wants West to be the dealer on the first uploaded hand then North, East, and South must make fake initial pass bids so that West can make their bid.

 

There's a couple of residual problems that this adjustment doesn't address: (1) North still appears as the dealer in the vulnerability box in the upper left corner of the screen, and (2) those annoying initial passes still appear in the bidding box for North, East, and South. Experienced BBO members are smart enough to ignore them but those initial passes often confuse less experienced BBO membes.

 

I suggest that the teaching table (and only the teaching table) software be enhanced and a (for lack of a better term) "Skip" button be added to the bidding keypad. This Skip button would have the following behavior:

 

1. If a player presses the Skip button three things happen:

a. that player loses their turn in the bidding sequence (i.e. the bidding keypad disappears from their screen and appears on the screen of the next bidder),

b. nothing appears in the bidding box for that player's bid, and

c. the "Declarer" icon advances one player clockwise in the vulnerability box in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

2. As soon as any non-Skip button is pressed the Skip button disappears from the bidding keypad. The assumption here is that any valid bid indicates that the Skip-ping process is complete and that the bidding process has begun.

 

I believe that Fred and Uday are working on a long-term solution to this (and other issues) related to the .lin file formats. I offer this as a "quick fix" in the meantime.

 

Pete

[fred]

I think that the correct way to handle this problem is for the teacher to create files with the proper dealer in the first place.

 

Doing this is not completely trivial, but it is possible. When you are entering your hands through the Movie window, click the New button. A window will appear. Select a "first board" and "last board" number that will give you the dealer and vul you want. Probably you will want to create a new 1-deal file for each deal in your set of lessons.

 

I already have plans to make this process easier, but in BBO there is a strong association between board number and dealer/vul. This is not going to go away. However, there does not have to be a strong association between board number and a particular deal's position within a file (and the number of the first board in that file). This will likely change (eventually).

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

[mink]

If you save a deal from the movie window of any talbe and later load it at a teaching table, or if you create a deal from scratch using the movie window, everything is fine with dealer and vul. But if you download a hand from myhands or receive a hand via chat and then load it to a teaching table, it usually will have a different number than originally and therefore different dealer/vul settings.

 

Karl