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Kibitzing


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Kibitzing is now disallowed in ACBL tournaments because of our concern (for good reason) that several people had been abusing this ability in order to cheat by kibitzing themselves through a second computer.

 

We believe that almost all of our ACBL members, if given the choice between:

 

1) Being able to kibitz and having to play against lots of cheaters

 

and

 

2) Not being able to kibitz and having to play against few cheaters

 

would choose option 1. The feedback we have received since we instituted this new policy suggests that we were right about this estimation.

 

I don't want to get involved in a public discussion of the numbers, but please take my word for it that we would not have taken this step unless we thought that cheating by self-kibitzing in our ACBL tournaments was a serious a widespread problem.

 

We enable kibitzing in the last round of every ACBL tournament so that players in these tournaments who are finished playing can watch other tables while they wait for the tournament to end.

 

It is not unlikely that we will allow ACBL regulars with no history of behavioral problems on BBO (and nobody else) to kibitz ACBL tournaments at some point in the not too distant future.

 

You are not being singled out. This new rule applies to everyone and we strongly believe that it in the best interest of the honest people (ie almost everyone) who play in our ACBL games.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

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We enable kibitzing in the last round of every ACBL tournament so that players in these tournaments who are finished playing can watch other tables while they wait for the tournament to end.

 

It is not unlikely that we will allow ACBL regulars with no history of behavioral  problems on BBO (and nobody else) to kibitz ACBL tournaments at some point in the not too distant future.

It has been a welcome change - as tourney players we like being able to kibitz the last round (usually the last board, though sometimes two) once we have a finished and are sitting around waiting for the results.

 

We (speaking for my wife and I) would also like "real" people to be able to kibitz whole tourneys again, and hope you figure out how to determine who's real and who's not. For example, it was sad that none of our friends could see us play in a partscore 4-3 fit last night, when we had already found our 4-4 fit and were cold for game. You really want to share the joy of the moment (well, joy of the opponents).

 

However it is painful to be kibitzed by a 'private-private-united nations' and then perhaps wonder about what's happening at the table. If people are willing to be really real then no problems.

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We believe that almost all of our ACBL members, if given the choice between:

 

1) Being able to kibitz and having to play against lots of cheaters

 

and

 

2) Not being able to kibitz and having to play against few cheaters

 

would choose option 1.

This includes a fairly serious typo.

 

I meant to say "would choose option 2".

 

Most likely this was obvious to anyone who read the rest of my post, but thought I should clarify.

 

Fred Gitelman

Bridge Base Inc.

www.bridgebase.com

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Hi Uday,

I can't give an unbiased opinion since I like to kibitz a lot, but this idea sounds good to me. Surely the great majority of the body of cheaters would be weeded out that way. But it would lose the ability to state "kibitzer-free" as an advertising draw, if it is one.

 

Dan

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I'm tentatively planning to determine whether a player is real by looking at his profile; if he has an award symbol of (say, 3 or more) I'm planning to assume he is ok to allow in as a spec.

 

Feedback welcome

just leave it as it is no kibbers, if someone wants to watch they can always go to my hands and look at the cards played, but then again these 12 board matches dont tend to lend themselves to real bridge from a statistical point of view.

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Players can receive points in any number of pay tournaments – acbl, bil, $indys,pairs hb, gibs and in all of these tournaments there is an incentive to cheat, $’s, bbo points or mp’s or just simply the win.

 

Im not sure how restricting kibitzers to those players with points will prevent the cheaters, maybe it will just turn the cheaters into kibitzers and their self kibitzers into players.

 

Anyway, I hope Im wrong and you will find a way to allow kibitzers B)

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I'm tentatively planning to determine whether a player is real by looking at his profile; if he has an award symbol of (say, 3 or more) I'm planning to assume he is ok to allow in as a spec.

 

Feedback welcome

I don't really like that idea, as I'd not be allowed to kibitz under such restrictions

 

I understand that IP spoofing is a problem, but perhaps just eliminating kibs from the same domain as the players participating in the tournament?

 

Here's a weird idea i've just had, but it will need some software changes, rather than policy changes.

 

1) you are only allowed to kibitz one pesron in the tournament (possibly only other people holding the same hands).

 

2) in order to kibitz that one person, the person has to accept you as a kibitzer, with a guideline for the players being that unless they know the person asking, don't accept them.

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Golly Gee Whiz!! Did I really start all this? No matter.

 

Thanks Fred, for the explanation. Have wondered at times wrt the cheating aspect. I can live with whatever comes up. Just hope you do not disallow Kibs in the Main BC. I learn a lot just by watching.

 

[( ) Jack ( )]

 

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. Ben Franklin

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this should have been done a long time ago. typical cheaters are not acbl members ( a lot from <edited:uday>), they dont pay their fee, they self claim expert or wc. The only reason I can figure is they need good score to impress his fee-paying partner so his parnter might invite them play later on.

 

If people want to kibtz, there is one solution as I told Uday about one year ago, ( at that time he just said it was much easier just ban kibtz). Kibtz can only see the boards played in previous rounds.

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this should have been done a long time ago. typical cheaters are not acbl members ( a lot from <edited:uday>), they dont pay their fee, they self claim expert or wc. The only reason I can figure is they need good score to impress his fee-paying partner so his parnter might invite them play later on.

 

If people want to kibtz, there is one solution as I told Uday about one year ago, ( at that time he just said it was much easier just ban kibtz). Kibtz can only see the boards played in previous rounds.

I am not an acbl member; I don't pay acbl fees; I claim advanced. I hope you don't consider me a cheater. Sorry but I consider your comment about acbl members somewhat parochial. BBO consists of players from many nationalities. Why do you have to break things down into acbl terms?

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I am not an acbl member; I don't pay acbl fees; I claim advanced. I hope you don't consider me a cheater. Sorry but I consider your comment about acbl members somewhat parochial. BBO consists of players from many nationalities. Why do you have to break things down into acbl terms?

agree

I also took exception to the edited out part of the post.

 

edited to edit out the edited out part.

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We are talking about acbl tourney, why are u sensitive about this, I am not acbl member either. if ACBL members cheat and get caught, basically that is end of their bridge life, they must think twice before cheat. If not acbl member, they just need to change a username and continue play online. they dont play for MP, they just need to satisfy their self obsession.
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Cheating takes various forms in online bridge. What's the difference between people who kibitz themselves from another computer and people who use Instant Messenger or talk on cell phones while playing? What about people in the same household playing as partners from different computers that are side by side? Can you tell me that never happens?

 

Yes I believe that most players are honest, that most people in the same household who play as partners have their computers in separate rooms and don't communicate any way except in the online game, that most people who chat by cell phone with partners while waiting for round change hang up the minute the move to a new table begins, and that most partners who use Instant Messenger turn it off when the game starts.

 

But that word "most" is the reason I would be in favor of barring kibitzers until the last round in ALL tournaments for any kind of masterpoint or money prizes as Fred has done with the ACBL games and before that with the money bridge games and tournaments which don't let kibitzers in at any time. I don't think we should accommodate the bad apples in the basket whose behavior takes away the level playing field.

 

Many of the free tournaments without prizes draw huge entries and very good players. Let the kibitzers indulge themselves in those tournaments, the team games, the main bridge club, and those public and private clubs whose managers want to let kibitzers in.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Trysalot

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Is there any other game which disallows spectators?

Kibitzers should be allowed back to watch if all four players agree to allow them to watch. Just an idea.

You want to bring spectators to watch and learn and get into this game. I am sure that many bridge players learned this game by kibitzing the favorite players.

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Is there any other game which disallows spectators?

Kibitzers should be allowed back to watch if all four players agree to allow them to watch. Just an idea.

You want to bring spectators to watch and learn and get into this game. I am sure that many bridge players learned this game by kibitzing the favorite players.

There are 1000's of tables a day where kibitzers are freely allowed. This includes main room, team game, public and private clubs, and many, many tournaments.

 

Nealry all the fee-based tournaments and all Money Bridge tables however do not allow kibitzers (exceptions are BIL and HB tourneys). This is really a very small slice of the bridge being played on BBO, and to be honest, the best bridge is not played in the tournaments anyway. Try vugraph or look for tables with gold stars or some of the very good team game matches.

 

I simply can not buy the arguement that people have to be able to kibitz ACBL, or skyclub, or bboland to learn how to play or to watch their favorite players.

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