one board, two technical issues

[jim420]

In one of the deals (in fact the last) I played today I was dummy in a 3♠ contract. At the end of trick 10 (RHO won with ♦K) declarer wanted to claim 2 out of 3 of the remaining tricks, losing just to RHO's ♦A and just making. He claimed after the ♦K was played but the ♦K was still on the screen, and RHO led the ♦A very soon after my p claimed.

 

the figure went from "I claim 3 out of the last 4 tricks (last 4? wasn't trick 10 finished by the time ♦K was played?)" to "I claim all of the last 3 tricks (even more weird)" LHO must not have realized and accepted just as RHO played the ♦A (It had to be LHO, RHO cannot do two things at the same time). The screen suddenly flashed to the next deal (without the "claim being accepted" yellow box appearing)

 

The result showed 3♠+1, obviously wrong. (Issue 1)

 

An hour later, I went to kibitz at one of my friend's table. The same 3♠ deal popped up again, and with my result on it as well...Why was there such an unusual delay? (Issue 2)

 

The deal has also been attached for your reference.

 

[hv=d=n&v=e&n=s9632ha7432dqjc32&w=shqj5dt7543cak754&e=s854hkt98dak86cq8&s=sakqjt7h6d92cjt96]399|300|Scoring: IMP[/hv]

 

3♠S

Trick 10: ♦2 ♦4 ♦Q ♦K

Trick 11: ♦A(?) ♦9(?) ♦5(?) (play still ensued after the claim???)

[mink]

The result showed 3♠+1, obviously wrong. (Issue 1)

Hi Jim,

 

before trick 10 was completed, your partner was going to lose 2 more tricks (♦A and K). I would assume that he claimed before the ♦K was played, but thought that the trick was completed (a common error), so he effectively claimed 10 tricks. After the ♦K had been played the display changed as you described, and the claim was still for 10 tricks.

 

It appeared to you that the original claim was made after the ♦K had been played. But I would rather think that this was due to timing issues - the info that the ♦K had been played just arrived a little earlier at your computer than the info about the claim. So all what happened was that your partner inadvertently claimed 1 trick too many because he claimed when it was opps' turn to play. You can avoid this by always claim only if it is your turn to play and keep in mind that the current trick maybe is not finished yet.

 

An hour later, I went to kibitz at one of my friend's table. The same 3♠ deal popped up again, and with my result on it as well...Why was there such an unusual delay? (Issue 2)

As far as I know the software selects the deals the following way: If your board number is greater 16, subtract 16 from your board number until it is less or equal 16. Then select the oldest deal with that number that none of the 4 players has seen before and has yet been played at less than 16 tables. If there is no such deal, generate a new one.

 

Your board number appears to be 9. Maybe, according to the algorithm, a new deal 9 had to be generated for you. But for other tables who had to play deal 9 after you, there were older boards 9 available, and therefore your deal 9 was too new for most other tables for some time.

 

Karl

[hotShot]

Lets assume you are playing trick 10.

You played your card and press the claim button after that.

Now there are Tricks 10-13 = 4 tricks to win.

You claim 3 of this 4.

While you are typing, trick 10 is finished. Now there are only 3 tricks left.

The software notices that and changes the number of tricks tat can be claimed.

So you now claim 3 of 3 (notice the update) remaining tricks.

 

So if you are declarer, this can only happen after you played from both hand and dummy and have to wait long for opps last card. You should avoid that situatioan unless you want to claim all tricks.

[inquiry]

The funny claim is always a problem if you claim before the current trick is completed. Say you are losing the current trick (but all four cards have not been played... assume they have lead the ACE of trumps and that is your only loser).

 

If you claim all the remaining and they agree... walla, you just managed NOT TO lose the ACE of trumps. Bridge laws of course make that illegal, but it is not an issue of law, it is a software issue. Either claim all but one (if you claim before the last trick is finished), or finish that trick and claim all. If you were playing in one of my tournaments, just give the TD a call, we will fix the problem. In the main room, that is it, there is no way to correct the score.

 

As for taking an hour for the hand to be completed. That is unusual, but not all that rare. In the main room, each hand is played 16 times. Usually the 16 times occur over a very short time period. There are problems, however finding 16 tables to play a given hand at certain times of day that make the delay longer. Part of the deal is how many tables are in play. The hand you gave, for instance, was North Dealer, EW vul. The other tables that can play this hand have to match those conditions. This means this could be played as a board 9, 25, 41. 57, 73, or 89 (the board numbers that match those conditions). So even if there are 200 tables in play, only possible tables taht match these dealer/vul conditions is 1/16th of those. New tables start with board 1-4, so it turns out that boards that match those dealer/vul conditions seldom get delayed (at least in my experience). I have had boards delayed a couple of hours however, but they eventually show up. If you check your travellers, you can see the time each hand was "completed". Usually what happens is one or two pairs play a hand early, and then it gets no more plays for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then all the remaining 14 to 15 plays occure over a ten minute period.