Unalerted Bid

[aisha759]

Hi Everyone;

I haven't posted her for a while, but don't think I've been missed:) I guess I didn't have much to say.

Butttttttttt........ tonight I have a lot to say...

I just played in an MP turney with my partner C987, and we had a very strange experience......

My RHO opened 1♣, I passed, and my LHO bid 1♦ (not alerted), my partner passed and my RHO bid 1♥, pass all...... hands open...... my LHO, the one who bid 1♦ had 4♥and 3 small ♦s...... when I asked what the bid meant, they explained it as a weak response.... but in my opinion it should have been alerted... friendly match, no problem, but we asked TD to come and try and solve the situation. He said he was busy playing and couldn't help out. These were his comments:

instead of writing me opps is not playing you could tell me his nick, you have 2 opps!

this tourney is not World Cup so i think you should play another deal

if you need to play in tourney with full TD service you should play in paid tournaments

Now, I have played in many tournaments, where TD is playing, and I accept to join, and realize many or most boards cannot be adjusted. It's my choice to join or not to join such a tournament. In this case the attitude of the TD was unacceptable, and he/she shouldn't be allowed to run a tournament with such an attitude. The opponents were very polite and very apologetic. The fact that we lost a lot on that board and then got an average on following board due to time limit, is irrelevent. We were not winning, nor expecting to. But there is a certain code of ethics, and some TD's treat players as if it's boot camp! This is unacceptable! We respect our TDs and they should respect the players in return. I doubt anything can be done about this, but I thought it should be brought to everyone's attention that some TD's are not fit to run tournaments!

I really had no idea that the only time we could get TD help and adjustments is if we played paid turneys. I play in unibridge (calabres) almost every night, and he is always accomodating and helpful and fair....... that's all I have to say! And nobody pays him for it!

 

Aisha :ph34r:

[pbleighton]

Welcome back Aisha.

 

The TD won't do his job, don't play in his tournaments.

 

BBO has made it clear that they don't have the resources or inclination to police TDs and tournaments. I respect that decision, as must you.

 

Vote with your feet :ph34r:

 

Peter

[aisha759]

Hi Peter:)

I will definitely not play in his/her tourneys anymore (if I remember nick) hehe........

And yes, I know BBO cannot police TDs and I don't expect them to, but I was so furious at the statements, and I missed forums soooooooo much, I got a reason to post B)

I also respect their decision not to police! But I love the fact that we can vent out our frustrations here:)

 

Good to be back.... I just need some more material!

 

:ph34r: aisha

 

P.S. I hope you do understand where all this is coming from though B)

[kenberg]

You have my sympathy. I have no significant thoughts here but when I encounter rudeness I try to remind myself that the best thing I can do is to try to be courteous and ethical myself and hope that this will help build the environment I would like to see here.

 

Maybe he was having a bad day with many demands. Some years back I was having a late dinner in a not particularly upscale bar and grill, and I called the waitress over:

 

"Can I have another drink please?"

 

"NO! I'm twenty minutes behind on my bar orders already, do you think my legs are made of steel?"

 

I guess it was her version of "If you want prompt service go where you pay for it."

 

I decided I could wait.

 

 

Best wishes,

Ken

[aisha759]

Hey Ken:)

 

That waitress was lucky to have a customer like you! I guess we need to be more tolerant of others..... so do you think I should try another one of his turneys and see if he had a better day? Would you go back to that bar and grill and see how that server is doing on that particular day?

You are very wise........ I'll take your words of wisdom into consideration for sure!

 

:ph34r: Aisha

[aisha759]

By the way: I WAS NOT ETHICAL NOR POLITE..... I ANSWERED SARCASTICALLY!

Will I sleep comfortably on my pillow tonight???? Yessssssssss...... being passive is not always the answer....

 

:ph34r: aisha

[sceptic]

I have found myself guilty of what happened to you Aisha, I have told people that it is not a matter of life or death, but then I usually put in the rules that if you want a proffesional TD, go to ACBL and pay for the privillage.

 

Having said that, if you knew it was a playing TD, maybe you could understand it from his point of view, he could not possibly come to your table and he probably gets fed up, with people asking, it is something you have to accept when the TD plays.

 

Give him or her another chance, everyone has an off day, I have never found many people that you can judge on first impressions.

 

I vented once at Pebcat, because they kept adding a few minutes here and there and it was annoying me (I was probably in a bad mood) and I regreted it, he runs a good tourney, but he does it his way and I have to accept that.

 

btw I think Calabres and the team are probably the best online TD's going, but that is just my opinion and you are right it is free

[aisha759]

Well, I agree, I am sure he was fed up!

I can tell from the first comment he made... he must have recieved messages from our opponents complaining that my partner was refusing to play until they had answered our question about the unalerted bid.

I am guilty of not having checked to see whether TD was playing or not. Had I checked, I would have known ahead of time that nothing can be done about this.

I am talking about attitude and being polite to one another. Maybe the title of this thread is wrong, because it's not about an unalerted bid, its about a rude TD. I have never heard anyone say that to get service you need to play a paid turney. He could have just said that as a playing TD he cannot adjust nor be of any help to us, and that's that.

I have played in may tournaments where TD is playing and I accept the downside. We are NOT playing a championship, and it is just a passtime. But please don't tell me that you only get service in paid tournaments. As you said pebcat runs great turneys, he is very capable and helpful. We can name many that are unpaid and yet you are given great service. So this thread will pretty much die after this.......

 

:P Aisha

[helene_t]

This doesn't sound outrageous to me. Of course the TD was behaving incorrect, but as Wayne said, maybe this TD was fed up with a lot of annoying calls and just expressed hes bad mood.

 

I don't think you should expect a playing TD to solve such a problem. His correct reply would be something like "sorry I'm overloaded can't deal with it now, I'll have a look after the tourney".

[slothy]

Dear B Cup (aka Aisha),

 

Chances are he was a bit disgruntled coz i had been wagging his ear on previous boards :)

 

But, i must say, if what you said to him in private chat was any near as annoying as what you write to the table when i play with you, then i can understand his frustration and disparaging reply

 

I rest my case

 

Clarence Darrow

 

:D

[blackshoe]

The comment was made upthread "if you want a professional TD, go to ACBL and pay for the privilege." That's hogwash. There's professional as in "paid" (however little that might be) and there's professional as in having the personal integrity to do the best job you know how. This TD was apparently neither.

 

There was also some sympathy for the idea that a playing TD can't take the time to answer TD calls. Bull. You took on the job, do the job. If that means you can't handle playing at the same time, don't play. If you'd rather play, let somebody else direct.

 

All that said, there's no excuse for anyone being rude, except perhaps in response to rudeness. As one of Jubal Harshaw's secretaries (Ann, the Fair Witness) said "Jubal, I have never seen you be rude to a lady. I have, however, seen you intentionally be rude to a woman." -- Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land. However, a player should keep in mind that being rude to a TD is only somewhat less stupid than being rude to a cop. :)

[jillybean]

However, a player should keep in mind that being rude to a TD is only somewhat less stupid than being rude to a cop.  :(

Love it, can I use it ? :)

[blackshoe]

Sure, Jilly. :)

[barmar]

I agree with blackshoe. You shouldn't have to pay to expect common courtesy. While it's understandable that a playing TD may not be as responsive as a non-playing TD, that's no excuse for him to respond to normal director calls with rudeness.