Questions on generating random hands and flip open boards

[BudH]

A few questions for those involved with generating random hands

for their club games and having hands pre-dealt using a Dealer4

machine:

 

1. How do you generate the random hands? Do you use BridgeComposer,

Dealmaster Pro, the Dealer4 software itself, or some other method?

 

 

2. If you allow the person generating the hands or duplicating the

boards to possibly play the hands, do you find it difficult to ensure

you don't see a hand record? (With Dealmaster Pro, the first hand

seems to be on the screen at one point, and with BridgeComposer, when

selecting hand record format, that shows up on the screen.)

 

 

3. Baron Barclay sells flip open duplicate boards of two types: (1) New Generation boards (often seen in NABC national events in ACBL land) and (2) Imperial Plus (which are fairly new - they didn't come in flip open type boards until very recently).

 

Does anyone have any experience with use of the (recently available) flip open Imperial Plus boards compared to the New Generation boards, especially regarding use with a Dealer4 dealing machine?

[barmar]

There was a thread last week on rec.games.bridge about security of predealt hands at a bridge club. The general concensus was that no one worries about it.

 

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/rec.games.bridge/C9X6IQbSyzQ

[Phil]

The week's supply of boards is produced on Sunday evening and kept in a closet that isn't locked. Several sets of boards for each day with the hand records are stored there. There isn't a time when the bridge club is open and a director isn't present.

 

I do not worry about the boards. Someone would have to have a lot of time to sit down, take out the hands, and mark anything interesting.

 

The hand records are a much greater concern. Obviously if someone had a hand record they could do a lot of damage with the advance information. The envelope containing the record used to be sealed, but it wouldn't be difficult for someone to open the envelope and take it back up.

 

I think I'm going to suggest to the board that they email the .pdf's of the hand record to the directors and they can print the hand records the day of the event.