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Substitutes


hawkwind

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I really enjoy playing tournaments but one occasional problem is when I or my partner loses the connection.

 

While some tournaments allow reasonable time for reconnection others replace a player immediately on demand.

 

Sunday evening my partner lost connection with four minutes on the clock, last hand of the round, and with the hand "over". I private messaged the declarer to ask him to claim losing zero or 1 remaining trick depending on whether my partner had a trump trick or not. My opponent didn't respond but instead called the TD and my partner was replaced. The declarer played out the hand, by which time my partner had returned. The TD ignored messages from both myself and my partner so I had to play 9 boards with a substitute.

 

Could the software be altered to automate replacement after say 3 minutes or at least prevent manual replacement for that period?

 

Would that not also help to alleviate some of the workload from TDs?

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What opponents want to sit there for 3 minutes waiting to see whether a departed opponent is going to bother coming back?

 

On the rare occasions when I've lost connection while playing a tournament I've always tried to return, as did my partner on Sunday. It had never crossed my mind to not try to return. Shouldn't the software as default be configured to reward the honest?

 

To repeat, my opponent could have claimed and moved on to the next table - no wait time at all - he chose to call the TD, demand that my partner was replaced, and play out the hand.

 

I spent 53 minutes with a substitute, my partner was reconnected within 60 seconds of being removed by the TD.

 

And you're worried about my opponents?

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If the person substituting the missing player was competent they would have arrived at the table, seen the status of the board and the clock, asked declarer to claim and simply allowed the remaining time for the missing player to reconnect. I think some people are “trigger happy”, choosing to substitute a missing player without either thinking or visiting the table. As a sub I have been put in tournaments as dummy, on the last board, more than once.

 

Failing to reinstate the player once they return is poor. I agree 100% with Hawkwind, who wants to play for 53minutes with a substitute when your partner is available? I would have suffered a sudden power failure and wouldn't care if I was banned from the game in future. I don't think automating the software to stop the people running tournaments from doing stupid things is the answer, you've got your automated tournaments for that.

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