Members who leave during the play of the hand

[GatorJim]

It is extremely frustrating when members leave in the middle of the play of a hand. Not only is it very unfair for the person who takes over the chair, especially a few tricks into a hand, but for those who do not leave. I recently was dummy on a very interesting slam bid hand that had a high probability of making when the declarer felt overwhelmed and left around trick 5. It took several minutes for a replacement to sit in who was willing to stay and play it out. Also one of the defender chairs changed 4 or 5 times by the ecnd of the hand. This severely hampers the enjoyment!

 

It is not just the occasional board, but a frequent occurrence. Almost everytime somebody makes a bad bid, they just leave instead of completing the hand. I would like to see a system put in place where a member who leaves during the play of the hand more than a couple of times a month receives a warning from the system that if they do it again their membership will be suspended for a month. Also for repeat offenders their membership should be terminated. It is rude and, like I said before, it detracts from enjoyment of the game for the rest of us.

[1eyedjack]

I sympathise with your frustration, of course. but ...

 

The end result on the hand, if played out with a sub, is credited or debited as the case may be to whoever bailed, not the sub, so your statement that it is unfair on the sub is inaccurate. On the remaining players, yes, and of course on the other tables on the traveller.

 

In MBC games, usually if you are dummy you can swap seats with a bailed declarer and continue the hand with no disruption to anyone.

 

There are exixting statistical records kept of repeat bailers and sanctions imposed, as well as rhe stats being public. The sanctions may not be as strong as you would like, but they exist.

 

The strongest sanctions are to avoid such players. Not always possible on first occasion I agree, but thereafter ...

[jillybean]

Hi Jim, I think you will find the solution to your concerns is to play with "friends" only and avoid the random BBO'ers.

[barmar]

If you host the table, you can set a "MInimum Completion Rate". Players who bail often will not be allowed to sit at your table. You can find this in "Privacy options for your table" when starting the table (you may have to use the web version for this, I'm not sure).

[wrobertdav]

Thanks, Barmar for the table configuration tip to block frequent bailers from joining my table. I also noted that BBO staff keeps statistics on Frequent bailers and has sanctions.

 

I already feel better. Last night my wife and I played for an hour. During that time I estimate we saw 16 opponents! Very frustrating.

 

We would gladly pay to have a game where opponents stay because they paid. Maybe that option is available. We are very unfamiliar with BBO facilities. I guess it is time to review some of the tutorials on what is available.

 

Bob

[barmar]

We would gladly pay to have a game where opponents stay because they paid. Maybe that option is available. We are very unfamiliar with BBO facilities. I guess it is time to review some of the tutorials on what is available.

The main bridge club is all free (unless you rent robots). Play in pay tourneys and bailers should be minimized.

[onoway]

Hi Jim, I think you will find the solution to your concerns is to play with "friends" only and avoid the random BBO'ers.

This is one of the reasons that BBO is so much less attractive now than it used to be. So many people have abused it that lots of people are retreating into this tactic, I suspect especially the better players. It really limits the options of new players to connect up with anyone other than the jokers who bounce out of seats, are unfriendly, are likely somewhat feeble players or others who are also new to BBO.

 

Just how do new players meet friends that they want to play with regularly unless they play with random BBOers? Especially if the new players are beyond the beginner/intermediate stage? Tourneys are an option but again people tend to screen who they will play with.