Problems with instant substituting

[bendare]

In a recent ACBL tourney I called director during Bd 12 for opps failure to alert. The director arrived at trick 10 of Bd. 12, told us to continue play, which we did. After I played to trick 13, I instantly received an automated message that I had been removed from the tourney (and the rest of the jargon. ) I messaged director to that effect, who responded for me to ignore it, it was a misclick by him and that he thought the board (and my game) were over---as did I.

 

Just guessing, but I think when the director attempted to message me regarding his decision over the failure to alert, he somehow misclicked and in that split second after I played the last card and before opp played, I was replaced with an instant substitute.

 

In the tournament results, a sub was listed as my partners partner and received my master point awards (however piddling they were.) The sub never played a card and probably did not even realize he was seated at the table, let alone that he had won .41 master points.

 

I messaged the director about this and received NO response, NO apology. An apology would have been sufficient at the time-mistakes happen.

 

Apparently directors can now seat substitutes instantly with one click and no time to rectify before the sub is seated (should the director have misclicked with the request.) I suggest software be amended to allow directors time to confirm or deny a sub request, which would help to prevent the very problem I experienced.

 

I am sure directors are very busy during the last minutes of a tournament and responding to requests for adjustments, etc., it would be very eay to misclick. In my case, I only fault the director for not responding and apologizing after I messaged him after final results were in that I was in fact removed from the tourney player list and had not received my master point awards. I certainly would have understood his problem and had no quarrel over the loss of a whopping .41 master point. :P

 

I suggest software be amended also to pro-rate the master point awards according to number of hands played by original paying player and the substitute. When a sub is involved, all names can be listed on final results with number of hands played by the sub.

 

I have been on the other end of this. I once subbed the last two boards to win master point awards for first overall. I requested the director award those master points to the player who had played ten hands and who had rightfully won them. The director said that was not within the software capabilities, that the player who played the last hand automatically got the awards. (In my case cited above, the sub did not even play the last hand or even the last card or a single card.)

 

 

 

 

June