Can Duplicate Bridge Be Played In Team Matches?

[fanofjam]

First off, thanks to all of the people that have recently done instructional video's and posted online instructions on setting up Team Matches in BBO. It's proving to be very VERY useful during quarantine, as I've been able to set-up an 8 player match for my mother-in-law and her elderly friends. Keeps them all from going nuts during these difficult times.

 

Anyway, so the game we just finished used the two halves method, where we set up the game as two halves...the first half seated two teams of four for 12 boards and then after that half was finished, we started a new Team Match for the second 12 boards and flipped the seating of the second team so that the second half seating was different from the first half. In this case, I selected the 'Random Deal' option.

 

So the next logical question...is there a way to use the 'Saved Deals' option for the above play sequence so that they can play Duplicate Bridge...or perhaps a different play sequence than we used above?

 

(I hope this isn't a dumb question...I'm not experienced at all playing Bridge, but seem to be fairly good at adminstering BBO for all the old people in my life. LOL.)

 

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide on this.

[paulg]

I think they are really asking if more than eight of them can play the same boards as they would at a club, or face more than one pair over the 12 boards. This is called a tournament on BBO and there are numerous free (and pay) tournaments that people can participate in but these involve lots more people. Unfortunately you will not be able to run these yourself without the appropriate privilege, which BBO is not giving out currently.

 

Although you can run only one team match at a time, if you have an accomplice then you can run multiple matches and they can use the same boards using the Saved deals options. You need to upload the hands (

) but I expect it will be more difficult for you to source the hands. I recommend the 2013 World Championships and you can download boards from https://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2013/2013-wtc.html. Note that the boards for each round are the same.

 

Then your players can see how the world's best players did on the hands.

 

Good luck.

[fanofjam]

I think they are really asking if more than eight of them can play the same boards as they would at a club, or face more than one pair over the 12 boards. This is called a tournament on BBO and there are numerous free (and pay) tournaments that people can participate in but these involve lots more people. Unfortunately you will not be able to run these yourself without the appropriate privilege, which BBO is not giving out currently.

 

Thanks for the response paulg. Yes, both of those questions were raised, but through my own research I was able to answer those questions. At least by setting it up as two halves they were able to change seats once during their Team Match.

 

It's kind of funny...I'm 61 and all of the players are in their 80's. The old folks aren't software savvy...they keep expecting the software to be able to perform in a way that lets them play just like they're playing at their bridge club (e.g. movement of boards and teams from table to table in Duplicate). I've had to remind them like 100 times now that computer software needs to be programmed and that the Team Match subroutine of BBO doesn't have that level of sophistication, but after playing for the first time last night I think they're finally starting to understand the limitations.

 

Although you can run only one team match at a time, if you have an accomplice then you can run multiple matches and they can use the same boards using the Saved deals options. You need to upload the hands (

) but I expect it will be more difficult for you to source the hands. I recommend the 2013 World Championships and you can download boards from https://www.sarantakos.com/bridge/vugraph/2013/2013-wtc.html. Note that the boards for each round are the same.

 

Hmmm, that's a thought. I suppose I could be my own accomplice and try run things using my own and my wifes login IDs and have two devices (ipad and laptop) in front of me at once, but that sounds like a bigger hassle than its worth. I think these eight folks were just happy to have some social interaction during lockdown and, as I already said, are thinking like they're at Bridge Club rather than using a software app with all its limitations (even though BBO is AWESOME!!!).

 

Then your players can see how the world's best players did on the hands.

 

Good luck.

 

That would appeal to me because I'm trying to learn and improve, but I get the feeling most of these folks wouldn't care about that.

 

Thanks again paulg for the response.

[paulg]

The old folks aren't software savvy...they keep expecting the software to be able to perform in a way that lets them play just like they're playing at their bridge club (e.g. movement of boards and teams from table to table in Duplicate). I've had to remind them like 100 times now that computer software needs to be programmed and that the Team Match subroutine of BBO doesn't have that level of sophistication, but after playing for the first time last night I think they're finally starting to understand the limitations.

There are a lot of people new to BBO who were expecting to be like club bridge and perhaps it helps to understand the mentality of your typical BBO player in the past to see why some things are different.

 

Club players are coming in and wish to play 24-26 boards as they would at the club. They think it is normal to dedicate 2-3 hours playing bridge.

 

Your typical BBO player in the past has the attention span of a gnat. Anything longer than 8 boards at a time and there was very little hope of maintaining their interest which is why so many tournaments are short. The reliability of Internet connections these days is a lot better, but in the past people could disappear for a half an hour as they tried to reconnect.

 

BBO also allows every table to play the same boards simultaneously without hearing someone at the club shouting out that they could have made slam. In some countries, like Norway, playing the boards at the same time is common but hardly ever seen in the UK and USA. So in BBO tournaments, people move but the boards are the same everywhere.

 

The lack of attention span is the primary reason why BBO has no team events other than head-to-head team matches. The concept of everyone staying around for a 24-board tournament did not last very long.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[fanofjam]

The lack of attention span is the primary reason why BBO has no team events other than head-to-head team matches. The concept of everyone staying around for a 24-board tournament did not last very long.

 

I was actually shocked how well last night went. It was our first time organizing a team match and all of the players are noobs to BBO with less than 100 logins. I have more than 100 so that's another reason that I offered to set up the game. I was expecting the worst in terms of problems with getting everyone online at the same time and getting the match created without snags. But last night we had eight players and we did two halves of 12 boards each without a single issue. It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes for them to play all 24 boards.

 

Thanks for the conversation paulg. Much appreciated.

 

Steve

[paulg]

Good to hear