System discussion before/between boards.

[gwnn]

I took part in some semi-serious (okay, 10% serious) BBO team matches. What is a nice thing about IRL team competitions is that you can "exchange convention cards" and agree a few things before playing. Literally before taking out your cards from the board. On BBO, this is not allowed, and you don't even know who your opponents are before you sit down at the table.

 

This is probably a weird thing where the answer is "haha gwnn why do you care about system agreements in an online game". Or alternatively "haha gwnn why don't you agree with your opps to discuss your agreements during the board?" But it's for those in-between cases (where I don't know my opps well enough to ask for their permission during the board... but I don't know my partner enough to have enough agreements about every system), in those cases it would be nice to have like a 2-minute interval before we have a look at our cards. I am not sure how exactly this would work, but it's something that's been bugging me.

[TylerE]

Anyone that would give you even a glance for doing this before the first board isn't worth playing against.

[Gerardo]

yes, do that before you make your first call.

[pescetom]

yes, do that before you make your first call.

 

I still think he has a point, though.

 

Also it would be nice once the last trick of a board has been played to have a few seconds to decide whether to ask questions or call the director.

[gwnn]

yes, do that before you make your first call.

Opps would sit down and say "hi, polish club, udca, 2/4 leads."

 

On board 6, they would open 3D meaning H+another or diamonds, weak. What can I do now?

 

You can argue that they should have pre-alerted it, but they just forgot.

 

It has happened at IRL tournaments already that opponents started bidding before I finished the system discussion with my partner. So it is very much possible that people would make their weirdo preempts without pre-alerting them.

 

PS I do my best to pre-alert and prevent this stuff if the shoe is on the other foot. But sometimes it's hard, and I don't want to say that opps are cheating. My main point is that there is something awkward about discussing system *after* I see my cards. I will also say that if you don't see anything awkward or problematic about this, you should re-think the ethics of the situation. Maybe the correct answer is "yeah it's a bit awkward but any solution we offer will just be more akward. People would complain that the team match isn't starting." But what if you had a button for "see cards for Board 1"? Or some relatively simple, non-invasive feature?

[gwnn]

Anyone that would give you even a glance for doing this before the first board isn't worth playing against.

There is no "before the first board" on BBO. Are you new to online bridge? Please reread my first post and try to understand what I suggested.

 

OK I don't like passive-aggressive posts, so here is the difference: you are in the middle of the first board when your opponents announce their system. You can see your cards! And usually they don't give you a whole CC, they give you a line of vague indications about what they play.

 

In practice, it goes like

00:10 "hi 2/1 udca"

00:15 "hey gl. strong club, std carding."

00:45 p-p-2♦-?

01:00 2♦ alerted "11-15, one card away from 4415."

01:00-02:00 Oops, what did we agree about this opening? I live in a country where no one plays 2D like that. I happen to have 55 in the majors.

01:15 My partner asks: "what defence partner?"

 

I could just say:

"3♣ michaels?"

 

Or I could have avoided the whole thing by having a 30-second look through the CC and agreeing with my partner what we do over each "weird" opening. Before either of us sees the cards.

 

The whole thing is awkward. can you really not see any way this is awkward?

[kuhchung]

Good question, especially as more clubs move their club games online and charge $5 or so for it.