Paddyi BBO Bridge Group: March 2020

Alerting

ALERTING is different in BBO !!

Many players are misunderstanding this, so I'm giving it an entry all of its own :

You must alert your own conventional bid ;
Please do not alert your partner's bids !!
Alert your bid before you make it. There is a text field in the bidding dialogue box that allows you to describe the meaning of your bid BEFORE you make it ;

You should also use this field to enter the range of your NT bids ;
If you forget to enter the alert description, you can do it later by clicking on your own bid in the bidding box, this will call up an input field ;

In this example I as North passed, then I clicked on my pass & the yellow box appeared

If your opponent neglects to describe their conventional bid, you can ask them by clicking on their bid. This will cause the input field to appear on that opponent's screen ;
Your partner doesn’t see your explanation, only your opponents see what you type in this field, so there is never any risk of communicating unauthorised information.

Looking for a Partner / Using the Partnership Desk

If you are looking for a partner for a specific Pairs competition on BBO you can use the "Partnership Desk". You may either register your name on the "Partnership Desk" or invite someone from it.

To do this :
Click on tournament to register as normal
On the line above where you would normally invite your partner click on "Partnership Desk".
You may then either invite anyone whose name is already there, or click on "Add your name".

Games on Paddyi Bridge platform

Regular bridge games suspended. You may request a tournament here - just add a comment.

For Guidelines, instructions & announcements please see these entries :

Guidelines : https://paddybbo.blogspot.com/2020/03/guidelines.html

Instructions : https://paddybbo.blogspot.com/2020/03/instructions-for-joining-on-bbo.html

DIRECTORS ONLY : Guidelines for delegated TDs

Only someone with full BBO Director rights can host and direct Tournaments, and only BBO themselves can grant full tournament directing rights. However anyone with full Host and Direct rights can delegate TD privileges on a particular tournament.

A delegated TD has all the same rights as a BBO Director for that tournament. This includes adjusting scores for improperly completed boards, usually hands that were averaged because the round ran out of time.

For instructions on adjusting scores click here.

When you have been delegated to TD a competition on BBO you will have an extra “Director” tab on the right hand side of your screen when you log in to BBO. The Director tab is below the existing “Messages”, “People”, “History”, and “Account” tabs.

When you click on the “Director” tab, you will have two sub tabs at the top of the Director panel ; “Running Tournaments” and “Pending Tournaments”.

Until the tournament begins there will be nothing in the “Running Tournaments” panel except the message “You are not TDing any running tournaments”.

Click on the “Pending Tournaments” label.
You should see the tournament.
Click on it for a menu of options. Among other things, you can edit the tournament settings.

When the tournament starts it will disappear from the “Pending Tournaments” panel, and appear under “Running Tournaments”.
When you click on it now there will be a new list of options.

The tournament will remain under “Running Tournaments” for 20 minutes after the last board finishes to allow for corrections.

Record the web address of the tournament's results for future reference.

When a player calls the TD (Menu - Call Director) a message will appear on the bottom half of the Director’s panel. Click on the message gives you the option to “Accept” or “Delete”. Clicking either will remove the message, but if you click on “Accept" BBO will bring you to that players table.

BBO have provided a useful guide for TDs. https://doc.bridgebase.com/Help/Guide_for_BBO_TDs.pdf
The first 2 pages largely refer to functions not available to a delegated TD.

Substitutions & Replacing sitouts
Caution : If replacing the sitout with two real players, make sure that you replace both players in the pair within the same round. If you have only one of the sitouts replaced when BBO moves to the next round it will probably crash.

Replacing an existing player with a substitute can be done by Clicking on the tournament, then "Show tables" and then clicking on the players name and choose one of the "Substitute options".

You can not do this if you are replacing a sitout. To replace a sitout click on the tournament and choose substitute from that menu. Then enter "Sitout" as the player you want to replace, and enter the BBO ID of the sub. Repeat for the other person in the pair.

Retrieving data for a completed Tournament

In BBO you can save interesting deals so that you can later reference them. You can also save a link to a tournament on BBO, which will have all the tournament information. But BBO only promises to keep tournaments for about 3 months, but I have been able to access tournaments for longer than that. For certainty, save off the deal, see here to see how to “save” deals, and how to recover “saved” deals.

If you want to look at hands from a tournament you haven't played, or one you cannot find in your history tab, here is a useful method :

Go to https://www.bridgebase.com/

Click “Hand Records” from the top of the screen

Click on “Click here for results of recent tournaments” (Note)

Click on “Pairs” near the bottom of the screen

Scroll down to find the competition you are interested in

Click on “Boards" for a list of the Travellers

Click on the title of the tournament for the results

(Note) : You can also fill in the dialogue box prompts & click “Get Hands”

Recovering recent tournaments hosted by a known host

As long as you know the BBO ID of the tournament host here is a useful way to recover all the tournaments that they have hosted for the past week.

Use the a web address in the format :

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tarchive.php?m=h&h=XXXXXXXX&d=XXXXXXXX

Just replace “XXXXXXXX” with the actual host’s ID, For example, for these links work for the Bankers & Regent respectively :

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tarchive.php?m=h&h=CBAI125494&d=CBAI125494

https://webutil.bridgebase.com/v2/tarchive.php?m=h&h=regentman&d=regentman

ALL USERS : Guidelines

Please ensure that you have a reliable device / internet connection, and that you are logged in to BBO at least a few minutes before the tournament starts ;
Please ensure that you are registered for the competition in good time. The TD can only do so much to resolve problems, messaging the TD in the 30 minutes before start does not leave much time to sort out some of the issues that occur. The tournaments are available for registration two hours before kick off, until you are fluent, please make your entry early ;
Please announce your basic system at the start of each round, (5 & strong / weak & 4 / etc.), just as you would do in the club. Type this beside the “Table” label in the bottom left corner of the screen ;
You must not communicate with your partner by any other means during play.
Please do not type messages to your partner or to the table during play. You risk passing unauthorised information ;
ALERTING is different in BBO !!
Refer to this separate article https://paddybbo.blogspot.com/2020/03/alerting.html ;
The TD sets an allocated time limit for each round, typically 8 minutes per board, so a 2 board round will be 16 minutes long. If you are not finished then both pairs automatically get an average ...

If you want to change an averaged board call the director from the menu, however the TD has only a limited amount of time, so it will greatly expedite matters if you can get one of your opponents to message the TD as well ;
You can expedite the game by claiming some or all of the remaining tricks, or conceding all of them. Click on the relevant button on your screen ;
When your Opponents claim or concede, you should click on agree (or disagree) as soon as possible ;

Finally, if you have any issues use the BBO "Call Director" option from the menu. If you can't figure this out, contact the director by any other means.

ALL USERS : Instructions for joining on BBO

For new BBO users click this link for a useful intro https://blog.bridgebase.com/2020/03/09/new-to-bridge-base-online/

Playing on BBO is new to a lot of people, so there are a few things that need to be sorted out to allow the game to be enjoyed by all.

Permission to play in Paddy BBO Group is by invitation only. You must be introduced by an existing member.

To participate I need the BBO IDs for both you and your Partner. You only need to send it once, then you are good to enter all competitions. But send it in good time, as it can take a little time for your access rights to work through ;

I can’t register you for an individual competition, you have to do that for yourself ;

Tournaments only become visible on the BBO site about 2 hours before they start ;

To join a tournament :
Log in to BBO & select :-

“Competitive"
"Free Tournaments"
and under the “Pending” tab find the tournament hosted by PaddyI (paddyi) with the text "PaddyBBO Group" in the title
click on the tournament name* to join & follow the prompts
* Clicking on the host name ("Paddyi") won't work
Check your entry was successful by clicking on the "Entries" tab & looking for your name
Make sure that you are logged in to BBO at the start time.

Things to note :
Provided you have registered the partnership to play in the competition and both you and your partner are both logged in to BBO. When the competition starts it will automatically appear on your screen ;

Your partner must be online to register ;

If you don’t have a Partner BBO will rent you a Robot for BBO$0.25 (About US$0.25). However, when a Robot plays I still have to pay BBO for the seat at the table, therefore if you use a Robot it will count as you having played twice. ;

To hire a robot you need a credit balance on your BBO account (which you set up & pay into via BBO site) ;

Alternatively, you can invite someone from the "Partnership desk" or add your name to it for someone to invite you ;

Anyone registered for a competition that is Offline, i.e., not logged into BBO will be removed at the start of the competition ;

BBO will issue you a warning after a few minutes of inactivity and then log you off if no action. This could happen if you finish a round early and then get distracted by another task. This could result in your being substituted if you have not returned within a few minutes of the next round.

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