[pigpenz]

enjoy playing in these, but would like to make a suggestion
the people who play in these have no idea what their convention card is even though
they can click it on and see what it is.

I would think maybe it might be good to do like you do with the robots
where you can click to see what a bid is or make an announcement other than you are playing 2/1
you are playing the GIB 2/1 card and can click on the buttons to see what the card is

it will eliminate the 1NT 2♣ pass when partner means clubs not a single suited hand
or what your bids may mean over interference where you can hover over the buttons to see what your bid should
be.

games are ok, but they are more than a crap shoot but hey what canyou say they are free

[RunemPard]

I stopped playing in those after a British novice bid a 12 HCP 1NT as my partner...We agreed to play 2/1, yet it seems her profile overrides this...

Not to mention the endless series of 1♠-1N where you are left wondering if your advanced partner is playing it forcing or not.

Just because a tournament is free...does not mean you should not have an enjoyable game. And honestly...sitting there guessing what your pards bid, let alone system, is not so fun.

So yes...I support having the 2/1 full disclosure used during these tournaments. I have no clue why it isn't used.

[Antrax]

Probably the "express" part is the issue.

[barmar]

Just because the software shows what a bid means doesn't mean the player will follow it, although I suppose it can't hurt.

[Bbradley62]

There's got to be a way to figuratively grab some of the players by the shoulders, shake them, and inform them that they cannot play Precision in these tournaments. And the people who don't play transfers are another story...

[OldPlayr]

I suggested in another topic that there be a paid version of the express tournaments. I think that this would eliminate many of the novice "free" players that one comes across in the free express tournaments.

I rather like the opportunity to play short tournaments with real people, rather than robots.

[barmar]

OldPlayr, on 2012-November-24, 18:54, said:

I rather like the opportunity to play short tournaments with real people, rather than robots.

Maybe we should have speedball indies?

[Bbradley62]

barmar, on 2012-November-24, 22:16, said:

Maybe we should have speedball indies?

Isn't that what EFAF is?

[barmar]

Bbradley62, on 2012-November-24, 22:23, said:

Isn't that what EFAF is?

No, because EFAF is free, speedballs would charge. OldPlayr seems to be suggesting that charging would keep out people who don't know what they're doing.

[Bbradley62]

In the same way that "people who don't know what they're doing" don't play in the $0.25 robot games? Dream on...

[barmar]

It obviously won't weed them all out (nothing will), but maybe it will improve things a bit.

My impression was that OldPlayr would play in the pay indies, but he said he wants a "short" tournament -- something as quick as EFAF. That seems to suggest pay indy speedball.

On the other hand, when random partners do stupid things to you in a free game, you feel less annoyed than if you'd had to pay for it.

[Bbradley62]

As you can see from Rain's post #7 in this thread:
http://www.bridgebas...-automated-fun/
there used to be both Free Express and Pay Express. The Pay ones awarded BBO masterpoints. No one played in the Pay ones, so they were discontinued.

[OldPlayr]

Clearly, making a tournament pay vs. free will not eliminate bad players. It will, however, reduce the number of "drop-in" players who come thinking that they can learn the game by just entering free tournaments.

I'd rather play in a pay tournament with 3 or 4 decent players, than in one with 80 drop-in beginners. I certainly prefer that to always being forced to play with robots and use their bidding system.

Unfortunately, suggestions made to this forum seem to always be met with negative responses and resistance to change or new ideas. "tried that", or "nobody wants that".

Makes me consider why I bother...

[barmar]

If we tried it before and it didn't work, what makes you think it would be better if we tried again?

[Bbradley62]

Of course, if BBO had a rating system, they could have some Express games restricted to players at or above a particular level/rating, which might be nice.

[pigpenz]

so i assume that since the card that is postd on the bottom of the register page is GIB 2/1 that is what people are supposed to be playing.

where things really get grey is what are the bids against 1NT
I keep thinking we are playing GIB cappelletti but my partners all play natural
luckily so far there have been no 4NT calls to find out that my partners play 0314 and I am playing 1430

I was just thinking since the message that appears in the chat window says all players agree to play 2/1
there could be a an http link to the gib cc

[barmar]

I don't think it will help. You can tell people what they're supposed to play until you're blue in the face, that won't make them follow it. When they only have 30 seconds per bid, they're not going to check the CC.

The best suggestion I've seen is to make it work like robot tourneys, where the meaning of a bid pops up when you hover over it.

[pigpenz]

barmar, on 2012-November-27, 12:59, said:

I don't think it will help. You can tell people what they're supposed to play until you're blue in the face, that won't make them follow it. When they only have 30 seconds per bid, they're not going to check the CC.

The best suggestion I've seen is to make it work like robot tourneys, where the meaning of a bid pops up when you hover over it.

yes that would be even better but I have noticed playing with an ipad in these events you see the meaning of the bids after the fact but I dont
think you can check what your bid is before hand even when your partner is a robot

[diana_eva]

pigpenz, on 2012-November-27, 18:29, said:

yes that would be even better but I have noticed playing with an ipad in these events you see the meaning of the bids after the fact but I dont
think you can check what your bid is before hand even when your partner is a robot

Yes you can see the meaning of a bid on ipad, before making that bid. Put finger on the intended bid, read explanation, then slide finger off the bidding box if it's not what you wanted.

[Antrax]

Make sure to slide your finger up or down, though, or it will take you to the results or ask you if you're sure you want to leave the table.