[loww]

Dear BBO friends,
being a BBO member for many years, I have now discovered the “Express Tournaments” in the online BBO. Thanks for this possibility, it provides great fun and improves playing experience. Also the necessity to bid and play within a period of given minutes and seconds, is important.
However, I guess I have detected an abuse regarding the bidding and playing process. When some players- mostly so called “experts” - realize that they will not come up to their contract, they start to use almost all seconds before playing a card, yet and before being replaced by a robot. As a matter of fact, since the game will last longer than the allowed time, the result is set to 50% to 50% by the system. Having missed the contract would have resulted in a much lower percentage rate.
Somebody made this experience also? approach by some “experts”.
Kind regards
Christian/Austria

[Bbradley62]

Yes, this strategy has been going on for a long time and has been reported frequently. (My 10/17/2010 post #15 in the thread http://www.bridgebas...__1#entry503210 may or may not be the first time it was reported.) I don't think its use is monopolized by any one self-rating skill level. Since these are primarily "for fun" tournaments, BBO is unlikely to invest the time and energy required to implement a preferable methodology.