BBO Masterpoint Awards are wrong! The game result standings on BBO are correct BUT the MP awards will almost always be wrong. The ACBL Live game results will be correct. ACBL make adjustments for Limited games, Robot Pairs, special games, color of points, etc.
Profile and Convention Card (CC) You get to these by clicking on the BBO ACCOUNT Tab.
Profile. Your profile says who you are and high-level summary. You may look at anyone's Profile by clicking on their BBO name. My recommendation is that you include the following information: System, NT range, carding and key card asking. Here is one of mine "2/1 NT: 15-17 Carding: Upside Down, Odd-Even Circular, 3014 Kickback" Gives everyone a lot of information fast!
Convention Cards (CC): BBO has a nice CC Editor. Click on one of the pre-built cards (e.g., 2/1 ) and edit it. I save mine under partner's name : "Tom" You can then link the CC to your Partner's BBO User ID. BBO will automatically link this CC to you when you play with that person.
How to see your opponent's Convention card. Click on the the blue box wit the three lines, select Opponent's Convention card. It will pop up.
FROZEN BBO does NOT allow me to Bid or Play: When it is your turn to bid or play, it won't let you play or bid. Two ways to wake BBO up. (1) hit BACK and leave the Table. BBO will re-invite you to join the Table. Most of the time, this gets things back in synch. (2) Log-off of BBO and log-back on. BBO will re-invite you to join the Table. In really bad situations, you might have to do this twice.
The 5 Minute Rule: Registration starts two (2) hours before game time. Please register as early as possible for the game, and then go do something else before game time. Be back on BBO five (5) minutes before game time. We sometimes have problems with people being Blocked, or unable to log back in, etc. When several happen at once just before game time, the director can't resolve all of them. This results in people unable to play.
No Last Round Substitutes: If you get knocked off-line in the last round, we will not put in a substitute for you. There is a quirk in BBO so that whoever, even a Robot, is in the seat at the end of the game gets the masterpoints instead of you. Unplayed hands will be scored as Avg-Avg.
What if I am not on-line when the game starts? If you are not on line when the game starts at the scheduled time, BBO withdraws you from the game and refunds your money.
What if I temporarily lose connection? Log back on as quickly as possible; BBO will immediately re-seat you if your seat is empty. If your seat is occupied by a sub (or Robot), BBO will re-seat you at the end of the and. Our procedure is to wait one minute before seating a substitute. We have a procedure for re-seating the player if a sub was seated while you were gone.
What if we lose power or Internet connectivity in our area? If we lose a bunch of people all at once, we know something bad happened. We will not put in substitutes if we detect this type of situation and extend the time in the round to give people time to get log back on BBO. When you can, log back on. BBO will re-seat you if the game is in progress, even if it is an hour later.
What if BBO goes down? When BBO restarts, it is able to pick up where it left off. Try to log back on every couple of minutes. BBO will re-seat you. We will restart the game when we have the majority of the players back.
Clock Management: Be warned, when the clock reaches zero, the round is over Any hand in play is abruptly terminated by BBO causing problems for everyone. The BBO system manages the clock, but we do have a multi-step ability for adding more time to the round. While we would like everyone to finish in the allotted time, there are times when this is not possible: (1) someone loses Internet connectivity and has to log back on, (2) we are adding subs and they start late in the round, and (3) lots of other reasons (e.g., purple martians just landed). When one of these occur, if we detect it, we will add time to the round. If we detect someone is getting behind, we will send a chat to keep up the pace. If we see that a hand will come to a natural completion by adding another minute, we will endeavor to do so - so that your play determines the outcome, not the computer nor the director.
The BBO system does not allow us easily to monitor what board each table is playing. BBO is working on a change to provide us that capability. Until we get this capability, we will do our best to manage the clock so results are as computer and director free as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Self-Alerting: BBO is the opposite of face-to-face bridge. The bidder, not the Partner, give announcements (15-17, Xfer, 2+ if Short Club) and Alerts! BEFORE YOU MAKE YOUR BID, type in bid meaning, then make your bid. BBO will highlight the bid in the Auction Box and open an Alert Window on both of the opponents' screens. Your Partner will not receive any notice that you Alerted or what your explanation. DO NOT use the chat box to explain your bid.
Self-alerts also required for all artificial bids beyond 3NT: non-Blackwood and non-Gerber key card asks and all responses, splinters, responses to Gambling NT and Namyets, etc. In the face-to-face game these would be Delayed Alerts made at the end of the auction.
If you forget to self-alert, don't despair, you can correct that when you realize your mistake (I do it all the time!) Just click on your bid, the "Explain" box will pop up. Putin your explanation and then enter. It will get displayed on the opponents' screens. Better late than never! If they think they have been damaged, they will call the Director.
BB$ You need to purchase BB$ to play. If you use a cell phone do not go through an app. Go direct to BBO web site. Apple/Google Stores charge 40% transaction fee.
BBO Account: You must create a BBO account with a unique User ID. Avoid using spaces in the ID. Write down your ID and password. If you have an ACBL#, add when you create account.
How to Register in a BBO Game: Plan to do this at least 15 minutes before start time.
Registration starts 2 hours before game time.
You both log on to BBO. When both are on-line, one player will register for the pair.
Click on "Competitive"
Click on "All Tournaments"
Find "Search" in upper right of screen. Click on "Search" Type "SE ". This will cull the list down to just a few. You can also scroll through the entries. (ugh!)
Click on the SE Carolina entry to open the registration window. Do not click on VACB262410, it opens a window about the virtual club not Registration
Enter your partners BBO ID.
If you want to pay for your partner, click on the check box.
Press the Enter Key to Register
Partner will receive an invitation. Partner should accept and pay.
You are now registered. You may actually logoff. Logon prior to game start time. When the game starts, you and your partner will be automatically seated at the table. If you are not logged onto BBO when the game starts, you will be automatically withdrawn from the game and your money refunded.
How can I find someone on BBO? Click on the "People" on right-hand side of screen. Click on search. Enter name (or portion) or BBO Id and press Enter Key. BBO will list all BBO members that match the search.
Slow Play: We will try to warn you when time is getting short. The BBO system will not let you start your last board if there is less than 3 minutes left in the round. You will be awarded and Average (50%) for the board.
What if we don't finish a board? BBO analyzes the hand. If the program can determine what the outcome will be, it awards that score. If it can not, it generates an automatic Director call. The Director will will review the hand and make an adjusted score if appropriate. If an adjustment is made, you will have a message displayed on your screen.
Are we playing folks from our club or all over the world? There are two situation where we get subs that may be from any where in the world. (1) partner loses connectivity and we need someone fast to keep the game moving. We can re-seat you partner when he/she gets back on-line. (2) There are an odd number of pairs, which would cause a Sitout. We get two players to fill the empty slot so folks don't have 21 minute gap to twiddle their thumbs. We are working on a procedure to be able to substitute local payers.
Substitutes: Anyone can volunteer to be a substitute. If you missed getting signed up - volunteer!
How do you ask an opponent what their bid means? Simply click on their bid. This will cause a window to open on the bidder's screen that says "--- Explain" They will type in the explanation, which will then appear on your screen. The explainer's partner will not have any idea that this interchange has occurred.
Can I review the Auction? You can review the auction at any time after completion of bidding by clicking on the auction (e.g., 3NT) on the left-hand of the screen The system will open a window that shows the bidding sequence and all alerts and explanation.
Can I see how I am doing? You betcha! On the right -hand side of the screen, there is a "History" tab. Click on it. Your results so far in the tournament will be displayed.
Can I go back and look at tournaments I played in? Yes. Click on the "History" tab on right and then "recent Tournaments". Pick the tournament you want to review.