BRIDGEMATE II
Player Operation
Most of the operations described below are general to Bridgemates, but clubs do have the facility to tailor their operation to local requirements. The optimal club settings are reflected in these notes.
Keys
There are 29 keys on the Bridgemate, some of which have a dual function. The ones relevant to the players are:
1 – 9 (10) - Used for entering numbers into the device (pair numbers, board numbers, contracts, result). The 10 button is used to enter 0 (pair numbers, board numbers).
♣ ♦ ♥ ♠ NT - The suit relevant to the contract being played
+, - - The under- or over-tricks (e.g. 4♥ - 2, or 3NT + 1)
= - Used to indicate that the contract has been made exactly
X, XX - Double or redouble, when entering the contract
N/S, E/W - Declarer’s direction of play. Press the relevant key twice for the ‘S’ or ‘W’ option
PASS - Entered against the contract when passed out
('K' key)
CANCEL - Correct an entry and cancel commands. In general anything can be cancelled up to the result being confirmed
OK - Confirm a line entry
Function - The only ones of relevance to players are the ‘RANK’, ‘ACCEPT’, ‘SCORES’, ‘CORRECT’ (see below)
Keys
A K Q J - Generally not used at club level (only when players are requested to state the lead card).
Operation
Just prior to the start of the session, the Director/Scorer will place the Bridgemate on the table.
1. Anyone at the table can operate the Bridgemate, but the protocol is that North usually enters the data (unless unable to do so) – same as for travellers.
2. By pressing OK, the table number will be displayed. Check that this is correct.
3. When the Director/Scorer has established the movement, he will announce that the Bridgemates have been activated – if you press OK, this will display ‘Enter Players’.
4. Enter the player numbers in the sequence N, S, E, W, pressing OK after each. The numbers to be used are the locally allocated numbers. These numbers should be the same as other Bridgemate clubs in the locality. (You can alternatively use your 6-digit WBU number – possibly useful for visitors).
If you don’t know your local number, omit the entry – the Scorer will recognise this and he will enter it directly into the computer. Similarly if you make a mistake, you cannot back-track once into the main scoring function – advise the Scorer who will correct.
5. At the start of each round, the names of the players should be displayed. If any of these are blank, the player number has been entered incorrectly (or not known) at the start of round 1. The Scorer will correct this for subsequent rounds. Also pair numbers are displayed.
6. The board number and contract being played should be entered. I would advise that this is delayed until the board has been played (as would be the case with travellers), except that if North (or the intended user) is dummy, this data can be entered immediately after the dummy has been spread. This avoids unnecessary delays whilst the device is being operated.
- remember to enter the declarer on the same line as the contract before pressing OK.
Enter the result as + - (number of tricks) or = (if making exactly)
At any time, if you make a mistake, repeatedly press the CANCEL key to return to the required input point.
7. After a brief pause the confirmation screen will be displayed requesting East/West to confirm (it is custom and practise for East to confirm – but not totally necessary). They should press the ACCEPT key (fourth key) when satisfied. (Having pressed this key the board result cannot be corrected by the players – the Director would need to correct after this input). The player can reject the score by pressing CANCEL.
8. A summary the two pair’s performance on that board is then shown in percentage terms. Obviously towards the start of the movement when the board has only been played a few times, the results are somewhat meaningless, but their accuracy improves towards the latter stages of the event (as is the case with travellers).
9. By pressing OK in response to the VIEW RESULTS?, the display shows the results in traveller form, i.e. contract column, tricks made, and a NS or EW results column. A little arrow before the contract indicates your own result on the board. The Bridgemate should be offered to all at the table for their perusal (as you would do with a traveller). The display holds six results. For more results use the down/up arrow key to scroll through the results. After about 30 secs. the display will finish.
10. When all have viewed, press OK to proceed to the next board, and repeat from (5) above.
11. During the round, the scores within the round at that table can be displayed by pressing the SCORES key (fourth key). This key then changes to CORRECT, enabling any incorrect scores within the current round to be amended (via an ERASE and re-input).
12. At the end of the round the movement directions are displayed (this is useful for non-Mitchell movements).
13. When the session has ended, then after pressing OK, a RANK key (second key) will be displayed. This can be pressed to give a provisional ranking and percentage to the pairs finishing at that table. Press BACK (first key) to return to the main display.
14. Note that at any time, if the display blanks-out (power-saving), it can be woken-up by pressing the 'OK' key.
For any other scoring requirements, e.g. averages, no-plays, correction of score after accepting, these will be entered by the Director.
As a general observation, advise the Director/Scorer at the end of the session if the battery indicator on the unit is say below ¼ capacity remaining.