Galway Virtual Bridge regulations and practices.
Regulations:
The Galway Virtual Bridge (GVB) sessions are conducted under the rules and regulations of the CBAI. The participants should have current membership of the CBAI if they reside in Ireland but this is not required for participants not residing in Ireland as all GVB sessions are Open sessions.
GVB reserves the right to the GVB Tournament Directors to request evidence of current CBAI membership such as NIBD number from all participants.
GVB reserves the right to refuse admission to any player whom the CBAI refuses to admit to tournaments.
GVB reserves to itself and its representatives the right to use, free of any remuneration, charge, attribution, or other restrictions of copyright, for publication and\or illustrative purposes the hands played by any player participant in any tournament it runs.
The edition of the “Laws” used for reference by the GVB and applied to this tournament is the World Bridge Federation “The Laws of Duplicate Bridge 2017.”
All decisions by the Tournament Director of the tournament shall be final and fully binding on all participants.
Advise at the beginning of each table your general system. For example, if you play Weak or Strong NT or 5 or 4 card majors: Eg: Wk NT , 5CM. For more detail clicking player’s name gives their profile. It normally details play agreements. Some players also use Convention cards which are obtainable by clicking the “Hamburger” (the nickname of the three horizontal bars at top left of the screen).
NB ALL BIDS AGREED BETWEEN PARTNERS AS HAVING ANY SPECIAL OR UNUSUAL MEANING MUST BE ALERTED USING THE “ALERT” STATEMENT IN THE DROP DOWN BIDDING MENU.
There is also a line where you can type an explanation of your bid. When you have pressed the “alert” and entered your explanation, you bid. Do not bid before entering the explanation of the alert.
But if you do bid first DON’T write the alert in the chat box as this also gives your partner unauthorised information. Alert after you have made your bid by 'clicking' on your bid (gets an ‘Explain Box’) and then entering a 'description' which clarifies your bid.
NOTE, that the Alert in this instance will appear only after a delay, and the bidding may have progressed without the opponents having the delayed Alert information and they may claim that they were 'damaged.' Alert early.
If a player wishes to query the meaning of an opponents bid than click on the bid and the opponent will be offered an ‘Explain’ box with the query and a place to enter the explanation. The bidder’s partner will not see this. When the opponent enters the explanation it is then made available to both the player requesting it and his partner.
NOTE: Sometimes this 'Explain' box may remain on the screen and prove to be a distraction to you. Simply click on the box top left corner and it should vanish.
During GVB tournaments we do not require the reporting of “Psychic” bids. However for these to be legal bids there must be an absence of any explicit or inferential agreement between the player “psyching” and his partner. Note it is strictly forbidden to “Psych” a conventional bid.
UNDO is active during bidding and play. If a player asks for an UNDO it is entirely up to both his opponents to accept or reject the request. The Tournament Director has no power to undo bids\plays and, in most cases, would, if called, lack the knowledge to determine if the Undo is a legitimate request. But see below on the guidelines of polite practice for the Undo feature.
If an UNDO is requested and granted any bid by the partner of the player requesting the UNDO must be justified by (a) the bidding not subject to the UNDO or (b) by the bidder’s hand.
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All players are required to practice politeness and civility at all times.
The director reserves the right to remove any abusive or argumentative player
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Practices:
If you are disconnected from the tournament due to internet or computer problems please log on again as soon as possible. If your computer\iPad freezes log off and then log on again. You will be taken to your place by the BBO program.
“Freezing” with a still open internet connection can happen. BBO will not register this so if someone at your table is unresponsive please advise the Tournament Director via direct message.
If for any reason you find it necessary to leave the table temporarily it would be helpful if you simply type 'BRB' and send as a Message to Table to let the other players know that you will Be Right Back
Please note that it is a good thing to claim when you have all the tricks. It allows the opponents as well as yourself, time to play the next hand. The easing in time restrictions when claims are made adds greatly to the enjoyment of all.
It is also a case that when you have only trump or only the high cards, A’s and K’s, in your hand there is little point in putting the opposition to needless effort in finding plays or discards. Be courteous and claim.
Please note that when your opponents claim the residue of tricks on a hand it is very important that you verify the claim. Due to the method BBO uses to tally tricks won such claims should be made ONLY at the completion of a trick.
However, if a claim is made and accepted, but then one player finds fault with it, advise the Director immediately. The Director may make an adjustment if the claimed tricks differ from the actual tricks that can be made by the claiming side.
If a player makes a claim during the play of a hand, BOTH opponents must answer Yes for the claim to be accepted. If only one opponent registers Yes then the claim will be rejected.
GVB will normally run the tournament using a Mitchell movement, a Swiss movement or a Howell movement depending on numbers. The default movement, when entries are sufficient, is a Swiss movement. While the Swiss movement has the advantage that players of similar standard gravitate to playing each other, a drawback is some pairs may meet on more than one occasion. GVB sets up the Swiss game so such occasions are minimised.
In GVB tournaments, where a Player enters with a robot and, by the bidding, the robot would be declarer, the human will TEMPORARILY switch place with the robot. In robot-human pairings the human always plays as declarer. Those players who use robots should read the article on this Bridgewebs site for a detailed illustrated explanation of how this works. Players wishing to discover if a tournament has this feature should look at the tournament “Details” for “+hd+” which introduces the practice as part of the tournament.
When a player is returned to their original position after having switched with a robot they should check that their “chat” has not been set to “kibitzers” as sometimes happens with the BBO program.
When using the Message feature please be sure that you have selected the correct target, i.e. Table for message to all players at your table; Tournament if directing a message to all players in the competition; Director if messaging the Director.
UNDO is active during bidding and play. Gracious opponents will accede to a genuine request where a player has miss-clicked. Genuine players will also NOT seek an undo for a mistake rather than a miss-click!
PLEASE watch the time, be it as defender or declarer.
Please be civil to all opponents especially those that may be new to playing online and/or generally inexperienced.
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