St. Albans Bridge Club Policy on Undo’s on BBO
BBO has the facility to ‘Undo’ an action, either a bid or a play. In St. Albans Club Teams, Inter-Club Teams and Duplicate Pairs this facility is enabled by match starters. Legitimate use of the facility however is limited to two very specific situations, below. Note both are BIDDING situations, the use of Undo during PLAY is not permitted and it should not be requested.
Situations where an Undo may be requested
- When a bid is made via a mis-click and it is very quickly highlighted by a request for an Undo
- When a bid is incorrectly alerted or alerted too slowly. Subsequent bids may then be Undone to reset the auction. The offending pair is duty bound not to take an advantage of the rewind.
Please note the definition of a mis-click. It is NOT a change of mind about a bid nor a realisation that a bidding error has been made. It is not therefore possible to mis-click, say, 2D and correct it to 1S. This is because two clicks were needed, the 1 instead of the 2 and the S instead of the D. This is clearly a change of mind not a mis-click. If your pet/child managed to make that bid then please get your pet/child to play the hand.
Players should not ask for an Undo during PLAY in any circumstances.
Players must not ask for an Undo during the BIDDING if there has been a significant time lapse. If your LHO has bid before an Undo request is made for a mis-click then it is hard to see how the Undo could have been requested immediately. This is clearly a subjective situation and the only way for it to work, without a paid TD, is if we are all very nice to each other. Please make every effort to be so.
Differences between our three formats
It is my strong belief that, whilst we have the above rules, there are slightly different scenarios for our three playing formats.
Club Teams nights – all to be played using the above guidelines
Inter-Club Team nights – please be very, very lenient with opponent’s Undo requests. It is far more important that we are seen as a sporting club that others want to play against rather than defending our rights in a situation. I have never refused an opponent’s request in any of these matches, at any stage, nor will I. I would ask other members to behave in the same way and accept at times that your reward is simply the view from the moral high ground. Equally, if opponents refuse you an Undo please just move on, it really doesn’t matter.
Club Pairs nights – here we have the luxury of a paid TD. If there is any uncertainty or debate them please just call him to the table to sort things out.
Why not just disable Undo’s ?
Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to remove Undo’s from the game given the angst they cause. Given the two situations where they are permitted can happen however they are necessary. A number of club members are less confident with the technology and less dexterous with their hands so problems can occur. Please do not take advantage of this fact however, it can spoil the game for everyone.
What if I don’t like something that happens in a match ?
Firstly, remember it is just a game. We have a great thing going with nearly 200 people a week playing bridge at St. Albans so let’s not spoil it. Be nice to each other! If there is an issue then please play on, happily, and report it to me at the end of the night. Just me please, not a mass audience. In many cases I will not be able to take any action but if one or two players are repeatedly involved in questionable incidents then it does show a pattern and it will be dealt with.
Remember: Have fun, be nice and alert lots. If we all do that then we will come out of the current situation much happier and probably better bridge players.
Steve Lambert
Chairman
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