[nktub]

I am surprised the BBO allows players to sit at a table with no indication of what system they use. No bridge club would allow this.

[1eyedjack]

It is not BBO's place to allow or forbid such practice, but for the table host or tourney host.

BTW I know of at least one bridge club that does allow this: Crockfords.

[mycroft]

In clubs in the ACBL, it is *recommended but not required* for pairs to have a convention card at the table.

In many clubs in the ACBL, whether or not they do in fact require it, many pairs that play 2/1, strong NT, 3 weak 2s and some sort of ace-asks don't have cards for weeks and weeks, and nobody calls them on it.

When I ran a game, I would frequently not have a card - but that's because if I were playing, I was filling in with someone that arrived 7 minutes after game time (having been called to come in 2 minutes before game time), and our entire discussion was "what do we play over their NT? right-side-up or upside-down carding? No Gerber Ever, and what's 4NT?"

I would state that if a pair was playing something nonstandard (what "nonstandard" means depends on the strength of the game) and wilfully didn't have a card. I would get on their case; if they were playing basically something expected, I would get them a card and lean on them to write it up (usually warning them that they'd be likely on the wrong side of any MI rulings until they did).

Tournaments are, of course, something totally different; but "no bridge club" is hugely overbroad.

Having said all of that, it's up to BBO, and BBO at least in the MBC has decided "if you don't like it, find another table". That's especially true as a much higher percentage of pickup pairs exist on BBO to "any bridge club".

[helene_t]

The profile is useless for system info unless the player is so rigid that he always insists on playing the same system/conventions/carding/leads regardless of whom he is partnering. Of course you can use the profile for telling prospective partner's what you can or can't play but that won't tell opps what you are playing with a particular partner.

CCs are ok but given that you can always tell opps in private what your bids mean they are less essential online than in real life.

At my club there are pairs who have played for decades without ever writing a CC. Would you really expect a pair who met online 30 seconds ago, and don't even speak the same language, to already have filled in a CC?

[Vampyr]

helene_t, on 2014-December-02, 05:27, said:

At my club there are pairs who have played for decades without ever writing a CC. Would you really expect a pair who met online 30 seconds ago, and don't even speak the same language, to already have filled in a CC?

Doesn't BBO have CCs already loaded? That way pickup or casual partners could load one and agree to play it as written.