[aisha759]

I have read many of the suggestions for a better and less frustrating way to direct our tournaments, and keep players, subs, and directors happy! A few problems have already been solved, but there is always room for more improvement.
This thread I had to share with all of you, because I had a very frustrating time directing "the climb of the matterhorn" tournament today, and yet now that i look back i cant but laugh! Maybe you all have some incidents you would like to share, some are funnier than others, some could be quite serious.. as a novice director, but getting more confident with the help of gweny and spwdo (mark) i have learned how to deal with a few technicalities, but nobody has taught us how to deal with the different personalities we come across everytime....today was one of those days, where we needed a psychiatrist So if you have nothing better to do, please read on: ( i will not mention names, unless i am forced to and am subjected to torture!)
1.) I had one player sending me constant private messages telling me he was switching places all the time. I tried to explain that after every round, this happened to everybody. He insisted, I didnt understand his problem ( he was turkish by the way, and could only communicate with me).. he went on to say that the screen was moving back and forth and he was finding it difficult to play (comment ignored by me, i was still confused) he continued saying his seat kept changing during play and that he was getting dizzy and couldnt play anymore, and was I going to help him, or should he report me.. ( i got scared!) so i replied, that maybe there was something wrong with his screen and he should log of and come back on quickly and his seat would be available. After following my instructions, he still complained of the same problem. Now, i personally have never heard of this, and not being able to help him, explained this was a problem on his end, and had nothing to do with BBO nor the tournament (maybe the fact that he was on the matterhorn had that effect on him The messages did not stop, even though i very politely told him i was busy and he was taking up important time away from more important problems... i kept my cool, and told him i would try to understand his problem after the turney and maybe help him out.. he then said there was no point after having been thrown out of the turney (survivor mind you) I never heard from him after that, and i was relieved.

2.) One more player started sending yet again, private messages asking me to remove him from tourney; I of course wanted to know why....did he have an emergency, did he have a valid reason to want to leave.. his answer was that he didnt like his partner, because he was doubling a lot of makeable bids, and that it was unfair to opponents i suggested, that he should stay, as this was not a valid reason, but that i couldnt force him to, but that if i did remove him, he would be banned from other turneys for poor sportsmanship (he stayed)

3.) Another player, again sending private messages complained about the tournament itself! It seems she had asked for MP's and didnt want to play IMP's and why was her request not taken into consideration even though she had asked time and time again.. I told her to read description, and if she didnt enjoy IMP's and was bored from them, to join an MP tournament... she said "i want this one, and i want it to be MP's!!" I told her to take it up with the Boss

Of course, these people are the minority, the majority, are very appreciative, and can't thank us all enough for having nice tournaments for them to play in, and even sent me private messages, saying they wish they had access to tell the tournament room what a great time they were having, and wanting to show us their support.

I hope you enjoyed my little short stories (well not that short lolll) maybe you all have some unusual requests you would like to share, and we can have a good laugh.

None of them were insulting though, but just very capricious!

If you have any suggestions on how one can deal with such mundane requests, i would love to hear them..

Have a nice weekend to all you BBO TD's

[Trpltrbl]

Just keep on laughing and seeing the bright side, there are and always will be some players that think the world revolves around them. And we all know that it is me the world revolves around Having fun in what you are doing is the most important thing

Mike

[aisha759]

I am having fun, otherwise wouldnt have started this thread! But its not much fun during the turney....after it's over (like 6 to 7 hours later, my tranquilizers, a glass of wine) i can sit here and laugh about it

[spwdo]

hi aisha:)

1. main reason for his jumping around is that he probaly has in options, player to the bottom on south so every round change he is probaly in another seat , be firm after explaining him/her you are busy, and if it really gets annoying and u getting stressed to much, warn him/her(telling that several others need your attention too and that u will explain in time or tell him to ask me(when im not directing)/any yelow to help ,if this doesnt stop him from privating you then as a last resort push him off the mountain.
be firm and show your limited patience before its reached


2. This one was really walking on a dangerous part of the mountain, some deadly incidents have occured in the past for this reason(when they do leave they simply cant enter several tourney s anymore) , one simply cant leave a "not so good" climber to climb on his own. for the record, u handle that one perfect


3. lol, a memer did ask me to change scoring from imp to mp and i agreed while barbara/blackbikin hosts imp and to provide schedule with different tourneys at the same time. no point for me to host something similar when another td is doing his thing. So i take full responsibilty for my mistake, sorry there. I like the "i want this one, and i want it mp `s " lol, a fan obvuiosly:). for the record well done aisha



no dought in my mind that questions your td ability, you are very good td dear, me keeping asking you says a lot lol( i like to think that tds working in a bridge too far and the climb are the best i `ve hosted with, dont know all tds on bbo, im sure there are several other that are very capebel also)


i ll take this replie to thank all tds working on a very regular basis and make "team spwdo" what it is (thx boris, ara,dave,gwen,patrick,aisha,sandor)

thx also the occasionaly tds directing on our tourneys lately(beky,ecepal,gerardo,sondra,michael,barbara,japie,irem) i might forget someone, doing this from the top of my head

[aramesh_]

hi
I was with aisha directing the climb she was referring to, as marc(spwdo) was busy otherwise. I have come across players asking me if the climb is on and get impatient if not set on time, just as a player said to aisha that he/she wants this and in MP. I know a few who sign up as subs if they miss.
Obviously every tourney has fans. I have enjoyed hosting the climb with marc and if he is busy, with aisha and borko.

[aisha759]

Good day you guys!
Loll Aramesh was with me when all this was going on, and he patiently listened to me and my nagging about this and that... at some point we were in such a dilemna about one players request for an adjustment (which could only be done by ESP).. i asked several certified TD's what they would have done in our place, and they all agreed there should be no adjustment.... opponents failed to alert a 2 diamond bid, and thus got a favorible lead, making 6clubs... of course, we were asked to fix it, because leader said, he would definitely have led a diamond had it been alerted... of course, how can we be sure of that??? There should be a warning for bids which are not alerted, and a penalty also, probably second time around, the only problem was, this was on board 5, and the complaint was received by us whilst they were playing board 9, going on board 10... we were frantic, we didnt want anyone to be harmed by this, but, hey, i think if players have a problem, they should come out with it as soon as possible! Actually, that was funny too, i could just imagine aramesh looking at his screen, waiting for me to make a decision, and i was doing the same on my end ) Borko left us with the tast of making a decision, and we did!
At least we had a good time! and some nice feedback.
See you all later
Aisha

[aisha759]

Just in case you were wondering... tast=task (he he)

[spwdo]

hi,


its a player resposibilty to inform and call a td right away what damage is done, ara told me today, he was still wondering what to do, too bad we cant see alerts,explanation in movies and only in the my hands thing, but as a rule when u get a call way to late its reason not to adjust, same when u get a call for baord played 3/4 baords ago and they want adjust for timeplay, just say no when that happens, cant check it, cant look in someones haed what they woud have lead, only thing we know is that they have probaly spit the movie out and come top you/us with the perfect plan, always imagine what u as player would do , u call right away when damage is done if u want an adjust,right?


marc

[slothy]

As a seasoned director of 3 tourneys ...one at 4 a.m. in the morning making it debatable whether i was 'directing' at all.....i can say that each time was a nightmare of Kafkaesque proportions....

On my last one i had more tables than i had expected/hoped for. I had a posse of 2 co-directors and the tourney began....Just as the tourney started, we had a mass exodus due to disconnections....in a moment of frustration I sent a private message to fellow TD expressing my anguish and used the F word ..... unfortunately it got sent to the tournament by mistake and a lot of ???? from players and kibbers ensued....

Obviously, i was a bit embarrassed and started to express my sorrow at being rude and offering to commit hari-kiri on the spot....however, i was disconnected in my moment of confession and repentance....i came back and went back to the tourney as quickly as possible (funny how ISP takes longer at these times) so that people didnt think i left on purpose....

i wrote to the tourney that i was sorry for swearing and gave a rather poor excuse as to why i did...something about wanting to write 'Duck' or something along with a few other fully credible reasons.....

To my surprise i got more question marks than when i actually had sworn....and thought i perhaps had put my foot in it....i asked my co TD whether i had said something wrong with my new comments..

She said that she saw nothing in the tournament window and i told her she must be mistaken...

At this point, i realised that, in my rush, i had entered Le Lapins tourney and was writing utter gibberish to a tourney and all my comments had no context at all....

I apologised to Le Lapin and went to find a stone to hide under...

[Gweny]

My favorite is from Spwdo (however previous post is very funny)

Director! I need adjustment for my finesses is not working!

[Trpltrbl]

We have to make this a regular thing where people come on tell there funny stories about tourneys. Since there are very many of them I am sure. And while we are at it have a winetasting event with maybe some bridge

Mike

[spwdo]

hi,


u can bet on it that ill ask slothy to co-host with me in the future, i just like the mans profile, i wish i coud play it all:) and i hope we have some hilaric moments, he expressed the wish to become an expert poster lol, i told him ill add a replie on every topic he makes just saying ROFL , then i too become expert poster he he.


i hope this doesnt go to far but once i send to tourney that final "resluts" woud be posted right after tourney, no need to tell you that it was somewhat embarrising too, thx to the cooperative td at the time i quickly changed that anouncement



marc

[aisha759]

It's nice to hear everyone's funny stories here! Slothy's was really hysterical, i witnessed it! And lollll Mark! "final resluts??" he he.... Great idea about the wine Mike, but since it's a bit too early in the day for that, i offer a cup of coffee whilst i tell you another funny one (well it was for me)
I was directing yet another turney the other evening, and one player kept sending me private messages about her partner " whats wrong with my p?" duhhhh I said to myself "self, stay in control", " what do you mean?" i replied... " is my p really foggy or what?" she repeated... i was still puzzled, so decided to go to her table, and noticed her partner's nick was "foggy"(with some number after it) of course, i thought she was being funny, and complimented her for her sense of humor with a "ROFL" lo and behold, the woman was seriously angry, and told me she didnt like to play with partners who had no idea about the game..mind you, this was not an indy, and they must have chosen each other, could have been random, but as TD, she wanted me to tell him to play better... i counted til 10..or else i could have been rude and told her that wasnt my job... when i got to 11, i left the table, and stopped answering her messages, which earlier, i was patiently doing! This is very much like your "my partner doesnt know how to take finesse" story Gweny LOLL
Can't wait to hear some more funnies!

Good luck all you TD's out there

[spwdo]

the acutall finesse story went like this, gweny was the first i told off and here it goes, happend in a bridge too far



player: td, i need adjust
spwdo: what board
player: this baord
spwdo: u are playing it, still enough time to end it
player: i need adjust now
spwdo:why, someting is wrong?
player: my finnesses dint work and east opend 2♥, he shoud have ♥king
spwdo: why not on west? any particully reason
player: percentages all in my favour says bridgebook
spwdo: maybe an old book?



i ended with a tournament add :♥♦ we td feel sorry if your finnesses dont go as planned but this i`m afraid cant be any reason to get an adjustment♦♥



marc

[aisha759]

HI Mark:
I like the screenplay if you can add some more, i might send it to hollywood...

he he

[aisha759]

ok guys here we go!!
A Td funny and yet a possible mistake, or misclick as we were told .....
Opener 5nt, responder 5♥
Mike and Mark, and myself saw that bid !!! correct me if im wrong pls mike and mark
The bidding was very suspicious, they made their contract....the joke was, that when we asked opener what his 5nt meant, he said it was a misclick....nnowwww, all eyes were on this player, wondering if something fishy was going on... as it turns out, a misclick was very possible, as 5nt is right below the 1nt bid... anddd opener did have a legitimate 1nt opening...
The funny part is, that mike and mark and myself, automatically thought there was some foul play (suspicious minds he he) we followed player to see if any more unusual bids were made by that pair , but there were none.... we were detectives for a few boards, but we faiiled....... as Mark pointed out, it could be an easy misclick... and the reason is mentioned above ....but there has been so much talk about cheating, that we all thought there was something fishy in that bid, and rightly so..... but alas! we were wrong! seems strange to misclick a 5nt opening rather than a 1nt one (he he) responder, when he/she bid 5hearts, did actually have a heart suit...... as far as i remember, they played in a very nice 5♥ contract; nice savee i say..... had i been responder i may have taken it as realllllllly verrryyyyyyyy unusual Nt )
I guess they turned out to be lucky and somehow ended up in the right contract, b we all agreed there was no foul play there....maybe not very funny, but nonetheless worth the mention....

[the hog]

Um.... How can responder bid 5H over a 5NT opening?

[spwdo]

hi,

aisha still confused looooool , actually rebid was 6♥ and yes, made , thank god they didnt play a trasfer on that bid lol, woud be real disaster, board 3(where it occured)we were then in baord 8 or so, michael was called to the table for an alert on 1nt explained as also lol(12-18 hcp range) mike looked after handling that in the movie to see prevuis baords and saw (5nt opneing bid ) and called us there, we were really on to something haha, i asked player u dont play trsfres over nt? , he said not over a 5 nt misclick, i wanted to be subbed till hands were displayed, i thought my partner was going to shoot me with my 17 points



marc

[slothy]

The_Hog, on Mar 25 2004, 08:36 PM, said:

Um.... How can responder bid 5H over a 5NT opening?

Umm Hoggy soo what are the rules on insufficient bids on BBO ????

[Trpltrbl]

You have to live and play bridge in Australia for 2 years.

Mike