[dcohio]

I'm on the board of directors for my local association, and we're considering purchasing the Bridgemate II scoring systems. Any positive/negative feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[crazy4hoop]

It is very good. I use it at my local club and I cannot find one negative thing about it. You might experience some growing pains at first but in the long run it is so well worth it imo. Good luck.

[helene_t]

From the player's point of view it is similar to BridgeMate I except that:
- The display has multiple lines, making it easier to read the frequency stats an other things.
- When the same result has appeared on two or more tables, it is shown in a single line with indication of the multiplicity, like in "real" frequency stats.
- It will tell you where to move to at the end of the round so in principle no need for other means of directions. (Not that I would recommend not having other means of directions, though).
- The overall layout of the thing is more sexy.

From the TDs point of view I don't have any personal experience but our local TDs think it's significantly better than the old software.

[barmar]

At the San Diego NABC they were using BridgeMate, BridgeMate II, and BridgePad. I recall one of the directors saying that they really liked BM II. I don't think I ever played in any of the events that were using them, I only used BM and BP.

[Siegmund]

My experience is only with Bridgemate I. That experience is that it worked about two-thirds of the time. Some of that was presumably operator error, and some of it bugs that have now been removed. In principle I think it's a fine idea. Even better if we can actually get contracts and not just scores to print on recap sheets!

[Vampyr]

Siegmund, on Feb 17 2010, 02:42 AM, said:

My experience is only with Bridgemate I. That experience is that it worked about two-thirds of the time.

In England they are used in most clubs and congresses. Here they have not failed 1/3 of the time; more like 1/3 of 1% of the time.

Our small local club is upgrading to Bridgemate II soon. I look forward to using them.

[1eyedjack]

How high up the ranking of Frequently Asked Questions would you expect to find "how much does it cost?"

http://www.bridgemat...php?subpage=FAQ

[helene_t]

Siegmund, on Feb 17 2010, 02:42 AM, said:

Even better if we can actually get contracts and not just scores to print on recap sheets!

I am sure you can, a question of selecting the right options in the software. Oh well that may be easier said that done

[barmar]

The web sites of clubs that use BridgeMate typically display the contracts.

But if you use software like ACBLScore to print recaps, it can't do it; it just imports the scores from the BridgeMate software, because it doesn't have any notion of contracts.

[Rossoneri]

Having helped to organise a tournament weekend that's using Bridgemates (specifically Bridgemate IIs), I have found it a pretty good experience and I've not heard negative feedback from any of the players so far. The best part is with Bridgemates we could actually do a barometer pairs, which was pretty interesting compared to a traditional pairs scoring!

[Vampyr]

You don't actually need bridgemates for barometer pairs; you just need pickup slips instead of travellers. It's a lot more work, obviously!

[gnasher]

1eyedjack, on Feb 17 2010, 09:22 AM, said:

How high up the ranking of Frequently Asked Questions would you expect to find "how much does it cost?"

http://www.bridgemat...php?subpage=FAQ

I wouldn't expect to find it at all on the manufacturer's website. Instead, I would expect to find a list of distributors. That's accessible via the link labelled "Distributors" at the top of the page.

[Rossoneri]

Vampyr, on Feb 21 2010, 03:25 AM, said:

You don't actually need bridgemates for barometer pairs; you just need pickup slips instead of travellers. It's a lot more work, obviously!

Yes, that is true, but it is probably not a good idea to do barometer pairs using traveller slips in a university bridge tournament!

[mycroft]

...because the TD is too busy laughing at the results to type them in?

I never had a problem scoring with pickups - except when I did the strong two-board game, and did travellers through 12/pickups for 13. No matter how often I did it, and how often they'd *looked* at the one-to-go sheet while I was putting in the last tickets, when I asked for "slips out", *somebody* said "don't we have another round?"

[jdonn]

My most surprising observation about the bridgemates in general is how well the non-tech-savvy people seem to do with them. I also like that the clubs can program them to either allow or disallow the players from seeing all the prior scores on the board. They are great.

[gordontd]

jdonn, on Feb 22 2010, 05:57 PM, said:

My most surprising observation about the bridgemates in general is how well the non-tech-savvy people seem to do with them. I also like that the clubs can program them to either allow or disallow the players from seeing all the prior scores on the board. They are great.

When I worked at the first club in England to introduce Bridgemates, we had an octogenarian member who told me she had hoped to get through life without ever touching a computer. By the second week she was showing her partner how to use the Bridgemate.

[McBruce]

One of our local directors, who directs five or more games a week at different places, has taken the plunge and bought a set. They seem to work fine but the extra space on the table, is a bit of a pain. Four bid-boxes, a BridgeMate, and convention cards and pencils and a table mat leaves very little space to actually play. Hopefully the version 2 models are a bit smaller, or maybe made so that a standard bid-box fits comfortably atop them.

It would be great if they could be adapted for ACBL-style team games; currently they are only used for pair games as far as I have seen. In a Swiss Teams you could enter the results and when all boards were done you would see your result immediately, or (if you were the first table finished), you could see where you stood and watch for contracts, results, and updated scores as results were entered at the other table. The unit could also display how much time was left in a round, to encourage players to speed up if necessary. At the end of a match, once all results were in, the BridgeMates would be able to tell players where to go for the next round. It would keep people in their seats and reduce the time between rounds quite a bit. In a knockout team event, you could reduce all that time spent waiting for the opponents to figure out how to score it up by using BridgeMates.

[Vampyr]

McBruce, on Feb 22 2010, 10:32 PM, said:

It would be great if they could be adapted for ACBL-style team games;

What are ACBL-style team games? In the UK we use Bridgemates for Swiss teams, multiple teams and knockouts. Is there some format in the US that is not conducive to the use of Bridgemates?

[JanM]

Vampyr, on Feb 22 2010, 10:25 PM, said:

McBruce, on Feb 22 2010, 10:32 PM, said:

It would be great if they could be adapted for ACBL-style team games;

What are ACBL-style team games? In the UK we use Bridgemates for Swiss teams, multiple teams and knockouts. Is there some format in the US that is not conducive to the use of Bridgemates?

Don't quote me, and I'm not sure, but I think the problem is that ACBL-score, which most clubs and tournaments in ACBL-land use to score their events, hasn't been set up to take Bridgemate input for team games.

[McBruce]

Vampyr, on Feb 22 2010, 09:25 PM, said:

McBruce, on Feb 22 2010, 10:32 PM, said:

It would be great if they could be adapted for ACBL-style team games;

What are ACBL-style team games? In the UK we use Bridgemates for Swiss teams, multiple teams and knockouts. Is there some format in the US that is not conducive to the use of Bridgemates?

The Swiss principle is the same, but here we don't normally number the tables from 1 to however many teams there are; often there are four or more pairs of lettered tables involved, and we pair teams as they become matchable instead of waiting until all the results are in. A winning team in a large one session Swiss may play their four matches at table A5/B5, G8/H8, C12/D12, and C7/D7. There is a huge scrum around the assignments table as teams wait for their next match assignment.

With Bridgemates this could be averted completely. Once results were entered at a table, players could check their scores, then return to their home table already knowing the result. At this point, players could remain there and see everything currently posted on the Bridgemate screen: standings, next assignments, until the beginning of the next round.