[ross5928]

Hello... I am new to this site.
Is Rubber Bridge an option or is it all Duplicate ?
Thank You

[barmar]

It's all duplicate or solitaire. There are no plans to bring back rubber bridge.

[TheBigDog]

barmar, on 2019-October-26, 20:07, said:

It's all duplicate or solitaire. There are no plans to bring back rubber bridge.

Is there a reason why this has been excluded? A disappointing aspect to an otherwise amazing website, especially in these days of social distancing.

[barmar]

It's a decision that was made long before I started working for BBO, there's hardly anyone left who was around then (Fred retired last year, Uday retired this month).

I suspect it just wasn't as popular as duplicate.

[Gerardo]

This was done by the time the Flash client was created.

Don't know the rationale but guess the same, deemed the number of tables using it was too small for the effort needed to implement them.

[Pertinax]

TheBigDog, on 2020-March-28, 15:42, said:

Is there a reason why this has been excluded? A disappointing aspect to an otherwise amazing website, especially in these days of social distancing.

Rubber Bridge was added as a kludge to the Windows Client (as the server is a hand-by-hand duplicate system) to compete against OK Bridge and to take the Rubber bridge players from MSN Bridge and WP Bridge, which they contracted for, in the early days when the site was trying to grow as fast as possible. However, Rubber wasn't very popular or profitable, because Rubber Bridge players didn't buy robots or play in paid MP tournaments. The Windows Client downloads all the table and player information when people log on, which put a high load on the server. As they want to move to a web-based version that would work on multiple platforms -- iOS, Linux -- they decided to retire the Windows Client. Most people preferred the Windows client interface, and some Rubber Bridge, so it continued in use, and there was a many year transition period as they tried to prompt people to switch. Initially they promised that the Flash browser version would be upgraded to have an interface as good, and the all the features of, the Windows Client but that was quickly and quietly abandoned.

Of course Flash was a dead end, so they had to rapidly move to HTML5. The Flash and HTML5 clients were unable to support some tournament and paid services so the Windows Client returned to use for those. A small number of people who used those services are authorised to use the Windows Client and can play Rubber. There is a note somewhere on the site saying that Windows Client support will finally be ended in 2020, over 12 years since they first tried to phase it out.

So Rubber and the US form of Chicago are not available. IMPS (teams and pairs), Matchpoints and Total Point (duplicate scores (total not IMPS or MPed) but not scored as a duplicate across tables for players who don't like that).

It is a shame because Rubber Bridge was the original form of the game and is a great, fun, social card game. Without Rubber, Bridge is becoming an activity taken up by retirees, who have the time and money for duplicate classes needed to start playing it. The average age of an ACBL member is approaching 70. Hearts, Spades, Cribbage and even Chess are online games that are much easier for people to pick up and play.

[Vampyr]

You can play rubber bridge, in a way. Just play at a table and ignore the scoring; play and score exactly as if it were rubber bridge.

[Gerardo]

Pertinax, on 2020-June-12, 17:22, said:

There is a note somewhere on the site saying that Windows Client support will finally be ended in 2020, over 12 years since they first tried to phase it out.

As far as I know, that note refers to the Flash client, because browsers will stop supporting Flash.

I know of no plans of discontinuing the Windows Client. (though I am persuaded it will happen sooner or later, it has 10+ years of no development).

[hrothgar]

Pertinax, on 2020-June-12, 17:22, said:

Without Rubber, Bridge is becoming an activity taken up by retirees, who have the time and money for duplicate classes needed to start playing it.

I think that you have the causality wrong here.

Rubber bridge was pretty much dead long before BBO and OKB came along

[nige1]

In Scotland, Rubber-bridge is popular, mainly in private-games. Part-scores produce interesting problems.

[Vampyr]

nige1, on 2020-June-13, 05:29, said:

In Scotland, Rubber-bridge is popular, mainly in private-games. Part-scores produce interesting problems.

In England, there are quite a few rubber bridge clubs. And of course rubber is what is played at home, unless there are enough people for teams or duplicate.