[super69]

The hourly free MP and IMP tournaments were removed a few weeks ago. Now, BBO is not allowing free tournaments to be created between 1 PM and 5 PM. These actions show that BBO doesn't care about people who are quarantined and don't have the money to spend on pay tournaments. Please bring back the free tournaments so those of us who are stuck at home have something to look forward to in the afternoon.

[johnu]

super69, on 2020-April-10, 18:53, said:

The hourly free MP and IMP tournaments were removed a few weeks ago. Now, BBO is not allowing free tournaments to be created between 1 PM and 5 PM. These actions show that BBO doesn't care about people who are quarantined and don't have the money to spend on pay tournaments. Please bring back the free tournaments so those of us who are stuck at home have something to look forward to in the afternoon.

You can play for free in the Main Bridge Club or Relaxed Bridge Club, or play any number of the available free robot games.

[steve2005]

Too true John- lots of free stuff you can do.
You can also volunteer to be a substitute for tournaments.

Even more if you have a friend who can spare a $1.25 or $1.75 or $5 and pay your entry fee.

[steve2005]

weekend has free sunday daylong and 2 day survivor tournament

[Vampyr]

johnu, on 2020-April-10, 20:07, said:

You can play for free in the Main Bridge Club or Relaxed Bridge Club, or play any number of the available free robot games.

I have heard that people come and go randomly in these games. This must be very frustrating, and doesn’t happen in tournaments. At least in my experience, which doesn’t include free tournaments.

[fromageGB]

An alternative is to change your lifestyle : rather than lying in bed all morning, you can get up and play bridge :-)
Afternoon snoozes have a lot going for them.

[barmar]

Vampyr, on 2020-April-11, 17:37, said:

I have heard that people come and go randomly in these games. This must be very frustrating, and doesn’t happen in tournaments. At least in my experience, which doesn’t include free tournaments.

You can arrange to play with your friends instead of randoms.

[Vampyr]

barmar, on 2020-April-12, 19:08, said:

You can arrange to play with your friends instead of randoms.

Yes of course. But it is easier to get one other person online at a particular time than 3. Also, it is possible that most of your friends don’t play online bridge.

[sfi]

Vampyr, on 2020-April-12, 22:38, said:

Also, it is possible that most of your friends don’t play online bridge.

Highly unlikely. Or are you trying to claim you're the odd one out with a life outside of bridge?

[Vampyr]

sfi, on 2020-April-12, 23:28, said:

Highly unlikely. Or are you trying to claim you're the odd one out with a life outside of bridge?

LOL I am not claiming anything, and quite a few of my bridge-playing friends do now play online. But this will not be true for everyone.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2020-April-12, 23:28, said:

Highly unlikely. Or are you trying to claim you're the odd one out with a life outside of bridge?

Less than a quarter of my bridge club had ever played online bridge before this crisis.
Almost half are online now and that took a lot of hard work.
Also most have only ever played MP pairs tournaments and are bewildered by rubber, let alone teams.
I realise that the average bridge forum reader is a very different type of beast, but probably less representative.

The crisis also has unexpected side effects on those who normally play online.
Some people who already played on BBO seem to prefer to maintain BBO and the club as two separate
and non-communicating realities.
My club partner who already played on Funbridge now has to study online instead of in classes
and is so nauseated with looking at a screen that he refuses to play on BBO

[barmar]

Vampyr, on 2020-April-12, 23:48, said:

LOL I am not claiming anything, and quite a few of my bridge-playing friends do now play online. But this will not be true for everyone.

But there are probably enough of them who have moved online that it shouldn't be hard to get a game going.

[barmar]

pescetom, on 2020-April-13, 03:53, said:

Less than a quarter of my bridge club had ever played online bridge before this crisis.
Almost half are online now and that took a lot of hard work.
Also most have only ever played MP pairs tournaments and are bewildered by rubber, let alone teams.

There's no rubber bridge on BBO, and you don't have to play teams. You can set up a table in the Main Bridge Club, and choose matchpoints as the scoring.

[pescetom]

barmar, on 2020-April-13, 10:10, said:

There's no rubber bridge on BBO, and you don't have to play teams. You can set up a table in the Main Bridge Club, and choose matchpoints as the scoring.

Of course, but that's even further from their mentality.
Even from mine come to that, I set up a table the first day I used BBO ("idiot" ) but have almost never done so since.
Pre-virus, my real bridge was face to face and on BBO I knew nobody outside the forum and just played a few hands with unknowns to relax after dinner.
Now it's all changing, but I still don't see much attraction in playing at a table unless we play and enjoy rubber.
A teams is better and possible, but requires more people and still a willingness to accept a new challenge.