[pigpenz]

Playing in a tourney against a star player the auction went
1NT pass 2♠@ pass
3♣ pass 3NT @@

@=showing clubs
@@=3 minute huddle then a bid of 3NT

Called TD at this point and all they would say is connectivity issues!
The huddlers partner now bid 4!♣ and then he bid 4NT again after a long huddle.

Asked the star person not to be huddling like that, his/her comment was "mind your own business"

now i understand online bridge isnt like table bridge but their partner could have bid 2nt to show super accept of clubs and didnt. They played 4NT making making 7.

Next hand auction:
1nt 2♣(cappelletti) 3NT quicker than snot this time.

so online bridge should we call TD at the time so that it at least puts someone under the gun for ethically bidding or just forget and smile and go on our happy ways???

[inquiry]

For goodness sake...

1NT-2S
3C -3NT

Is a mild slam try. Speed or not speed of making the bid is not UI. If you have long clubs and want to play in 3NT, you don't bother telling your opponents about it.

3C might be super acceept, might be minimum, depends upon agreement, but 4C is my hand fits well for clubs for the auction to date. 4NT is, I was only interested if you where maximum (suggesting 3C was not super accept). No UI.,.. if you had called me, i would not have been very happy at being bothered over this,.

[pbleighton]

"Called TD at this point and all they would say is connectivity issues!"

You are assuming they are lying, when bad connectivity is a fact of life for online bridge. Your request "not to huddle like that" made it very clear to the opps that you thought they were lying. They should have called the TD on you for terrible manners.

If you can't "smile and go on our happy ways" then maybe it's time for a new hobby.

Peter

[jillybean]

Quote

Called TD at this point and all they would say is connectivity issues!

Unless the player is red dot or disconnected I think all pauses online must be regarded as hesitation. A pause in itself is not UI but the TD should investigate. All players have the right to call the TD with a concern or simply to protect themselves if they think there is a possibility of UI being passed.

Quote

Law  16 A
A. Extraneous Information from Partner
After a player makes available to his partner extraneous information that may suggest a call or play, as by means of a remark, a question, a reply to a
question, or by unmistakable hesitation, unwonted speed, special emphasis,
tone, gesture, movement, mannerism or the like, the partner may not choose
from among logical alternative actions one that could demonstrably have
been suggested over another by the extraneous information.

I am not familiar with this particular bidding sequence but according to Ben it was a normal auction. So no UI, no damage.

Definately players should not start questioning their opps themselves, call the TD!

jb

[Walddk]

jillybean2, on Aug 12 2006, 11:42 PM, said:

Unless the player is red dot or disconnected I think all pauses online must be regarded as hesitation.

I am not so sure. Phone ringing, urgent visit to the toilet, answer the door, etc. There are many ways hesitations occur where the "offender" doesn't even have time to type "brb".

The star player did nothing wrong as I see it, huddle or not. Ben has pointed out why his bids were bridge logic, and I don't think it's anybody's business to message an opponent with regard to hesitations and the like.

Call the director if you're unhappy and let him/her sort it out!

Roland

[blackshoe]

Walddk, on Aug 12 2006, 06:40 PM, said:

The star player did nothing wrong as I see it, huddle or not. Ben has pointed out why his bids were bridge logic, and I don't think it's anybody's business to message an opponent with regard to hesitations and the like.

Call the director if you're unhappy and let him/her sort it out!

Roland

Well, other than that I think the star player's "mind your own business" comment was a bit much - we are expected to be polite, after all, regardless of perceived provocations - I agree with Roland.

[pigpenz]

thank you for your input...so in other words ill just forget about it

[barmar]

Walddk, on Aug 12 2006, 07:40 PM, said:

jillybean2, on Aug 12 2006, 11:42 PM, said:

Unless the player is red dot or disconnected I think all pauses online must be regarded as hesitation.

I am not so sure. Phone ringing, urgent visit to the toilet, answer the door, etc. There are many ways hesitations occur where the "offender" doesn't even have time to type "brb".

While that's true in general, in this case the opponent specifically claimed "connection issues". If his connection was supposedly stuck for several minutes, yet he never got a red dot, I think a little suspicion may be justified.

[epeeist]

barmar, on Aug 14 2006, 10:04 AM, said:

Walddk, on Aug 12 2006, 07:40 PM, said:

jillybean2, on Aug 12 2006, 11:42 PM, said:

Unless the player is red dot or disconnected I think all pauses online must be regarded as hesitation.

I am not so sure. Phone ringing, urgent visit to the toilet, answer the door, etc. There are many ways hesitations occur where the "offender" doesn't even have time to type "brb".

While that's true in general, in this case the opponent specifically claimed "connection issues". If his connection was supposedly stuck for several minutes, yet he never got a red dot, I think a little suspicion may be justified.

Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but is answering the phone, answering the door, or going to the bathroom usually (under all but the most unusual/unpleasant circumstances ) something one has to do so quickly that one can't type e.g. "brb phone"?

[I'm leaving aside for now, and for another discussion sometime, the issue of whether one should join a tournament unless one can devote the time to it, I'm assuming a tournament in which the TD is okay with this behaviour and there's enough time (e.g. unclocked).]

Except in case of e.g. fire or spilling a drink on the keyboard or carpet (have to mop up quickly) etc. I can think of very few circumstances in which one has to so urgently do something that one can't wait a few seconds to type a "brb" message. It takes what, all of 5 seconds? Say you're a really slow typist, 15 seconds. Is that so hard? Is the person at the door to tell you you've won a million dollars going to leave because you're not leaping over furniture to answer it and it takes you 40 seconds to answer the door instead of 30?

Obviously, TDs can set their own rules, but this alleged excuse ("I couldn't type brb because the phone rang" ) seems ridiculous to me.

[barmar]

epeeist, on Aug 14 2006, 11:36 AM, said:

Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but is answering the phone, answering the door, or going to the bathroom usually (under all but the most unusual/unpleasant circumstances ) something one has to do so quickly that one can't type e.g. "brb phone"?

No, but it's easy to forget to do so. Sometimes you assume the interruption will be brief enough that no one will notice, but it turns out to take longer than you expected. For instance, you step away to get a glass of water, and a spouse starts talking to you.