[Ross68]

what is the difference? .
can I start a table with 3 friends and use vugraph deals?
Is it more challenging?
Is it intended for Advanced and higher ranks to use it?

[Stephen Tu]

Random deals are just randomly dealt boards being played by other people around the same time on BBO. They get played I think 16 times, you compare your score vs the other tables. As the playing population has a very wide range of skills represented, the comparisons aren't representative of what typical scores would be in a high level competition. It would be more akin to comparing to scores in a bad club game, with a few random good tables sprinkled in. Plus you get the occasional joker who does things like bid 7nt and redouble to throw a tantrum or whatever that can skew the scores on a board.

You can definitely play using Vugraph deals. These are deals pulled from past competitions that were shown publically on Vugraph. They tend to have much tougher competitors, often world class, so your comparisons are now more representative of what they would be in a tough field. Also you get to see how good players actually bid and play the hands (at least for the deals where full records are available). This can be useful for any level of player IMO, although if beginner/int you may not quite understand some of the highly artificial bidding systems or gadgets being employed at the other tables. The play can be instructive though.

Note it's not really a "tougher game" for you as NS vs your EW, because while your counterpart opposition at the other table is tougher, your opponent's counterparts (your virtual teammates) are tougher as well, so it basically evens out. But the comparisons basically remove a bias in favor of the side that gets dealt more high cards, because in the main club bidding and making flat normal games is usually a small plus, because *some* of the beginners out there are likely to screw it up. With vugraph compare these tend to zero out most of the time as everyone bids and makes game. But these swings are random and don't really mean much in the long run, if your goal is to beat your friends. But if your goal is to see how well you bid/play vs top competitors, the vugraph is better, more instructive than the total random deals vs BBO randoms.

[pilowsky]

And of course, you can bid and play the hand first and then see how the experts did it afterwards.

[thepossum]

I enjoy Vugraph deals more than any other for the reasons above. I find the hands generally much more interesting but the comparison with top teams is very rewarding sometimes - seeing how you and GiB/friends go against top teams. Of course in my case both my partner and my EW opps are GiB so maybe it cancels out a bit

What I particularly like is that, unless its a flat hand you usually do better than an expert pair on each hand

My personal favorite was the time I saw my hand listed alongside Bob Hamman for example

In terms of hands and what expert teams get up to I can recommend certain Bermuda Bowl finals too