BBO tournaments

Types of tournaments
This section describes the three main types of tournaments you will find under the "BBO" host group. They are the Bridge Bingo Reward, Bridge Bingo Race, and Express tournaments.

Bridge Bingo
Bridge Bingo melds Bridge and Bingo to form a brand new game. In Bridge Bingo, players will receive a Bingo card with Bridge contracts instead of numbers, and must try to "Bingo" as soon as possible by crossing out the squares in their Bingo card. Crossing out a square is achieved by bidding and making the named contracts in the square. Successfully crossing out all the squares in a row in any direction (vertical, horizontal, or diagonal) grants a "Bingo".

New BBO Version
The tournaments listed here require players to be using the new BBO version (web based version) to participate. There is no way around this criteria as the old version is unable to support the requirements for these tournaments. Go to www.bridgebase.com and click "Play Bridge Now" to load the new BBO version.

Best Hand
The Bridge Bingo tournaments are really Robot tournaments. When you join a Robot tournament, the human player is usually dealt the "best hand" at the table, defined as the hand with the most high card points. Always having a good hand makes bridge more exciting and fun for most players!

Redeal
In Bridge Bingo, every 500 total points you accumulate will grant a "redeal" which you can use strategically to improve your chances of completing a square.

TCR
TCR stands for Tournament Completion Ratio, an individual statistic that tells how often a player completes the tournaments he begins. A TCR of 90% means the player completes 90% of all tournaments he begins. Not all players have a TCR as a minimum of 10 tournaments is required to calculate a TCR.

Bridge Bingo Reward Tournaments
This tournament costs BB$1 to join, and players compete to be the first to "Bingo" by completing a row of squares in any direction. All players have the same Bingo card to complete, although hands dealt are different. If no player manages to complete a row, the players who come closest will be considered the winners. BB$ and masterpoints from BBO are awarded to winners.

Bridge Bingo Race Tournaments
This tournament costs BB$0.25 to join, and players are dealt the same Bingo card and hands. Players compete to be the first to "Bingo". Masterpoints from BBO are awarded to winners.

Express Tournaments
Express tournaments are automated, fast paced, 6 board individuals. Automation means no directors so all players have to be self aware and alert. Players have to agree to play the GIB's 2/1 system when they join as no chat is allowed in the tournament. Each turn, the player is given 30 seconds to bid or play and has to complete his action by that time. If a player does not perform an action by the allotted time, he is first given a warning to bid/play, and then replaced by a robot for the duration of the tournament.

Some Express tournaments are noted "TCR". This means only players with a minimum TCR of whatever is stated is allowed to play in the tournament. This maintains the quality of the tournament.

Express tournaments are provided as a free service to BBOers who enjoy the more challenging environment of a tournament and they run round the clock.

How do robots work?
The robots you are playing with are called GIB. Some players may find it frustrating if a particular GIB partner plays especially poorly (or if a particular GIB opponent plays especially well) on a given hand, but, these things will even themselves out over time. We think that GIB plays at least as well as the average BBO member. Some times the GIB does something totally crazy (don't we all). This is what the GIB does. Everyone has the same GIB as partner and opponent, so, everyone is on a level playing field. If your GIB does something crazy we want to know about it so we can see if it is fixable, but, we cannot, under any circumstances, offer a refund.

The GIBs that play in our Robot Tournaments play a relatively simple and natural bidding system. When you play in a Robot Tournament you can find out the meaning of any bid by clicking on that bid as it appears in the bidding diagram. Furthermore, when it is your turn to bid, moving your mouse over the buttons for the various possible bids will cause an explanation of the bid you are considering (as your GIB partner will understand it) to be displayed. These explanations can be somewhat cryptic, but reading them carefully before you bid will help you to avoid misunderstandings with your GIB partner.

You can find out more about GIB's system by clicking here.

General tips for Bingo tournaments
The following tips are generally agreed by top robot players to be true, and are useful for more experienced robot tournament players. BBO robots and strategies are discussed at length in our forums, so please browse forum for more tips.

The moment the tournament begins, spend a few seconds to check out your Bingo card to see which contracts are easiest to bid and make.

The key is bidding - if you need a square that says "3S", it can be very difficult to get there if you open the standard "1S". Be creative - "2S" rates to work more often (hoping for partner to raise you to "3S"). If you need "2D", think about opening "2C" and forcing your partner to bid "2D" waiting.

It is generally agreed that you should try to get the harder contracts first (like 3S, 2H, 2D) before worrying about the easier ones that usually fall into place.

This tournament is very fast paced. Give yourself a few tournaments to get used to the speed instead of bashing your head in frustration. Experience counts for a lot here.

Don't forget to use "redeals" strategically! When used right you can save a lot of time.

Try to familiarize yourself with the GIB's system, which is 2/1 in general with a few quirks. When in doubt, always mouse over robot's bids and what you intend to bid to check for what GIB thinks your bid means. You don't want to end up with a rude shock.

GIB does not handle doubles very well. Try to avoid sequences with many doubles and redoubles.

GIB does not handle fancy things well. Try to avoid "master bids" and things like that.

GIB does not usually lead "4th best" like many humans do. Don't waste your time grumbling about this. Use this knowledge to your advantage.

If you are a bridge purist - this tournament is not for you. Don't waste your time grumbling about this as we believe games need to evolve and be fun. Play something else.

Final words
The tournaments under this umbrella comprise our more unusual offerings. "Bridge Bingo" is a completely new take on bridge, and "Express" requires players to be fast and not keep everyone else waiting. We hope players who join these tournaments understand these two rules as the main complaints we receive are "Bridge Bingo is not bridge!" or "Express kicks me out before I can play!". Play other tournaments if you dislike the basis for these two tournaments.

That being said, any problems, please email support@bridgebase.com, stating your username and detailing the problem and we will take care of you.