[Bermy]

I have been playing bridge for over 50 years now and as you can well imagine I am a very experienced player.

I love playing online as I live in a remote area gives me all day opportunity But if you want a strong game on BBO you have to.........

1) Endure abuse from your partner

2) Endure fowl play abuse from opponents, chatting out of order in foreign languages.

3) Play with a different partner or opponent almost every hand, never really completing a hand properly

4) Endure opponents abusing each other.

5) Endlessly wait for a new player to come to the table.

6) Change to a different bidding or signalling system almost every hand and sometimes even during the hand.

7) Find one player who simply plays too slow, then find another who has no tolerance at all for reasonable play.

One grows so weary of the social attitudes of bridge players from around the world, why cant we just get on with the game?
Lets just play, have fun, its a social game. Try new things without taking abuse because you didn't play it his or her way, and yes make silly mistakes or misjudgments without losing your partner. Unfortunately humans don't have enough tolerance for the game of bridge.

Robots however are now there as such a lovely alternative. No longer do I need to endure all this abuse. Try something different....no problem see the result. Game flows beautifully, 8 hands in around 15 minutes and more time if I need. Robots wait for you, and you don't have to wait for them. No fowl play no fowl chat and even no TD ever needed, How lovely is that?

However I do wish BBO would give us better partner robots for our money, Gib is very poor bidder and player by today's standards and I'm very limited to its bidding system and conventions. Come on BBO up your game please.

[steve2005]

Find good partners and stick with them.

[The_Badger]

I get tired of humans, too, and not just in the bridge world, but if you persevere on BBO you will make friends and find players that want to play the game in a respectful manner. You just have to separate the 'wheat from the chaff' as proverbs go.

I looked at your BBO profile and see that you are on the same time zone as me. Whilst I play rarely on BBO, and only with a small group of good friends these days, I did find that it was generally better to play late at night and in the early morning in a pick-up game when the majority of North American players come online.

First there are no language barriers whatsoever, and whilst many Europeans and other nationalities speak and write English adequately, communicating ideas in the bridge world can sometimes be fraught with difficulty.

Secondly, you are less likely to encounter specific systems geared to one country, such as Acol, SEF or Polish Club etc., and whilst most players who play these systems can adapt to playing other systems, mapping these out before a game begins can be both time consuming and problematic.

Thirdly, as a country the USA has the greatest number of bridge players, so you have more choice; moreover some players only play at weekends, on certain days, etc. so it's good to vary the days and times when you play and see what comes of that too.

And fourthly, at the risk of sounding sexist, I do find as a male myself that female bridge players generally are far more respectful. There's a far bit of testosterone bubbling under the surface with some of the male players that sometimes spills online in the form of abuse. Totally unnecessary in my opinion.

[barmar]

I've moved this to the General BBO Forum, since it's not about normal bridge.

[Bermy]

barmar, on 2017-August-22, 14:12, said:

I've moved this to the General BBO Forum, "since it's not about normal bridge".

I suppose (hope you reading) Thank you