Buddy Play

415788

Last year our club discussed the challenge of bringing beginners into club play. One suggestion that met universal support was "buddy play" i.e. pairing a beginner with a more experienced player. It was felt that this would help: reassure them about 'table etiquette', dissuade others from trying to take advantage of beginners. and give opportunities for feedback on bidding and play.

This would have worked well in our supervised play sessions, using Code 04 so that no UMS was payable and NGS of the helpers was unaffected, and not charging the helpers for the session.

Things are less straightforward in the online world, where the club session has morphed into a paid BBO tournament.

Helpers may be willing to pay for the privilege of helping, but that seems a little unreasonable. The answer could be for the beginner to pay for their partner as well, but that might put some of them off. I'd much prefer to run a free tournament, not charging any of the players.

Doing that on a regular basis isn't really viable. But what we might be able to do is put on special tournaments for buddy play, say no more often than once a month. For efficiency, though, it would be good to have as many of the beginners as possible playing with experienced buddies. But that could fall foul of the Code 04 limit on players above Area Master.

Is there any hope of being able to run a free EBU Virtual Club session with Code 04 relaxed, allowing more than 3 players above Area Master, provided of course that the more experienced players were partnering less experienced players?

495670

Hi there, there are a few different issues here so I will try to summarise the situation at present...

• NGS codes - You are right that these sessions would not fit Code 04. You can use Code 11 (no masterpoints or NGS) or Code 12 (no NGS) which avoids the NGS problem but you would still need to pay UMS. Alternatively, Code 10 can be used (masterpoints + NGS) - if your beginners haven't played in club duplicates before then their scores will be processed for the NGS but the helpers' NGSs are exempt from change. See https://www.ebu.co.uk/ngs-changes-2018. Again the UMS charge is payable.
• BBO tournaments - Even if no entry fee is assigned to a BBO tournament, BBO will still charge the club a minimum of $1 per player (via the EBU).

At present the best option (without making a loss) would be to collect table money offline (say £2 per beginner and £1 per helper, just to cover the benefit of potentially winning masterpoints?). BBO takes roughly £1 per person and EBU takes roughly 50p per person so you would break even on the session. Any profits from other sessions could be used to subsidise such an irregular and also rewarding initiative.

There are also other avenues that you could look at...

• BBO offers some known and trusted directors to run training tournaments without having to pay a BBO charge. It's not a straightforward process and you wouldn't be guaranteed to be accepted either but would save on some of the costs if you are.
• Contact the EBU directly (as you've done here) to see if subsidised session options are available.
• Run these sessions on a more informal basis... This is where we get onto slightly questionable ground regarding EBU UMS costs (mainly). Basically set up a number of teaching tables on BBO, all playing the same boards, with around 6-8 boards. You could then have a short break to discuss the boards on Zoom or similar and then run another 6-8 boards against different opponents. This is not (in my view) a duplicate session in a traditional sense and I can't see the EBU having any problem with the club organising it (especially if there's no entry fee). You can also run team matches on BBO with the same hands which again aren't subject to BBO fees (and typically won't be subject to an EBU fee as again this isn't the intended definition of a teams event). The team match solution can be achieved using one EBU Virtual Club account, while the teaching tables option would need one director for each table. You may also find it useful to have a non-playing TD who can supervise at all tables, in which case the team match solution is again easiest. BBO specifically allows players to set up team matches without charge as long as you don't charge the players to participate (teaching tables can be used regardless of whether table money is charged).

Triffid

Are you suggesting that a Virtual Club can create more than one teams match at a time?Why I ask, is that we are running an inter County friendly with 4 tables on each side. Two of us will run it, myself creating 2 teams matches using two log-ins, and my colleague doing the same. We will need to do this four times, once for each round. From your post above (495670) it seems we may not need to use two log-ins if our Virtual Clubs can create more than one teams match at a time. If so, is there a limit as to how many matches can be set up with one Virtual Club log-in?

495670

Virtual Club accounts can have up to a total of 10 pending and running tournaments at any one time, including team matches. As long as you are not charging players to participate, and as long it is a friendly for which you would not normally process the session for UMS charges, you can set up multiple team matches using one Virtual Club account yes. It is a time-consuming process admittedly but just about manageable!

Triffid

Just to be clear. I cannot create a teams match unless all players are online. Once I have set match 1 up (2 teams), can I then set up match 2 (2 new teams) whilst match 1 is running? If I did it all from one log-in, could I then create matches 3 and 4, so 4 matches are running in round 1.
Can I then create teams matches for Round 2 whilst players are playing round 1 or do i need to wait until round 1 is completed at all 8 tables?
Obviously there will be two of us so the workload is halved and I will be required to create 2 matches (4 tables) for each round. We will be using separate saved deals for each round.

495670

All players must be online to create a teams match and all players must accept the invite within around 20 seconds or the match will be cancelled. A Virtual Club account could then create matches 2, 3 and 4 in the same way. Note that only 1 person can be logged into your Virtual Club account at the same time so a second person would only be able to create one with their own user account, or more if they have their own Virtual Club account.

You cannot create round 2's matches whilst players are playing round 1; You can however start your first Round 2 match when the 8 players needed for it having finished Round 1.

It's important to check that you are using the right settings for each match, including the saved deals, and similarly make sure that all seats are reserved for the right players.

I do again want to emphasise that Virtual Club accounts cannot be used for the main purpose of running free team matches (and cannot be used at all for paid team matches). This feature is included as part of the Virtual Club "package" on the basis that the majority of events are paid sessions and may be revoked if BBO feels the feature is used excessively.

Triffid

Thanks for the prompt response. Our Virtual club runs 2 sessions a week and this match is an annual event free of charge, so certainly won't be a regular affair. It's useful if we can create 2 matches rather than have to use a personal account plus a club account. We would certainly pay for the use of BBO teams matches if that was an option.

495670

Ah well an annual teams match would be absolutely fine :) BBO does not currently have an option in place to pay to run team matches, they are still working through the backlog of interest in their pairs tournaments so team matches are likely to remain free and for casual use only for the near future at least, with the exception of NBO events such as the EBU's teams this weekend.