[mrdct]

I live in the country and my local bridge club (Echuca Bridge Club) runs two sessions per week at the local senior citizen's centre, one gets about 4 tables and the other gets about 7 tables. It is non-profit, has a playing director and charges about US$3 table fees.

They bought a dealing machine years ago and use predealt hands with hand records for all of their duplicates. I think this is quite the norm for Australian Bridge Clubs.

[jillybean]

Elecronic hand records could almost convince me to move back down under - does NZ have the same?

[Cascade]

Typically we have printed hand records with DF data after most club sessions (at least at the club where I play) and tournament sessions.

I have tried to get electronic records made available at some events but so far this has not been successful.

[jillybean]

and the card fee?

[JoAnneM]

I did notice that ACBL now has the hand records posted for all the sessions of the last two NABC's.

On the rare occasions that we have pre-dealt hands with hand records at our club most of the hand records are still sitting on the table when I clean up after the game.

BTW, doesn't a dealing machine cost about $5,000?

[blackshoe]

The machine itself runs about $3000, I think, but by the time you get through buying new card decks and boards to go with it, you're probably close to 5.

[awm]

It also seems that most (if not all) dealing machines are made in Australia. This would tend to make them cheaper and easier to acquire (and also easier to fix/maintain) in Australia than in other parts of the world.

As for the hand records, a lot of it is whether you're used to it. Introduce hand records in a club that doesn't usually provide them, and the members will tend not to pick them up. Take away hand records in a club that does usually provide them and people will complain.

Recently I played in a club in the US that didn't have bid boxes, much less hand records. I guess we're just behind the times.

[hrothgar]

awm, on Nov 9 2006, 12:03 AM, said:

It also seems that most (if not all) dealing machines are made in Australia. This would tend to make them cheaper and easier to acquire (and also easier to fix/maintain) in Australia than in other parts of the world.

As for the hand records, a lot of it is whether you're used to it. Introduce hand records in a club that doesn't usually provide them, and the members will tend not to pick them up. Take away hand records in a club that does usually provide them and people will complain.

Recently I played in a club in the US that didn't have bid boxes, much less hand records. I guess we're just behind the times.

A few years back, I tried to get the MIT bridge club to consider purchasing a dealing machine. I argued that locals clubs, including MIT should purchase machines and use them for club nights. The clubs could also rent the machines to EMBA (the Eastern Massachusetts Bridge Association) for sectionals, regionals and the like. I'd be perfectly happy with the converse ... EMBA would purchase the machines and rent them to local clubs for club nights, however, MIT was pretty flush compared to EMBA.

The suggestion never made it very far, since the locals really didn't understand what they were missing. I've played in a fair number of tournaments over in Europe. I think that the Dealing machines really improve the flow of the game. There are also a number of formats like Barometer pairs that really can't be run without dealing machines. (Imagine trying to preduplicate boards for a decent sized barometer...)

The 3K price tag looks about right. As Adam mentioned, a lot of the machines seem to come from Oz, though there is at least one Swedish manufacturer.

[mike777]

awm, on Nov 8 2006, 04:03 PM, said:

It also seems that most (if not all) dealing machines are made in Australia. This would tend to make them cheaper and easier to acquire (and also easier to fix/maintain) in Australia than in other parts of the world.

As for the hand records, a lot of it is whether you're used to it. Introduce hand records in a club that doesn't usually provide them, and the members will tend not to pick them up. Take away hand records in a club that does usually provide them and people will complain.

Recently I played in a club in the US that didn't have bid boxes, much less hand records. I guess we're just behind the times.

Did you have playing cards that did not stick together at least?

[keylime]

I played the one game in my bridge life without bidding boxes in Pompano Beach, FL, and enjoyed it immensely - it was a shame I was not able to get back there. I remember getting a 2nd or 3rd out of that.

[Cascade]

jillybean2, on Nov 8 2006, 07:04 PM, said:

and the card fee?

The card fee is expensive you may not be able to afford it.

For a club session we pay $NZ3 a bit less than $US2

We have had the same fee since 1991 when I was President of the bridge club.

A tournament usually costs around $NZ10 ($US6) per session. Included in that fee is prize money and a meal and sometimes drinks.

[GeeGee]

When I retire, in a year or two, I'm emigrating to NZ

Geoff

[jillybean]

Why did I ever leave NZ? Alas when I lived in NZ I thought the game was for old people and nerds

Yesterday for Canadian$8 I got to shuffle my own cards and a playing director!
No handrecords. I guess we pay for the MP's

The Sectional this weekend is C$10 non acbl members, if you are an acbl member they take a buck off that. That included finger food and tea/coffee at the last sectional I played in.

jb