[ArtK78]

Last night, I was playing in an ACBL Robot Tournament (#5448, started about 20:42 EDT). Part way through the tournament, play began to hang. The robots would not play a card. So I exited and reentered the tournament to find the trick completed and the next trick started.

This happened repeatedly. It was a real chore finishing the tournament. I did not attempt to play any additional tourneys. And no, the problem was not on my end. All of my other internet programs worked just fine, including online poker (I live in New Jersey).

When I logged on this morning, I expected to see some announcement about players having problems playing last night, but there was no such announcement. I find it hard to believe that I was the only one suffering this problem.

A different problem occurred in an ACBL pairs tourney I played in on Sunday afternoon. This was #343 which started at 16:00 EDT on April 20. On the last board of the tourney, I declared a 3NT contract. We were behind, but I had advanced in the play to the point where I had 11 sure tricks due to the fortuitous drop of the QJ doubleton of hearts when I held AKT9x opposite a singleton. Just as I was about to claim 11 tricks, the round ended. Interestingly enough, there were at least 10 pairs still playing (I have never understood how our 14 minutes for the round can expire while other pairs are still playing). As is always the case, the program makes a determination of the result on the board and there is an announcement posted. Much to my surprise, the result was 3NT +430, not +460. I sent a message to the TD, but there was no response. After waiting a few minutes, I sent another message to the TD, but he had left the event. I got a message that my message had been delivered to him as mail. I have neither received a message from the TD since then nor a score adjustment. It just so happens that the score adjustment did not affect my ranking in the event (even though the difference between 10 and 11 tricks was 50% to 76% on the board). But the change might have affected my opponents, who won the event.

Normally, BBO TDs are very responsive to my issues when I raise them during or immediately after a game. They may not always agree with me, but they are willing to discuss the issues. That is why I found this so strange. In addition to the fact that the program that determines the result on a board when play is curtailed is rarely in error, but was clearly in error in this case.

[barmar]

There was a connectivity problem at one of our datacenters last night, affecting about half our robot servers. When we realized what was going on we took those robot servers out of the configuration. Since it was relatively brief, we didn't bother posting an announcement. But if anyone was unable to complete a tournament they paid for, they can write to accounting@bridgebase.com and we'll issue a refund.

Regarding the tournament you played in on Sunday, the TDs are supposed to stick around after the tournament -- they can adjust boards until 20 minutes after it ends. If you encounter a bad experience in an ACBL tournament, write to acbl@bridgebase.com with the details.

As for why there can still be tables playing after you're taken out of the tournament, there are two issues: First, it takes time for the server to remove all the players from the tables. Second, the table listing doesn't update instantaneously, there's periodic caching and refreshing. If you actually try to join one of those tables, it's likely you'll get a message saying that it failed, because they're actually done.

[ArtK78]

Thanks. I sent an e-mail to acbl@bridgebase.com. I will let you know if and when anything happens.