[CarolynChi]

Hi, We've recently set up a Virtual Club through the EBU/BBO route. I've been looking at the various ways that are available to run a bridge session for our newer club members and students. I have uploaded and used saved deals for teaching tables and Team Games. However, for a number of reasons I think the Tournament route would be most suitable. These include that I could run the session for any number of people (rather than in multiples of 4 for teaching tables or 8 for Team games) and by charging for the Tournament could collect money for our club, as well as BBO and the EBU.

Advice online varies regarding whether it is possible to used saved hands for a Tournament. See

https://blog.bridgeb...manager-manual/
The Virtual Club Manager Manual
by Diana | Posted on April 2, 2020

which says

If using prepared deals for your games, make sure to verify the folder of deals before uploading. A corrupted folder of deals can cause your tournament to be cancelled at start.
Click here for a guide on how to upload prepared deals to your Deal Archive.
Second set of notes

And

https://blog.bridgeb...manager-manual/
The Virtual ACBL Club Manager Manual
by Richard Morici | Posted on April 2, 2020

which says

Deal Source should always be set to USE RANDOM DEALS. using saved deals tab will crash your game.


Please does anyone have experience of whether using saved deals for a Tournament currently works, or is likely to crash?

[diana_eva]

CarolynChi, on 2020-May-24, 06:46, said:

Hi, We've recently set up a Virtual Club through the EBU/BBO route. I've been looking at the various ways that are available to run a bridge session for our newer club members and students. I have uploaded and used saved deals for teaching tables and Team Games. However, for a number of reasons I think the Tournament route would be most suitable. These include that I could run the session for any number of people (rather than in multiples of 4 for teaching tables or 8 for Team games) and by charging for the Tournament could collect money for our club, as well as BBO and the EBU.

Advice online varies regarding whether it is possible to used saved hands for a Tournament. See

https://blog.bridgeb...manager-manual/
The Virtual Club Manager Manual
by Diana | Posted on April 2, 2020

which says

If using prepared deals for your games, make sure to verify the folder of deals before uploading. A corrupted folder of deals can cause your tournament to be cancelled at start.
Click here for a guide on how to upload prepared deals to your Deal Archive.
Second set of notes

And

https://blog.bridgeb...manager-manual/
The Virtual ACBL Club Manager Manual
by Richard Morici | Posted on April 2, 2020

which says

Deal Source should always be set to USE RANDOM DEALS. using saved deals tab will crash your game.


Please does anyone have experience of whether using saved deals for a Tournament currently works, or is likely to crash?

Normally it should be safe. However due to a combination of software bugs, new hosts lack of experience and occasional instability on BBO's side, it was a bit of a Russian Roulette to use this feature. I think nowadays the system is far more stable and you can experiment with prepared deals. Don't change the number of boards for your tournament after you have uploaded the folder of deals.

[pescetom]

diana_eva, on 2020-May-24, 09:17, said:

Normally it should be safe. However due to a combination of software bugs, new hosts lack of experience and occasional instability on BBO's side, it was a bit of a Russian Roulette to use this feature. I think nowadays the system is far more stable and you can experiment with prepared deals. Don't change the number of boards for your tournament after you have uploaded the folder of deals.

My experience is close to that.

The creation process is fragile and insidious in that you get no error message if the folder is corrupt or not visible for some internal reason and no confirmation message if uploading succeeds. If all goes well then you see the tournament number at the end, if something went wrong you do not see the tournament number but get no other warning.

At launch time the tournament will fail if you have increased the number of boards after you created the tournament (which is allowed and incurs no error message), even if the folder contained more than enough hands (it seems that only the number originally specified is loaded, which might save a kb or so).