[Keene_JP]

In the description field, the TD may included various options (BBO seems to lovingly refer to these as hacks). These are demarcated by plus signs, and include things for running a Howell, scheduling a break, setting a MP limit, etc, Is there a list of all of these somewhere, or does a TD have to stumble over them by luck in some of these posts? If 2 or more are used do they have to be strung together (+howell+rounds9+) or may they be entered separately (+howell+ +rounds9+)? Can a break after a round be set for any type of game or only for a Howell? Finally, what is the meaning of +allavsail+ which apparently has to be used (so we were told)?
Thanks on advance!

[diana_eva]

All new TDs are given help links, and NBOs managing virtual clubs are also instructed to pass the documentation along to any new club / TD / users with access to the director functions.

There's a virtual club manager manual: https://blog.bridgeb...manager-manual/

And a more generic help page with various useful links: https://blog.bridgebase.com/bbo-help/

You will notice that all those extras are lovingly referred to as "description strings" "hacks" is more of an internal term that leaked out to the clubs and NBO support people who train and debug with the BBO staff.

[Keene_JP]

Thanks. No, i was never given this link by the TD who started our VACB -- i don't think he had gotten it either. Doesn't matter. Some questions still:
1) re "description strings" -- is there a comprehensive list anywhere? This article described +allavail+ and those for Howell, but that's all. i know there are others because our 299-er game uses +mplimit. If there are others, perhaps they would be useful.
2) the options for setting a break between rounds appear only in the section on Howell. I have elsewhere here seen comment that they can only be used with Howell -- not Mitchell. Is this so? If so, it seems like a strange an unnecessary limitation ?

Thanks again.

[diana_eva]

Keene_JP, on 2020-July-19, 13:28, said:

Thanks. No, i was never given this link by the TD who started our VACB -- i don't think he had gotten it either. Doesn't matter. Some questions still:
1) re "description strings" -- is there a comprehensive list anywhere? This article described +allavail+ and those for Howell, but that's all. i know there are others because our 299-er game uses +mplimit. If there are others, perhaps they would be useful.
2) the options for setting a break between rounds appear only in the section on Howell. I have elsewhere here seen comment that they can only be used with Howell -- not Mitchell. Is this so? If so, it seems like a strange an unnecessary limitation ?

Thanks again.

Virtual ACBL Clubs have some specific settings, you would better ask for those from ACBL directly. What works for VACBxxxx tourneys might not work for the non-ACBL games, and vice-versa

MPLIMIT is 100% ACBL specific so it will not appear in the generic manual.

Breaks used to work only for howells but we recently made them available for mitchell and other movements too. This is why they're listed in the Howell article, the documentation hasn't been updated yet to separate them in their own document.

[bfi_23]

Hi -

My name is Kalyan Mohan and I am the Joint Secretary of Karnataka State Bridge Association - which is responsible for bridge in Bangalore and the state of Karnataka. We are part of the National Bridge Organization for India - Bridge Federation of India (BFI)

We are planning to run a paid tournament using an id allocated to us by Bridge Federation of India. Our plan is to run a 6 hour tournament of 40 boards (20 rounds, 2 boards / round, clocked or Mitchell movement) tournament. In order to do this, we realise that we want to utilize the break hacks available in BBO.

We have tried this with an id we use to run free tournaments without success. Whenever we setup such a tournament with a break, BBO seems to ignore that and continue as if normal. The question I have is

1) Whether the ids we have been allocated (refer to BFI / BBO agreement) to run paid tournaments will work differently ?

2) What help can I get from BBO on this.

We want to make these kind of tournaments a regular feature of our tournament schedule and so any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

[diana_eva]

bfi_23, on 2020-September-26, 10:19, said:

Hi -

My name is Kalyan Mohan and I am the Joint Secretary of Karnataka State Bridge Association - which is responsible for bridge in Bangalore and the state of Karnataka. We are part of the National Bridge Organization for India - Bridge Federation of India (BFI)

We are planning to run a paid tournament using an id allocated to us by Bridge Federation of India. Our plan is to run a 6 hour tournament of 40 boards (20 rounds, 2 boards / round, clocked or Mitchell movement) tournament. In order to do this, we realise that we want to utilize the break hacks available in BBO.

We have tried this with an id we use to run free tournaments without success. Whenever we setup such a tournament with a break, BBO seems to ignore that and continue as if normal. The question I have is

1) Whether the ids we have been allocated (refer to BFI / BBO agreement) to run paid tournaments will work differently ?

2) What help can I get from BBO on this.

We want to make these kind of tournaments a regular feature of our tournament schedule and so any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Breaks only work when there is an organization code in the tournament settings. They will work with your BFI username, provided that you also use the code that the BFI has given you when setting up the tournament.


The documentation is the one described in the howell guide -- but you can use breaks in other types of movements too, not just for howells.

[bfi_23]

diana_eva, on 2020-September-26, 10:52, said:

Breaks only work when there is an organization code in the tournament settings. They will work with your BFI username, provided that you also use the code that the BFI has given you when setting up the tournament.


The documentation is the one described in the howell guide -- but you can use breaks in other types of movements too, not just for howells.

Thank you very much. I setup a trial tournament today and it worked with my BFI userid. One question if I may, how to I control sections.
More specifically:

1) How do I change section size to be different from the default size of 15
2) What is the maximum section size that I can set to run a tournament ? i expect to have about 60-70 pairs competing. Can I put themm all in one section ?

[diana_eva]

Max section size is 50. BFI accounts are set to use 50 table section by default.

You can write +sectionsize=X+ in your tournament description to use another size, but it will have to be a value between 8 and 50. If you use something smaller or bigger, the setting is ignored and your org defaults are used instead. For BFI the default is 50 tables.


Later edit: actually they were set to 15 like you mentioned. Sorry. Changed to 50 tables now. If you need smaller sections you can control it using the +sectionsize+ setting.

This post has been edited by diana_eva: 2020-September-28, 05:06

[0 carbon]

I have found that sections are equalized - with 50-table sections & 60 tables, there are actually 30 tables in each.
I have also found that the limit actually seems to be 49 tables - I have run tourneys with 50 tables - 25 in each section. This may be an artifact of missing players at start, though.