[Vinish]

Please pardon my beginner questions. My normal partner and I are new to BBO. We tried to play last night in our first tournament on BBO. It was about 6:45 p.m. Eastern USA time. At the time, we has not put any money into the BB$ so we tried to join several free pairs tournaments. We were unsuccessful at doing this. In hindsight, we now realize that one of the tournaments was limited to members of some group so it makes sense we could not join that one. The other two tournaments did not appear to be private but we could still not join them. We surmise that this may be due to something we subsequently learned about "TCR". Both of us had a TCR of "unknown" since, at that time, we had completed zero of zero tournaments. We later put BB$ in, played in a $1 tournament (took 2nd), and then looked at our TCR and it still was "unknown". Then, this morning, I looked more closely at some of the "restrictions" listed for free tournaments. This led me to the following questions I hope you can help with.

1) If a tournament language is not English (e.g. Greek or Spanish), is it rude to join if you only speak English? My partner and I sure don't want to be rude or violate any etiquette.
2) What does it mean when it says "country" in the restrictions? Does this mean that you have to be from a certain country to play in that tournament?
3) What does it mean when it says "no runners" in the restrictions?
4) What does it mean when it says "include custom list" in the restrictions?
5) What does it mean when it says "exclude custom list" in the restrictions?
6) What does it mean when it says "exclude web list" in the restrictions?
7) When it says something like "TCR 70%" in the restrictions, this probably means that you must have a TCR of 70% to play. In how many tournaments do you have to play to get a TCR?
We played in a Pay BBO tournament last night and still have a TCR of "unknown". Does playing in individual tournaments, in BBO tournaments, or ACBL tournaments on BBO, count toward
your TCR for free tournaments?
8) What does it mean when it says "No new members" in the restrictions? Does this mean it is a private club tournament and the club is not accepting new members? Or does it mean
that the tournament will not accept players/teams who are new to BBO? If the latter, how long do you have to be a BBO member to not be new? An example of this is a tournament
called "AA Friday Hornets AA"

Thanks for your patience with what are undoubtedly newbie questions.

G'day,

Vinish

[mycroft]

I can't answer all, but:

1) If the tournament language isn't English, you should do your best to speak Bridge <whateverlanguage>. Certainly don't insist on their explanations in English, and work on explaining in numbers and symbols. If you can't do that - and it is difficult - it's better to not join. I'm occasionally in a Czech tournament with my partner (who is Czech), and I do my best, but I'm very very quiet :-)(*).

2) yes. You don't "have to be", but it would be very rude if you weren't at least *from* there. Almost certainly the language will be that country's, the expected bidding system will be as well, and they will be even *more* upset with unilingual English speakers/unilingual ACBL-2/1 bidders.

3) "running" is when someone is in a bad contract and just leaves. Or stalls to time out. Or whatever. "No runners" means if you pull that stunt, you won't be coming back! (Note: there are problems with internet, we all know that. If it happens to you, *especially* if you were about to get a bad score/upset with your partner/..., you should try as soon as possible to get back and explain to the Tournament organizer, or you'll look like a "runner").

4) It means if you're not on the list, you're not getting in. Usually friends, and friends of friends, and a nice community they've built up.
5,6) It means if you *are* on the list, you're not getting in. Usually runners, yellers, and other characters the game is better without.

7) IIRC, 10 tournaments within 30 days will get you a TCR. It used to be that you had to keep up something like 10 tournaments in 90 days, but that's changed. I don't remember what it is now - search the forums; also for what counts as a tournament.

Yellows, is there somewhere in the BBO help that defines these terms?

(*) and I'm not even hunting wabbits!

[Bbradley62]

Click on "Help" in the upper toolbar of the BBO homepage.
Choose "BBO Help" from the drop-down menu.
Choose "Click here to open our help system"
The sixth general heading is "Tournaments" which has headings that include some of these answers.
At the very bottom is the heading "Bits and pieces" which includes some of the others, including a thorough explanation of TCR.

[Vinish]

Thanks. Your responses are helpful.

G'day,

Vinish

[Rain]

Great answers from the experienced BBOers Yes min 10 tourneys in most recent 90 days to get a TCR.

For some of these free tourneys, read the tourney description. If it is run by a big free tourney organisation, they usually even have webpages with details about the tourney schedule and how to join and be a member. It's always going to be free to join and be part of the group.

If you are okay trying a tourney without your partner, try a robot tournament like the free "daylong" tournament. I think those will also count towards your TCR (though I better doublecheck!)