[timouthy]

I had this happen to me recently on bridge base and wrote to them about it. Here is my letter:

Jul 3, 2026, 21:52 EDT
I played in an 18 tourney today, #3876 as a sub from the very first hand. My partner was a person named Dddsgrl. I played the first 16 hands of an 18 hand tourney and was removed at that point. Apparently the person who was the original partner "returned" at this point and played the last two hands. Clearly this was a plotted scam. That player got all of the awarded master points and I received nothing. Am I missing something or is the ACBL and or Bridge Base condoning this kind of thing? Please explain the reasoning to me.

Here was the reply:

Sanya T. De Almeida (BBO)

Jul 7, 2026, 16:02 EDT
Hello Timothy,
Thank you for reaching out to us, and we appreciate your willingness to step in as a substitute during the game.

We understand that it can be disappointing not to receive credit for the final results, so we'd like to explain how our system works:

The original player retains the right to return to the game at any time. If they return in time to complete their game, they will regain their seat and retain their results, regardless of how many boards they played. This process is automated and isn't influenced by the TDs.

In cases where the original player does not return and the substitute completes the game, the substitute will earn credit for the tournament if they have played more than half of the boards.

Specifically, this means the substitute must have played at least 7 boards in a 12-board speedball or 10 boards in an 18-board game. Please note that partial boards do not count toward this total.

We understand that this may not always feel fair, especially if you contributed significantly to the game.
However, this policy ensures that the original player, who paid and registered for the tournament, has the opportunity to complete their game if they can reconnect before it ends and keeps their results if they played at least half of the game.

If you have any further questions or need additional clarification, please feel free to reach out.
We appreciate your understanding and your continued support of BBO.

This rule is utterly ridiculous. This "policy" is clearly promoting scams and needs to be rethought. If I ever sub in a tourney again from the very start and the original player doesn't show up immediately, I will personally botch every hand for as long as I am in the game.

[jillybean]

I agree it's utterly ridiculous, you may want to reconsider the value of ACBL Masterpoints.

[mikeh]

I’m not clear on why you think this is a scam. If I understand the response you got, then the player who returned with two boards to play….presumably having paid fee or having partner pay the fee….doesn’t get any masterpoints either. That player didn’t play enough boards. Since they cannot get an award, where is the scam?

Now, if you are a stronger player than the returning player, maybe the player who stayed throughout benefited from your superior skill and got more masterpoints than they would have otherwise. But that’s weird way to run a scam! How would they know they’d get a stronger substitute? Or that they’d avoid the misunderstandings inherent in playing with a drop in partner?

I do agree that it may seem unfair that you got booted right at the end and I infer that you were previously unaware of the policy. But you didn’t pay an entry fee and nobody held a gun to,your head to force you to fill in.

[barmar]

mikeh, on 2026-July-08, 11:17, said:

I’m not clear on why you think this is a scam. If I understand the response you got, then the player who returned with two boards to play….presumably having paid fee or having partner pay the fee….doesn’t get any masterpoints either.

They do get the masterpoints if they come back in time to play the last board, or if they play the majority of the boards before getting disconnected.

So it's remotely possible to get masterpoints from playing just one full board: You get disconnected during board 1, get replaced by a sub, you reconnect during the 2nd-to-last board, and get seated for the last board.

Our expectation is that people sign up as substitutes to help keep games moving, not to earn masterpoints. If you want points, register as a regular player and pay the entry fee.

If you happen to earn points for free as a substitute, consider that a bonus.

[timouthy]

Barmar, Barmar, Barmar if your/BBO/ACBL's expectation about subs is that they should not expect masterpoints, then why in the H*** do they get them routinely, currently, and has always been thus, if the original sub does not return? You are currently taking a bath in your own septic waste with that logic. Also noticed your final admonition about paying the entry fee with the subtle suggestion that I am a tightwad! You are talking to a player who has been playing and paying on BBO since it started and who has brought on many friends to do the same. If you are representative of BBO management, god help BBO.

[steve2005]

Silly to suggest it's a scam.
Sounds paranoid,
I enter a tournament drop my connection
then wait until tournament is almost over
then sign on
and hope that some random person played magnificently.
Bound to make life master in 20 years playing like that!

[timouthy]

They wouldn't know if they'd get a stronger substitute until their original partner who is keeping track of the score, uses their cell phonev at the end of hand 16 and says "get your butt back here for some guaranteed master points".

[timouthy]

Silly to have to explain to you the most obvious part since this is too complicated for you. The absent player isn't blind to the cumulative score. The remaining partner calls her up on her cell phone at the end of hand 16. There does that help you get it now?

[jillybean]

All this fuss over a fraction of a worthless masterpoint, it was described well in the op, utterly ridiculous.
Who else is wearing a tinfoil hat?

[harikannan]

I don't agree with the view it is fair for the substituted player to earn masterpoints even if he or she returns to play just one full board. Why can't the bbo fix 50% of boards as the criterion?

[steve2005]

timouthy, on 2026-July-08, 21:24, said:

Silly to have to explain to you the most obvious part since this is too complicated for you. The absent player isn't blind to the cumulative score. The remaining partner calls her up on her cell phone at the end of hand 16. There does that help you get it now?

Paranoia
If they are talking to partner on phone surely they would simply cheat and get a good board on every hand by knowing partner's cards.
No they are not on the phone with partner, tin foil hat

[jillybean]

steve2005, on 2026-July-09, 10:03, said:

Paranoia
If they are talking to partner on phone surely they would simply cheat and get a good board on every hand by knowing partner's cards.
No they are not on the phone with partner, tin foil hat

EDGAR would get you if you did that.

[mycroft]

Hmm. Is it time to benellis58 this topic?

Like my response to that player, in the face of repeatedly tripping over the same stone, and being told that's the way it is: if you're going to keep doing it, I should worry about it.

I will say that this time around the poor sucker saddled with actually playing bridge for their masterpoints is even more important - now as well as all the other things they get to pay to do, they're now also responsible for calling the client back if the sub is competent, while being required to finish the session with the hopeless one.

[johnu]

steve2005, on 2026-July-09, 10:03, said:

Paranoia
If they are talking to partner on phone surely they would simply cheat and get a good board on every hand by knowing partner's cards.
No they are not on the phone with partner, tin foil hat

Silly comment. The OP did not say anything remotely like that. What was said was

Quote

The remaining partner calls her up on her cell phone at the end of hand 16.

The partner still online would call up their partner before the end of the tournament to get them to log back in. Definitely allowed by BBO rules so not illegal. They are also not exchanging any information about future hands, just that the previous hands went well for them. All perfectly legal.

Who would do this? People cheat on BBO in the main bridge club where there are no entry fees, and no prizes/masterpoints of any kind. Does this actually happen? I don't know, it could happen and the OP says it does happen. I don't have access to the tournament records to say whether this happens a lot or not.

[johnu]

mycroft, on 2026-July-09, 18:00, said:

I will say that this time around the poor sucker saddled with actually playing bridge for their masterpoints is even more important - now as well as all the other things they get to pay to do, they're now also responsible for calling the client back if the sub is competent, while being required to finish the session with the hopeless one.

Well, if the substitute is hopeless, there is no reason to continue with the substitute and they could call immediately for the original partner to return and bounce the substitute.

[johnu]

jillybean, on 2026-July-08, 23:10, said:

All this fuss over a fraction of a worthless masterpoint, it was described well in the op, utterly ridiculous.
Who else is wearing a tinfoil hat?

Well, masterpoints may be worthless to you, but the fact that people are paying to play in online ACBL games means that those people don't think masterpoints are worthless to them. And the hundreds of people being suspended for cheating by the ACBL didn't think masterpoints were worthless or they wouldn't have cheated to get them.

[johnu]

steve2005, on 2026-July-08, 20:37, said:

Bound to make life master in 20 years playing like that!

Well, you can never make life master by winning only colorless ACBL points online, so you could play 100 years and still not make life master.

[mycroft]

johnu, on 2026-July-09, 20:08, said:

Well, if the substitute is hopeless, there is no reason to continue with the substitute and they could call immediately for the original partner to return and bounce the substitute.

Well, yes, of course they could.

But OP's point is (very clearly, if you read the links in the post you quoted) that that's not what is happening. To him, there are players who join tournaments, explicitly so they can disappear after a hand or two and come back for the last one to hoover up the monsterpoints (heavily implied - that they couldn't earn for themselves by actually playing). And somehow they're convincing their partner to collude in this process. For what is never mentioned :-).

For me, I can think of tortures less scary than "sign up and pay to play with randoms while my 'friend' goes off and does fun things that are not bridge. If I do well, call them back for the last hand; if not, I can keep being tortured by the bad partner. Or, I have the option to bring in my 'friend', who is so bad (or hates bridge (with me) so much) that they can't (or doesn't want to) earn masterpoints by actually playing. Do this every day, possibly multiple times every day, for - reasons?" I don't know how much I'd have to be paid to do this; "actual pro level" is probably a good guess.

Never mind that if this actually was a thing, I would think that the names of the 'pro' and the 'client' would be caught pretty soon. I know I love the job of "finding a sub" so much, when I direct tournaments online, that "oh, I need to find a sub for [serial absconder] again." would trigger Really Fast; and the complaint to my boss/BBO/RA (even if it's just "hey, this is the fifth time I've had to sub for [SA] this month. Is there not something we can do?") would eventually set off something, whether it be an investigation, or just "yeah, we don't want your money. You cost us too much". For *both of them*, likely! I'm also sure I have more patience for BS than many, including many online tournament directors.

I say, forever I do, that "humans are pattern matching machines; bridge players doubly so." Do we all believe that directors are clueless and oblivious? Or that we don't talk to each other? Or such gluttons for punishment that they won't even *notice* this game happening? I mean, I know we "can't play bridge", but "aren't actually human" is a step up.

But seriously, the issue is almost certainly that OP likes getting masterpoints without paying for them by being on the permanent sub list. To which, more power to him - if that's what it takes to have sufficient subs available, and playing "worse than pickup" is worth it to him, cool. I get a full sub list, he gets to play for free and get his masterpoints. He gets really annoyed when the rules and the vagaries of the world conspire to deprive him of those masterpoints he believes he deserves; fine - you do you, again. But this conspiracy theory that just gets more and more extravagant every time it gets repeated - well, it would be funny if we weren't living in this world.

[jillybean]

johnu, on 2026-July-09, 20:12, said:

Well, masterpoints may be worthless to you, but the fact that people are paying to play in online ACBL games means that those people don't think masterpoints are worthless to them. And the hundreds of people being suspended for cheating by the ACBL didn't think masterpoints were worthless or they wouldn't have cheated to get them.

Cheating doesn’t prove masterpoints are valuable, it proves that some players have fragile egos and an unhealthy obsession with status symbols.
For the majority of players master points are a measure of bum time on seat.

[mycroft]

I quote this one a lot, and it hasn't got less true since he said it (but, you know, it has a different cadence from me than from the original): "The first masterpoint is hard. After that, they just come." (Paul Soloway)