[pokerbids]

Stories of TDing

I know…I know…TDing is serious business so I must be nuts writing funny episodes of TDing when I should be frowning and saying what a nerve wracking task it is. Add to the fact that I am new here both as a player and as a TD but my stories are just filling up in such a short time that some of u who have been doing this for a wee bit longer must be inundated with quite a few more…I wish I had taken a few screenshots but I will rely on memory and naturally edit out a few names ….me has to remain me I guess so don’t yank my chain at my crazy decisions and episodes please when u spot me at the bridge table!!!!

Episode 1
Me… to player (round 3/5) Can u please hurry …I have the tourney standing by for your table..
Player.. brb….
Me… brb??? From where….
Player…. from my other tourneys…
Me…. perplexed (new as hell when this occurred) U mean BBO allows u to play more than one tourney simultaneously ….(these BBO guys have eaten a combo of vitamins and Viagra I think to myself..)
Player ..(tersely) Not BBO. TDs on the other 2 sites are giving me hell but I am dummy in one and playing a small slam on the other…
Me....uhhhh U have 125 pairs in my tourney waiting on u….Move your xxx….

Episode 2
Me,,,, Evesdropping on a table conversation between two partners

North …Partner u can’t bid 3 NT with a singleton…
South – Of course I can…. I move my mouse over 3NT and left click it…its real easy….

Episode 3
Me… bouncing around answering those blasted windows that miraculously have flooded my screen ….(does that only happen to me by that way…all is peaceful and I am just about to burst into song when the floodgates of directors windows open….)…rushing to table 49….( few minutes late..) and surveying the situation as rapidly as my eye can see it….I see Souths turn to play and his name is yellow indicating his turn and staying yellow…..quick as a wink I sub him and rush to another table……

Few seconds later an indignant South from lobby….u clot I was dummy and u subbed me…it was my partners turn to lead from dummy and he appeared stuck……
Me…. OOOOOps….

Episode 5
Round 5/8 in a clocked tourney 225 pairs and my largest number of folks till date and I am single TD …rounds proceeding slightly slow… so to speed things up and put a firecracker into the players belly I change the round to 5 mins…thinking let me scare them so that they play faster and when 2 minutes are left I will increase it by another 2 mins….A min later my power fails and my computer powers off……uhhh have any of you heard the sound of 450 players screaminggggggg……..luckily I haven’t cause I had no power and returning an hour later I have a dozen messages from some of the players that basically told me I represented Darwins theory of evolution in reverse……(uhhh those were the polite messages…)

Ep 6
This last one is sure to get me into loads of trouble but what the hell its true …its ongoing and anyway the joke is on me…..But my one request is please please don’t correct it…cause its fun the way it is!!!!! Thing is I’m poor…I am from a developing country and things happen here that shouldn’t but….I am getting ahead of myself….The power situation in the area I come from is bad…..the more summer comes the more power outages we have…..so I didn’t have a UPS ie. An Uniterrupted power supply unit (saving a few bucks) but bridge crazy as I am I risked playing and TD ing a few tourneys anyway….After that tourney where I left 450 players screaming Monkey at me….I decided better not host to many tourneys so I would rather play a few as the partner screaming at me may be a bit more tolerable than the entire tourney……the upshot of this was that I was powered off a few tourneys I was playing in and logging in one day I found much to my horror …an awful yellow notice saying that I was banned from playing tourneys for 5 days blah …blah…blah it went on and on saying it was in all likelihood cause I had left a few tourneys and I shouldn’t be doing this….Uggghhhh I thought to myself how do I get my daily bridge fix now……playing the tables is too boring…….ummm let me see….and peeking I saw that while my playing rights were temporarily suspended my TDing rights weren’t….the upshot of all this was that I wasn’t allowed to play tourneys but I was allowed to be the BOSS……and host em!!!……I sneakily tried to enter my own tourney and found I couldn’t do that (I hate playing when I am TDing anyway so that was no issue)…please don’t correct this feature whoever looks after this place cause if u do I wont ever be so honest ever again….and anyway I got myself a UPS now so I can play a bit even when the power goes off….

That’s all from my few weeks of TDing in this joint…..and BBO is fun,,,,fun…fun so thanks……I do hope u guys have a sense of humour in here or else u will be aghast at my confessions if its all work and no play…..

Anyway besides my bridge skills up (or actually the lack of them really) this site has made me improve my language skills like mad….I have learnt a smattering of Spanish, (ja..ja..ja they go mocking their partners and opps simultaneously) Turkish (slm slm), German (Guten morgan they stammer out even though its nighttime for me!!), French (au revoir says my partner politely vowing to never meet me again and stay away from me for ever) and Chinese is a bit more complex but the other day when I went 1 down in a 7nt contract I realized that partners curses in Chinese sounded as normal and comprehensible as it does in other tongues!!!!

And thats all from a TD's desk for now
poker

[cherdano]

Not sure you wanted to hear this, but this sounds very much like you should make your tourneys smaller. Maybe you are brilliantly fast, but with more than 40 tables and a single TD, it will get way too busy at times.

[nat60us]

I read forum often but have not commented before. However, this one kinda makes me a bit crazy. Sounds like you are ridiculing several different cultures.......how did you come by the information that jajaja means they are mocking their partners and opps simultaneously? Thank you so very much for posting so that I can be sure that I will never play in one of your tournies.

[pokerbids]

Nat I am so sorry u take offence at what was meant to be a light hearted comment....My intention was never to mock anyone or any culture (except myself) so please dont ever think that I was ever seeking to ridicule anyone but my own mistakes.....to be honest I dont even know what ja ja ja means (at least i took it as a light sort of meaning in english of ha ha ha but of course i never checked whether it actually means this) Certainly in english if anyone says ha ha ha to me i wnt take offence but as I said this coud be a cultural thing and I am truly sorry to have caused u some discomfort...wasnt meant to be like this...In essence I was merely commenting on my "foolishness" and my own errors...after all in joining BBO and this forum I was looking for fun and bridge and making new friends...the last thing for my intention was to cause ill will or anything like that but as they say "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" so I must apologise.....Uhhh by the way I dont blame u a minute in your decision not to play in my tourneys ...I am not too sure I would like to play in mine either as I am new....am learning and making mistakes....and I dont have the exprience of a good TD though I try to make the tourneys as much fun ass I can make them.

[nickf]

pokerbids, on May 5 2006, 08:18 PM, said:

....and I dont have the exprience of a good TD though I try to make the tourneys as much fun ass I can make them.

There endeth the sermon.

nickf
sydney

[Hemiolian]

As usual your humour as a writer is almost as good/bad as your humour as TD. I find it hilarious but knowing how serious some players are maybe you should announce all tourneys as " fun" "anything goes" type tourneys, and warn everyone that anecdotes will be harvested at their expense. ja ja ja Looking forward to your next crazy tourney, a secret admirer.

[barmar]

What happened in Episode 4????

[pokerbids]

episode 4 hmm good point ...it slipped out as a typo rather like when i called myself an ass in a later reply!!!! In any case it seems the least of my misdeeds!!! Boy it sure feels good to be merely told about a missing number than about inexperience and worse!!!!

[matmat]

barmar, on May 5 2006, 10:23 AM, said:

What happened in Episode 4????

was that the one with the wales?

[rwylee]

Thank you for sharing.
BTW, it's no fun for both player and the single TD in a 40+ tables tourney. I wonder why you want to host such huge tournament. Are you looking for inspiration for new episodes?

[pokerbids]

nahh not looking for inspiration for new episodes....perhaps that is one of the numerous mistakes i made as a new TD (of hosting to many tables). Actually now that you call my attention to what I am looking for perhaps it is for folks to smile a lil both on the table and on this bulletin board....I notice everyone is all business and thats good(at times!!!!!)....Mama always told me..."All work and no play....." One day this site will laugh and smile .....then I will be satisfied!!!!!!!

[bid_em_up]

matmat, on May 5 2006, 07:01 PM, said:

barmar, on May 5 2006, 10:23 AM, said:

What happened in Episode 4????

was that the one with the wales?

How do whales hold cards, much less a computer?