[Dawn06]

Like the express game with 30second timers. Could be introduced to all boards.

[morecharac]

Dawn06, on 2021-January-10, 00:14, said:

Like the express game with 30second timers. Could be introduced to all boards.

Could lose BBO a lot of customers.

[akwoo]

There are bidding decisions that genuinely take more than 30 seconds.

Do you want good bridge or fast bridge?

[mycroft]

Fast bridge, of course. Except when they need to think (which is always a "real problem", unlike when the opponents tank for no reason).

</s>, in case it wasn't clear.

More seriously, however, putting on the timer will freak out all the players who have been clamouring for a "don't deal the next hand until we've finished talking about this one" button.

[AL78]

I like the sound of that but wouldn't like to see it applied universally. I am irritated by trundlebunnies who are experienced enough to know better but novices naturally take more time to decide what to bid because they have not built up a mental encyclopedia of the system and hand pattern matching. I suspect you would lose those who are incapable of doing anything quickly, which might be a significant proportion of players, and once people drop out, their partners often follow. How about having a subset of sessions as fast bridge, not speedball level but faster than average, say, five or six minutes a round, then people have a choice. I reckon there are players out there who would enjoy a full session finishing in little more than two hours, maybe those like me who work in front of a computer all day and would prefer not to be in front of it all evening as well. It is probably easier to limit the length of a round than limit the length of time to bid, what happens if someone goes over 30 seconds?

[Zelandakh]

How about having Dealer make a random call (small blind) and second seat another random call (big blind) and continue the auction from there? Makes about as much sense.

[dsLawsd]

Try basketball or Chess?

[Vampyr]

Zelandakh, on 2021-January-10, 19:49, said:

How about having Dealer make a random call (small blind) and second seat another random call (big blind) and continue the auction from there? Makes about as much sense.

Nice Christmas party rule. Shuffle the bidding cards...

[aawk]

In the table options you can fill in the completion rate needed to join the table.

You could also put in a timer for length of time you have to make a bid.

For example the following options for play : speed bridge = 15 seconds, fast bridge = 25 seconds or normal bridge = 60 seconds.

The length of thinking time is not needed to be fixed and could be like the completion rate to be filed in by the table captain.

[sfi]

My question is a practical one: What happens if the person doesn't make a call by the end of the 30 seconds?

It may be valuable for some competitions (and that depends at least in part on the answer to the above question), but it would kill casual play among friends.

[dodododod]

Dawn06, on 2021-January-10, 00:14, said:

Like the express game with 30second timers. Could be introduced to all boards.

No hell no, it definitely takes time. It's not good bridge at all.

[pescetom]

sfi, on 2021-January-11, 02:19, said:

My question is a practical one: What happens if the person doesn't make a call by the end of the 30 seconds?

The system makes the logical alternative call that is least advantageous double dummy.

Not that I'm in favour of the proposal as stated, but I think a poor call by system is the appropriate solution when a player exceeds his time quota in general.

Certainly fairer than being booted from a TCR free because you didn't make it back from the fridge in time.