Bridge Club Live is proud of its friendly, helpful membership and the warm real club atmosphere which prevails.
This page provides our Code of Conduct as well as advice for when something goes wrong. It is hoped that everyone will have referred to this page by shortly after they have started to play in BCL, and be at least aware of the various other information pages on this BCL web site.
A valued member is a member who is polite, friendly and courteous at all times, whether chatting in the club or sending Sticky Notes or contributing to Comment Boards.
A valued member respects other members' rights to have different opinions or ways of thinking, while conducting their own chat in a proper, mature and inoffensive manner taking into account that the internet environment is without feelings and deprives us of the real voices and smiles that take the sting out of face to face chat.
A valued member assists new members and guests and tries to show patience and understanding.
We are an International Club with many different languages spoken by our members, but English must be spoken when sat at a table or when sending messages to a table, unless exceptional circumstances require another language to be used for a short time, for example to assist a new member.
We are free to spectate or kibitz at almost all tables. When spectating or kibitzing, please don’t send chat to the table during the auction or the play. During a break between hands, you may wish to let the players know you are there, though many players prefer to be undisturbed.
If you are lurking and want to speak to someone who is already seated, maybe playing at a table – please go to spectate at that table and wait until a suitable moment between boards before sending your chat so that you don’t interrupt the game or disturb the players too much.
We want you to enjoy your playing experience and we want the same for your partner, and also your opponents.
Please avoid being critical of partner’s or opponents’ bidding or play.
It is polite when joining a table to say hello or welcome. There is even a button you can click to send a greeting to the other players. Equally, it is polite to say thank you or goodbye before you leave.
Please do not swear or use abusive language anywhere in our club. Bridge Club Live is a friendly place. We work hard to keep it that way and we ask that you do your part to maintain this atmosphere. Never use foul language of any sort, not even if it is abbreviated! We advise that you re-read any message before sending it and if you think it may be taken badly or may hurt, offend, or be perceived as gloating, then please delete and don’t send.
It is not good etiquette to rub salt into opponents' wounds. If you have a good score - great - but remember it means the opponents have not had a good score. If you have been gifted a score by their mistakes, please be tactful or, better still, stay quiet!
Please do not play when you are tired, not just because it can reduce your speed of play, but players have been known to fall asleep and that is immensely disruptive for the other players.Please do not play when under the influence of alcohol or any kind of drugs. It may affect your chat, and what may seem amusing to you may be not at all funny to others.
Please avoid discussing politics or religion within the club.
Please also avoid typing in capitals unless absolutely necessary as this is considered as shouting.
Please do not type rows of question marks. This is considered impolite, especially if there is, as is usually the case, no accompanying question!
Please do not type rows of “z”s. This is also considered rude.
Equally, please do not unnecessarily chase or chivvy players to play faster. Our Incident Team have encountered chat records by individuals in which half of all their sent messages are of attempting to bully others to play faster. It is distracting to the other players and therefore counter-productive, especially if they are thinking.
Conversely, it is very impolite to allow your play to be slower due to multi-tasking, and that includes, for example, watching TV while playing bridge.
As said above, we want your partners to enjoy their playing experience. Please avoid being critical of partner’s bidding or play. Constructive discussion is fine but our members do not come to play in BCL to be given a hard time or to be told that they play poorly or need lessons.
If you wish to discuss the bidding or play of a hand with your partner, please make sure in advance that you know that they are happy to do so, but in any case, you need to be constructive. Don't ask partner why they bid or played what they did, when you simply think they should have done better. This is just being hard on partner because it is requesting a reaction from them when they have done something that hasn’t worked. Don't say that what they did was a bad play or a poor play. If you do comment at all, be understated!
When you are dummy, if you look for the line of play that will enable partner to get a good score, then, to avoid being a “results merchant”, you should also try to look for the best line of play that you think that partner should take, on the basis that partner can't see opponents' cards.
If you give your partner a hard or unpleasant time, it is also unpleasant for the other players at your table.
If you are playing with a regular partner, it is recommended to make notes and have a post-mortem discussion after finishing playing.
One of the worst offences possible, and it has occurred albeit very rarely when a player wishes to punish their partner for some perceived disagreement, is to deliberately bid a ridiculous contract and redouble if doubled and then possibly to try to make as few tricks as possible. (For example, a player deals and deliberately opens 7NT with a poor hand and then redoubles and tries to make no tricks.) This is known as “dumping” and it is prohibited under Law 72A which says “The chief object is to obtain a higher score than other contestants”.
In the event that you do encounter unpleasant or rude behaviour, please let Management know by submitting an Incident Report. There is a link from the Home Page to guide you. You can also click a button near the bottom right of the screen when in the club to initiate an Incident Report. There is nothing too trivial for an Incident Report.
Equally, please do not “threaten” to send an Incident Report, or attempt to take things into your own hands. This usually prolongs unpleasantness and makes situations worse. If you have cause, please just send a report. The Incident Manager can access all the chat records, and assesses all events on their merits
While it is reasonable to ask an opponent why they might have made a call or a play, it is not our place to criticise their choice, nor to suggest that their choice may be unethical. If you retain any concern, the Incident Report system is there for our TD to provide advice or to act.
One of the most serious offences possible is to suggest or imply cheating. If you have any such concern it is imperative that you say nothing at the table and nothing to any other member, and that you submit an Incident Report so that our specialists on the Management Team can investigate and take any appropriate action with complete discretion. There is more information on this on our page titled “Serious Ethics”. In short, we absolutely do not tolerate anyone who does cheat, but equally we do not tolerate anyone who confronts another player with any suggestion or implication of cheating.
Law 43A1c states: “Dummy must not participate in the play, nor may he communicate anything about the play to declarer.”
If you are Dummy, when the last trick has been played, you then cease to be Dummy, but until then, you may chat about the board in play only if a defender requests information on a call by your partner that occurred during the auction.
In particular, you may not tell declarer to claim the remaining tricks, no matter how obvious things may appear to be to you.
Except for genuine emergency, you may never leave the table before finishing a board that has been started. Play of a board does not finish until all four hands are on show on your screen and the score for that board is showing on the right hand side of screen. Please take special care to not leave prematurely when there has been a claim.
“Quitting” includes the act of deliberately leaving a table during the play of a board to attempt to avoid a bad score for the board, or the act of leaving a DIDO round or Tourney before completion. There is more information on this on a page titled “Quitting”.
If you start a round of four boards in DIDO, you are committed to complete those four boards, and you should allow for at least 30 minutes before starting the round, even though the average duration of a DIDO round is about 22 minutes. A DIDO round starts as soon as you have been drawn to play against a pair of opponents.
Similarly, if you enter a Tourney, you are committed to completing the event. These are mostly of 16 or 18 boards. You should allow for a Tourney to take at least two and a quarter hours, even though the vast majority are completed in less than two hours, and often in much less time than that.
We do not approve of the use of SKYPE, MSN, telephone or any other such method of external communication with anyone whilst playing in the club, as this might cause delay, as well as being rude to the other players at the table. Such communication with your partner or indeed any other member of BCL is particularly unacceptable as this could easily lead to inadvertent but illegal exchange of unauthorised information, and even without such exchange, may well cause misplaced suspicion of cheating.
We strongly encourage family members to play together and partner each other, but we do expect two partners playing in the same building to organise adequate security arrangements to prevent any communication other than within Bridge Club Live itself. In particular, they should play in different rooms as it is very difficult to avoid conveying any extraneous information when playing in the same room.
Obviously, you will attempt to return as quickly as possible and try to return to the table where you were sitting. If you were unable to return in time, it is strongly recommended that you send a Sticky Note to the other players to advise them that you were disconnected. Any player can submit an Incident Report and the TD will then assign the score that was likely to have occurred had the board been completed. If you cannot remember who the other players were, an e-mail to IncidentManager@bridgeclublive.com will prevent any doubt regarding your disappearance.
Despite modern technology, the internet can still cause bad connections.
Please wait as long as 4 or 5 minutes for a player who has been disconnected from your table, whether an opponent or partner. In DIDO, the server will indicate a minimum period to wait.
When the player returns, any board partly bid or played - must be rebid and replayed exactly as before so that no-one is disadvantaged by the disconnection. Many players like to shorten the auction. Please do not do this as it causes confusion and accidents, and in any case, players (and those looking later at the archives) are entitled to the knowledge of the correct auction.
If players are struggling to remember the original auction or play, please do not spend too much time on the board. Best is just to continue play and if a report is submitted, the TD will adjust to what was likely to have been the outcome on the original play if different. Please never pass out a board if this didn’t happen originally: this is the worst option as Passed Out is a real bridge score.
When you have lost a player and that player does not return, procedure depends on which room you are in.
In DIDO, the round will be ended and none of the players will be presented with that board again. If you think that you might have missed out on a good score, or if you are concerned by the nature of the departure, please submit an Incident Report and the TD will assign a score for the board.
If you are playing in the Social Room and get a substitute player, then unless the departed player had not yet made a call on the board, the board should not be re-started. In that case, please click “Settings” in the top right of the screen and you will see an option to skip the current board and select the subsequent board.
In a Tourney, it is not possible to skip the board, so the board should be played to achieve a result and any player can submit an Incident Report for the TD to adjust the score to what would likely have occurred if a player had not been disconnected. In addition, the TD will restore any loss of PPI to a substituting player who has simply followed, or tried to follow, the original bidding and play.
During the play of a hand, it may transpire that a player will have a significantly different hand to that described in the auction. This may be due to any of five reasons.
1. The player may have mis-clicked but had not attempted to correct in time. (For more information on this, please see the page titled “Mis-bids and Mis-clicks” in the Information section on this site.)
2. The player may have made an error in bidding (a “mis-bid”).
3. The player’s partner may have accidentally given a mis-explanation of the call.
4. The player may have deliberately deviated from his side’s stated agreements (this may be a psyche or a deviation).
5. Or the player may have simply exhibited poor bidding judgement.
It is not for the other side to presume a cause, but if you are concerned that you may have called or played differently, a submitted Incident Report will bring advice, and occasionally a score adjustment but depending on the circumstances. There is also information on psyches in the Information section on this site.
Our SSDs are the equivalent to System Cards (also known as Convention Cards). They are to assist you and a new partner to have at least some basic system agreements. They provide information to your opponents. As partnerships get more experienced it is convenient and advised to update your SSDs as you agree more conventions and methods. Our CTD advises that having a complete SSD and SSD Extra also helps your own side. There is a separate information page on SSDs.
Please try to play at a reasonable pace and not unnecessarily cause the other players to wait. If you have a medical or health reason causing you to be slower than other players, we advise that you put a note of explanation on your profile so that other players can be politely and unobtrusively informed. There is advice on the CTD Advice page if there is an unexpected delay at your end.
At the end of play of hands, a little discussion of the board just played (often called “post mortem”) is quite reasonable but please don’t cause opponents to wait before you click Ready for the next board or continue discussing into the auction of the next board. The end of a DIDO round is a good time to have a longer discussion with partner. Many regular partnerships discuss a sessions’ boards by phone after finishing play and there is then full access to the bidding and play records on this web site.
If you find that you have delayed in alerting partner’s call and you see that your right hand opponent has already called, then you must, before you call yourself, give your opponent the opportunity to change their call if they wish.
If you advertise for a partner within the club, we would expect you to accept whoever comes to join you, whatever PPI symbol they may have, and to be flexible in choice of bidding system, especially in rooms other than the Social Room.
If you join a pick-up partner at a table, or if you are sat and joined by a pick-up partner, and one or both of you decides that your preferred bidding and/or play methods are not sufficiently compatible before starting any play, the player who was sat first has the right to stay sat and the other player should be the one to move.
Except in the Social and Coaching Rooms, you are not allowed to decline to play against any opponents against whom you have been drawn to play, and there are no exceptions permitted at all, so it is irrelevant that opponents might be stronger players than you, or play a bidding system you don't like, or that your opponent just happens to be your ex-husband or ex-wife or whatever. It is no different to F2F bridge.
We have at least two fixed-time tournaments every day. They are particularly popular for those who enjoy Pairs events with IMP scoring, and Individual events. It is, however, important that if you play in a tourney, you commit to playing till the end.
Because a delay at one table can hold up other tables and ultimately the whole tourney, it is essential to keep a reasonable pace and try to avoid particular delays. If a problem occurs at a table, the top priority is to avoid any excessive delay. If necessary a result should be achieved for a problem board even if considered incorrect, and an Incident Report subsequently submitted for the TD to resolve and, if appropriate, adjust a score.
Delays also occur due to a disconnection. If a disconnected player has not returned within about 3 minutes or as advised by server messages, a substitute must be sought by advertising. If it is your partner who has been disconnected, you must persevere to get a substitute. You must not abandon the tourney or else your opponents must advertise for two substitutes and that would cause much more serious delay.
In the event of a disconnection of a player and replacement with a substitute player, it may be that the disconnected player is eventually able to return. While the disconnected player on return may let the table know that he has returned, the protocol is that the substitute player has priority to remain playing. It may well be that the substitute player offers to let the returning player resume the tourney, and that is absolutely fine. Equally, the returning player may also suggest that the substitute continues if concerned that his connection is not as reliable as he would wish.
Our Tournament Manager organises many special competitions through the year. These are open to all members. It is important, however, to appreciate the commitment required for each event should you wish to enter. For example, a season in the IMPs League takes over five months.
When playing in an event that requires private arranging of matches, please check frequently for Sticky Notes as your opponents usually have only this method available to contact you. We strongly encourage matches to be arranged as quickly as possible when draws are known.
Paragraph 10 of the Terms of Membership states that you must not open more than one membership account per person. This is one of the most serious offences possible, so don’t even think about it!
The paragraph also applies where a member has been expelled or suspended.
This page updated 30 June 2020
Home