If you are a very strong player reading this, you will have no idea what I’m talking about today, except that it seems like a huge waste of energy.
For the rest, let’s admit at some point in our bridge lives, we’ve scoped out the scene prior to registering. I write this with four different viable Silver Lining games to choose in the next two hours. All same price, paying triple silver, and hosted by friendly clubs we want to support!
What Is Tournament Scouting And Why Do It?
Field scouting has been around for ages. Everyone wants a large field where they will feel competitive – it shouldn’t be stomp, nor do they want to get stomped. But above all, there must be enough tables to avoid the dreaded Howell movement slips of paper – not an issue online.
Stakes are even higher when you travel – who wants to make the trek to Woodbridge and come back empty-handed two days in a row? For those who truly don’t care about their masterpoints, the deciding factor might be playing among friends. As strange as it seems, yes, I enjoy being in the same field as my friends, cherishing those 21 minutes together.
Scouting In The Pre-Covid Era
In a live regional, you can walk up to the registration desk and see where the brackets are falling, complete with the master point totals of anyone who registered. If you are deciding between Gold Rush or Open, you might just look around the room and see who you know from the club. You can greet them and casually ask what game they are playing. For the introverts, just glance at the color of their entry slip.
Scouting In the BBO Virtual Private Club World
On to the virtual world. You can see the purchased entries for any tournament from 2 hours prior to start. Why do people register early? Mostly for convenience – once registered, both of you go about your business until the start time. There is no fear of capacity selling out, or any server crashes robbing you of your last minute entry.
You can see which of your friends have registered, including all those people you friended who haven’t friended you back! (Edit: we decided on the game where we know the most people)
Registration Sniping?
Ok, so far everything is normal. But I’ve noticed another practice I’ll call registration sniping, and it is unique to online bridge. In a live game, the directors will be VERY upset if you register at the last minute (people do it anyway).
However, on BBO, I’ve noticed some games see a huge volatile uptick of registrations about 2 minutes prior to the start time. Was everyone waiting until the last minute to find a partner? Or perhaps they were finishing another session and didn’t pre-register?
I’m willing to bet at least some pairs are scouting out two games, deciding last minute which one to join! Will anyone reading confess to some combination of scouting and sniping?