The Total Points Tournament Knockout format is not a Duplicate Tournament or any form of Team Play Tournament. Pairs are matched and play a specific number of boards per round. The pair with the most Total Points after all boards are played wins the round and advances in the tournament. The losing pair is usually knocked out of the tournament (but not always) .

In 2001, realising that World Play was about to end, Robert S. Geiger - »Baronreit« sought volounteers, initiating training and brought the concept to BBO to maintain the social club beloved by so many.

With Bob's preplanning and Fred Gitelman's consent, TPTC continues to offer both Bridge and the social community so important to all who participate.

History of Total Points Tournament Format

The Format was conceived several years ago at another site. The programmer was not a bridge player and wanted to offer tournaments for all the site’s card games. So he conceived of a format that applied to card games like Bridge, Black Jack, Poker etc. - most points wins. To our collective surprise, a large group of us came to really enjoy the total points bridge tournament game format - both for the competition and as a social event. It's different - it's fun - it's friendly - it's entertainment! The advantage of this type of bridge tournament is that all levels of players can compete, although competence is certainly an advantage.

Think it's all luck?

Well certainly there is some luck involved, but tell a poker player that his game is all luck and he will gladly relieve you of your money. Total Points Tournament format requires strategic thinking. In a duplicate tournament you play to maximize the value of each hand. In this format you play to have more points than the other team at the end of the round. We enjoy it so much we wrote some rules, and with Bridge Base Online’s permission and encouragement offer our Bridge tournaments to this terrific community.

The Bridge Tournaments are only possible because of the tireless efforts of the friendly volunteer hosts and assistants. The tournaments are free and all are welcome. It's friendly competition - a great way to meet new players. If you get to meet some new friends you are a winner and that’s really what our bridge club is all about.

Details about our Tournaments

Apart from the regular tournaments we run some monthly Specials. Monthly Winners' (pairs) second Sunday in the month, open to all players having won a regular tournament during previous month. Those who give us their email address will receive an invitation to join.

1. Tournament Format

Usual Pairs Knockout, which allows players of all skill levels to compete against each other. Tournament format is TotalPoints, and the winner is the pair with most points at the end of a round. The winning pair advances to the subsequent round, and the losing pair is eliminated. 1st round is 8 boards and following rounds 4 boards. If a round ends with a tie there will be a replay following TD's instructions.

2. Where do we play and Sign Ups

Our regular tournaments are held in TotalPointsTournament Club in the BBO area of Public Clubs. Players enter TD's table as kibitzers and sign up with TD. Having no partner you can call out for one, or ask AD/TD to help you finding one.

Around top-of-the-hour TD will start assigning tables, first person mentioned sets, and about 10 minutes past sign ups will be closed. TD's table is set the way tables should be set. This table setting follows the players when they set, so therefore don't make any changes. As the rounds progress AD/TD will announce LL or NO LL.

3. Least Loser (LL)

Depending on the amount of tables and pairs some rounds may have an LL. LL is the pair in any one round having lost with the narrowest margin. In case of equal differences the losing pair with highest raw score advances to the subsequent round. If a tie in an LL round both pairs advance.

Players in LL rounds should return to TD's table and remain there until TD dismisses. Failure to do so may result in your missing the opportunity to advance should yours be the winning difference.

4. Conceding

A pair may decide to concede before all the boards of any given round have been played. Concession is a mutual agreement by the losing pair, and it is the responsibility of the winning pair to observe that both opponents concede. Regardless of the points scored, when conceding in an LL round the conceding pair cannot win the LL position.

5. Limited use of systems/conventions, alerts and psyches.

Only Goren, ACOL, SAYC, and 2/1 are currently permitted.

Alerts
Alertable bids must be alerted.

How to define an alertable bid?

In short it can be described as a bid containing an unusual or unexpected meaning understood by the partnership, but of which the opponents are likely to be unaware. ACBL has a series of descriptions explaining in detail when to alert. We do not expect everybody to be familiar with these rules, therefore if in doubt – Alert !

Psyches
Psychic bids are bids that promise a feature and points not held by the psycher, and they are not allowed. If reported to TD proper action will be taken. In the last hand of any given round, except in the finals, players may bid unusual in order to advance if possible

6. How to join the team of Directors

Should you wish to join the team of Directors in TPTC please contact anyone from the staff, or a TD/AD in one of our tournaments. A training program will then be set up.

In order to play in the TotalPoints Club you must have the BBO program installed on your computer. To download click here: http://www.bridgebase.com/

Follow the instructions and the program will install itself, create a Bridge Base Online folder on the hard disk, and end up with a shortcut to the program on your desktop. It is strongly recommended to have the setting of your monitor be minimum 1024×768 pixels, if lower the chat will come up in bubbles instead of in the chat bar.