Wireless scoring

How does it work : Enter board results

After all preparations have been made, it’s time to activate the Bridgemates at the table and to let the session begin. At the start of the session, the Bridgemate will show the section and table settings on the screen.

By pressing the OK key the Bridgemate will be activated and starts connecting to the server. Depending on the custom settings, it asks first for entry of player numbers or otherwise will go directly starting with the first round.

Entry of player numbers

Optionally you can let the Bridgemate ask for entering the player numbers at the start of the session. Your scoring program usually has a function to import the numbers from Bridgemate automatically. This saves the TD or scorer a lot of time in entering player numbers or names. In case a player doesn’t have a member number, you can just leave it blank.

Start of the round

At the start of each round, the Bridgemate will display the new round and the expected pairs as well as their direction of play. It also displays the boards that should be played. This grants the players the opportunity to verify if they are seated in the correct direction and if they have the correct boards.

The Bridgemate will automatically switch off after it has been idle for a while. This default autopower-off time is set to 20 seconds, but can be reset to between 5 and 60 seconds. No data will be lost when the Bridgemate switches off. Simply press the OK button to continue as before.

Entry of results

After round information has been confirmed, the players can start entering information in the Bridgemate. North operates the Bridgemate, east is responsible for verification of the entered board results.

First the number of the board is entered by pressing the number and confirming with the OK key. The Bridgemate verifies real-time with the server whether this number is correct or not. The server knows the movement so any wrong numbers are easily detected and a message will appear that the number is incorrect. Also board numbers that have already been entered in the same round cannot be entered again. This prevents overwriting of earlier results and also results of previous pairs cannot be adjusted in this way.

Players are recommend to enter and validate the board number before they pick up the cards. In case the Bridgemate returns a warning (for example a wrong board was placed at the table), the board can easily be changed with the correct board without having complicated actions being taken by the TD.
Boards can be played in any order within a round. It is not required that they are played in ascending order.

Typo errors can easily be corrected. Pressing the Cancel button erases the last entry and functions like a backspace key. By pressing this key multiple times, the complete entered data of the current board is erased.

When the board number is accepted, players start the bidding. After the bidding has ended, the contract and the declarer are entered.

To indicate the contract, both symbols and letters can be used. This is configurable in the Bridgemate Pro Control software.
Optionally you can also include the lead card.

Now the players can start playing the board. Once they have finished, north enters the result.

After everything is entered (contract, lead card and result), the Bridgemate shows a message saying that east now must verify the entered result. North passes the Bridgemate to east and the following screen appears.

The board data entered by north is displayed on one total screen (lead card is omitted here). In addition, the number of score points obtained on this board will also be displayed. Depending on the setting, the number of score points will be displayed as assigned to the north-south pair or to the declarer. (in this case it is as assigned to north-south).

East now has the opportunity to verify the result. If there is a mistake, east presses Cancel to delete the mistake and enters the correct result. When the result is correct, east presses OK to validate it and the information will be sent to the server. The Bridgemate shows:

Now the players have the possibility to get feedback on their result. The Bridgemate system first shows what percentage is currently achieved for this result, compared to all other results that are registered so far on this board.

Next, the Bridgemate shows an overview of all other previous results on this board. Results are ordered from highest north-south score to lowest. The * indicates the score achieved by the current pairs themselves. It easily compares your own result against the others.

Results are shown two at a time. By pressing the OK key the next two appears. In Bridgemate Pro Control several options are available to customize the results list, among which the option to repeat results, limit the list to a maximum number of results, etc.

End of round, session

When all boards of a round are played and entered in the Bridgemate,
the display will show the text:

The Bridgemate deactivates automatically.
After pressing OK again, the round information for the next round appears. At the end of the last round, the message End of Session appears. The Bridgemate has completed its tasks and can now be safely stored away.

Special entries: pass-out and board not played

If the players have passed four times without offering a contract, enter 'Pass' at CONTR and confirm with OK. You will not be asked for the lead card and the result, and the Bridgemate will switch immediately to the verification screen.

If a board has not been played in a particular round due e.g. to time constraints, the Bridgemate must be informed. To enter an unplayed board, press the 10 key in the CONTR screen. The screen will now display the text NP ('not played'). Confirm by pressing OK. The Bridgemate will now display the verification screen again.

The Bridgemate will not display an overview for unplayed boards. As it is possible to play the board in a later round, players must be prevented from seeing the results of previous boards. The board can be played afterwards without the Bridgemate; in that case, the relevant score must be stored manually in the scoring program.