FAQ & MORE

faq

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Does HoB support multiple languages? (English, Polish, etc.)

Yes 🙂

Currently HoB fully supports English and Polish language versions. The language is chosen automatically based on your browser settings. If this does seem to work for you (e.g. you'd like a Polish version but your browser displays an English one), write us an email to support@houseofbridge.com and we'll try to help.

Please note that most contemporary browsers offer to automatically translate system to your native language. Though this is a good option in general, it shouldn't be used for languages which are natively supported (currently: English and Polish) because automated translation is inferior when compared to a native version and your experience may be poor.

How do I sign up (register) to HoB?

Before you can play on HoB, you need to sign up / register. Head to play.houseofbridge.com and follow the instructions there. If you have trouble, consider reading a step-by-step instruction: https://houseofbridge.com/register-on-hob/.

If something still doesn't work send us an email to support@houseofbridge.com and we might be able to help!

What if my screen seems too big or too small?

The size of the elements on the screen depends on a couple of factors. The most obvious is a resolution - the higher it is, the smaller (but more detailed) the elements on the screen are. However, even for a high resolution the elements may seem too big. The reason is that the operating system applies another setting responsible for zooming everything on the screen so that e.g. it is easier to read text even in 4K resolution.

Anyway, since HoB is played in the browser, there is an obvious trick to remedy any problems with the size of elements on the screen: just press CTRL+ to zoom in (make elements bigger) or CTRL- to zoom out (make elements smaller and remove unnecessary scrolling). If that doesn't fix your problem, drop us an email to support@houseofbridge.com.

Is HoB a ready product?

Yes & no.

HoB is ready in a sense that you can play and enjoy online bridge there. Casual Game Lobby, which gives you an opportunity to play for free, yet compare to others, is mostly finished. Tens of tournaments (both public and private) have already been played on HoB so that part is also doing really well. Obviously we'll continue developing both elements.

HoB is also ready in a sense that the features that are available (e.g. Casual Game Lobby or Tournaments), are of good quality - both in terms of how they look and work.

But from another perspective you may say that HoB is not ready. Certain features that you have in other platforms are not available yet (e.g. team matches, befriending someone or free chat with other players). We plan to deliver them in the future - take a look at the Release Notes to learn more about what's coming.

Why have you decided to release HoB without certain features? Are they coming in the future?

These days it is a standard approach to release a product as soon as it is possible. We did it for a few reasons:

if HoB can already be used for its main purpose, i.e. playing online bridge, why not give it to users and let them play? If we waited until 100% features were ready, you wouldn't be able to see and enjoy it until the next year.
some players will give us an invaluable feedback which will help us improve HoB. The sooner we start getting this feedback, the better. If you are one of those players, don't hesitate and tell us what you think.
developing a complex web application is a costly business. By releasing earlier we give players a chance to spend money on HoB 🙂 which in turn will allow us to cover some of the costs and deliver new features sooner.

When playing at a table, I clicked on "Results" and another tab opened allowing me to simultaneously play in one browser tab and run the board analysis in another. Can you explain how it works?

This is fully intended and one of the features we are proud of! When planning architecture of HoB, we assumed the following:

players (especially dummies) will have some spare time during or between boards. It can be spent e.g. on looking at the computer analysis of the previous board.
board analysis is very important for improving players' skills, so it should be treated as a first-class citizen. That means always showing it in a full window as opposed to a small space somewhere in the screen.

In HoB you can open and be logged in multiple windows (browser tabs) simultaneously. Switching between tabs is everyone's second nature these days, so you should have no trouble moving between the tab you use to play and the tab where you e.g. analyse a board. In case you get too absorbed, HoB will emit a short sound from the tab you use to play to let you know that it's your turn to bid.

Can I play HoB on my smartphone?

Unfortunately not yet. The current version we delivered can be played on desktop computers and tablets.

HoB opens on mobiles and can be played in the landscape view (turn your phone 90 degrees) but the experience is not very good yet.

Can I play or watch anonymously on HoB?

No. There are no plans to support anonymous logins.

This was a consious decision on our side. Cheating scandals from recent years hit bridge community hard. Online bridge has been even more affected. Anonymous logins & kibitzing makes cheating extremely easy and we don't want HoB to be a part of that.

The price to pay for such a decision is rather low. Anyone with an email address (which de facto means: anyone) can register at HoB and pick their nickname in a matter of minutes.

Can I play in a tournament?

Absolutely 🙂

Both public and private tournaments are up and running. Visit https://play.houseofbridge.com/tournaments to see the schedule.

Since HoB is quite a fresh application yet, there may be not too many tournaments scheduled. We will warmly welcome tournament directors and hosts so if you want to become one, drop us an email to tournaments@houseofbridge.com. Also, check the next FAQ entry: "Can I host a tournament?".

Can I host a tournament?

Yes, you can! If you are a tournament director or bridge teacher or you simply want to play a tournament with a group of friends, contact us at tournaments@houseofbridge.com. You will even have the opportunity to play in a tournament you host!

Depending on your needs we can give you access to a private or public tournaments functionality. Mind that you will need at least 4 pairs to play.

Can I really play in a tournament I host?

Yes, you can! We allow that functionality for small tournaments. Many of our users want to play tournaments within their bridge classes or small group of friends. There's no reason to forbid one member of the group to play.

Obviously, for bigger public tournaments this option is not available.

If you ask us for tournament director's access rights at tournaments@houseofbridge.com, we will tell you how to be both a tournament host and a player.

Why, when registering, am I getting an email from Microsoft? (on behalf of House of Bridge)

In order to provide you with the capability to securily register and log in to HoB, we use a popular Microsoft Product/Service called Azure B2C.

This is the reason that after providing your email you are sent a verification code from Microsoft on behalf of House of Bridge (from msonlineservicesteam@microsoftonline.com in particular). The same situation will happen when you try to reset your password.

This is an expected behaviour and you should not worry.

If you register via social media, you won't need to provide a verification email so you won't get one from Microsoft either. Nevertheless your email will still be stored by Microsoft to be able to log you in next time.

How does the claim work in HoB?

Our claim functionality on HoB works a bit differently than on other platforms. We wanted it to be aligned as much as possible with the bridge law and current trends in directing. In particular it means that:

Dummy has a right to reject the claim of either player within 5 seconds
if Defender claims, their partner will not see their cards until Declarer accepts the claim

Point 1. follows the rule that any player, including Dummy, may contest/doubt the claim.

Point 2. tries to tackle the important topic of unauthorized information. We simulate a situation where Defender would show their cards to Declarer only, and not to other Defender. The big advantage of such an approach, is that if Declarer (or Dummy) rejects the claim, close to no unauthorized information is passed between Defenders.

With this explanation in mind let's summarise how the claim works:

Dummy cannot claim (obviously)
after the claim, any other player, including Dummy may reject the claim (Dummy has 5 seconds to do this). In such case the play continues normally.
if order for the claim to be successful, every other player needs to accept it (however, Dummy will auto-accept after 5 seconds)
if Declarer claims, their cards are shown to Defenders
if Defender claims, their cards are shown to Declarer and Dummy. Only when Declarer accepts the claim will Defender's cards be shown to other Defender.
if claim is rejected, all cards that might have been shown during the claim become hidden again.

We hope you will enjoy our approach to claiming!

Any more questions?

Ask us anything !

We want HoB to improve every time. But we can only do it if we hear from you. Please tell us what you think, which features you like and which you would like to improve and how. Your opinion really matters to us.