The Labour Day Online Congress on Monday 5th October
Let us bring the congress to your doorstep! This Online Congress will offer you a fun and challenging game against players from all over the state. For now, it replaces the opportunity to travel to other clubs and participate in their weekend Congresses.
We have already entries from Sydney, Illawarra, Southern Highlands, Blue Mountains, Mudgee, Coffs Harbour and Canberra to name a few. As the host, we are really looking forward to having a Congress bringing players together and showing the hospitality of our SBC players! If you have already entered, thank you for your support and please feel free to share the event as our goal is to gather as many participants as possible.
Our Labour Day Online Swiss Pairs Congress will start at 10.15am on Monday 5th October, two sessions of three matches with a lunch break.
There will be three categories (Novice, Restricted and Open):
- Novice: both players have <100 masterpoints as at 1st September 2020
- Restricted: both players have <300 masterpoints as at 1st September 2020
RED Masterpoints. BB$12 per player for the one-day congress.
Winners of each category will receive a once in a lifetime prize aimed at improving your skill – an Over the Shoulder Mentoring in one SBC online club session by Warren Lazer, Julian Foster or Marcia Scudder.
Please find details at: http://www.nswba.com.au/pdfs/20SBCOnlineMPSwissPairs.pdf
Please sign up online: http://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/eventDetails.asp?tid=3306&T=X
If you would like us to find you a partner or have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on office@sydneybridgecentre.com.
We look forward to seeing you online!
More RED Masterpointed Saturday ARVOs
Upcoming RED points events
Join us for our SUPER SATURDAY EVENTS in September! All our Saturday afternoon sessions on BBO in September will be RED masterpoints events. Don’t miss them!
- RED Saturday afternoon 12th September 1.45pm start
- RED Saturday afternoon 19th September 1.45pm start
- RED Saturday afternoon 26th September 1.45pm start
BB$3 per person per session. RED masterpoints.
The Labour Day Online Swiss Pairs Congress
This Online Congress will offer you a fun and challenging game against players from all over the state. For now, it replaces the opportunity to travel to other clubs and participate in their weekend Congresses.
Our Labour Day Online Swiss Pairs Congress will start at 10.15am on Monday 5th October, two sessions of three matches with a lunch break.
There will be three categories (Novice, Restricted and Open).
- Novice: Neither player has 100 or more masterpoints
- Restricted: Neither player has 300 or more masterpoints
RED Masterpoints. BB$12 per player for the one-day congress.
Winners of each category will receive a prize aimed at improving your skill, an Over the Shoulder Mentoring in one SBC online club session by Warren Lazer, Julian Foster or Marcia Scudder.
Please find details at: http://www.nswba.com.au/pdfs/20SBCOnlineMPSwissPairs.pdf
Please enter online: http://www.nswba.com.au/tourn/eventDetails.asp?tid=3306&T=X
Trivia Tuesday and Upcoming RED Points Events
Trivia Tuesday
Join Matthew McManus in our Tuesday morning session for 24 boards of bridge followed by a bridge trivia. After the game you’ll receive your results email and a bonus quiz! The answer, along with a new question, will be sent to participants via the next Tuesday result email.
Upcoming RED points events
Monday 31st August will be our 50th masterpointed session on BBO! Over 600 tables at the time of writing have enjoyed our online duplicate sessions and we would like to thank you by giving out RED masterpoints on this special day.
The newly added Saturday afternoon is a welcome return for our regular players. We are going to make the first Saturday in Spring, 5th September, a RED point event, come join us for a game!
- RED Monday Morning 31st August, 10.15am start
- RED Saturday afternoon 5th September, 1.45pm start
BB$3 per person per session. RED masterpoints.
NEW session timetable
We constantly review our session timetable with players’ feedback and director’s availability, here are our latest session timetable:
- Monday morning 10.15am start (20 boards) Director: Paul Roach
- NEW Tuesday morning 10.15am start (24 boards) Director: Matthew McManus
- Wednesday morning 10.15am start (20 boards) Director: Marcia Scudder. A mini lesson will be emailed to participants before the next Wednesday session.
- NEW Wednesday night 7.30pm start (20 boards) Director: Austin Driscoll
- Thursday ARVO 1.45pm start (20 boards) Director: Paul Roach
- NEW Friday ARVO 1.45pm start (20 boards) Director: Marcia Scudder
- NEW Saturday ARVO 1.45pm start (20 boards) Director: Austin Driscoll
To join the the SBC duplicate sessions on BBO, please refer to this step by step guideline.
Celebrate the Firsts with RED points
To celebrate the new additions to our session timetable, the first Tuesday and Friday session will award RED Masterpoints:
- RED Tuesday ARVO 4th August 2020, 1.45pm start
- RED Friday ARVO 7th August 2020, 1.45pm start
BB$3 per person per session. RED masterpoints.
Learn more and Improve faster
The SBC mini lessons return! Julian Foster (many times NSW representative) will be analysing an interesting hand from each Wednesday morning session. This hand commentary will be sent to participants before the next Wednesday session.
You are also welcome to send questions about hands that you have played. We will collate them and let our panellists (Julian Foster, Marcia Scudder and Paul Roach) answer them.
We are as keen as you are to return to F2F bridge. Under the current worsening situation, it was decided to postpone the reopening until a bit later. At the end, your safety is our priority.
Say hi to your Club buddies on BBO
Playing online doesn’t mean that you have to play with a computer or a robot! The SBC tournaments on BBO are a replicate of our club sessions – your opponents are the people you meet everyday in the club, the directors are the ones you already know, you are playing with a partner of your choice, your results are scored and you will be awarded masterpoints just as if you are playing in the club. The only differences are, we use “nicknames” online (BBO usernames) and the banter & chit chat are in the format of text messages.
We are pleased to see the friendly SBC culture continue in our virtual sessions. More than 90% of our players will put their real name in their profile, which helps us to create an online environment as similar to real life as possible.
How to join the SBC BBO sessions
Here is a step by step guideline:
- Submit your BBO username via this sign up form. If you haven’t got a BBO username, please create one on www.bridgebase.com by clicking “register”.
- Pick a session that suits you. We have regular sessions on Monday morning (10.15am start), Wednesday morning (10.15am start) and Thursday afternoon (1.45pm start).
- Table money is BB$3 per game per person. This is to pay BBO for the service, part of the table money fees will be reimbursed to us to cover the masterpoints fee. Please purchase the BB$ from this hyperlink: https://www.bridgebase.com/purchase/pay.php. Please do not purchase BB$ from Apple Pay or Google Pay on tablets or smartphones, those online payment portals charge much higher surcharge than the above hyperlink. As a service we offer the ability for our members to use their PP credit to purchase BB$ at AUD55 = BB$30. Please contact office to do so.
- Click the tournament title to enter on the day. Entry will be open 2 hours before the start time. The SBC tournaments are run under host “vABF2006” with a title of “Sydney Bridge Centre & Friends”. They are listed under BBO / Featured Area / Virtual Clubs / ABF – Australia.
- For pairs event, your partner must be online to accept your invitation.
- Get a cuppa, get into a good mood and enjoy the game!
What if I need a partner?
Our directors are here to help, just as if you walked in a club session! There is a Partnership Desk for each tournament on BBO. There you will be able to express your interest in playing in the session and are looking for a partner.
Please click on the title “Sydney Bridge Centre & Friends”, then choose the tab “Partnership Desk” and add your name (BBO username) there. You may get invited by another player who is also looking for partner before the director gets involved.
Can somebody show me around before I join?
Sure! Join our BBO Training session on Zoom, we will be able to show you how a tournament table looks like on BBO, how to make alerts, how to find out the meaning of opponent’s bids, etc. It’s a live session running on Zoom teleconference application, completely free of charge. You can book a session with us by picking a time suitable for you via this booking form.
Whom should I talk to if I have problem entering?
You will be able to find the BBO usernames of directors and office staff when you click on the host “vABF2006”. Please feel free to use the BBO Chat function to send a message to those who are on duty.
