NEW Open sessions on BBO
From 1st June we are introducing a NEW session on Wednesday morning in addition to our existing Monday Morning and Thursday Afternoon sessions. The more you play, the more you are supporting the bridge community!
- Monday Morning (Open) 10.15am start
- **NEW** Wednesday Morning (Open) 10.15am start.
- Thursday Afternoon (Open) 1.45pm start
Location: Featured Areas / Virtual Clubs / ABF-Australia
Host: vABF2006 (with directors John Newman, Marcia Scudder, Ronnie Ng and Paul Roach)
Tournament Title: Sydney Bridge Centre & Friends [click here to sign up]
Entry Fee: BB$3 per person per tournament (pay on the day when enter, you will have option to pay for your partner) [click here to purchase]
Tournament settings: 7 mins per board for 20 boards. Masterpoints will be awarded.
Survey about Re-opening
The Australian Government has announced a 3-step framework to progressively relax COVID-19-related restrictions. Restaurants, pubs and licensed clubs in NSW will be open for 50 patrons at a time from 1 June. NSW has had very few new cases in the last two weeks.
That is all good news, but we are also in uncharted territory – to what extent can we/should we implement safety measures, while attempting to maintain the enjoyment of the social aspects of bridge? To help us strike the right balance between caution and sociability, please express your opinions in this questionnaire.
The closing date for responses is Sunday 14 June.
Support Your Club –
NEW paid sessions on BBO from 1st June
We have used the trial period to run experimental sessions in the last few weeks, learning as we go. SBC will not run any free BBO games after the end of May. As we believe that online sessions are providing a way for our players to stay connected until they can meet again face to face, we would like to continue the 2 regular sessions On Monday morning and Thursday afternoon each week. In order to do this, we are moving to the ABF-BBO “Support Your Club” program in June.
This program allows us to issue ABF Masterpoints to our players. The masterpoints shown by BBO are not the same as the ABF masterpoints. They are BBO’s own ranking system and not recognised in Australia. As part of the ABF-BBO program, the ABF will be calculating the correct masterpoints for every online game.
To play in future SBC online events, by 1st June 2020, we will need you to sign up to our new system. You can find the form here. This enables us to put your details into SBC’s online BBO club (host name: vABF2006). Once signed up, you will be able to play in any SBC games.
Under the ABF-BBO agreement, BBO requires any participating club to charge table fees for each game. The table fees are in BB$ (these are purchased in US dollars). We will be charging BB$3 (less than $A5) per game. BB$ are not cash nor are they refundable. They are like game tokens to play. Unused BB$ will stay in your BBO account for 3 years. However, BBO allows players to transfer BB$ to another player. The table money fee that you pay to play in these new online sessions will return a small percentage to the club.
Because of the bank fees involved, we suggest that you purchase a lump sum (e.g. BB$30 which covers 10 games) from their online payment portal using your credit card. Please do NOT purchase them via Apple Pay or Google Pay on your tablet or phone, these online payment handlers charge large surcharges.
Let’s play together and help the bridge community through this crisis.
Book a FREE training session on How to Use BBO
Referrals are always important in bridge. If you would like to share your enjoyment with your friends, please feel free to bring them along by signing them up here. We are also aiming to offer Training Sessions on How to use BBO. If you know someone who needs help to start playing online, please send them this booking form.
Changes to BBO – How will it affect your play
Many online bridge sites, including BBO, have recently had a huge increase in the number of players on their site. In order to accommodate more players, in BBO all playing options available in the Casual menu have been moved to a second BBO server.
What does this mean?
- Every time you click on Casual you will be smoothly moved to another server. You will notice a “connecting…” pop-up on your screen every time you switch between Casual and the rest of the site.
- When this happens, you won’t have to login again. You will be able to continue to use the site as your would normally do.
- Consider the CASUAL button an entry point allowing you to switch between BBO sites. If something’s strange, click CASUAL and see if that fixes.
Important Notes
***When you are playing in the Casual area you will NOT be automatically taken to your tournament, if you are registered for an upcoming game.***
- So if you register for a club BBO tournament and want to play a few hands while waiting, fill your time playing in SOLITAIRE instead (you will be taken automatically to your tournament). If you prefer to play a few hands in Main Club until the tournament starts, remember to switch back to the Competitive area with a few minutes before your tournament is scheduled to start.
- Both of you and your partner will now need to be in the same BBO site to see each other. If you are in Casual and they are on the main BBO site, they will not receive your invitation.
Where are the SBC tournaments listed on BBO?
The SBC – Members & Friends tournaments are listed under BBO / Competitive / Free Tournament until end of May. We will move to BBO / Featured Areas / Virtual Clubs / ABF – Australia under the host name vABF2006 from 1st June.
How to gain experience on BBO
It is free to open a BBO account. The best way to gain experience on BBO is to play with robots before you enter a tournament. We recommend that you start with the Solitaire game and free tournaments (against robots) to get an understanding of the settings, how to play on BBO and the time limit. You could also read a guide, watch an instructive video, or be coached by a friend who is familiar with the site (over the phone, or Zoom). Please see the guideline to BBO prepared by John Newman.
BBO tournament settings
You will play twenty boards, six minutes a board. That’s slightly faster than at the club.
At the end of a round, you’ll be whisked to the next table (mid-board if you are slow), so it’s important that you keep an eye on the time displayed on your BBO screen.
SBC’s current policy is to accept “undos”, while everyone adjusts to BBO. That means if you accidentally click on the wrong bid, you can request a do-over, and your opponents will grant it.
Knowing your way around a BBO Table
We can’t show you around the BBO venue in person, but we hope this video, created by Peter Hollands (a professional player), will help you to get to know your way around a BBO table. e.g. “How do I chat with people at my table? How do I alert? What was the last trick?”
Add your BBO username to your Pianola account
Pianola has introduced a new feature to include your BBO username in your profile. We invite you to add this information to your account as an expression of interest to participate in online bridge. This will also help us to include you in our invitation for to our future online sessions.
Try the “Partner Finder” function on Pianola (members only)
Some players have told us that they don’t have a partner to try online bridge. Your Pianola account has a feature of “Partner Finder” that allows you to create an advertisement for our members to see.
If you are a visitor and would like to be included in our database for the notification of our future games, please feel free to contact the office by replying to this email with your details.
Stay Connected
Please stay connected with us on social media while social distancing. The Sydney Bridge Centre has a Facebook group for our bridge lovers to keep in touch with each other.
If you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact office on 9264 6884 or emailoffice@sydneybridgecentre.com.
We look forward to seeing you online!
