Promoting BRIDGE within Victoria
Fostering interest in the game
With the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, we find that the days are long. Playing a bit on online bridge is an excellent way to keep your skills up, make contact with friends and foes at the club and to make the days of confinement not drag so much.
We have set up a number of structures to help you keep involved with bridge, and your friends. These structures are focussed on providing a platform through which you can play online in VBA run games.
We have established a group of users who employ the social media application called WhatsApp on their phones. This is a messaging app which allows you to reach common minded people quickly. We use this group to facilitate conversations between players, to work as a partnership desk for upcoming tournaments, or as an aide for people wanting to organise online social bridge.
To be part of this group, send a WhatsApp message to Mike Phillips on 0466 885 598
We run 12 sessions a week, under the BBO host name ‘vABF3301’; also there is a game under the hostname ‘Vic Bridge’ which is a little slower and caters for both new players to the game, and new players to BBO. The games we organise are restricted in that you must be on our ‘Include’ list to participate. This stops us being flooded by players from all over the world who are looking for seats at the table. To join the include list, email [email protected] with your ABF number and BBO login name.
Red Point Sessions:
To get on the include list, email [email protected] with your name, your BBO username, and the club you normally play at. Players from any club in Victoria are welcome. Please ensure you have your name shown in your profile.
Entry opens 2 hours before the session starts. Both you and your partner need to be logged in to BBO to enter. You can log out and then come back before the event begins. Please log back in at least 5 minutes before the event starts. The events start automatically so if either you or your partner is offline your entry is deleted and nothing can be done. The events are hosted by the user Vic Bridge – although at times there may be more than one Tournament Directors assisting the session.
New to BBO? – please ensure you log on very early when starting out in case you have issues. The director gets very busy near start time so may not be able to respond. Please logon early enough so you can get organised and that the director can assist you with any problems.
For all users please remember that the director is dealing with lots of things near start time so keep messages to a minimum.
Go to the VBA Home Page and look at the session times listed half way down page on the left. From time to time there will be additional ad hoc tournaments announced on WhatsApp
These will show on BBO as soon as possible after the last table finishes. The time is dependent on BBO not us so please don’t bombard the TD asking for them. They will be listed on the VBA website – there is link in the Home Page news area. Click here to go to online results. You can also see all your past history on BBO going to the BBO Home page. Don’t login but instead in the top middle there is a link to Hand Records – click that and then enter your BBO Login_id – you can see all your hands and use the Double Dummy analyser, see other peoples results on the board etc.
If you haven’t played on BBO before, Peter Hollands has kindly allowed us to use his You-
Tube video tips for:
BBO also has a Guide for players new to the site (focusing on how to find their tourney and register, how to find their friends and chat to them):
https://blog.bridgebase.com/2020/03/09/new-to-bridge-base-online/
The VBA Website also has an information page regarding BridgeBase Online Click here to go to that page
We look forward to seeing you online.