Welcome! The Northampton Bridge Club welcomes anyone who wishes to play duplicate bridge. Online open pair games are played on https://www.bridgebase.com/ at 7:00PM on Tuesdays and Thursdays; In-person games are played @1:00PM on Wednesdays at the Christ United Methodist Church, 271 Rocky Hill Road (Route 66) in Northampton.

If you need a partner, look HERE first, or contact Philippe at phgalaski@gmail.com for help.

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Thursday, April 23, 2020

Play Virtual Bridge Club Games on BBO


ALERT
The ACBL and BBO have purged all club eligible players lists of every name that has been manually added. What this means is that TONIGHT (June 23), every person who has asked to be made eligible for our game is no longer eligible unless Bob adds them again.
  • The club has NOT changed its eligibility requirements
  • HOWEVER, if you are not a member of the Northampton Club, the Greenfield Club, or the Pembury Club, and you want to play in our game, you need to be manually re-added to our eligible list
  • “Guests” or their partners, need to email Bob, rjsagor@gmail.com, with their BBO names so he can manually add them. This should be done so that the game can start on time with all interested players properly registered.

 Club Names    RESULTS Contact Person 
 Northampton  Schedule   ACBL / CommonGame  rjsagor@gmail.com 
 Pembury   Schedule    ACBL / CommonGame   Rogbert690@gmail.com
 Hartford   Schedule   ACBL / CommonGame   hartfordclub@sbcglobal.net 
* Nearby clubs are listed here for your convenience.

* Good News: The Northampton Bridge Club Board has decided to reduce the price of our BBO games to $4.00 starting June 23.


Notes
  1. All Northampton members are allowed to play in all Pembury Bridge Club games, All Pembury Members are allowed to play in Northampton games.
  2. If you are registering for either Northampton or Pembury for the first time (you or your partner) then PLEASE register early. Do not wait till 15 minutes before game and find you cannot register. It’s a perfectly imperfect system. The best approach is to register 2 hours before start of event. Go offline if you want to, and come back 15 minutes before start time.
  3. If you do receive "Blocked" message when registering then the best approach is to email me both you and your partners BBO usernames ASAP. For Pembury games, email Rogbert690@gmail.com. For Northampton games, email rjsagor@gmail.com

Tips
  • To avoid accidentally putting in wrong bids, you can turn the "Confirm bids" on. To set that, login to BBO, click the "Account" tab, then click "Settings". Look under "Playing", and turn "Confirm bids" on. With that turned on, after each bid, you will need to click "OK" to commit your bid. If you notice a mistake on the bid before clicking "OK", you can just select a different bid.
  • What does the number next to a player name mean? In short, it is the total points the player earned on BBO (this includes ACBL master points and BBO points). To find detailed answer, click on your name button and then click the "Masterpoints" button. From there click "What's this". But please do not let a high number intemidate you because many good players have low numbers because they have just started playing on BBO. Just play your game with your partner and ignore the numbers.
  • How do I look at opponents’ cards? Convention cards are available in the blue button with 3 lines during play. You click the opposite direction (I.e. if you are N/S then you want to select E/W convention card).
  • What is the proper way to ask opponents to explain their bid? To ask about a particular bid you just need to select it during the bidding. It will prompt opponent who bid it to describe it or describe it further. This prevents cross talk in chat box. (I.e. your opponent bids 2h and you like to know what it means, just click the 2h bid) (I.e. if description not adequate or confusing. Click it again)
  • How to Alert my own bid? Click on the ALERT button in the bidding box area, just below where you select your bid. You should do this BEFORE selecting your actual bid. You can enter an explanation for the bid on the line next to the ALERT button. AFTER that, you enter your bid in the usual way. The alert (and explanation) are conveyed to your opponents, but not to your partner.
  • How to explain your own bid: Click on a bid that YOU have made, and a box will appear where you can enter information about that bid, which will be conveyed to your opponents.
  • Since there is no risk of conveying information to partner, the online culture is to give significantly more explanations to your opponents that you might have done face-to face. Even bids you think your opponents ought to understand, and which might not be alertable normally, might be worth a word or two of explanation (e.g. "5+ spades", or "11-15 hcp", or "negative"). Ethical players are forthcoming about their agreements, and don't wait to be asked.




Thursday, April 16, 2020

Virtual BBO Northampton Bridge Club Games


Northampton Bridge club is offering two games per week on BBO (Bridge Base Online)
during the time our games are suspended. Games will be held on Tuesdays at 7 PM and
Wednesday at 1 PM at a cost of $5.00 each.  For those of you familar with BBO the games can be
found under"Competitive", "ACBL Virtual Cubs", "Northamton Bridge Club" and will be available
for registration starting two hours before the start of the game.

Specific instructions for joining BBO and loggin are includrd in an email being sent to
all on our email list. 
If you are unable to access the game, please contact Bob Sagor, Phillippe Galaski or
Shelia Ryan.

Hope to see you at the (virtual) bridge table.