This guide assumes that you are a registered BBO member.  If you are not you should complete registration to gain benefit from this guide.

A MESSAGE from your Committee and your Tournament Director

We are all on a learning curve.  Be patient.  We will have a few problems and challenges.  We will sort these out as we go along.  In a few weeks we will all be experts.

Through the C.B.A.I. Castle G.C. Bridge Section has been allocated its own private virtual club within the BBO framweork.  This means we can run our own events at times of our choosing.  At present events starting between 16:00 and 21:00 are paid events, events starting at all other times are free.

The Castle Club ID within BBO is cbai125467.  This is what we will use for our tournaments from now on.

Registering for a tournament (that is what BBO call a bridge game)

Note – registration opens exactly two hours before the tournament starts.

1. Log in to BBO
2. Click the “COMPETITIVE” tab
3. Click the “FREE TOURNAMENTS” tab
4. Find “cbai125467”.  There is a search facility at top right of the window
5. Select “cbai125467” making sure you click on the Titles column in the “cbai125467” line
6. Enter your partners BBO USERNAME to invite them to the game.  Remember both players MUST BE ONLINE when you are registering. You DO NOT enter your own username as you are sending the invitation to partner.

Playing

1. At the start of each round one of each pair should say Hi and inform the opposition of your basic system e.g. weak & 4, strong & 5 – better minor, strong & 5 – club may be as short as 0/1/2 forcing/non-forcing.  Use the chat function for this.
2. Alerts and Announcements – each player alerts/announces their own bids, when appropriate.  Partner should remain silent.  If player fails to alert/announce then partner still remains silent.
3. Alerting – when you are making a bid that needs to be alerted you just click the “Alert” tab on the bidding window.  Do this before you enter the bid.  Do not offer an explanation, the opposition can ask you if they wish.  When your bid is made it will be highlighted, if the opposition click on the highlighted bid then you will be asked to explain.  Remember your partner is excluded automatically from this process. 
4. Announcing – Example - if you are doing a transfer after partner opens 1NT then you simply type transfer in the bidding window, then make your bid.
5. Note – we will all get this wrong until we get used to it.  Be nice to everyone.  It is no big issue at the end of the day.

BBO Clock

1. BBO runs on the “Atomic Clock”.  While the TD has certain controls it is BBO who control the clock.
2. The tournament starts at precisely the stated time.  If you are not online then you are out and the TD has no control over this.
3. Our first game has been allocated 8 minutes per board.  This means that after 8 minutes has elapsed and play is still going on, BBO will shut the board down and allocate 50% to both pairs.  The clock for the next board starts immediately so don’t waste time talking about it.
4. Players get used to this very quickly so don’t worry about it.

Broadband issues

From time to time you may drop out of the game (BBO).  This can happen if your domestic broadband is unreliable or if BBO has a congestion issue. If this happens you should re-connect and log back in as quickly as possible.  The board is frozen if one of the four players goes offline.  But remember the clock will NOT stop.  Normally you can re-connect in 20-30 seconds.

Your Hardware

It is good practice to make sure you have nothing else running on your computer or tablet while you are playing bridge.  This is to avoid possible contention and is especially important if your hardware is slightly older or of a mid-size specification.  It is much more important if you are playing on an Android tablet or iPad and using the BBO App.

If you are using a portable or rechargeable device it is good practice to have it plugged in and charging while playing the game.  Two hours of continuous screen usage is very heavy on battery life.