To all bridge players playing on the CBAI BBO Churchtown Bridge Club platform

The CBAI requires that all players on their BBO platform read the "Ethical play on BBO" document on the menu to the left of this message. Because of the unfortunate prevalence of cheating during online play, anyone who wishes to participate in our BBO games must read this document and follow the directions given. These directions include confirming that you have read the document and ensuring that your real name appears in your BBO profile. Instructions for how to add your real name on BBO are given in the "Add your real name on BBO profile" document in the menu. Whilst there is no suggestion whatever that anyone in our club is playing unethically it is an unfortunate fact that there are people who communicate with their partners during play or otherwise behave dishonestly when playing online. Please confirm to Mary Meggs Hon. Treasurer when you have read this document. Regards, Bernie 

The committee are very pleased to announce that our online bridge competition is now running every Wednesday commencing at 7.15 pm. NB NOTE THAT START TIME IS EARLIER THAN AT THE CLUB. We play on Bridge Base Online (BBO). Our Tournament Director is Bernie Rountree. Please follow Bernie's directions below for playing in the tournament.
 

• Upcoming tournaments only become visible on the BBO site around 2 hours before they start so our competition on Wednesday will be available to enter from 5.15 pm.
• To join the tournament, log into BBO, select “Competitive”, then “All Tournaments”, and the “Pending” tab. This will give you a list of all pending tournaments.
• Use the Search button at the top of the page and enter “Churchtown” or my host username, CBAI 125562, to easily find our tournament.
• Click on the tournament's name.
• Fill in your partner’s username and click “Invite”.
  • Only one member of the partnership needs to complete the inviting process.
• When entering for the competition your partner must also be online to accept your invitation to play.
• If you don’t have a partner, BBO will rent you a robot for a small fee; you’ll need to play the robot-standard bidding system.
• To hire a robot, you need a credit balance on your BBO account.
• Complete this entering process in plenty of time in case there are any issues as I may not have time to correct a problem if you are trying to enter after 6.30.
• Log back in to BBO at least 10 minutes before the game is due to start.
• Anyone registered to play must be logged on and in the Competitive section of BBO when the competition is about to start. Otherwise, you will be automatically removed by BBO two minutes before the start of the competition.
• While waiting for the competition to start you also need to keep your screen active or BBO might delete you!
• Play will start at 7.15 and you will find yourself at a table opposite your partner.
• You have 21 minutes to complete a 3 board round and we will play 7 x 3 board rounds. Keep an eye on the clock as, when the time is up, you will be automatically moved to the next table and, if you are not finished, the board will be truncated.
• If, at any stage during the game, you lose your internet connection please log straight back in immediately and you will find yourself back at the table.
• When the competition finishes the results will pop up on your screen or they can be found in the "All Tournaments" section under the "Completed" tab.
• Results will be published on your Bridgewebs site as soon as possible after play finishes, usually that evening, and will include the travellers and records of the hands played. 
• Finally, please remember that many of your fellow members may find the technology a little challenging and stressful, or may be new to BBO, so please be patient if a player is slow.
• I very much hope you will all enjoy competing online.

Bernie Rountree

My contact details are:

Now that you are all used to playing online, I’d like to give you some pointers for making our BBO game more enjoyable.

Firstly, a word about your BBO profile. Most members have included their real name on their BBO profile, but if you haven’t, please consider adding it now. In general, we are playing with people we already know and it is much more friendly to greet your opponents by name when they arrive at your table. We can identify our opponents by clicking on their user-name and seeing what their real name is. A Christian name is all that’s required. To add your real name, login to BBO, select the Accounts tab at the side of your screen, type your name in the “real name” slot and click Save changes. During play, when you arrive at a table, you can greet the opponents, introduce yourself and partner and announce your system e.g. “Weak and 4” or “Strong, 5 and better minor” etc. When opening NT you announce your range in the Alert box, e.g. 12-14, 15-17 etc.

1. ALERTING
   1. In some ways the rules for playing online differ from games at the table and Alerting conventional bids is probably the most important difference.  A player who makes a conventional bid should alert his/her own bid. To do this click the “Alert” in the bidding panel before making your bid and state what the bid means. Your partner will not see the Alert, it will be visible only to the opponents. If an opponent wants further information, he/she should click on “Explain” and you should now give a full explanation of your bid. Use the “Explain” box provided and do not use the Chat/Message box as everyone at the table, including your partner will see what is written in the Chat box.
   2. If you forget to alert until after you have made a conventional bid, you can click on your bid and give an explanation in the text box which appears.
   3. If you do forget to alert, your opponents may ask you to explain a particular bid.  Equally you can ask your opponents to explain what their bids mean if you are unsure whether something is natural or artificial.  You do this by clicking on the bid in question – an explain request is then sent automatically to the person who made that bid.  A text box will appear in the top corner of the screen for the person who made the bid, asking them to give a brief explanation of the bid. You can ask your opponents to explain any bid at any stage, even when the auction is over – the only person you can’t ask for an explanation is your own partner! 
   4. During play you can review the Auction by clicking on the contract and the bidding will appear. Click the panel again to remove.

2. Chat
   1. You can use the Chat box to send messages to the Table or to send a private message to another player. Select your option from the drop-down menu. Obviously, you can’t message your own partner privately during bidding or play but you can send a private message to partner between boards.
   2. Use the Chat box to introduce yourselves when you arrive at the table and announce your system. You can also converse at the table, time permitting, when finished playing.
   3. You cannot use the Chat box to send any message to your partner about the bidding or play until the hand has been finished. During play Dummy cannot make any comment about the play of a hand.
   4. If you click in the chat area, you will see a box that allows you to change the size of the chat, delete the chat etc.  There is also an option called “Chat Manager” and this allows you to add up to 10 regular messages you might use. You can type a message with your basic system and introduction in there and add it each time you move to new opponents. This means you do not have to type it each time.  Remember to have the chat set to “Table” when you do so.
   5. Like text messaging on our mobiles, Chat messages do not take emotions into account so please be careful that what you write in a chat message cannot be misinterpreted by partner or opponents!

3. Claims
   1. When it is clear that a number of the remaining tricks are a certainty, a player can claim that number of tricks by clicking the “Claim” button and stating the number of tricks they expect to take. If necessary, an explanation can be added e.g. “taking out 1 remaining trump and discarding losing diamonds on spade winners”.
   2. The system will automatically time out and will assume that the claim has been rejected if one of the opponents does not accept the claim. Both opponents have to accept in order for a claim to be successful, but only one needs to reject.
   3. In the case of rejection, the play continues.

4. Slow play
   1. When a board is truncated due to time running out, if there are only a few cards left to play, BBO will calculate the likely outcome and award that score. Otherwise an average score is awarded to both sides. The TD can play through the board and, if possible, calculate the likely outcome, or award an adjusted score.
   2. If you feel you would have achieved a better result you must get the agreement of your opponents and both sides should then message the TD.

5. General
   1. During the game you can see your scores by selecting the History tab on the side panel of your screen. Under “My table” you will see your own result and under “Other tables” you can see what was achieved at the other tables. You can also view your scores by clicking on the “IMPS” button.
   2. You can see what was played to the last trick by clicking on the “Tricks won/lost” panel. Click the panel again to remove.
   3. There are some very helpful YouTube videos available giving tips and advice for playing on BBO. I recommend Pete Holland’s “How to use Bridge Base Online” youtube.com/watch?v=MldFbBdea90
   4. Results are available in BBO under Hand Records/Recent Tournaments/Pairs/and the name of our competition. You can view all the travellers and replay the boards. The results are also published on the Churchtown Bridge Club Bridgewebs site.
   5. Please bear in mind that many of the people playing in our competitions are new to BBO and some may be struggling with technology. They may be a little slow in their bidding/play so please have patience. You can call the TD if you need assistance or feel you won’t have time to finish a board because of opponents’ slow play.
   6. On your screen there is a small blue rectangular box with three white lines on it to the left of your partner’s username and if you click on this box you will get a drop-down menu which includes “Call TD”. Use this button to call the TD if you need assistance at any time during the tournament.
   7. Enjoy your game!

For those of you who intend to play in our online tournaments but who are not familiar with playing on BBO, it is strongly recommended that you have a look at Pete Hollands' youtube video which can be found at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MldFbBdea90

The video will familiarise with what you need to know before you start playing.

Most of those interested in playing online have already become members of BBO and given their username to a committee member but any additional members wishing to take part should follow the instructions for joining BBO given below.

In order to participate you will need the following

1. A laptop/iPad/PC
2. A reliable internet connection
3. A partner
4. To be registered on BBO – you can use a nickname rather than your real name, and it’s free to register
   1. To register: log on to “Bridge Base Online” and click “Register”, select “Become a member free”, enter your chosen BBO name, password and email, complete any mandatory fields and click Register. Note: Leave ACBL number field blank.
   2. It’s a good idea to fill in at least your Christian name under “real name” so that your opponents will know who you are when they join your table.
   3. BBO will send you a confirmatory email for verification of your username.
5. There are free tournaments available in off-peak hours – some private and some that you can join - but our tournament will be taking place at a peak time and will cost $4.00 per person to play. After you have registered to play on BBO, you will need to lodge money to your BBO account by selecting the BB$ button on the BBO Home page. Using PayPal/credit card or equivalent, you should pay a minimum of $20 which will give you credit for about five games. You will need to make further lodgements to your BBO account from time to time as your credit runs down.
6. In order to register as someone who may play in the Club's online tournaments, you must contact an officer of the club (for contact details, see your membership card) and advise us of your BBO User Name and your mobile phone number. Please note that there will be a short delay between when you apply for permission to play and that permission is granted.
7. I suggest that you spend some time familiarising yourself with BBO before taking part in a competition. On the Home page, click Solitaire and then “Just play bridge” and hands will appear that you can bid and play. Also, from the Home page you can click “Practice” and “Start a table” to do some bidding/play practice with your partner.
8. My BBO Host username for Churchtown BC is CBAI125562. The title of our tournaments will be Churchtown Bridge Club.

Welcome to Churchtown Bridge Club. We play each Wednesday evening in the De La Salle School, Churchtown Road Upper, Dublin 14 commencing at 7.15 p.m. In general, up to twelve tables are in play in each of two sections. The majority of our members are intermediate players. Our club is affiliated to the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland (CBAI) and awards masterpoints in accordance with CBAI rules.

We are an active and friendly club. In addition to our normal bridge evenings, we run a number of special competitions during the year including the Vincent Maloney Trophy, the Barney McCann Trophy, the Lily Hynes Trophy and the President's Prize. We also hold a number of social events during the year including a Christmas outing which involves bridge followed by dinner and entertainment and a cheese and wine evening. A charity night is held annually. Full details of the current year's programme can be found by clicking on 'Calendar' on the left.

Our games are played in a large well lit room at ground floor level. The table money includes tea/coffee and refreshments. There is ample supervised parking on the grounds.

With the exception of nights upon which a major competition is being played (see Calendar), we are very happy to welcome visitors to our club. In order to comply with the terms of our insurance policy, visitors may play at the club no more than once a month. A standby partner is generally available; please turn up before 7.05 p.m. and make yourself known to us and we shall try to facilitate you. Visitors who play in the club on more than six occasions will be expected to apply for membership. If you wish to make an enquiry in advance, please call Teresa on 086-828-8727.

We look forward to seeing you very soon!

President:                     Mary Flood

Hon. Secretary:            Irene O'Connor

Hon. Treasurer:            Mary Meggs

Masterpoints Sec.:       Teresa Flynn

Committee:                   Ann Breslin

                                       Pauline Diffney

                                       Barbara Goff

                                       Trish Hudson

                                       Marie McGouran

                                       Mary McNamara

                                       Geraldine O'Byrne (Ex Officio)

                                       Nuala O'Driscoll