(As emailed to Members 25 February 2024.)

If you are not already using BBO:

• Register with BBO at www.bridgebase.com and click Register to set your BBO username and password.

Then, or if you already had a BBO username:

• Tell Alan Stanfield (thestanfields@outlook.com) your BBO username, so that you can be added to the list of valid players in the Gloucester BC virtual club.
• Record your BBO ‘Friends’ (ie your potential partners) by clicking on the People tab then entering your friend’s BBO username. Ask them to record you as one of their ‘Friends’.
• There is a useful YouTube video guide to playing on BBO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyFULWYsVXc&t=65s

If you have a BBO username, are a Member of Gloucester BC, and are ready to play in a Gloucester BC virtual event:

• Find the Gloucester BC virtual club events (available 2 hours before the start) on BBO by selecting Play or Watch Bridge > Competitive > All Tournaments, then selecting the Pending tab and putting EBU in the searchbox. Alternatively, select Featured Areas > Virtual Clubs > EBU.
• Register for the event by clicking on the event (do this up to 2 hours before the start of the event, while you and your partner are both logged in to BBO), selecting the Register tab and entering your partner’s BBO username.
• If you don’t have a partner, use the Partnership Desk to register that you’re looking for a partner and/or invite someone who is looking for a partner to join you by clicking on the Partnership Desk tab.
• Be logged in to BBO 10 minutes before the scheduled start time of the event.

There is no need to buy BBO credits (BB$) – the charge for the event will be recovered from you when play at Elmscroft resumes.

We’ll be enabling video chat. Video Chat is only available on web at the moment (ie, when you access BBO through an internet browser). It is supported on mobile as well, on Google Chrome for Android devices, and on Safari for Apple devices. Please note, you will need to access BBO through the website, at https://www.bridgebase.com/v3/. You can turn this off yourself if you wish when the tournament starts. The chat will be with other players at the same table. It is not possible to mute a specific player, but you can ‘mute all’. If there is background noise, you can ask another player to mute themselves.
See details at https://news.bridgebase.com/2021/04/14/how-to-join-video-chat-in-tournaments/.

If there is a half-table, then Robots will be added as the missing pair.

Online, players self-alert. Each player alerts and explains their partnership agreement using the Alert box in the bidding diagram. Partner cannot see your alerts, only opponents see them. To ask about the meaning of a bid made by the opponents, players click on that bid in the bidding diagram. Explanations about bids should not be written in table chat, they need to be made via the alert mechanism.

If you make a mis-click, click on the “Undo” button and players should agree it.