Welcome to Bridge on the Edge, located in the Swilers Rugby Club at 100 Crosbie Road in St. John's, NL, Canada.  In 2016 we became a player owned bridge club.  We support a respectful culture, both at the bridge table and in all BOTE communications, for the enjoyment and growth of all members.  Visitors and new members are always welcome.  Players are asked to arrive at least 15 minutes before game time.

For a map & further information, see the "Information" menu on the left.

What’s Happening?
In order to level the playing field, to allow newer players an opportunity to practice their skills, conventions, and play against their peers, we have scheduled a restricted master point (MP) game beginning this Wednesday afternoon (Aug 12th) at 1:35 pm.  Only players with less than 500 MPs may register for this game.  Nobody with more than 500 points is eligible.

Why???
This trial game is based on information supplied by the Focus Group early in 2020, and has been a priority for the Executive for a while. Other options were considered, such as a partnership arrangement, but we are trying a home game first.
If you make this successful, we will continue to conduct restricted games.

The Details
$5 entry fee, 18 boards, 7 minutes per round.  All players need an ACBL number to play;  (this is because it is an ACBL sanctioned game and a limited number of MPs, if you don’t have an ACBL membership, you don’t have any MPs!) ACBL does sell C$10 temporary memberships (club reference number 265710 is required). But we strongly urge you to become an active ACBL member and enjoy all the benefits.

We hope to make this offering a regular feature but this will be determined by the table counts and the number of players who show up. If you think this is a good idea mark Wednesday in your calendar and support it!!

As always, we welcome your feedback & suggestions.  If you need help getting started please contact us, bbohelp@bridgeontheedge.ca 

Your online team

Since we all started playing online, questions have been asked about how the online games work.  Here are some answers to the most frequent ones. 

How players are seeded?  Seeding is done by the BBO algorithm and the online Director/Club Manager have no control over the sections. The field is divided into three equally sized groups using the average MPs of each pair. The game is then set up with half of each group, A, B and C, sitting N-S or E-W.  The point range for each category will vary from game to game depending on who is participating.  A player without an ACBL number is automatically assigned to Section A.

Where substitutes come from?  The Director invites random online substitutes to play in our game whenever an uneven number of pairs occurs and a three-Board sit-out could result. Nobody wants a 21 minute break! As the Director won’t know if substitutes are required until game time, it often takes a few minutes to invite random players and have them accept. If they refuse or they are already substituting elsewhere we have to repeat the process. If substitutes are not readily available, and time is ticking by, the default solution is to use BBO robots to avoid the sitout - they can’t claim, but they play fast and defend hard, so be careful!

Who Plays who First?. This is random, determined by the BBO software. You may meet the top pair, the substitutes or anyone else.

Who determines the playing time per Board?  Our Club Manager, in consultation with the BOTE Board tries to chose playing times to keep the game running smoothly, either 6 or 7 minutes per board. Fast players like the shorter times, slower players enjoy the 7 minutes. Online it is not possible to vary the clock time; it must be either 18 or 21 minutes, per  three board round.  When it is a two board movement we always set the clock for the full 14 minutes.

Why do round completion times sometimes vary?  The BBO application can see when all of our tables have finished playing a complete round and then the game automatically moves into the next round regardless of the time showing for completion. Sometimes the clock indicates we have 5 minutes to spare in the round and we dash away to make tea only to return in 3 minutes to find it is our turn to bid!!

What happens if we get timed out before we finished playing the last hand? How then are fair results assigned?  If the last hand has played sufficient tricks, both sides will get a double-dummy computer result. All Directors check to make sure the probability result is correct. If they disagree with double-dummy, they reassign a fairer score. When it is far too early in the start or play of a board to determine a fair result, both sides get an Average but again the Director can adjust this also, (Avg+/Avg-) if one side was found to be deliberately slow.

Some of these issues will be resolved once BBO/ACBL refine their programming. When online play became the norm a lot of work went into getting the Virtual Club situation set up as quickly as possible and they decided to start running the games and fixing any bugs as they cropped up. Most players agree that BBO/ACBL have done a remarkable job, given their constraints, to fill the void in duplicate bridge play during the present time of crisis and give us the opportunities we have now.

Many thanks, as always, to those who are supporting our club by playing at our Virtual venue, and keeping both the spirit and essence of BOTE alive in these trying times. Thanks also to all of you who have sent kind messages and encouraging words of support and to all who have raised issues or made constructive suggestions. We want our policies to reflect your wishes, so keep your communications coming. If you do have any further questions, comments or suggestions of any nature we want to hear from you;  please contact us at BBOhelp@bridgeontheedge.ca.

Continue to stay safe. 

Reminder! Next BOTE online games are Tuesday August 11th @ 7:00pm

How’s your preparation going?  

Have you signed up for BBO?  

Got your bridge bucks? 

Had a practise game to get used to the interface?  

Lined up a partner, (who will have to be online when you register after 11:35 am for the afternoon games and 5:00 pm for the evening)?

*If you need a partner, we will try to help, email secretary@bridgeontheedge.ca*

Asked for help if you need it?  BBOhelp@bridgeontheedge.ca *Please do it today, not the morning of the game.*

Looking forward to seeing you online.

To review results go to: https://my.acbl.org/club-results/265710 and open appropriate file date.