| (1) Eligibility |
Oswestry Bridge Club online duplicate sessions are currently restricted* to
(i) club members
(ii) close relatives, partners or spouses of Club members
(iii) beginners who have been taking lessons with John Davies
(iv) guests invited by Club members to be their partners for specific sessions
(v) visitors by prior arrangement
Because individuals in groups (ii) - (v) must pay in advance for their sessions it is essential for them or their sponsor to contact the treasurer prior to registration with BBO. Assuming you are eligible to play and want to register with BBO, here is a video which explains how to do it.
.*The Club has always welcomed visitors to our bridge evenings, but the number of places available is limited and it is essential to book ahead. For further enquiries please go to the Contact Us page or clicking the heading of this paragraph: (1) Eligibility.
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| (2) Who's Who, Register of Usernames and their bridge systems |
This page will be updated one day before each duplicate bridge session so that people can play as soon as they have emailed me (Mike) with their details. I can be contacted at either at bronygarth2@gmail.com or via Contact Us on the website.
If you are able to offer some help to anyone who hasn't played BBO online before, please let me know and I will put a "P" by your name (P = practice provider).
Please check that the spelling, numbers and spaces in your username are correct when I put your username on the website, e.g Is the username of Lady Josephine Bloggs
"J Bloggs22" or actually " jbloggs23 " ?
You are strongly advised to test it by signing into BBO as soon as is convenient. Unless your username and password are absolutely correct you will have trouble signing in.
If you have forgotten your password, click on the "forgotten password" tab on the BBO website and follow their instructions.
After registering you should complete your profile, which means means adding the name your friends know you by and a brief summary of your bridge system. You can do this by following these instructions*. it enables people to see them if they click on your username.
* The speaker in the video talks very quickly but you can slow him down by using the little cogwheel at bottom of the video and choosing 0.75.
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| (3) How to get started in an evening |
Each duplicate session will open for registration 2 hours before it starts. Both players in a partnership need to be logged on to BBO for them to register their wish to play that session. The players find the session and register as follows:
- Log on to BBO
- Click "Competitive" under Play or Watch Bridge
- Then click "All Tournaments"
- In the Search Box (above where it says “Entries”) type Oswestry
- Click on the event in the list
- Type the BBO username of your partner
- Click "invite". Your partner will also need to be logged on to BBO at the same time in order for them to register - so talk to your partner about this.
You can then both logoff if you wish but you will need to be back in time for the start of the tournament (allow about 30minutes* or so for this). If you miss the registration deadline or are late logging on you will not be allowed to play. All you need now is patience. At 7pm the screen will suddenly change as if by magic (but actually by the director) and you can start the first hand.
It you have problems logging in, are looking for a partner, or miss the start, click here. This link also tells you why you may come across a pair you don't recognise during the session (= if there is a half table).
* The BBO website becomes extremely busy from about 6.45pm onwards because lots of people try to login for games at 7.00pm, This causes website congestion and is a common cause of login failures. For this reason it is suggested that members leave it no later than 6.30pm at the latest to sign in / rejoin the site. (Thanks to Michael Lucas for this useful information.)
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| (4) ALERTING, ANNOUNCING (and forgetting!) |
Please try to get into the habit of alerting correctly. This is especially important when playing against new or less experienced opponents. If you are not sure how to alert/anounce, click on the title of this paragraph and a new page will open up and explain it, or click here to watch a video.
If you forget to alert in the heat of the moment (or if you think your partner might have forgotten) you might be able to redeem the situation provided your partner is UNAWARE of what you are doing. So, assuming you have forgotten to alert, you can either:
- Click on your bid and then expain it by typing in the pop up box (see video link above), or......
- (a) click on the the blue button near the bottom of the screen which probably says "Table" (b) from the menu offered, click "Opponents" (c) type an explanation of the bid and finally, (d) click "chat". Only the opponents and the person who wrote the chat can see it . There will be no unauthorised information to your partner.
If your opponent seems to have forgotten......
- clicking on the opponents' username is often the quickest and simplest way of finding out what a bid means, or ...
- click on the bid and a pop up box will appear on the bidder's screen asking them to explain the bid. The explanation will only be visible to you and and your partner, not to their partner, so there will be no unauthoised information.
Of course neither a chat message restricted to your opponents / clicking on the opponent's username - are endorsed in the rule book. Correct alerting is always preferable . You can also, of course, summon the director. Or just ask at the end of the bidding by sending a chat to the table (the person that made the bid is the one who must answer).
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| (5) Using the CHAT BOX - click here |
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| (6) CONNECTION PROBLEMS - click here |
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| (7) How to call the DIRECTOR - click here |
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| (9) How to set up your PROFILE - click here |
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| (10) TIME ALLOWED per board - click here |
About 7 minutes. Most people find this is more than adequate and have to wait a couple of minutes for the next round.
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| (11) Preventing UNINTENDED BIDS / playing UNINTENDED CARDS- click here |
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| (12) Must I PRACTISE before playing online duplicate? |
It's essential.
You must practise playing BBO online bridge with other club members before your first online duplicate session, even though practice sessions will be "chicago" .
At first you will be thinking about how to do this, that, and the other, rather than the bridge itself.
Remember learning how to drive? How you tried to flick the indicators to turn right but turned on the windscreen wipers by mistake? And how you then got into a panic because that right turn was so close by then? Eventually driving became automatic so that you could concentrate on the important things, like the pregnant woman with an iPhone clamped to her ear who just might decide to step off the pavement in front of you.
With practice you won't have to think about the mechanics of playing and be able to concentrate on the really important things in life, such as whether your lowly 2♦ is, in fact, a winner.
So you must practise. There are bound to be hiccups . And don't worry; you can always take the next right turn even if you miss the first one.
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| FAQS AND OTHER ITEMS |
(1) I CAN'T GET ON TO OUR CASUAL TABLE!
If you are struggling to join a casual game with friends because you can't see an invitation, this may help: "To play Casual all 4 people need to logon and click Casual. Then the person can setup the table and they should all get the invite. If anyone has an issue they can also search for the table in the table list and join that way". Thanks to Jonathan at the EBU for this tip.
This video explains the difficulty in some detail.).
(2) HAND RECORDS OF YOUR DUPLICATE SESSION
You can use BBO to look at your hand records, bidding, card play etc..
- Log into BBO.
- Go to history- this will show your tournament records
- Click on the top one (most recent in date order)You can then stroll through the boards and see the bidding, cards played, etc.
A very useful learning tool.
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