Upgraded masterpoints beginning next Monday!

The Benefits of Being a VBBC Member

(Especially this year, when it’s not even open!)

By Ron Andrews

We’re in the last month of this remarkable year 2020 and it’s time to renew our membership in the Vero Beach Bridge Club. In the past, that was easy enough. At this time of the year, and into the first couple of months of the next, a hardy group of volunteers sat near the cashier’s desk, ready to receive your $35 in check or cash when you showed up for a game. They even gave you a nice little pocket calendar to note down your bridge dates – or your dentist’s appointments, for that matter.

Now the club is closed until further notice to prevent the spread of COVID and keep everyone safe, which is especially important for our at-risk population. So HOW are we going to pay our dues? And, for that matter, WHY would we even want to renew since there is no brick-and-mortar club available right now?

The “how” of paying your $35 membership dues is easy. There are at least three ways to pay, effective immediately:

• Mail us a check to the club at 1520 14^th Ave., Vero Beach, FL 32960.
• Drop off $35 in check or cash at the club if you want to save the stamp, but please call ahead at 772-562-3008 if you’re going to do this – to verify someone will be there to accept your payment, or
• **NEW** Pay via major Credit Card on the club’s website, verobridgeclub.square.site, on the new button provided for that purpose (see note below).

Note: We prefer cash or check since credit card companies charge us a not inconsiderable amount in commissions.

Finally, here are the multiple reasons WHY you still want to continue to be a member of our Vero Beach Bridge Club in 2021, even while the club is still closed for in-person play.

• You will still save money, just as you always have, with a membership. With the excellent news about vaccine development, it seems likely that in-person bridge will resume some time in 2021, possibly even during the first half of the year. As of that time, members will be able to play for a $7 card fee again, while non-members will pay $12, so you have to play only 7 times to get the cost of the membership back.
• Even to play in our virtual club online games, which are the only thing going for now and will probably continue for some time parallel to in-person games after it is safe to reopen the club, the only way to guarantee that you’ll be able to play is to remain a member. So far, to play in our online games, all you had to do is to have played once in the past 18 months before the club shut down, whether you had played with us as a member or a guest. Each club has been allowed a certain number of guests, but the ACBL is tightening guest restrictions in response to complaints from smaller clubs that are losing members to the bigger ones. So to guarantee your spot in online games, it’s best to be sure to become or remain a member.
• You will support the club. Many of us, myself included, think the club is great place and we want to do everything we can to support it – we feel a strong emotional attachment to it. This year, even though there was no guest fee to play in our virtual club, we felt belonging to the club was more important than ever as the VBBC team, its employees, the board and the members at large were all figuring out how those of us who wanted to,  could continue playing safely online. As a member who didn’t mind paying my dues, I was glad to have some guests play with us online – even if it was for the same money. The more the merrier – the increased numbers probably helped some earn more MasterPoints and may encourage them to join in the future.

In 2021, whatever happens with COVID and club closures or reopenings, the VBBC is still a club I want to support. I do miss the free coffee and one too many cookies, and despite what Groucho Marx said about clubs, there really is something to belonging somewhere. I’m looking forward to actually “seeing” everyone again sometime this year – honestly, all our members (even the few who were never "quite my cup of tea").

I’ll be among the first to mail in my check for my 2021 membership – won’t you all join me as soon as possible?

*Member Renewal and New Member information can be found to the left of this article*

 
Barbara Seagram has a wonderful video library of bridge seminars on various topics. She is again offering VBBC members and guests her
video presentation and 16 page handout on Defending Against the Opponents’ No-trump Contracts. Barbara reviews standard leads against NT,
 when to overtake, when to duck, second and third hand play, and  many more important concepts on defense.
Barbara’s Two-over-one video that many of you purchased and raved about was excellent and we know that you will benefit tremendously
with more competitive defense strategies covered in this video.
  You may register and pay the $15 fee here. We will then email the video and handouts to you and you can watch it and re-watch it at your convenience. 
Barbara is one of the premier bridge teachers and authors in the world. She and her husband, Alex, are VBBC members and we are very appreciative of their generosity in offering these videos.
We hope you will enjoy this new format in learning. We ask that you not “share” the videos as Barbara is generously donating a portion of the proceeds to the VBBC.

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Board of Governors for 2021 were elected at the Annual Membership Meeting. Congratulations and thank you to these new members:
Ros Cline
Bill Rose
Alan Shapiro
We thank the following board members whose terms have expired for their valuable service:
John Brunner
Bob Geeseman
Steve Osiecki
Board of Governors and officers for 2021 are:
 Freeman Bunn, Bill Capodagli (Treasurer), Ros Cline, Tom Coulter (Vice President),
Jack Hughes, David LeBar (President), Bill Rose, Alan Shapiro, Ann Taylor (Secretary), and Louann Yates.
Maxwell Hughes has agreed to serve as Comptroller.
We are fortunate and very appreciative to have these dedicated volunteers serve our club as members of the Board.

BBO is no longer automatically posting the SAYC card for pairs who have not completed a specific card with their partner. If your partnership is using the SAYC system you will need to specify such and enter your partner's BBO user name on the card in order for it to load when you register to play with that partner. Having a proper card completed for your partnership is an ACBL requirement. It is imperative that you complete a card on BBO ASAP.  There is a video available below (Tutorials) on how to complete a card and in the September 2020 issue of the ACBL Bulletin, on page 20, are photos that will guide you.
Please create your convention card to avoid receiving two Average Minus scores.

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BBO also runs pair games and daylongs (now 6 different daylongs every day). All of these games award traditional online points which are “unpigmented” and do not count towards any races except the annual online points race.

Only those points won in sanctioned ACBL games can count as official ACBL points. You can win points in other tournaments on BBO, and although they will count as BBO points and will be considered in raising the number (or letter) on your profile, they will not be able to be added to your ACBL point totals.
Only those tournaments with "ACBL" in the title can be forwarded to the ACBL as official ACBL masterpoints.

**IMPORTANT**   

If you are "Blocked" from registering for VBBC's private tournaments on BBO, login to Bridge Base Online Home, then ACBL World. At the bottom of the page are 3 blue tabs. Select "Update ACBL Number". Verify your user name & add your ACBL # if blank.  This is the number one reason someone is "Blocked." Other possibilities are that the ACBL membership dues are not current or the user name differs from the one in which you originally registered. You will not be able to register for any Limited Games (0-99, 0-199, 0-299, 0-499, or 0-750) if your ACBL number is not in your BBO profile. Another situatioin that may not allow you to register is if you chose to be invisible. Please uncheck invisible on the BBO log-in page. If these items are not corrected, BBO will not be able to award masterpoints. They must have a user name, ACBL number with up-to-date dues, not be invisible, and all must be linked with the member's BBO user name.

If you would like to play but do not have a partner, you can go to our game in the listing of "Pending Games" and click "Partnerships", and add your name or invite any of the players listed. You can also register as a "substitute" for one of our games by going to the game once it has begun (Running Games) and click "substitute". We are in need of substitute players due to inadvertant disconnections and to avoid sit-outs when we have a half table. Be aware that if you lose connection during the final round you may not receive the masterpoint awards.

If you are unable to post your convention card you may need to clear the cache. Go to Web Browser, settings, clear browsing history, then close the window and come back in.

For Results from our VBBC virtual tournaments, go to the upper right of the VBBC Home Page. The BBO Results are available immediately after each VBBC game. ACBL increases the awards so ACBL Live will show the accurate amount you will receive but these results will not be available to view for an hour or so after the game has ended.

We hope you are enjoying playing online in VBBC's virtual club!

We are so very grateful to Barbara Seagram for the OPENING LEADS zoom seminar she presented for the VBBC!
Taking a bridge lesson on Zoom is much different from sitting at a card table with 3 other people but, as always, Barbara was enthusiastic, informative, precise, and entertaining!
The lesson was excellent  and we were very fortunate to benefit from Barbara's extraordinary teaching and generosity in donating the proceeds of the class to the VBBC.
We thank Barbara and YOU for your participation.
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Maggie Eggleston, Arnie Summers, John Schwartz, Pieter VanBennekom, and Stan Yellin have joined Jamie and Martha in directing tournaments on BBO. Our tournaments consist of 18 boards and last approximately 2 hours. We began with a fee of $5 per game but it was necessary for us to increase our entry fee to $7 (which is what we charged in the Club), effective June 1. The masterpoint awards are 100% black points. These VBBC virtual tournaments and  "Support Your Club" tournaments award more masterpoints than any of the other games on BBO, and they have recently increased the masterpoint awards. The Club will receive approximately 77% of the entry fee. Only VBBC members and those players who have played at the VBBC within the past 2 years are eligible to play in a Virtual VBBC tournament. This is a great way to help your club while we are closed and still play with your regular partners! If you have not played on-line yet but are curious about it and interested, here are some helpful instructions:

1. Our private games are held at www.bridgebase.com.
2. If you are a member of BBO, Click the Login/Register red button.
3. If joining for the first time, remember to include your ACBL #. This is what BBO uses to identify you so you are eligible to play in a VBBC-BBO game
4. Add funds with the "BB$" button (If you are going to play on an iPad or iPhone, you will pay more for BBO Bridge Bucks)
5. Go back to the original BBO homepage
6. Close the BB$ box and click "HOME" 
7. Choose "COMPETITIVE"
8. Select "ACBL VIRTUAL CLUBS"
9. Look for Vero Beach Bridge Center games (CLUB # VACB105346) and note that they are called "tournaments" rather than games.The tournaments are not visible until 2 hours before the game begins and you may not register for a game sooner than 2 hours before it begins. If you do not see the VBBC games you will need to back up and go to "All Tournaments" and scroll down the list until you see the Vero Beach tournaments. You can also type Vero on the "Search" line in the upper right of that screen for easier access.
10. Click on the VBBC tournament and register with your partner using partner's BBO user name. Either one of you can "invite", but both partners need to be logged on at the same time to register and be able to accept the invitation. Keep in mind that if you are registered to play, you can leave the BBO site, but you must be logged back on within 10 minutes of the tournament's start time. If you are "blocked" from registering for one of our games, please keep trying. Make sure you have sufficient BBO Bridge Bucks.
11. Playing on BBO differs from playing in the Club with regard to the alert procedure. On BBO, you will "alert" or "announce" your own bids. You do this by clicking Alert and typing in the bid's meaning on the line provided, then making your bid. This is so different that it's easy to forget.
12.  Please watch this informative video by Silvana Morici of the Sagamore (NY)  Bridge Club, for further BBO instruction: CLICK HERE

P.S. If you need further assistance with playing on BBO, please call Martha or Jamie at the VBBC They are available each weekday, 8:30-1:00, 772-562-3008.