New 0-50 Game at my Club!

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Last Thursday night we started a new 0-50 game at our club.

There were a few kinks we need to iron out for sure (Zoom link didn't work for some) but we are going to try again next Thursday night at 7pm Ottawa time.

There will also be a 15 minute Zoom lesson at 6:30pm Ottawa, Ontario, Canada time. I will finish by 6:45 or so -- plenty of time to go get a snack and then sign into the game for 7pm.

If you have played in our club before (The Bridge Connection in Ottawa) and are associated with our club we invite you to come try the game out if you have 0-50 master points. We are hoping it is a less intimidating start to BBO or duplicate in general than some of our 0-750 or 0-1250 games.

If you have never played duplicate in a club and want to try and see what all the fuss is about you should be able to play in our game.

We are allowed to have some "guests" (which are members that are not associated with our club) but these spots are limited and you'll have to contact our director each week to see if those spots have been taken up yet.

So here is all the info I think you will need. Please leave me a comment if you want more information.

Who can play in the new 0-50 game?

If you have played at the Bridge Connection in Ottawa in the past you are probably connected to our club and you are most welcome to play in our game.

If you are not associated with any other club you are most welcome to play in our game. You become associated with a club by playing in that club. So if you are new to duplicate you will not be associated with another club.

If you are not sure if you can play in our 0-50 game click HERE to ask our friendly director Michael. Have your ACBL number handy to tell him.

What you need to play in the 0-50 game

1) First of all you will need an ACBL number. You can get one for free for 120 days by clicking on this link: https://acbl.site-ym.com/general/pick_username.asp

Note that you do NOT need an active ACBL number. If you have had one in the past and it has expired you can still use it. We just need the ACBL number to make sure we don't have any sharks with 5,000 masterpoints coming to our games.

2) You need a BBO username
Click HERE to see about doing that.

3) You will need some BBO$.

Click on the BBO$ Button to purchase them. You can use a credit card or PayPal. They are non-refundable so to start just get a minimum amount ($5? $10?) to see if you like the games. You can always purchase more later.

That's really all you NEED.

If you have never played in an online game at The Bridge Connection then you will need to inform our friendly director you are coming the first time you play. He needs to make sure you are "allowed" to play in the game. He would also like some contact information in case something goes wrong and he needs to call you.

Click HERE to let our friendly director know you are coming the first time.

What to do next? Play around on BBO

Bids that require ALERTS are SELF ALERTS. You need to ALERT your OWN bids -- you no longer alert your Partner's bids like in real life.

Click HERE to learn how to self alert!

How do I join your game?

First make sure you are allowed to play in any Bridge Connection game by contacting our director (see above)

Next Log onto Bridge Base

Click on Virtual Clubs

Click on ACBL - North America

You will now see a list of games running at that time.

If you see a whole bunch of games then that means you are not affiliated with any club. I only see games that I am a member of. So you will have to type in "TBC" in the Search area above and click Enter.

You can sign up for the game possibly an hour or so in advance. If you come earlier the game will not be shown. You can show up a minute before game time also. I like to sign up about 10 minutes early just in case something happens and I can't get in right away. One time I forgot I had no BB$ so I had to go purchase those.

Click game you wish to join by clicking on the "TBC Ottawa 0-50" white space area

You will get into this screen:

Here you can type in the BBO name of the person you wish to play with and click "Invite".

This will send a message to them that you wish to play with them. They can click on "Accept (5)"

5 BB$ will be taken from each of your accounts.

Now you just have to sit back and wait until the game starts. The director does all the work. You will be popped in and out of tables automatically after each round is over. Warning: the popping in and out of each round is very sudden. You don't even have a chance to say "Good Luck!" to the lovely Opponents you just met. Boom. You are gone and off to meet other wonderful people.

Where is the Zoom link?

To get to our pre-game Zoom link go to the Bridge Connection webiste: https://www.bridgewebs.com/cgi-bin/bwoo/bw.cgi?pid=display_home&club=tbcottawa#home_1

and click on the Zoom link: