Folks
Right so many of us have resorted to Online Bridge for the foreseeable future. I know the odd person who qualified in their professional capacity just before I was born who has now been forced to put the cards away and start playing on a computer. He used to say to me .."Eamon some Sunday when there is no mass " .... Well Now ... this left our elderly friend in a quandary.
He was 100% clear that when I tried to get him playing online bridge some years ago instead of just in the club his reply was the above. Thus when I rang him up recently about the Mass being cancelled he had no choice. He also indicated a few other things that might happen some Sunday when there is no Mass but we won't hold him to those things.
So we are so lucky to have Bridgebase Online .. I remember some years ago when BBO broke through the 10000 players online at same time ...and sometime later during a large vugraph event it broke past 20000. That was it they thought in these days of diminishing bridge returns.
However in this current lockdown 30000 and 40000 have come and gone .. I think I saw 47500 at one time recently. I personally have been renting robots for years as I use them for training purposes. 3 dollars a month ... won't break the bank ... Then along came Prime .. 5 dollars a month and I get full strength robots included ....so a good deal for me.
What elese is available on Bridgebase Online
1. Lots of free tournaments
2. Lots of pay tournaments ... costs 25 cents for some ..and 1 dollar for others ..
3. The magnificent Bridgemaster program ... this can be found in Practice or on front page
4. Loads of partners to play with
5. Lots of bridge groups to join
6. Challenge competitions against up to 4 of your acquaintances ...they don't have to be friends.
7. Bidding practice tables
8. Teaching tables
9. Several items on the front page before you login ...so you can play anonymously.
10. Vugraph events (not much now as bridge players cannot mix either)
So get in there and look around or stay outside the login and do some bridge on the front page.
http://bridgewinners.com is another site with news and current affairs in the bridge world
http://bridge-now.com is a place where you can play endless hands each week and get a % on each board.
Ireland Imp Pairs is now 2 times a night of 14 boards and is limited (by BBO) to 20 tables at 1930 and 2130. Fearghal O'Boyle also runs several tournaments a week but be aware some of his are Sligo limited or so. Peter Goodman will set an Irish overflow event from time to time and make eamongall director.
Since this lockdown type scenario started I have been running Ireland Imp Pairs nightly ... This leads to 100s of messages and other communications via my various devices. Most I have to ignore as I would be several hours a day responding .. Most are simple questions that the person can answer themselves with a little examination of this blogspot or Bridgebase itself.
Most of Bridgebase questions/answers are here ... It comes courtesy of Regent Bridge Club.
Wherever it says Regent or refers to a regent member ... imagine it is your local club or a member in your club.
Lots of questions are about ..Why is my partner blocked and why am I blocked ....and offence is taken. Its nothing to do with me .. My nightly imps events are open to Ireland and I have to use my friends list too.
The Ireland flag on BBO is merely a flag ...BBO reads folk by ip address ... Most folk in Ulster have a British internet and in order to play need to be added to my friends list .. There used to be a limit on this but I have not reached it yet.
There is one dunce who has been ringing and texting incessantly about why can his English partner not play in my tournaments. The man has never even figured out how I might know who his English partners BBO name is. I add as a friend almost anyone who messages me but I cannot figure out anyones partner without being told.
Constantly I get messages ..to let people play ... knowing 10 minutes later they will be back wondering by their partner is blocked .. and now it is 30 seconds to start.
And so on
FLTC results April 06
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