Hey, you regulars of the Rookie Duplicate game at Seattle Bridge Center — please forward this message to your Rookie Duplicate friends!
We’ve finally been able to set up an online version of our regular Tuesday night Rookie Duplicate game! We’re going to try our first session on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. ACBL Masterpoints will be awarded!
The game will be held on Bridge Base Online (BBO) on Tuesday evenings. We aim to start by 7:15pm, but please (a) register ahead of time and (b) be online no later than about 7:10 pm. Details below.
To play in the virtual rookie game, you’ll need a BBO username, an ACBL number, and funds in your “BB dollars” account. If you don’t have all of these, start with Step 1; if you do have all of these, you can start with Step 4.
Step 1: Get a BBO username. If you don’t already have a username on BBO, sign up for an account at www.bridgebase.com — it’s free to sign up and to play in some of the games, but the virtual club game will cost you some money.
Step 2: Get an ACBL member number. Because the Rookie Game is a limited game, you need an ACBL number so BBO can verify that you qualify for the game. If you don’t alread have an ACBL number, sign up and pay for one at www.acbl.org/join — cost is either $8/month for a temporary membership or $50/year for a permanent one (plus there are a couple of associated charities you can opt-in to support). When filling out the forms, please enter the Recruiting Club Number (and Name) of 167601 (Seattle Bridge Center) and the Recruiting Member Number (and Name) of 2522462 (David Dailey) — we get a referral bonus when you mention us. ACBL will email you your new member number.
Step 3: Add funds to your BBO balance. Many activities on BBO are free, but we are charging $5 each player for the Rookie Game. For the moment, 70% of this money comes to Seattle Bridge Center. You buy “BB$” by clicking the blue button labeled “BB$” in the upper right corner of the BBO homepage. Follow the link to “Purchase BB$”, enter your BBO username and password, choose the amount you want to buy and enter your credit card information. They’ll charge sales tax, which will not go toward your balance.
Step 4: Attach your ACBL number to your BBO account. (You will only ever do this once.) Log in to BBO. From the BBO homepage, choose “ACBL World”. Choose the blue button labeled “Update your ACBL number”; enter your ACBL number and click “Update”.
Step 5: Register for the game. Starting about 2 hours before game time, log in to BBO. From the BBO homepage, choose “Competitive” under Play or Watch Bridge; then choose “ACBL Virtual Clubs”. The host for our game will be vacb167601 and the title of the game will include “Pairs Rookie Game”. Click on the title of the game (not the button with vacb167601). Enter the BBO username of your partner, indicate whether you will pay for both yourself and your partner, and click the button to “Invite” your partner.
Step 6: Partner accepts the invitation. Partner must accept the invitation before your pair is added to the list of entries for the game.
Step 7: Relax until game time. You don’t have to stay logged in between the time you register and the time the game starts.
Step 8: Be on time. Be logged in to BBO at least 5 minutes, preferably 10 minutes or more, before game time. When the game starts, you will be yanked into your game. Off you go!
If you’re not online when the game starts, we cannot add you later. But you won’t be charged for the game, either. Please send me an email (David… PlayBridge@pinochle.org) to check in about how to make it a better experience next time.
If, while playing, your connection is lost, you should log off from BBO and shut down your browser; then restart your browser and log in to BBO again. This will re-seat you in the game with the smallest possible amount of fuss.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at a BBO Rookie Duplicate game sometime soon!
–David