Madison Bridge Club Monday Morning BBO

Monday, November 30, 2020

Summary - Glenna Shanahan and Vic Johnson Hand Analyses Information

Hand of the Week - Glenna and Vic

Glenna's Information

Glenna's Pearls - June 21, 2020

Vic's Information

Friday, November 27, 2020

How to Join Competitive Bridge on Wednesday Morning

Step 1: Acquire an American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) membership number. If you already have an ACBL number skip this step. If you did not acquire an ACBL Number then you must have one before you play.

Important!! ACBL is linked to Bridge Base Online (BBO which is where you will play competitive bridge. ACBL issues you a membership number when you enter information in the ACBL website. However, the membership information is not transferred to BBO for one or two weeks after you obtain the ACBL membership number. If BBO does not have an ACBL membership number you will not be allowed to play on Wednesday morning. If you decide to play Wednesday morning acquire this membership number as soon as possible.

To obtain a 120 day ACBL Guest Membership click here.
To obtain a regular ACBL Membership click here.

Step 2: Buy BB$, You will be charge a playing fee for each competitive bridge game. Wednesday morning is a competitive bridge game. If you have not already opened an account on BBO to acquire BB$ then click here for the procedure to obtain BB$.

Step 3: You need to supply BBO with your new ACBL number. It is not hard to do. Click on this link to discover how to complete this step.

Step 4: You should start the following steps 15 minutes before the competitive session begins. In your browser find the BBO website.

Step 5: Click on the red box listing Login/Register in the upper right corner of the screen.

Step 6: Log in to BBO with your User Name and password.

Step 7: Click on Competitive located on the left side of the screen

Step 7: Click on ACBL Virtual Clubs.

Step 8: You will see the session notice located in the upper left of the page. Note the start time in minutes, the number of entries ( i.e. the number of partnerships), and the entry fee. Click in the middle of the title.

Step 9: If steps 1 through 8 do not work for you call Ralph Patterson at 608-271-1732 and he will help you. Do not get frustrated.

Step 9: You will see either of the screens presented above. Your partner must be online. If you see the first screen enter the BBO ID for your partner. After the BBO ID is entered the button to the right "Invite (6BB$) will light up. Click on that button. If you see the second screen click on the blue "Accept (6BB$)" . Note: The amount charged per bridge competition might be different from the two screens shown above.

Step 10: When the title turns orange, you are in to play on Wednesday morning.

Monday, November 23, 2020

Purchasing BB$

In order to play competitive bridge on Bridge Base Online (BBO) you need to purchase BB$. Each competitive tournament charges from $4 to $6 per person to participate. This procedure to obtain BB$ should work whether you are using a cellphone, IPAD, or personal computer. In order to purchase BB$ you need to do the following:

Step 1 - Go to the BBO website by clicking on the next phrase: Bridge Base Online - Play Online Bridge You will see the following:

Step 2- Click on the box BB$ located in the upper left corner.

Step 3: You can enter credit card information by entering information on the left side of the above screen. The payment screen has an autopay feature that will issue a $20 debit to your credit card once you go below a certain dollar figure. If you use the autopay feature you will only need to visit this screen once. If you do not use the autopay feature you will get familiar with this screen when you play a lot of competitive BBO bridge.

Joining and Obtaining Membership Number from American Contract Bridge League - Paid Membership

Step 1: Click on this weblink: Join | American Contract Bridge League – ACBL You will see a page like this.

Step 2: Click on New Member Application. You will see a three page form beginning with this page:

Step 3: Fill in the form. You will need the following pieces of information:

Club Number 157636
Recruiter: GLENNA SHANNAHAN 2898268

Step 4: Submit the form and pay the first year fee of $25. The Bridge Club of Madison will pay the second year fee for you. ACBL will then notify you of your membership number. You can then play in competitive bridge tournaments.

Friday, November 20, 2020

Competitive Playing Fees Division Between Bridge Club of Madison and ACBL

Glenna:

This explains BBO charges, but not ACBL. So in addition, we pay so much for each game and so much for each table. Our monthly fees during this time has been around $300 per month. F2F it can be $300-500 a month. Hope this helps.

ACBL:

These payments are calculated:

· Virtual Club monies: The gross entry fees from your games are reduced by BBO's credit card fees. This amount can vary slightly each month but is generally approximately 3.5. For August, it was exactly 3.5%. After this is deducted, 80% goes to your club and BBO retains the other 20%. This means, for this month, 77.2% of your total entry fees are being sent to your club.

· Support Your Club monies: based upon player history from 2019, we divide funds that a participating player raised amongst the clubs they played at. This is a very complex process based upon percentages and therefore we are unable to provide a player-by-player breakdown, simply an amount owed to your club.

Regards,

Greg Coles

Director of Operations

662-796-7231 (o)

662-350-5320 (c)

American Contract Bridge League

6575 Windchase Blvd.

Horn Lake MS 38637-1523

Hand Analysis - Vic Johnson - November 23, 2020 - Possible Cue Bid

Problem: Interesting hand. This hand made 6 clubs but only 3 clubs were bid.

Vic:

An interesting hand to be sure. Distribution makes both the East & South hands much stronger than point count would indicate. The East hand is especially strong with a Quick Trick count of 3.5 (standard is 2.0) & a Loser Count of 3 (standard is 7). I can picture the following auction:

Pass - 1C (possibly only three clubs & 13-21 points) - 1S (5+ spades & 8+ points - tentative plan to bid diamonds next) - Pass (could raise clubs but that would imply a five card suit - cannot bid NT which would promise a spade stopper - pass for now might be best choice) - 2S (a simple raise) - 3C (six or more clubs & strong enough to bid again even though partner has promised nothing)

At this point NS should probably stop bidding. They are vulnerable. Looks to me like they deserve to lose 4 tricks in a diamond contract & 5 tricks in a spade contract (if West finds a diamond Ace lead). Penalty ladder for going down Vulnerable & Doubled: 200 (1st trick) - 500 - 800 - 1100. Down two would give EW more points than if EW were to bid & make game.

West, upset at not being able to tell partner with their first call that they had some points, should now raise to 5C. I see no way to get to slam in clubs from here except via a Ho Chunk "I feel lucky." bid.

An experienced pair might find the slam if on their second bid East opts to cue bid 3S. The cue bid might lead to a sequence where East finds out about partner's diamond Ace.

Hand Review by Glenna Shanahan -November 23, 2020 - Bidding 6

Problem: This hand made 6 clubs Was there a way to bid it?

Glenna:

This is truly a lucky hand that 6 can make. W has no way to show the ♦️ A, so E doesn’t know he has a pitch and is looking at 2 losers. If E opens 1 ♣️, south should overcall 1 ♠️ and that cuts W out of bidding. So, it’s just a lucky hand that I don’t believe very many good players would bid 6—most would be lucky to get to 5. If E should should use Blackwood and find W with an A, it doesn’t help him because he won’t know if it’s the ♥️ or ♦️ A!! Usually a ♦️ A would be useless opposite a void, but this time it happens to work. Not worth bidding a doubtful slam.

One rule for people to know is that you don’t use Blackwood with a void or a worthless doubleton because you don’t know which A partner has and therefore can’t know if it’s a working A or not,

Hope this helps.

Glenna