Announcements

Libby Glenn is moving to live with her son in California. We shall certainly miss her.

From Don and Sherri:

We’re adding a new 299er game on Wednesday morning at 9:30. We had considered running a parallel game with the Open on Thursdays like we did for Silver Week. Our concern is that it would take too many tables away from the Open. We need those Tuesday/Thursday Open games to stay viable and if the table count drops too low, folks stop playing. The Open games are stratified.

This sometimes feels like a little bit of a balancing act. It is not a problem for us to add new games and yet we know that too many games can get to be problematic. We are also aware that there are lots of folks with less than 750 MPs playing and we want to accommodate to that as much as we can.

For now, let’s start with the new game on Wednesday mornings and see how many show up for that. It is very easy to add games. We are open to it. We are also open to different point ranges. The 299er seems to be about the right range for quite a few folks.

As always, more feedback/input is welcome. The comments are always thoughtful and helpful.

Stay Safe. Stay Sane.

Don/Sherri

Drew Casen is a championship bridge player who apparently missed his calling as a comedian. I got an especially big laugh out of “The Alcatraz Coup” story.

From Don and Sherri:

Monday begins another Silver Linings Week. All Silver and double points.  For this week, we will be adding a 299er game on Thursday. The game will start at 12:15. So, you can play in the Open game that day or the 299er. 

We know that ACBL just sent out a notice indicating that the restrictions per playing in other Virtual clubs have been modified somewhat. We also are aware that at some point back there, some of you may have received an email inviting you to play in the limited points game in Corvallis. In fact, it might have looked like it came from EBC. It did not. While we totally understand that sometimes it works out better to play in other games, we want you to know that we will do whatever we can to make it easy for you to play in our games. The Virtual Club is how we are able to pay the rent. 

One thing we are considering is running a parallel 299er (or less) game along with the Open game on Tuesday and/or Thursday. Let us know if this has some appeal for you or if there are other options you would like us to consider.

Stay safe. Stay sane.

ACBL has eased up on some of the restrictions on having people from outside our club play in our Virtual Club Games.

New guidance from ACBL:

The rules for visiting Virtual Clubs on Bridge Base Online (BBO) have relaxed, letting you play more online bridge than ever. Previously, to join a Virtual Club you needed to have played face-to-face bridge at that club in the last year. Now you can play as a visitor!

If you used to play face-to-face bridge at that club but moved – you can play! If your partner is a regular at the club – you can join them! Some rules do apply. Virtual Clubs are limited to a certain percentage of visitors each week, and club managers still control who may access the Virtual Club.

Here’s how you can be a visitor:

From the BBO home screen, click on “Competitive.” At this point there are several options. One is “ACBL Virtual Clubs.” If you go there, you will only see games that you are able to play in as a non-visitor. In other words, these are clubs where we have a record of you playing in face-to-face over the last ~18 months.

If you wish to see other clubs, instead of going to “ACBL Virtual Clubs,” go to “All Tournaments.” This will produce a very long list.

To narrow that list down, you can type the name of a specific club into the search box at the top of the screen. Alternatively, if you wish to see all Virtual Club games, type “vacb” in the search box, and it will show you all Virtual Club games that are open for registration.

The club director of the Virtual Club you wish to attend will need to “follow” you in order for you to be able to register for their game. Quite often the club will put instructions for this in the “Details” tab. You can also send them a private message by clicking on the VACB number that is in the “Host” column in the list of tournaments

We need to acknowledge the passing of Bob Freeman. For many years, Bob and his wife Vi were bridge in our area. Along with Jim and Eleanor Rice, the two couples built and ran the Finesse Bridge Center on Country Club Road in the 1970s. When the two couples sold that facility, Bob and Vi moved their games first to the basement of the Eugene Hotel and later to the old Elks Lodge on Centennial Blvd. Shortly after we opened the Emerald Bridge Club, we held a game honoring Bob for all he had done for Bridge. At the time I gave him a life-time free pass for games at EBC. Bob said, “You must think I am not going to live that long if you are giving me a life-time pass.” I did counter that five years later. I said to Bob, “If I had known you were going to live this long, I would have put a time-stamp on it.” We would not have the Bridge community we have today without the efforts of Bob and his wife Vi. Rest In Peace.