The latest eDeclarer (June 2020) is available! Go to eDeclarer in the menu above to see this eDeclarer and earlier editions.
Diamond in the Ruff, the District 21 newsletter, can be found here
BBO Bridge
The week of May 25 – June 1 is Silver Linings week. All virtual club games on BBO will award silver points, rather than the usual black points, and will also grant a much higher MP award than usual.
Due to the closures of all our Unit 499 bridge clubs, we are posting some information on how to play bridge on-line from the comfort of your home. ACBL has an agreement with Bridge Base On-line (BBO) to provide several types of bridge games daily, some of which award MasterPoints. We would like to highlight 2 types of games in which players can help assist clubs in the unit financially. Several clubs, including Brentwood (Tues & Fri), CCBC, Discovery Bay (Sat), Lamorinda and Rossmoor (see the club page or the Weekly Unit Game schedule for more information ) are holding games on BBO. Proceeds go to the club, and you can earn regular black points. There are also other games daily – entitled Support Your Club. The proceeds from these games go to whichever club(s) that you regularly play in.
There are several tutorials to help you get started and learn the ins-and-outs of BBO. ACBL has some videos on its website at https://www.acbl.org/bbotutorials/. Here is a link from ACBL to general instructions for Support Your Club games – https://blog.bridgebase.com/2020/03/18/how-to-log-in-to-bridge-base-online-and-play-acbls-support-your-club-game/. Here is another set of videos on YouTube on how to get started on BBO – https://www.youtube.com/
Finally, here is a link to the video tutorial that a bridge club in NY produced – https://zoom.us/rec/play/vJx8c
CLOSURES – Due to social distancing efforts to combat Coronavirus, all bridge clubs have suspended games. But see above for games available on BBO
ACBL has recommended cancelling or postponing all bridge games through May 11. We have therefore cancelled the Spring Sectional, scheduled for April 25-26.
Unit Games in May:
Also don’t forget to check the club pages for club championships, charity games and other special club games.
Partnerships – Just a reminder that the Unit has its own Google Group for bridge players seeking a partner. New board member Andy Shockley, ncalifvol@aol.com, is now in charge of managing this Google Group. For more information, here is a document describing this Group and the general Google Group, which is still managed by board member Judy Keilin.
The Unit 499 Online Directory is up and running! Click here to view the directory or discover what you need to do to be included. There is also a link for the Directory in the menu at the top of this page. Clare Smith, clares@astound.net, maintains the directory on behalf of Unit 499.
Google Groups for unit news and finding partners Here is some updated info on how these work.
Free Youth Bridge Classes are held at CCBC on Tuesday nights at 7:00pm every other week (2nd & 4th Tuesdays). Contact Bruce Johnsonbaugh at 925-766-7586 for more info. Click here for a couple of pictures of the future of bridge! Bruce, thank you for your continued effort to promote the game of bridge for the the youth in our unit!