The latest eDeclarer (Oct 2021) 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
Unit 499 Board Director Positions
If you have had an interest in serving on the Unit 499 Board of Directors, now’s the time to let it be known!
Unit 499’s mission is to promote and stimulate interest in duplicate bridge. We are a working Board with Directors that chair or serve on one of the various committees (such as Membership, Youth Bridge, Publicity, or eDeclarer Editor), or take on responsibility for running one of our tournaments or special games (Spring and Fall Sectionals,Tunnel Tourney, Goodwill Event). This is a wonderful opportunity to give back to our Unit by volunteering your skills.
More information regarding Board Director responsibilities, expectations, and qualifications is contained in the attached document.
If you are interested in being a candidate for the Unit 499 Board, please contact Anne Hollingsworth at scootcat@pacbell.net or 925/899-7543 by October 15, 2021.
BBO Bridge
In-person games – As reported to us, all clubs have again suspended in-person games with the possible exception of Blackhawk. Please check with the club for current schedule.
See the club pages for more details. We have also updated the club pages with the latest information about resuming in-person bridge at each club (as we know it).
Special BBO Game – The Unit 499 Board has voted to offer a special game on BBO, sort of like a Unit Game. The first one was held on Sunday, July 11. Due to the great success of the game (20 tables!), another game was held on Sunday, August 1. There were 22 total tables in the 2nd game, which had separate 499er and open games. The game was limited to members of Unit 499 only.
We plan to hold another special game in the future.
Results can be found here
NAP – The 2021–22 North American Pairs have begun! Will you represent District 21 in the national finals?
The schedule for the online NAP (North American Pairs) district finals have been announced (click here). Flight A is Sat-Sun Nov 13-14, Flight B is Sat, Nov 20, Flight C is Sun, Nov 21. All of these events are on BBO.
Note that there is no requirement this year to first qualify in a unit final. If you qualified in a club (click here to check), then you are eligible to play in the district final.
The Road to the National Finals
There are three flights: up to 500 / NLM, up to 2,500, and unlimited. To reach the national finals:
- You and your partner (together or separately) need to qualify at the club level.
- Then you can play as a partnership in one unit qualifying game (due to COVID, unit games are not required to qualify for District final – club qualification is enough – check link below).
- The top finishers from unit qualifying games can compete in the district finals during the Monterey Clambake Regional, Jan 3–9, 2022.
- The top finishers from the district finals will be invited to represent District 21 in the national finals during the Reno NABC, March 10–20, 2022.
The First Step
You qualified if you had a 50% game, or were in the top half of your ACBL stratum. ACBL will notify qualifiers monthly by email. Click here is see a list.
Nite Club Game for 99ers – California 99er “Nite Club”
Three districts are teaming up to offer safe and fun 99er games online for players with less than 100 masterpoints. A special feature is post-game analysis on Zoom at no extra cost. And, you support your local club every time you play.
These games are Mondays through Thursdays at 6:30PM. Click here for more information about the games, and for how to register.
Eligibility. If you see the game listed when you try to register, you are eligible to play. If you don’t see the game, send your BBO user name to your local club for assistance. Register early the first time you play so that you aren’t shut out.
What if I’ve never played online? You should play in a virtual club game before trying the California 99er Nite Club. Click on the tab for Clubs at the top of the page and contact one for more information.
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
Unit Games:
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!