Play Bridge Online - Getting Started

Online bridge is a fascinating addition to your card playing repertoire. I'll be discussing Bridgebase Online here, though there are several others. You can log in at any time, and play with people from around the world. Most games are use duplicate scoring. The ACBL's SAYC [Standard American Yellow Card] is the default convention card, though you can easily design your own, even keeping different cards for different partners. I won't be discussing anything about how to play bridge itself, just what options you have online.

Joining is free and you can play forever without ever paying anything. Some tournament features cost $.25 or $1. You pay by PayPal or credit card. You can earn both ACBL black points at sanctioned tournaments, which are added to your other ACBL points; or BBO points which measure your progress online. Most tournaments use 12 hands, though some have a bit fewer. Plus there are some tournaments where you play as many hands as you can in a given time period.

There seem to be a bewildering number of options when you first log on, so I'll start with the easiest choices. You can ignore most of the options entirely at first. When you first log in, choose "Help me find a game" from the menu. Then choose "Take me to the first seat available". That's it - you'll be placed at a table that needs a player. You'll stay there as long as you like. When you'd like to leave it's common courtesy to finish the hand you're playing, then say something in chat like "gtg tx" [got to go, thanks] or tell people it's your last hand while still playing, then leave when it's done. The system will then find someone else to play at that table.

IMP scoring may be new to many players.  It's similar to Swiss team IMP scoring, but here applied to pairs. You get points on a sliding scale depending on the differences among all scores. While playing at a table, you can click on any previously played board, then click on 'Other Tables' and you'll see how others did.  In this example, most NS pairs were in 3NT.  Making it with 3 overtricks gave them 8.8 IMP, while being set in the contract gave the EW pair 8.4 IMP.

Master points & Total points are scored as you would in rubber bridge, with the same options to see previous boards.  For tournaments, you'll get your updated score after each round, but you won't be able to see the details until the tournament ends.

ACBL

The menu shows the various kinds of ACBL tournaments available, what the entry fee is, and how long before the tourney starts.  You can click 'More' for the details of the tournament, and 'Join' if you want to enter.  If it's an Individual tournament, you just need to register, using BBO$ you've previously set up. There are 2 types of Individual tournaments.  In the first type, you'll play either 6 rounds of 2 boards or 4 rounds of 3 boards, with different opponents and partner each time.  For Robot Individual tourneys, you are always South, AND you get the best hand at the table each time.  These are great for practicing your declarer play as you'll end up declarer about 80% of the time.  Everyone else plays the same hands.  The robots are  very good, but not expert.  They'll challenge you, but also make some blunders.  It's all part of the luck of the game  You may sometimes see 'goulash' tournaments.  In these the hands are very distributional - usually several hands will have 7, or even 10 card suits.  Another great practice for those types of hands that you don't see too often.

 The other main type of tournament is BBO.  All ACBL tourneys are also BBO, so if you win .78 in an ACBL match, that score gets reported to the AACBL, but also increases your BBO score online.  The other BBO games only increase your online score.  This means the ACBL tournaments are usually more competitive

Not surprisingly to play in a pairs tournament you need a partner.   After choosing to 'join' a tournament, you need to register.  BBO then lets you enter your partner's name.  If they're online they'll get an invitation and when they accept, you're inthe list.  There's also a list of players looking for rpartners.  You can invite one of these players.  Most players will pay their own $1 fee, but many of the higher ranking players ask for yu to pay for them.  Your choice, but many players rated 7 or even 9 will play with you once you've gotten to level about level 4 [shows you have 20+ BBO points].  Ratings may mean they've just played a lot, so inviting players at your level usually works. 

When you meet players in any game, you can click on their name to get their profile.  You can also leave your own private notes about them, so you can remember who you've done well with.  You can also set them as a 'friend' and you'll be notified whenever they log on.

To chat, just type in the chat box and click or hit enter. Most players use standard abbreviations in chat , but here are some specific bridge ones that are handy.