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Newsletter April 2020

New online event for the less confident


A new morning session starts this Friday 24th at 10:00 am on BBO (Bridge Base Online).

Please contact Julie Atkinson (details below) so she can make you a friend and then you will be able to register for the session. This is for novice to low intermediate players. If you are too good, Julie will let you know.

The new Friday session is in addition to the Novices Monday and Thursday morning sessions. Again, contact Julie to pre-register and join.

Contact Julie on BBO direct qwikjanz or jatkinson@xtra.co.nz or 021 175 4701.

Coming to the end of the lockdown …


Patrick Carter and Julie have kept busy and have supervised some 35,000 hands for over 3,500 players in the 12:30 and 7:30 daily BBO pairs events. In addition 276 players are battling out the Teams event which ends in late May.

We’ll be organising further events should there be demand and they will be announced via this newsletter and the front page of the Auckland Bridge Club website www.akbc.co.nz.  To add yourself to the email list click here.

The AKBC website front page also links to basic instructions about BBO and joining events. There are some BBO FAQ’s later in this newsletter.

AKBC finances


Eventually we should be able to return to face to face bridge. And we’ve had some questions about the Club’s financial position. Our monthly “burn rate” while shut is $5,000 to cover depreciation, insurance, rates, security, audit and various fees and licences but excluding salaries.

The government’s Wage Subsidy Scheme has contributed towards paying the wages of our full and part time staff to date. We are in a better position than many.

New Zealand Bridge has kindly agreed to make a contribution to the costs of running the BBO sessions mentioned earlier.

And we are very grateful for the donations received from both members and non-members and, as a registered NZ Charity, are able to provide tax certificates to those requiring the documentation (by emailing aucklandbridgeclub@xtra.co.nz).

To donate your money to Auckland Bridge Club please pay ANZ Remuera 01 0258 0010388 00: please don't hold back!

Food for thought, face to face session times

We would welcome views and ideas from members about club bridge sessions when we return to face to face play at our club. What are your views on:-

  • Starting daytime sessions at 9:45 am (rather than 11:00 am) so that, if numbers are restricted, we have the option of running an afternoon session at 1:00 pm
  • Starting evening play at 7:10 pm (rather than 7:30 pm)


BBO FAQs

Help- my screen is frozen and nothing is happening! Answer- You have played all three boards for this round and the move doesn’t happen until time is up or everyone has finished playing this round-whichever happens sooner.


Help-A robot is playing my cards (badly, okay well?) and I can’t stop it. Answer- You are dummy and your partner is declarer. Yes a player told the whole tournament that a robot was playing the cards badly. Partner agreed at the end of the hand that they had, perhaps, not played as well as they might have-but badly is still in dispute.


My partner isn’t responding. Answer- Some partners have thought they were dummy and have wandered off for a nature break. On the other hand some connections fail and partner may have been disconnected. The director will give a bit of time for partner to return, but may get a substitute if this takes a long time.


Help- I am lost in History- Answer-Time travel has not been invented and normally you can close an open caption/box by closing it by clicking on the x. If this isn’t possible/doesn’t work then log off BBO and log back on. Doesn’t take much time and normally works.
This also works for the bidding wandering back and forward across the screen as well as someone’s information blocking what you can see.
To help the Director, if you can give a brief explanation of what you see we can often help-panic doesn’t work well.


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