Happy March to BBOers around the world! 

March may be the best month – it marks the end of winter for most of us, and signals the awakening of spring. So it is at BBO – we are energised and ready for bridge! We will be emailing regular updates like these to members – you will always have the option of unsubscribing but we hope you don’t as we’ll try to include useful, pertinent and interesting information in each missive.

In our first newsy email to BBOers in a decade, we’ll list some of the events and changes taking place in BBO this month. Keep reading so you too, can be part of our “in” crowd. 

Delivering the NABC directly to you!

Three times a year in the Spring, Summer and Fall, North America girds itself for the biggest bridge championship bonanza in the world – the North American Bridge Championship (NABC).

The Spring NABC championship will take place in Memphis, March 21-31, which happens to be the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL’s)headquarters and also more famously, Elvis Presley aka the King’s birthplace. If you happen to be among the 5000+ Bridge players lucky enough to rock n roll in Memphis, send us a postcard! Or just take a picture and share with your BBO friends.

And if you are stuck at home? Don’t be sad. Come to Bridgebase and let us bring the NABC to you. We host the only online NABC rated event from March 16-18 (Sat-Mon), the Spring 2019 NABC Robot Individual. This is the only bridge event where you can play from the comforts of your home and earn not just red and gold ACBL masterpoints, but also a bona fide NABC title.

The upcoming NABC Robot Individual has received a massive boost in the Masterpoints awarded as well as a couple interesting bonuses – please read our detailed event information page if interested.

In addition to our unique NABC tournament, there will be the usual extensive vugraph coverage of all major NABC events, proudly brought to you by Jan Martel and her team of tireless vugraph operators. Don’t be lonesome this March in the heartbreak hotel. Come to BBO and let’s bridge through all the years, till the end of time. (Elvis not included)

Debuting a brand new Bridge Base

We are finally ready to reveal a few of the things we’ve been working on. For a few months now, we have been offering a “preview” version of our new client for any BBOers adventurous enough to boldly go where few have gone before.

The most exciting change of the new client is…you won’t see much change! That’s right, although this was an almost 1 full year labor of love from our Fred Gitelman, the significant differences were mostly in the underlying code base and not in the stuff players may worry about.

Fred has created a lightweight, secure BBO version that no longer uses the much criticized Adobe Flash protocol. He retained all the features our members seem to enjoy and added a few minor tweaks.

The result is a smoother, faster, BBO experience for our members. Try the new generation of BBO today at www.bridgebase.com and see for yourself. The new client will be fully rolled out in April, so you guys are the first to get a sneak preview of our flashless future.

New Web Games!

You may have noticed a few new additions to BBO’s web offerings at www.bridgebase.com. We are now up to 7 completely free, standalone bridge games, including the newest crazy good offering – Bridge Master! 

I can’t even begin to tell you how good Bridge Master is. It really is something you need to try for yourself to see. When I was a novicial bridge player 15 years ago and just getting interested in this crazy card game with upteenth rules, an online bridge friend pointed me to a software created and sold by Fred and Sheri Gitelman for about $60. That was the basic Bridge Master 2000 set, a declarer game that improves your game in an easy to understand, non judgemental way. The complete set with a retail value of almost $200 is now offered to BBOers free, courtesy of Fred and Sheri. 

The game has 5 skill levels, each teaching techniques essential to each level. You only succeed if you use the right technique to solve the game, but if you can’t figure it out, there’s a detailed solution with step by step instruction. Highly recommended, 3 thumbs up! 

To play any of BBO’s web games, go to our homepage of course and you’ll see the 7 convenient options. We are actively trying to add more games to the list. BBOers, please share our bridge games with your friends if you enjoy bridge, we need to repopulate the world!

Sorry, were we still doing phrasing?