Spring comes with good news for BBO and BBOers:
The Zia Mahmood Sectional — BBO’s first online ACBL sectional — will take place on March 2nd and 3rd (Monday and Tuesday)!
As this is our first Sectional experiment ever, we decided to make it free. That’s right, entry will be FREE, and the event will award ACBL Silver Masterpoints. The only requirement in order to participate in this fantastic event is to be an ACBL member with a valid membership.
- Click here to join / renew your ACBL membership
- Click here to update your ACBL number on BBO
- Event page
When?
- Event dates: Monday, March 2nd and Tuesday, March 3rd;
- There will be two, independent one-session sectional events awarding Silver Masterpoints;
- Entry will be free;
- Must be an ACBL member, and your ACBL number should be up to date in your BBO account;
- Each session will be 24 boards, matchpoints, played with robots, daylong style (try an ACBL Daylong tournament to see what the format would be);
- Tournaments will start at midnight US Eastern and last 24 hours. You can start playing any time, but you have until midnight US Eastern time to complete your 24 boards;
- Registration is now open, so you can register in advance — just remember to come play on March 2nd and 3rd.
How to register?
- Click ACBL World, then click the event you wish to register to. You can play the Monday session, the Tuesday session, or both.
- If you want to play both days, remember to click to register on each of them. These are two, independent, one-day sessions.
Why “Zia”?
The winners of the two sectional events win one ACBL speedball with Zia Mahmood!
Stay tuned for more updates in the following days. As always, you can reach us for questions, comments, suggestions at acbl@bridgebase.com.
Comments
58 responses to “Free “Zia” Online Sectional: March 2nd and 3rd”
I love ths idea. Looking forward to play in the tournament.
How stratified I wonder
How do you find the results. Porches
Sounds great
I liked it also.I just usually go too fast and do not play as well as I should.I hope they continue it
I like it also. Looking forward to it.
Is it stratified with sections, like the national events?
Short answer is yes 🙂
Yes, it’s stratified and sectioned.
I’m excited!!!!
Love it 😊
that’s great
Is just like playing an instant matchpoint game on BBO with 3 robots?
You are playing with three robots, using the robot bidding system, so that part is the same as an instant matchpoint game.
Hope you will join us 🙂
A great idea!
can I play or must I be a member
Hello Johnmbau,
You must be a member of ACBL and have an active current, unexpired, membership. Hope you can join us!
This is a wonderful idea. Sectionals in my area are few and far between – and I need Silver points badly! Great idea BBO.
It would be so nice of all of you to play badly so that I can play with Zia. 😉
I’ll do my best to help you out 😀
How nice! 🙂
Will the Robot’s bids be explained? Will they be using yellow card?
Hello Mikeylike,
The robots play a modified 2/1 bidding system. Yes, the bids are explained. Here’s a link to the robot system notes, which you can also find under Robot World:
http://www.bridgebase.com/doc/gib_system_notes.php
Hope you will join us for this game 🙂
Where is acbl world. On acbl site
When you first log into BBO, ACBL World is the top link you see under Featured Areas.
ACBL World is on the BBO site. It is under Featured Areas.
how to register as acbl member?
Become an ACBL member here: https://www.acbl.org/join/
Hope you will join us for this game 🙂
Hello Kuter,
You will need go to the official ACBL website to join the ACBL. If you look at the article you will see a link that takes you to the ACBL website “Click here to join / renew your ACBL membership”
Hope you can join us in this first ever event on BBO 🙂
Looking forward to it!
Can you play in this tournament using the old BBO?
You can play in it using the older flash version of BBO or the new html client. There are no “daylong” style tournaments at all on the ancient downloadable .exe for Windows so if you mean that one, no.
Hello Kimpton,
If you can see the game listed in Pending ACBL tournaments, the version of BBO you are using will allow you to play in the game. The old downloaded Windows version does not have the ability to play in the daylong games.
very interesting game by asian master
I am looking forward to this event. I find that robots are better to play with (opponents) than humans. They are faster. I am not so sure as a partner, though!
I was sent a http website that I click on to play BB—-will it work for the ACBL tournament?
Hi Mkc21,
Log into BBO
Click on ACBL World
Click on the games to register (you need to register for both days individually)
Then on March 2nd you can play on the March 2nd game by repeating the above steps 🙂
Have fun playing!
If these are silver points, they will count toward the McKinney race, right?
Hello Peterjaye,
I’m not sure of the answer to this question, but will find out and let you know.
If you are lucky, you will see a set of boards in which West is not a very frequent declarer. If not, then prepare to see a lot of screwy leads by your Robot North partner when West is declarer.
I am looking forward to this
I hope to join you March 2nd and March 3rd #587 1883
How do you apply if your from Ireland ?
You can join ACBL from anywhere
Do I have to play all the boards in one sitting, or can I log in, out, in?
You can log out and come back to finish. Tourney closes at midnight USA Eastern time, to make sure you come back in time to finish before midnight.
can i play with a live partner or is it all robots??
I tried I tried to log on to the instant tournament which I registered for last week but could not do so. Please help
Playing Zia Sectional this morning and Board 21 froze during the bidding. My internet is working fine. What should I do?
Looking at the masterpoints awarded for yesterday’s session, I don’t understand the calculation.
I won masterpoints for 5th place in a 10 person section (I am an A player) and others won for 7th place. In the next section down only 5 of 12 won masterpoints. Some that did not had higher percentage than those who won in my section. What is the logic of masterpoint awards?
This is a great idea looking to the future of bridge in the age of technology. However, when a mid-level C player finishes in the top 3.5% of the entire field, the top 2% of the combined B & C field and the top 1% of the C field with a 64.69% game based on comparison with 100 players per hand and gets 1.05 masterpoints something is amiss with the scoring algorithm. Would be happy to discuss the view from the cheap seats with anyone interested in making this idea more successful when it moves to a paid basis.
tried playing about 10:45 central time – about 10;50 i was disconnected after playing 6 boards- got back in – played 1 board – got diconnected again and can’t get back in
Hellarnak
just noticed that it runs based on astern time
hellarnak
where can I find my results?
T Y.
How do i find results from Zia tourney?
How were player grouping determined?
How long before the masterpoints show up on ACBL>