♣ Are you tired of waiting for the various lockdowns to be over and your venue reopened so you can start playing Bridge again with your usual “Bridge Buddies” – in person? ♦ Do you find BBO with it’s wide-open entrants a little too impersonal for your taste? Then the JGOBRB Virtual RealBridge Community Club is for you! ♥ JGOBRB Virtual Bridge is an On-Line Bridge “Club”. It provides a selection of playing session options through the RealBridge platform: ► Practice/Home/Lessons; ► A standard Graded selection system; ► Open Pairs; ► By geographical Region, or; ► By the demographic of your choice! What is RealBridge? RealBridge is an On-Line system to play the game. Unlike BBO (until they copied/embraced the concept) you can both see all of the other players at your table, and communicate with them. This means you can easily have a ‘quick chat’ with a new/temporary partner to agree systems etc. This also, to a large extent, maintains the social element of the game as a night – or day - out! There are also other advantages, which will still apply even when CoViD-19 is no longer an issue: 1. You can decide at very short notice to play. The schedule & link to the upcoming games will be on the opening page here; 2. No need to prepare to go out, arrange lifts, etc.; 3. Distance from the venue - or your partner - not an issue; 4. It can even be used in your local venue to replace cards, bidding boxes, scoring systems, etc.; 5. Outside forces will not affect the game, and; 6. While so far only lightly used and is therefore not yet a factor in Ireland, other countries have used RealBridge in Congresses, and even exclusively in National Competitions. Think about it: without leaving your home, you can now play in a Congress ‘hosted’ at a venue hundreds of miles away, or even in a National event. and in this very sociable format! _______________________________________ _______________________________________ __ If you’d like to try RealBridge (a quick 8 boards, solely to experience how it works) there are always ‘Taster’ sessions at https://realbridge.online/try- realbridge.html I do recommend a pc, Chromebook or large- screen tablet, as there is a lot of stuff on the screen. _______________________________________ _______________________________________ __ If you want to start on a trial basis (probably as a “Monday Morning” type game), email Your Name, Home Club, CBAI/NBID code, Grade (A B Master Novice), preferred day/time (morning/afternoon/evening) to me at admin@jgobrb.org Or simply call James on 086-8349155 J GOB RB Virt ual Brid ge Club JGOBRB Virtual Bridge Club offers the Bridge Player many options to get back playing, especially where their Home Club aren’t offering a Virtual game. It works like this: You join it as a Club (Annual Fee €20), and each game Costs €5. We recommend that you pre-pay for a number of sessions. Regular balance updates will be issued via email. When you join, you supply your Name (*), CBAI Reg. No’s (*), Grade (*) and Home Club. The (*) indicates required data. The reason for your registering Home Club is that of the €5 session fee, €2 will either go back to your Home Club each September, or if that is not feasible, will go back to your account. We need your CBAI details to return Master Points where applicable. Common types of Games & Probable Schedule While RealBridge supports the full range of Bridge Formats, we feel that the most common will be Matchpoint Pairs, plus a “Practice/Home” session. The Home session will simply be where four regulars book a table at a Practice session. You then simply play amongst yourselves, but scoring analyses are still available so you can review the hands. We envisage a schedule of: Practice/Home – Monday @ 10:30am Thursday @ 7:15pm Saturday @ 7:15pm Matchpoint Pairs – Monday @ 7:15pm (Inter. A and better only) Wednesday @ 7:15pm Friday @ 7:15pm On Request – If you wish to arrange a specific “Session” – for example, members of a group of local clubs – this can be facilitated, with a required minimum number of tables. Lessons - We expect to run Lessons at the start of the “Traditional” year. We would hope to include Sessions for younger players (under 40’s, ish!), and Novices as required. If you’d like to try it, you can try one of The RealBridge “Taster” sessions at https://realbridge.online/try-realbridge.html or, if you’d prefer, you can join – with or without a partner – any of our Practice Sessions. Simply send an email to: admin@jgobrb.org We will send you the link and session details promptly. This will include a Camera/Microphone test link, and the two useful start-up documents. Further details are on the “Joining” page.