There is a huge learning curve to playing bridge online. Even if you are a life master or very seasoned player, the shift to playing online is still hard. How do you actually pay and enter events? How do you agree on conventions. How do you alert your bids? Also, almost everyone accidentally sends a private message to the entire lobby of maybe a thousand people (don’t worry, you don’t actually send it to everyone, it just looks like you do — more likely no one sees it).
Sign Up And Username
First thing is first. Create a free account! However, be a little bit thoughtful about your username. I don’t think it’s easy to change, and you might not want to get too creative. Your partners and opponents will always see your screen name, and you probably want your partners to remember it very easily. In fact, the biggest problem is friends of friends – if you pick too creative a name, people won’t know who you are, even if they know you in real life!
ACBL Number Link
This is pretty important if you plan to play any ACBL events. You need to link your ACBL Number in your account settings, and you cannot change it without jumping through hoops later. Once you make the link, you will be stratified in ACBL events such as the Online NABC based on your ACBL masterpoints. You will also win masterpoints for events that pay them!
Get BBO Dollars
The easiest way is to use your credit card and click the BB$ button from the website. Even if you use the mobile app, sometimes the app store charges a big commission on so-called “in-app purchases”, so you are probably best off buying through your old school browser.
ACBL Masterpoint Pigments
Here is where things get complicated.
You earn Gold and Red for the Online NABC. They happen three times a year, at the beginning of each NABC. About 2000 people enter each event, and the winner gets 48 gold points. More realistically, you can expect 0.5-1.5 points each session with a score between 50-60%. Above 60%, you reach the overall awards, especially Flight B and C players, who can net 3 or more in one day.
You earn Silver points for the online sectionals (there has only been one).
You earn Black points for all the Support Your Club events (SYC). This might be a limited time opportunity, but it seems it will be around through the Covid-19 shutdowns. There are daily live games with no robots allowed, and there is a daily Daylong SYC.
All other ACBL events, such as the $1.39 Daylong events that do NOT say Support Your Club, will only pay online masterpoints. They can help you hit your next rank, but will not be any pigment (not even black).
Life Master Online Is Still Hard
For many non-life masters, the bottleneck becomes silver and gold points, which are in limited supply for now through BBO. For now, it’s still easiest getting these by going to your local sectionals and regionals (no word yet on STaC week for online SYC events). I don’t think anyone wants to do away with live bridge, so it’s probably best not to open the floodgates too quickly to online points! Still, earning points online can be a huge convenience and cost savings, especially for those of us who don’t want to rent an NYC Apartment to play everyday at the local clubs, sectionals, and regionals.
Why are we so stingy with gold and red points when playing tournaments on bridge base online? I am a ACBL member and belong to a local/Springfield Illinois bridge club, but I have to travel to Regional ACBL tournaments to earn gold and red points. This takes significant travel time and costs, and during this time of social distancing and travel restrictions due to Covid-19, things are completely shut down except tru bridge base online and local club partnerships. I have over 450 black points, but I still need about 16 gold points to earn my life masters; and it is extremely difficult for me at my age (73) to travel to Regional tournaments. So let’s loosen up with more tournaments on line. If you can earn a degree online, why not gold bridge points online?
You bring up a great point. With the pause in regionals and NABCs, there is currently no easy way to get silver or gold points. For 0-500 NLM players, the most efficient way to get gold is normally the bracketed teams events at regionals. Usually 3 out of 8 teams will receive a healthy amount of gold each day, and that is typically easier than Gold Rush Pairs or Gold Rush Swiss. The online individual NABC will pay gold points, but only to those very comfortable playing against with robots (with a robot partner). There is one more avenue – the District level NAP and GNT finals. Even if NABCs are cancelled, your district might decide to only NAP district finals online. No one has done it yet, but with so much changing, it’s a way to award 20 gold/red points to players competing entirely in a 0-500 NLM field.
Looks like we spoke too soon. Online gold and red points coming up next week! https://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/play/stayandplayschedule.pdf
At one time you could play free in the Daylong events on BBO if you had less than 5 master points. Is that still available? It would be great for our new players.
Carole, that’s a good question. I know BBO and ACBL are always trying to encourage new players to try the robot duplicate games. I haven’t looked into the free promotions for 0-5 players, but I wish I knew about them when I first started. Those first 5 masterpoints are some of my most memorable times. I remember having to lose so many club games in a row before I finally got my first small fractional black point. It would have been nice to have the robots to help practice.
I saw somewhere play with 5 or less Masterpoints. I can no longer find this
I would like a clarification of what games allow earnings in what points. For example, I know virtual club games award black points. What about Speedball? Or the individual game against robots. What does it mean that some points are clear or colourless? What happens to these clear points? An explanation of all of this would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Hello – now that we are many months into the pandemic, things have evolved substantially since we originally wrote this post. I am definitely due for a followup!
Short answer, unpigmented ACBL masterpoints points are the ACBL events on BBO that are not part of the Support Your Club or Virtual Club games (and not the special online gold point regionals). Unpigmented points will help you achieve your rank. For example, the 500 total points required for Life Master. However, they won’t help with most of the masterpoint races. Most ranks also mandate a specific amount of certain points.
To add one final piece of confusion, BBO gives their own set of masterpoints, which do not count toward Life Master. These are generally games that do not include “ACBL” in the title.
We will go into more details in future post.
Do I have to be a member of ACBL to get master points from Bridge Base.com?
So when i see „2+“ next to someone‘s username on BBO, what does that mean??? 2 points, 20+ points ….??????, same with „3“ a.s.f….
Do I increase my masterpoints when I play Robot Race on BBO?
U gain BBO MP which is different from ACBL MP
What are pigmented points
How many Bbo points can count towards silver life master?
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Am to assume that ACBL pairs 0-499 games on BBO only offer BBO white points?
The non virtual club games offer what ACBL calls “unpigmented points” or “Online Points”. They are not black so while they can help you achieve various titles such as Life Master, you will eventually also need the right mixture of pigments. Gold and silver tend to be the hardest for most people to achieve.