Phil Wood Invitational Online Bridge Clubs

What is it?  It is (was) the online version of invitational duplicate bridge games at: Capilano Golf and Country Club (Tuesday Morning at 9:15am, restarting February 22) Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club (was Thursday Morning) Arbutus Club (was Monday Morning) Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club (Monday Evening at 6:45pm, restarting February 21) Our weekly online game began on October 6, 2020 and fifty-two games later the resumption of live bridge at two of our clubs resulted in the end of the online game, but with new Omicron restrictions in place we returned for January-February 2022! With the ending of the Omicron restrictions, we'll keep this web page up to track the return of live bridge at the four clubs when we hear news, but now that the Omicron restrictions have been lifted, and others that existed last fall as well, it would seem unlikely that this online game will continue: if it does we will need to find a new timeslot, since Tuesday Afternoon will see me returning home from the Capilano game. I invite suggestions from those interested in continuing online. Check below for the latest news. Games were held on Bridge Base Online (BBO), and instructions for those new to this online site, or new to the tournament area, are below. A BBO membership is free, but to play games online you will need to be a BBO member and do several things in advance of the game. These will all be described below. Players from our group still interested in playing online are welcome to join in the Vancouver Bridge Centre's online games, information here.

Director McBruce watches a Short Club "auction" go off the rails with growing horror...

News

Live Bridge is again re-emerging, and this time we hope it will be permanent! Here is the current status of live bridge at our four clubs (this information may change quicker than I can update this in future):

• Van Lawn (Monday Evening, 6:45pm): February 21 will be the first game of 2022! Bridge restarted last fall and our learning players have also returned, playing a few hands from previous games, with commentary sheets and results. We recently moved the start time back to 6:45pm in order to finish by 10pm. All players must bring photo ID along with proof of vaccination and wear masks except when at tables. We expect this to be the norm at most clubs. ACBL Results for the live games are here.
• Capilano (Tuesday Morning, 9:15am): February 22 will be the first game of 2022! The 2022 Spring Session will go until April 5. Bridge restarted last fall in a new downstairs area; masks are required except when at tables. Most Capilano players have sent their vaccination proof to the club itself and a list of those who have not has been provided to the organizers. If you are a Capilano member who has not yet sent the club your vaccination status, or a member of another club, you will need to bring proof of vaccination the first time you play. ACBL Results for the live games are here.
• Arbutus (was Monday Morning, 9am): Registration for Fall 2021 stalled at just 10 players, so bridge has been placed on hold until 2022, when Omicron restrictions delayed the return further.
• Shaughnessy (was Thursday Morning, 9am): Also hoping to start in January 2022 but delayed by Omicron restrictions.

Online game on hold... The easing of gathering restrictions on February 16 has made it possible to give live games the green light and Capilano and Van Lawn did so very quickly. The online game moved to Thursday Afternoon last fall when those two clubs reopened live but did not last long. If there is interest in the online game continuing, possible timeslots for me are: Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, Wednesday Morning or Afternoon, Thursday Afternoon, Friday Morning.

Comeback! I announced the huge January 25 game of Margaret Duncan - Pamela Moore (78.03%) halfway through the February 1 game, and then checked their scores to that point. Boards 9 and 10 were not yet scored, but on boards 1-8 they had six below average and only one score even close to the 78% they scored in the previous week's win. So at the end it was a big surprise to see them on top again after that start: they had 100% on Boards 9-12, and only one board in the remaining eight below average, scoring 79.69% in the final 12 boards!

The Tuesday Afternoon online game moved to Thursday Afternoon (1:45pm) starting October 21, following Capilano's restart on Tuesday Mornings. Unfortunately, the reopening of live games at two of our four clubs seems to have affected our base of online players, and our last game was on October 28.

A new page of results has been added here!  It shows everyone's BBO name and real name, as well as which club they are from, and their score and rank.  As we get more games in I should be able to program some stats and leaders as well!

VBC Invite Now that we have settled in, some of us are venturing off to play in other games, and you are all invited to play in the other games I direct for the Vancouver Bridge Centre.  The process is similar except that I use a different BBO account to run those games, VACB154971, and you will probably need to contact me to get on the VBC's list.  Be sure to include your BBO name and your partner's.  A complete list of VBC weekly games and times are here.  For the Monday and Thursday morning masterpoint-limited games, both partners must be ACBL members, a non-ACBL member is treated as though they have 10,000 masterpoints by BBO!  ACBL offers trial memberships at its website here.

Results

The results of the game are available shortly after it ends from the BBO link, then about an hour later from the ACBL Live link (which replaces BBO names with real names where BBO accounts have been linked to ACBL numbers: if you see your BBO name there and you have an ACBL number, you should link it to your BBO account in the My ACBL area of BBO).  Shortly after the ACBL Live link appears I will add the results to our results page, which has as much as I have been able to program into it: BBO and real names, clubs, and stats!

Tips for Playing

Everything in the BBO tour below will become second nature once you are familiar with finding our club and signing up for our game.  There are many differences in playing online bridge that you'll need to know.  Here is a quick(ish) rundown:

• Timing: Online bridge is very strictly timed.  The game starts when it starts, and if you or partner are absent, the Director cannot fix the movement the way we sometimes do in offline bridge.  When play begins, there is a clock in the play area that tells you how much time is left in the round, but unlike offline bridge, if you run out of time, the results so far are saved and the computer determines the likely result.  With one or two tricks left, this is usually accurate, but if you have been delayed and the last hand of the round ends with many tricks left to play, the computer awards average to both sides, and lets the Director decide.  I'll look at it and perhaps decide on a result, or perhaps give 60-40 if one side seems more likely to succeed.  If you disagree with the assigned score that the computer (or sometimes me) has given, you can send me a message and ask me to have a second look.
  
  It will take us a few games to get used to online bridge, so for the first game or two we'll run 8 minutes per board, which is a LOT of time for online bridge (no card sorting, or getting up, or scoring needed!).  Most tables should have little trouble keeping up.  If everyone finishes a round before the timer runs out, the move for the next round will be made early.  If you go off to the pantry for a snack after finishing a round with the clock at '5', be sure you have the sound on, so that you will hear the shuffling noise that signals the start of a new round: it may only take two or three minutes.
  
  At the VBC (Vancouver Bridge Centre) games I have discovered that checking tables for pace and occasionally claiming when a result is clear saves many minutes.  You may see this happen: if you have a difficult decision in one suit to make and I can see that every option succeeds, and time is running out, or you are the last pair still playing, I will enter the result sure to be reached as a score adjustment so that we can all move on to the next round.
• Everyone starts with Board 1: In online bridge we can make as many virtual copies of a deal as we need, so we do!  Everyone plays every board at the same time, starting throughout the virtual room with Board 1 and going in order.  The pairs move in a strange way, but the computer handles it all, plunking everyone into the spot they need to be at.  The initial table assignments are random, and the pair at table 1 NS stays, while everyone else "moves."  The rotation of the other pairs means that we can play two-board rounds with as few as six tables.  Most pairs will play some boards N-S and others as E-W.  You'll hardly notice the difference when you don't have to get up and move between rounds.
• Not quite as many boards: Instead of the 24-board games usually played at the club, online games are shorter.  At the VBC we began with 18-board games and have recently expanded to 20 boards with a short break after round 5.  Before the lockdown, most online tournaments were quite short, 8 boards or 12 boards.  We really didn't know how new online players would take to the online version of the game, so we went for the minimum number (18) that pays full masterpoints.  The new 20-board setup with the short break in the middle works very well: I can report fewer fatigue-based mistakes in the later rounds!  It pays to get up and move around when you get the chance!
• Chat is Cool!: The one thing that has made the Virtual Club program work so well is that we all know most of the other players and we can talk to one another as we play, through the onscreen chat.  It is great to type "hello Bob" at the start of a round and see something witty from another player at the table.  You can chat "to table" (the usual default) or send private chat messages to the opponents, and even to partner once the round is complete.  Some common things seen on chat are "typ" (thank you partner: when dummy comes down), "glp" (good luck partner), "wdp" (well done partner), "npp" (no problem, partner), "thk" (thinking: this lets others know that you are considering your next bid or play and have not been relocated to Kazakhstan by internet gremlins....) and many others.  Private chat to the opponents allows everyone to ask questions about their agreements without alerting partner that you are interested.  Be aware though, that if there is a dispute or an incident, the Director can look at the table history, including the time taken by each player for actions, and the content of private chats.
  
  Cool trick: typing an exclamation point followed by s, h, d, or c (or capitals) is interpreted by the chat display as a suit symbol: if you type "Can we make 4!h?" it will display as "Can we make 4♥?"
• Bidding: When you make a call, you click Pass, Double, Redouble, or a contract level then a suit (or NT).  Once you click the Pass, Double, Redouble, or the denomination after choosing a level, your bid is made.  But if you need to alert or want to post an explanation for your bid, you need to do that first.  There is space for a typed description of your bid, and a check box for alerting, that you should use first, before making the actual bid.  If partner opens 1NT and you want to make a 2♥ call tranferring to spades, you should first type 'transfer' into the explain box, click on alert, then click '2' and '♥'.  Partner will not see your explanation during the hand, but the bid will be highlighted and the opponents will be able to see the explanation.
  
  If you forget, you can click on your already-made bid in the diagram and add an explanation later, but if an opponent is damaged because of the delay, the score may need to be adjusted.  When an opponent makes a strange bid that you suspect might need an explanation, clicking on it in the diagram asks for an explanation.
  
  The main idea here is that in online bridge, we alert and explain our own bids, and these alerts and explanations are shown only to the opponents, not to partner.  Partner has to assume that 2♥ call is a transfer even though partner's screen will not show an alert.
  
  It will all seem strange at first compared to the way we alert and explain partner's call offline, but this actually is a better system: partner receives no unauthorized information when an alert is made.  It works nicely once we all get used to it!
• Misclicks: At some point everyone is going to click spades instead of hearts, or pass a forcing bid.  ACBL policy is NOT to allow "undo"s in tournaments.  If you misclick, you have to live with it as best you can, and you are NOT allowed to let partner know what happened until the hand ends.  If your misclick has the potential to confuse the opponents it is permitted (but not required) to let them know you goofed up.  If you misclick often, you may want to turn on Confirm Bids and Plays in Settings, or try hand diagrams instead of pictures of cards.  I have found that many players who seem to misclick often are playing on a screen too small.  You may love your iPad mini, but if your fingertip is larger than the space for one card or bid onscreen, you're going to misclick often: use a more precise pointing device like a mouse or a tablet pen.
• Disconnects: This happens sometimes.  If you lose connection, we can wait for a minute or two but after that I will usually find a substitute player.  If you lose connection, don't give up: when you come back your place is reserved and you will be automatically re-seated.  If enough time has gone by that a sub has come in for you, you'll wait until the end of the hand, and then be reseated.
  
  Most problems are caused by being too far from the WiFi source, with other problems sometimes being connecting cables coming loose, or too many open programs on your device.
• Don't Panic!: A number of problems seem to come up in every game that prove embarassing to the one claiming the problem.  Here are some to watch out for:  "I can't play a card from my hand!"  Surprisingly often, this happens when dummy has placed the final contract in declarer's suit, and declarer leaves to get a snack, thinking dummy is the declarer!  "I can't play the card I want to!"  Are you following suit?  The system will never let you revoke.  Is it actually your lead?  The system will not let you lead out of turn.  "A popup window is blocking my view!"  Some smaller screens leave BBO little option other than to put popup windows in the middle of the screen.  If you see an X in the upper right corner, click that to remove the popup.  The popup may have an OK button that removes it when clicked.  If neither, it should disappear if you click on the popup anywhere.
• Claims: Please don't be the player that refuses all claims without examining them.  Claims are designed to save time.  Declarer may have all the rest even though you have a cashable ace; you need to see it from declarer's point of view rather than yours.  Not all claims claim ALL of the remaining tricks; read them carefully.  If your claim is denied and you think it shouldn't be, or a claim is accepted that shouldn't have been, call the Director and I will decide.  Accepting a claim does not hold you to that result if the actual number of tricks is clearly something different.
  
  If you have the rest with more than one or two tricks to play, it will save time to claim if your winners are obvious.  Sometimes you might want to add a comment to your claim to clarify your plan; you need to do that first.  Even worse than rejecting a claim without checking it out is doing nothing; this just wastes even more time.  If you are not sure, reject the claim so play can continue.
• Playing out winners hoping for miracles: this common play where you have one loser and can only succeed if the opponents lose their minds while you cash your winners is only allowed to work online if you haven't fallen behind.  If time is tight, I will see that the result is clear enough and assign the result rather than prolonging the deal.  If there is a real chance that you may actually squeeze someone, I will let you play as long as time is not being needlessly wasted.
• History: The History tab on your screen will show you what you did and what others did on each board.  You can access it during the game when you are dummy or have finished a round early.  Please don't make a habit of checking your results at the start of the next round.  We have too many "history buffs" at the VBC who somehow take two minutes to pass a 3-count while everyone waits.  They're not thinking.  They're looking at history.
  
  If something has happened that needs to be corrected, it can be done later, there is no need to delay the people at your table by checking for it now.
• Needless to say: It's not proper to play with others nearby also playing, or coaches watching and advising, nor is it at all OK to use technology to communicate with others who are also playing (unless there is some emergency).  Online bridge is a lot of fun but breaks down when one of us decides to utilize the dark arts that have plagued high-level bridge in that past few years.  BBO actually watches results for suspicious actions that succeed more often than they should and finds practitioners of the dark arts quite often.  That said, shorter games of 18-20 boards do tend to produce a higher range of scores at the far ends.  We should congratulate these big scores rather than assume something is going on.  I do sometimes check a pair's results if something seems strange, but seldom see a pattern over the course of an entire game.
• More tips and stories: check out the Virtual VBC web page here.  If you are looking for more online bridge, we'd love to have you!

A Tour of BBO (With Pictures)

Finally got some time to complete this: a 20-photo tour of BBO covering most (all I hope) of the questions people have been asking.  Ask me more online by sending a message to VACB130146.  BBO is a big place and can be overwhelming on your first visit.  Of the millions of places to go, here are the ones you should look at first:

This is the screen you will see when you open your browser on a computer and go to www.bridgebase.com, the main login screen.  At the bottom are eight activities you can do without a BBO account, just to try things out.  Actually seven, the one at the lower-right takes you to the next screen to log in with your account.  If you are playing using the BBO app on a phone or tablet, you'll start on the next screen with logging in.  But on a computer (or even from the browser on a tablet or phone) you can practice against "robot" players just to see what bridge is like. Probably the neatest thing you can do from here is play Bridge Master, a unique program that will teach you declarer play by guiding you to the best line--it does this by arranging the defender's cards on the fly so that if you choose an inferior line, it will fail!  Many top players say they learned more from Bridge Master than any other book or lesson.  Check it out when you have a few minutes.  Just don't fall into the trap of thinking you are World Class right away! When you are ready to enter the online bridge world, click on the red button in the middle of the screen or the one at the top right.  (If you have been playing online for many years and use the "Click here for the old, Flash version" link, you will see vastly different screens, and I have some bad news for you: the Flash version will be retired at the end of 2020.  Flash was a browser add-on that has been replaced by more recent features of HTML, and most of us got tired of updating it as often as it needed to be updated...)
		This main login page is what you will see as the first screen on a tablet or phone.  Down below are buttons that allow you to create a free membership.  Every membership has a BBO name of 10 characters maximum, and a login password you will need to remember.  The Remember Me checkbox records the password you enter to the browser's memory, so it will be auto-filled next time (even if someone else is using your computer, so be aware of that before your grandson plays a few tournaments on your account....).  Invisible allows you to enter the site without friends getting notifications that you have arrived.  Please don't be invisible when you play a tournament, it looks like you are offline and the computer may not let you in.  A little trick about user names: upper and lower case are the same.  You can sign up as "hamspapdy" and be "HAmsPaPdY" on good days, "hamSpApDy" on bad ones, and even "haMspApDy" when you're going to lose it if one more trump suit breaks 5-0...
The first very important thing to say is that as first views of the site go, your mileage may vary.  Modern devices let the BBO server know the size of your screen area, and the various elements on the BBO screen adjust themselves to fit.  A screen wide enough will get a two-column display, with the left column showing the Play tab, split into a top area showing various ways you can play bridge, and a bottom area where chat from others or chat you have initiated appears.  On the right-hand pane, you will see Messages displayed at the beginning, but you can use one of the tabs at the far right (on some apps these tabs appear at the bottom) to switch to People, History, or Account.  Once you have enough logins to be an experienced user, you may get a Director tab, which allows you to run team games, or even pairs tournaments for others.  The thick light gray vertical line down the middle can be dragged left and right to add space to the left or right side panes. It is important to note that once you are at this screen, your browser's "previous page" button will no longer work, you must navigate using the buttons on the screen itself.  If you try to use a browser command or a keyboard command, it will assume you are trying to leave the site. At the top right are three blue buttons: Log off (to exit), Help (to get assistance), and BB$ (to use your credit card to purchase Bridge Base dollars to pay for tournament play — do not buy BB$ in an app, use a web browser, it is cheaper).  In the corner is the name of the user currently logged in.  The 3+ indicates that I have reached the upper tier of the third level of success in BBO games, and since I mostly direct and hopefully you will mostly play, it will not be long before many of you pass me with a 4 or a 5+ or even higher. We're going to take a look at the Virtual Club Games by clicking Virtual Clubs under Featured Areas to get to the next photo.
		An ACBL Virtual Club like ours begins with a list of pre-approved people.  Any ACBL member who played in our games from January 2019 - March 2020, when it all shut down, is included, unless they won zero masterpoints at our games during that period.  If you are an ACBL member, you are probably a member of our list.  When you click on ACBL-North America, you will be taken to a list of ACBL games you are eligible for by being a member of that club's list.  Even if you are playing at many different online spaces it should be easy to find ours near the top of the list from 11:45am to gamestart at 1:45pm on Tuesdays.  All this does, however, require that you have linked your ACBL number to your BBO account.  To do so, click on ACBL World from the previous screen (use the Back button to go back), and look for the blue button that says Add your ACBL Number.  Make sure you have it right, this is difficult to correct if you get it wrong. For many of our players who are not ACBL members, a different path — not too difficult — needs to be followed.  Instead of clicking on ACBL-North America, scroll down past all the other countries.  I'll show you in the next photo.
Anyone who doesn't have an ACBL membership but has played in our offline games can be added to our list of players.  If you are in this group, you'll need to find our game by scrolling to the bottom and clicking on All Clubs.  This will get you a very long list of games (see next photo) starting in the next two hours.  As I took these screen shots I followed this path on a Wednesday Afternoon, and you will see how long the list is in the next photo...  However, there is one more thing you will need to do, and you can do it at any time you are logged on.  You need to let me know you want to be added to our list, and provide me with 1) your BBO name (spelled correctly please!), 2) your real name, and 3) which club you are a member or a regular guest at.  The way to do this is to send me a chat message to my directing account.  Click on the blue button at the lower left hand corner of the screen: a list of options will come up; choose Private, and type VACB130146 into the box under "Chat To:". Click OK and the blue button in the lower left hand corner will now read -->VACB130146.  In the Message area beside it, type something like: Hi Bruce, I would like to be added: bobsmith34, Bob Smith, Arbutus.  If I am online, you should get a message back fairly soon.  If not, your message will be placed into my mail and I will see it the next time I do log on.  It's a good idea to do this early, because I expect to be inundated with questions when our first game begins!  If you wish, feel free to add your partner to the mix.
		Next hurdle: how to find a specific game in such a long list of games!  One way is to figure out how many minutes there are until the scheduled start (1:45pm for our games), and scroll down, the games are sorted by number of minutes left until start.  Another way would be to enter 130146 or Phil Wood into the search box at the top, which will limit the list to game titles and director handles matching the search string you type.  Also shown in this list are the number of entrants so far, and the entry fee in BB$, which you can buy with a credit card or via PayPal from the blue BB$ button at the top right corner of the screen.  This is important: do not purchase BB$ from within an app in a tablet or phone.  Do it from a browser.  Apple and Android charge extra fees for purchases made inside their apps.  Buy your BB$ in a browser, and you will get the best deal.  (BBO$ are based on the U.S. dollar.) Once you have found the game you want, click on the second column, the game title (if you click on the blue area with the Director's BBO name, you will just get a popup that shows that Director's info) for more information....
During the two-hour registration period before a game, it has four tabs of information which you can see at the top: Register, Details, Entries, and Partnership Desk.  In the next four photos, we're going to look at each one of these.  This first is the registration area.  You simply type the BBO name of your partner, and click invite.  Partner will need to be online and logged into BBO, and if so will get an immediate message that you have invited them to play; when partner accepts, you're in!  You may wander about the site until gametime.  From most areas of the site you will be yanked to the first table when the tournament begins, but it is safest to return to this page a few minutes before.  (The BBO clock is notorious for being a minute off the wrong way, constantly....) When the tournament begins, the system will seat people and deal them their cards.  If something goes wrong you will not be charged any BB$ until you have recorded a result on the first board.  Registering costs nothing. If you try to register and you or partner are blocked, send me a message (see above for how to do that) with you and your partners' BBO names, real names, and club affiliation.  I'll fix it if I can, but it may take a minute or two, so don't leave it to the last minute. We're limited to players at the four clubs in our group and their guests, but players from different clubs can certainly play together as partners.
		Before registering you might want to see more details about the game.  This one must fill quickly, there are four Directors listed!  Duration assumes that no rounds end early, allowing an early switch for the next round; in practice, most rounds do end early.  In online bridge the entire room starts with Board 1 when the game begins and goes through them in order.  Rounds are timed and if time runs out in a round before you finish, the bridge computer (with occasional help from the Director) determines the likely result.  The codes surrounded by plus signs at the bottom are special instructions to BBO to do special things when the game begins: +allavail+ means don't start if a player is missing at gametime, send the Director a warning message first.  (I don't even know what the other one, +LT=05+, means....)
Want to see who else is registered?  Click on the Entries tab and find out!  This Tucson tournament must really think they are the only game in Arizona, with a maximum of 800 pairs!)   You can see that many of the players have numbers greater than my meagre 3+, there is one online bridge addict with a 28!!  If you don't know which players are represented by which BBO names, there is a way to find out: just click on the name, and look at the next photo.
		We clicked on the first name in the list, "bobbru".  Up popped the window with his profile.  We'll show you a few photos down how to update yours.  Compatibility looks at the convention cards you and the player you're looking at have posted and tries to figure out if you are compatible.  I personally think horoscopes or biorythms would be more accurate... Note the X at the top right corner of the popup window.  BBO has lots of these popup windows, some appear during the auction or play, and if you are playing on a phone they block other stuff.  If you see an X, use it.  If there is no X, the popup window should close just by clicking on it.
If you don't have a partner, you'll want to go to the Partnership Desk and sign up using one of the buttons below Add My Name.  If there are other people on the partnership desk, the system will try to figure out how compatible you might be, and offer you the chance to invite that person. Even if you are stranded on the Partnership Desk alone as gametime approaches, do not despair!  If the game begins and someone goes missing, you might be needed as a sub.  If the game starts with an odd number of pairs, you will be needed as a sub to fill the half-table.  Substitutes play for free, so it is a good idea to stick around in case you are needed.
		I wanted to show you want a game looks like in progress, so I signed up for one of the robot tournaments, where you play with and against three robots and compare your scores with others playing the same hands.  When the game begins, you will have two options that most people never discover.  The default is pictures of cards, which looks like this.  Most people use this version, but there are problems.  The system resorts your cards when an auction ends and a trump suit becomes known, so that trumps are at the left.  You can be clicking the 7♣ as your lead when the system resorts your cards and you find you have led the Q♠ instead!  The way around this is in the next photo.
To me, this hand diagram layout is much easier to use, but I am in the minority.  The cards never move from their original position, or at least, not to a new line.  To switch between the two, click the blue button with the three gray lines and choose Pictures of Cards, or Hand Diagrams.
		And, about 40 minutes later, I've done well so far.  There are still others playing but I have the current lead, at 43.4 IMPs above average!  On Board 12, my robot partner has become declarer and I have swapped seats so I can declare.  At the right, the History tab shows my scores on Board 1-11 and I can review the results. For some people, this is a lure that blinds them to the current hand.  Don't make other people wait for your bid on Board 9 because you're still checking to see if 3NT could be made on Board 3.
The Account Tab has several sub tabs we should look at.  Account:Profile allows you to change your profile or your account password.  It really is best if your profile includes your real name.  You can fill the "Other" section with anything you like!  At the bottom are buttons that allow you to be shown as away from your computer temporarily, check your own profile popup box, upload a small image to be used in your profile box, and check on your earned BBO masterpoints (these are not the same as ACBL masterpoints).
		Account:Settings has many options you can set: Disabling Split Screen removes the two columns and lets you select from the five currently at the right (Messages, People, History, Account, Director) or Play in one full-width screen.  Disabling Tools at right puts the play area on the right and the five tools on the left.  Disabling Sound Effects On silences everything: not reccommended; many of the sound effects alert you to important things happening.  Better to turn them down than completely off, and lower down you can turn off specific ones you detest.  Animations are when the system tries to simulate dealing or shuffling or the playing of a card with some specific display, which can be turned off if distracting.  Pictures of cards change to deal diagrams if turned off.  Note that you can have one setting for playing and another for watching (kibitzing).  Confirm Bids and Confirm Cards if selected require a second click to confirm your bids and plays; if you misclick often you may want to try this.  Autoplay Singletons means that your singletons will be played automatically and promptly; some people feel this gives them away as singletons.  Keyboard entry for bidding/play allows you to type bids and plays instead of clicking things on screen.
More options: as stated above, you can have different choices for playing and kibitzing: pictures of cards, or deal diagrams.  Show Played Cards means that cards played do not disappear, they turn light gray.  These two options can also be configured for history displays, as well as an option that allows you to Advance Trick By Trick, rather than card by card.  Chat can be turned off, but if you do this in a game and the Director asks you a question, expect trouble if you do not respond.  Lobby chat turned off keeps you from seeing messages broadcast by others.  I have never tried Speak Chat, but I know some people who would easily fill three screens with text in two minutes if it actually works.  I'd be afraid that my frustrated utterances would make it onto the screen....
		Even more options to set: you can have popups appear when friends log on, or a new broadcast of a major tournament begins, or a team match is looking for players.  And finally, there are specific sounds you can completely squelch if you wish.  Again, be aware that these sounds can be helpful when you go off in search of a snack with three minutes left in the round and the round ends early (this happens if all tables finish early).
You can create new Convention Cards to use with specific partners, or modify one of the stock cards and use it.  The system fills out scores for you and saves them, but it's nice to know what opponents are playing and BBO lets users create their own cards, assign them to a specific partner, and load them automatically whenever you and that partner play.  It takes only a few minutes to create a simple card.
		You wanted to know how well I did?  Someone caught up to me right at the end and I finished second.  Oh well!