Entry Express opens for Sectionals!

You can now buy entries online for open sectionals

(This was written in early 2023 by Bruce McIntyre for Vancouver players, as Entry Express was rolled out to all ACBL open sectionals. Links below are based on the initial tournament for which it was intended. More screenshots and links and changes as Entry Express procedures are developed may follow, but the link to this article will remain the same. Feel free to link to it wherever you may be! If you are viewing this from outside Unit 430, you'll want to use the system to find your own local tournaments at the main Entry Express page rather than using the direct links to Unit 430 tournaments on this page, of course!

At the bottom of this page I have now added The Bridge Table, a table of links to Unit 430 and District 19 tournaments: flyers, Entry Express pages, and results. For contacts you will need to check the flyer.)

The second half of 2022 was the introduction of cashless sales at live sectional tournaments in Canada. Now in 2023 the next rollout is online buying of entries at open sectionals. The January 13-15 tournament in Burnaby was one of the first sectionals in Canada to feature pre-sales, and the advance buying system will be activated for most tournaments about a month before the first day of each tournament. Here's what you need to know:

Do I Have To? No. You can still arrive at the tournament a few minutes before gametime, purchase an entry with a debit or credit card, or even cash (if you do this I will pocket your cash and put your entry on my card, to keep from needing to count cash later, so bring the correct change if you can). Selling entries with credit and debit cards has proven to be a popular change and is faster for most. Even when the door lock malfunctioned on Sunday in November 2022, and we only got into the building shivering, just ten minutes before gametime, we still were able to start just a few minutes late: with cash sales this would have taken a lot longer. Entries available online in advance opens up completely new possibilities:

• You get an e-mail with your table assignment or team number the morning of the game (or you can check a posted list on site)
• You can go directly to your table upon arrival and avoid the lineup
• You can request stationary tables and specify other special requests
• You can cancel entries and re-buy with a different partner if things change
• You can, even before you buy entries, indicate that you are 'going' or 'interested,' and even let tournament organizers know that you are staying in the host hotel
• You can filter the event list to events that you are eligible for or to certain days or types

It's all very well done and fairly easy to use. As more and more use the system, it will be possible to do a better job of seeding fields and mapping out floor space just by checking the pre-sold entries as the tournament opens. So, you don't have to buy entries online, but you'll find it easy, and you'll help make the tournament better!

How do I find it online? Three easy ways from acbl.org:

1. Click the orange 'Menu' button at the top of the page, then the blue 'Tournaments' button under the 'Helpful Information' heading, and select 'Find a Tournament'
2. Click on the blue 'Play Bridge' button between 'Upcoming' and 'BridgeFeed' and scroll down a bit to the yellow 'Find a Tournament' section; click the 'Play Now' button below
3. Scroll down a bit to the light blue section with three circled magnifying glasses, and click on the third one marked 'Find Tournaments'

Any of these three routes will get you to the tournaments page shown to the left of this paragraph, which you can bookmark once you have arrived, for later use. Near the top of this page is the words "AVOID THE LINE" in orange, which is the link to Entry Express. Anywhere on the orange letters or the blue button below gets you there. However, this is a members-only area of the site, and you may be detoured to a login page for a few seconds. For most of us, this is an auto-process since our browsers remember our credentials from previous visits to the ACBL site. But if your computer is used by more than one person, it is best to click the MyACBL button at the top of the page and make sure the system knows who it is dealing with.

What's Next? Once you get to the main Entry Express page, you'll see a page like the photo at the right: a list of tournaments and a filter to help you sort the list to dates or districts or other criteria. The default seems to limit you to the current year and month, which makes for a very small list of tournaments in late 2022 as I write this, but clicking the 'Clear All' button clears all the filters and shows all upcoming tournaments. Limiting to District 19 might be a good idea for local players (NABCs and cruises are run on District 99). Once you find the tournament you want in the list, click anywhere in the row to go to the page for that tournament. If you see an orange 'Buy Entries' button at the right, it means that the tournament is open for pre-sales; a white 'Details' button means that entries are not yet open, but you can still go to the page and get details about the tournament schedule and view the flyer.

How do I buy an entry? Once you're at the tournament, you will see something like the photo at the left: a list of events and below it a stratification table, corresponding to the 'Strat 1', 'Strat 3', 'Strat 6' buttons on each line (on a computer, rather than a cellphone or tablet, you can hover your mouse over these buttons without clicking, to get a peek at what the actual strats are). Events that you are ineligible to play in are grayed out. There is a filter so that when signing up for a large tournament you can limit the list to dates or times or event types.

Prices are not listed at this stage, but may be listed on the tournament flyer, which you can view by clicking the 'View Flyer' button. (Note that the first version of the flyer for the January tournament preceded a Board decision to raise entry fees and the new flyer may be slowly distributed through the acbl.org pages.)

Clicking on the blue 'Select' button, at the right of each event listed, gets you a popup page shown to the right. This window lists you as the first player on this pair or team. To add a partner or a teammate, type a player number or a name into the box and select from what comes up. If your partner or teammate has a common name you may want to use a player number to make sure you have the right one.

You can add special requests by clicking on 'Stationary Table', or 'An electrical plug nearby', or entering something specific into the box to clarify what you need. A few reminders and examples:

• While we try to accommodate as best we can, please remember this Phil Wood quote I've heard from the people who played in his country club games: "We have twelve North-Souths and five East-Wests, so unless something happens, there are going to be a lot of sitouts..." 😏
• Directors will spend most of 2023 mapping out space for their most common sites and figuring out where the plugs are. There aren't enough at most sites for everyone to charge their phone.
• 2EW-OK to let us know you are okay with East-West in both sessions of a 2-session event. (It helps.)
• move-OK, in conjunction with a request for a stationary table, to let us know you would prefer a stationary but can move if needed.
• good light is something I have seen; luckily, District 19 and Unit 430 sites have no dark spots. The Engineer's Hall renovation during the pandemic, by the way, killed off the arctic areas we used to have before the pandemic.
• start NS or start EW if you have a preference. (Some players actually believe the cards run one way in the first session and the other way in the other.)
• OK to move up/down if you are OK (and eligible if you are offering to move down) to be moved to the other event if there are half-tables in both (open and 0-750, for example) as we begin. This is something that everyone appreciates when it happens; pairs that move up often do surprisingly well and are welcomed by almost everyone since the sitout is avoided. Having such a pair in the bank will get things started quicker.
• Fred is the captain if you don't want us to assume that the person buying the entry is the team captain.
• E-W near the washroom is a local legend, and when I heard about it I said I would have asked 'so, you're only going to need to go in round one?' 😏

When you have a pair or all the members of a team, as well as any special requests, entered, the price for the entry appears at the bottom, and the gray 'Add Entry' button turns orange. Clicking it takes you back to the list of events for that tournament, so you can buy entries for other events before paying in one transaction. When you have purchased all the events you want to pre-buy, the orange 'Pay Now' button at the top takes you to a new pop-up, listing the entries you want to purchase, and allowing you to let the tournament organizers know if you are staying at the host hotel (please click this box if you are, it helps!). The next screen shows the cancellation policy and asks for a simple click, then the next page asks for your credit card information. (Debit cards cannot yet be processed online.)

Once your entry is bought, you should receive an e-mail confirmation summarizing your entry purchases, and giving you the option of printing or saving a receipt. If you don't get one fairly soon after a purchase, check your junk or spam folders (if you find it there, let your e-mail app know that this is NOT junk!), or confirm that ACBL has your email address on file here.

What if I need to cancel? You can cancel an entry up until 11:59pm on the day before the event simply by going to the page with tournament events that you went to in buying the entry. The page will remember your entries made previously and will now have a 'Cancel' button. If you cancel before the event is closed, your credit card will be refunded automatically. If something happens after the online sales close, you need to contact the TD before the game begins. For local games, I will check only my acbl e-mail (not my shaw or gmail accounts) at bruce.mcintyre@acbl.org shortly before each event for late cancellations. When you buy an entry in advance, you will get the option of having a receipt e-mailed to you. You will also receive an e-mail notice on the day of the event with your table assignment, and the assignments will be posted on site as well. Please, folks: let's not be canceling entries seconds before gametime. Give us time to make the necessary adjustments.

What if a pair buys an entry and doesn't show up? The onus is on such a pair to contact the Director, if they have not managed to cancel the entry before the cutoff. The deadline of 11:59pm the night before the event begins means you should be able to send a message to the Director-In-Charge, or let someone who is going to play in the event know so they can pass on the message when they arrive, in the morning. A refund is not automatic, so be sure you get the message sent.

Can a pair or team split the cost? This is a popular option for credit or debit card sales on site, but not set up for online purchases, since it would require more than one card and would create security difficulties. These days there are many ways to have money sent to someone electronically after your entry is bought by someone else.

Can I buy an entry for someone else or cancel an entry my partner or team captain bought? No. The entry must be bought by a playing member of the pair or team, and only the buyer can cancel. The buyer must have a working password to access the system, which can be set up at the MyACBL link near the top of the main acbl.org page. Non-members and players whose memberships have lapsed cannot use Entry Express to buy entries, nor can their partners or teammates include them in pairs or teams. The system will let you know if there is a problem. Pairs and teams with lapsed or non-members can buy entries on site, but those players will be charged $4 extra per session. (We may not get you at the start, but we run a check once all the names are in and go out in search of extra money. You're OK with telling us that you'll do it online before the end of the weekend, but the system checks that as well, so be sure that you do.)

What about non-members? Players who have never before had an ACBL number (or so long ago that it has been deleted from the database) are welcome at live tournaments. These players can get a guest membership here. It may take a day or two for the new number to be added to the system so that an online purchase can be made. Non-members can get a guest membership at a tournament as well, and we try to get every new member registered in the system. Getting a guest membership gives you 120 days of free membership, and a reduced price for the first year. If you had a guest membership in the past and did not follow through with a membership, your guest membership number may still be on file and we can easily look it up.

Do I need to do anything special when I arrive after buying online? If you have your table assignment from the e-mail, you can go directly to your table in a pairs game. In a team game, you will have your initial team number (in some round-robin team games your initial team number changes after round one to a new number that places all the teams in your bracket into the same range). You'll need to check the team rack to find your team's home table for round one. In a large bracketed team event this, of course, may not be posted until after sales are complete and brackets are decided by the Directors. As the system gets used more and more, every Director will develop their own habits on how to make it work for them: some will post the online entries somewhere, others might project it onto a screen; some may ask that you take a pre-filled entry from the selling desk, others may not require this. As more and more people buy entries online, the way we handle this may change, but lineups will be shorter so it will be easy to find out what you need to do.

Anything else to know? In the list of tournaments at the Entry Express page, there is a white star with a yellow border near the end of each row. Click on this star and you can change it to 'interested' (the star fills up with yellow), or 'going' (the star changes to an orange checkmark). Changing the status of a tournament adds it to your 'My Tournaments' list and lets organizers know how many are interested. Help us out! A few days before each tournament, Directors will do preliminary seat assignments for the pairs who have bought online, and the number of 'going' or 'interested' people will help us make a good guess at how many we will have, allowing us to map out available space optimally.

And now....