Bridge Blog 1123: Almost like being in love

My friend Cathy Hetzler sent this inquiry the other day:

Sent: Fri, Apr 10, 2020 5:54 pm
Subject: Live game

A friend asked me about a live game of bridge. Can you send info, esp cost. Thanks. Also, she asked if you thought it was a “good bang for the buck?”

It turns out that I just had some experience in this arena. My answer:

Hey, Cathy!

When you say "live," I presume you mean online, via your computer. If so, I've had some experience with two online bridge sites this week as I'm sheltering in place. 

First I went to Bridge Base Online, which is collaborating with the ACBL to have virtual club games. Not sure if the Bridge Center of Buffalo is taking part in it, but I was invited by my Canadian partner to play in the Bridge Centre of Niagara (the St. Catharines club) virtual game at 1:30 p.m. daily. $5 a game and I've already spent $20. 

It's an 18-board game, lasting almost 2 hours. There's strict time rule of 7 minutes per board and then they whisk it away. We've had two good games (Friday we were first North-South) and two bad ones. If the master points count as real points, then I think we've earned a couple. 

My Canadian partner, who seems to be bingeing online bridge, also lured me into Okbridge, which has new games constantly, but is not affiliated with clubs. These are 12-board games, lasting a little longer than an hour, also with strict time rules. Okbridge has a free two-week trial, a day pass for $1.95 and monthly and premium plans. 

We've been hitting Okbridge at noon and it's over in time for us to pick up the BBO game at 1:30. 

At this point, I kind of prefer the BBO game and either one is cheaper than playing a real club game. However, I'm still awkward at signing in and getting settled into these sessions. 

The BBO game allows you to sign on two hours before it starts, but your partner must be online to sign in with you. The Okbridge games don't take signups until 10 minutes before you start, which can be a little frenzied. 

On both sites, however, you can ask to be paired up with a partner and it doesn't look like it's much a problem to find one. 

I find the play easier on BBO. Okbridge makes you double check your bids in order to make them and all the cards you play, which involves a couple extra clicks and slows down your response. And I still haven't figured out how to do in-game chatting on Okbridge or how to claim the rest of the tricks in a hand. Maybe it will be better now that I've done the Okbridge download. I don't recall BBO insisting on a download.