June 2020 - 13

of being home and figuring out how to
work a computer," he said.
For Marks, the program began a bit
sooner than its official start date. The
day the Columbus NABC was canceled, March 12, he made the decision
that the next day would be the last for
Bridge Club of Atlanta. Immediately
concerned about what he would do
during the shutdown, he sent an email
to Jay Whipple, The Common Game
innovator and former ACBL president,
who was already working on a way to
bring clubs online. Coles estimates
Whipple put in hundreds of hours of
volunteer service getting virtual clubs
off the ground.
Marks participated for a week and a
half in the tests Whipple was running
before the program got the green light.
Others participating in the testing
phase included Uday Ivatury of BBO,
Silvana Morici of Sagamore Bridge
Club in Syosset NY and Jeff Bayone of
Honors.
"We made every mistake in the book,
but we learned as we went," Marks
said. "It was a team effort. Then we had
to explain it to our players."
Morici created tutorials for clubs
on how to get set up to run virtual
games, and for players on how to enter
them. She has also been offering these
instructions via Zoom sessions. She
answers over 200 emails, texts and
calls a day from players and club directors needing BBO support. Marks and
Brower likewise said they have been
doing more work running virtual clubs
than they did before.
"For my club, this has been a blessing," Morici said. "It is so important
that we stay connected and that these
days feel more normal than abnormal.
Keeping my senior players connected
socially and playing bridge daily
promotes a healthy routine aimed at

improving their spirit, exercising their
brains and improving their immunity."
While the virtual clubs were initially
restricted to member lists, many have
agreed to share their member lists with
other clubs. This has taken various
forms. The most common one enables
a smaller club that doesn't want to take
on running its own online games to
grant its list to a larger club, giving its
members a place to play. For example,
members of the Hilton Head Island
(SC) Bridge Club can play in Bridge
Club of Atlanta's games.
There are several other types of
relationships between peer clubs. In
the Portland area, the two large clubs,
the Ace of Clubs and Brower's Portland
Bridge Club, shared their lists with
each other. The Ace runs games at
10 a.m. and PBC at 1 p.m. and a couple
evenings, so they aren't ever competing
for the shared pool of players.
In Central Illinois, several small
clubs in Unit 208 banded together.
With the assistance of tournament
director Rick Beye, Lori Moore of
Bloomington/Normal DBC, Ann
Caparros of Bridge Club of Springfield
and Mary Stuart of Champaign DBC
formed a collective. "We now see
that by collaborating and pooling
our efforts and ideas, we can reenergize bridge in our communities,"
Moore said. "We have pivoted from
a club-centric way of thinking to
understanding that collectively we are
our most powerful tool: We can play in
new ways, teach in new ways, think in
new ways."
Leave it to Morici to take the concept
of pooling to a new level. She formed
an alliance with four other large
bridge clubs in Florida, New Jersey,
New York and California to create the
largest virtual club. Alliance Bridge
Club averages 180 tables a day. It is

By the numbers

The growth of the ACBL's virtual
clubs program over its first month

March 25
March 30
April 6
April 13
April 20
April 27

Tables
19
354.5
1126.5
2158
3002
3487

Clubs
MPs
1
11.85
25
210.25
83
617.06
154
1196.61
204
2511.74
244
2942.21

open to members of Jourdan's Bridge
Club in Delray Beach FL; Essex Bridge
Center in Livingston NJ; Sagamore;
The Bridge Deck in Scarsdale NY; and
Beverly Hills (CA) Bridge Club.
Coles is especially impressed with
the work BBO has done to make all
this happen. "They worked tirelessly
to make many development changes
quickly while also dealing with a huge
influx of new users," he said.
For club owners struggling to stay
in business, the program has been a
godsend, even though it doesn't replace
the income clubs were getting under
normal operations, Marks said. "It's
keeping me afloat." Though he still
expects some clubs will fold, especially
the longer people remain at home, the
initiative has at least reduced the scale
of the disaster facing clubs.
"This has enabled us to throw a
lifeline to the clubs - and the players,"
Marks said. "They have been so grateful just to have something to do."
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June 2020 Bridge Bulletin

13
June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2020
