July 2020 - 15

topics and four advanced."
Each class is $40. BAND Patron
Members ($120 a year) enjoy a 50%
discount.
Compton says she will always have
her online teaching program. "I have
too many students who have been with
me for the last six years. I am also finding that a lot of my in-person students
who have underlying health issues are
not planning on returning to in-person
anything-bridge until there is a vaccine. So they are grateful to have the
online option going forward."
Go to PlayBetterBridge.com for a
complete course listing.

Barbara
Seagram

Barbara
Seagram shines
as one of the stars
of the bridgeteaching galaxy.
But unless you
attend an ACBL
North American
Bridge Championship or live within
easy access of her bridge school/club
in Toronto, or catch her on tour, you
haven't had access to her lessons. Now
you do - you and hundreds of bridge
lovers around the world, from as far
away as Switzerland, Cyprus, Turkey,
Australia and India.
Starting in April, Seagram began
offering live weekly bridge instruction
online. "The first Zoom session was
wild," she says. "I was expecting 200
people, so I upped my license to accommodate 500 people, as that is the same
price. I could never have imagined that
500 would actually attend. And it turns
out that a further 200 tried to get in but
could not." She has since doubled that
capacity.
"I had not figured out how to mute
everyone and make it so that they could
not unmute themselves," Seagram says.
"We heard a toilet flushing, phones
ringing, people slurping coffee and
doing dishes. But, hey, I just heard that
there was a Supreme Court hearing

recently where you could hear the
toilet flushing online, so we are in good
company."
Seagram says that she held up sheets
of white cardboard for the presentation at the first lesson. "Then I learned
how to share the screen and upload the
documents. That was a thrill! Now I
can incorporate BBO into the presentations so I am over the moon!"
Looking for a newcomer boot camp?
A bridge grammar teacher who strips
the game down to "do this" or "don't
do that" (except much more charming
and gracious)? You found her. Where
Seagram excels is fostering a love of
the game and nurturing a knowledgeable, confident player well-rounded in
all three phases of the game: bidding,
play and defense.
She suggests a $5 donation for each
class. The proceeds, minus Zoom expenses, fund a cause dear to her heart:
"2020 marks our 10th year of working
to support our five schools that we
have built and sustain in Cambodia.
We focus on education, sanitation and
the villagers." The Zoom classes raised
over $30,000 through mid-June.
"I plan to continue throughout
June, and we will see after that," says
Seagram. "The prep is tremendous
because of the handouts and preparing
the slides. It is all new material that I
do not usually teach in class, so it is all
from scratch." Visit Seagram's website
for up-to-date schedule information:
barbaraseagram.com or email her at
barbaraseagram@gmail.com.

Gavin Wolpert

With barely contained excitement,
Gavin Wolpert
welcomed an audience to his "Opening Leads" series:
"We are live, we
are recording and
we are ready to
go!"
Wolpert plays professional bridge at
the highest level. As it turns out, he's
a world-class teacher too. "I love to

teach," he says, "though I can't say the
same about lesson prep! It's insanely
stressful building the lesson, but once
class starts, I'm in my element."
Wolpert teamed up with New York
pro/teacher Rob Barrington, who
founded bridgelesson.com (formerly
learnbridge.nyc) - a
dazzling intersection
of bridge-learning opportunities.
"Rob and I have been
building a really big
following," Wolpert
says. "We both very quickly realized
that the quarantine was going to leave
people with a lot of free time, and we
started doing Zoom lessons in March.
We now offer live classes almost every
day. We are trying new stuff in our
broadcasts, really working to provide
an awesome learning experience."
Wolpert is humbled by the number
of students who have reached out to
say thank you. "Some people have told
us they live in remote places and never
had access to these kinds of lessons.
Others are just grateful for something
to do while they are stuck isolated."
Looking back on the May calendar,
Wolpert says, "Rob did conventions
on Mondays, quizzes on Wednesdays
and declarer play on Thursdays. My
mom and I taught defense together on
Fridays. Josh Donn and I developed a
special opening lead series on Saturdays. That was May, though, and topics
change."
The courses/handouts are still
available for purchase at $10 per class.
YouTube lessons on Wednesdays at
10 a.m. are free, as is a treasure trove of
lessons in the site's bridge library.
"There's no question we will continue to teach online," Wolpert says of his
post-virus future. "Our students won't
let us stop! We have heard from so
many people who are asking for us to
keep doing it after normal life resumes.
I see, as we poll our students about
problems during classes, that they are
absolutely getting better. We can't walk
away from that."
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July 2020 Bridge Bulletin

15
http://www.son.com http://www.PlayBetterBridge.com http://www.barbaraseagram.com
July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2020
