July 2020 - 17

see or hear them," Mohrman explains.
The format has been so popular
that Mercercrest expanded from one
night a week to three. The club regularly draws 10 to 12 tables on Tuesday
nights and six to eight on Thursdays
and Sundays.
In Portland, Zack Woodbury has
been hosting a social duplicate game
on Friday nights since 2012. He, too,
had the idea to use Zoom when he
brought his game online. Even with
his younger, more tech-savvy group,
there was a bit of chaos figuring out
how to make it work the first week, but
since then, it has worked smoothly.
Whereas Mohrman (or fellow director
Jeff Ford) handles moving people from
one breakout room to the next himself,
Woodbury makes all of his players
co-hosts so that they can move themselves. Only those who are using Zoom
on mobile devices need help getting
moved.
For those who play quickly, there
are usually several minutes left on the
round clock when they finish their
boards. Sitting at home alone with no
social connection, those minutes feel
like an eternity. With Zoom, they're
enjoyable.
Because Zoom makes the time go
by so much quicker, Woodbury is able
to run regular-length games. But his
Zoom meetings last much longer than
the three hours of game time. He starts
an hour ahead with social time. After
the game, players continue to socialize
on Zoom for hours. Some stay as late
as 3 a.m. "It's the closest we can come
to actually being together," Woodbury
says.
Reynolds likes serious bridge. When
the Columbus NABC was canceled,
he began planning his games as an
alternative to the Vanderbilt. But even
for many serious players, using Zoom
is an improvement. With the knockout
format, breakout rooms aren't necessary. The four players participating in
a match simply join a meeting. Reynolds tried using Skype initially, but
switched to Zoom. "In both cases it is
more like a bunch of friends getting

together over drinks, except bridge is
deadly serious and everyone is quiet
during the play and bidding," he says.
Eric Sieg is a Seattle-area player who
participates in both Reynolds's matches and the Mercercrest game. He was
working from home before quarantine,
and bridge was his main social outlet.
Playing with Zoom helps, Sieg says.
"It's a lot better than no bridge or no
social connection, but I definitely miss
in-person bridge and activities."
Reynolds has been exploring ways
to use video technology to protect the
integrity of high-level bridge events
online. He's tried using Zoom with
two rooms for each table, so that each
player is on a call with only their
screenmate from the opposing team,
but found it ineffective without a thirdparty monitor. "I am totally consumed
with the hand and never glance at my
screenmate," he says.
While the USBF would like to run
events like Reynolds envisions with remote monitoring, the plan was to start
with the invitational using Zoom for
screenmates, according to Jan Martel,
the COO. "Our reasons are primarily
social, to allow players to interact with
each other in a better way than they
can on BBO," she says.
Other clubs have expressed interest
in the idea of using Zoom, but - having
encountered the depths of technological ineptitude that exist among their
players in getting them onto BBO - fear
it's just too much for them to handle.
The Portland Bridge Club has been
using Zoom for teaching and slowly introduced a social hour before one evening game, but co-owner Dave Brower
says he'll be very cautious about trying
to integrate it into games, waiting until
players are much more comfortable
with the technology they're already
using. "It was five weeks after the club
shut down before we finally got opengame players back to the point where
they want to play," Brower says. "To
add Zoom on top of that for people who
are already unsure of BBO seems like a
nonstarter."
But in Mohrman's experience, it's

not as hard to teach players to use
Zoom as club managers and directors
fear. He requires first-time players to
attend a 20-minute orientation before
the game, but that's enough. "Like most
clubs, we have players with a wide
range of technological prowess," he
says. "Most players get comfortable
with it quickly. We've had well over 100
people play."
Sue Crist is a Mercercrest player
who had not previously used BBO, and
describes her initial comfort level with
the game technology as low to moderate. "It's just been excellent. It took a little bit of getting used to. But both Aaron
and Jeff, the two directors, have been
very clear in their instructions and very
patient," she says. "It works very well.
It makes it feel fun. Once you get some
help and get going, it's really not that
complicated. Now it's very easy."
Shawn Abernethy had played online
before but didn't enjoy it much without
the social aspect. But add in Zoom, and
now she has a reason to keep coming
back. "It's been really great," she says.
"When we sit down at our table, it's
just like the four of us. I find it a lot
more pleasing."
Mohrman expects more clubs will
want to try his format after they've
had a few months of online play under
their belt. "My experience, once people
see the format, a lightbulb goes off and
they see how much sense it makes," he
says. He plans to create a tutorial for
interested clubs.
"It's something units should be
looking at to help save our game," says
Abernethy.
For Woodbury, Zoom is the only way
to go. "Just playing on BBO without
being able to see and talk to everyone
at my table on Zoom would not be the
same experience," he says. "Given the
choice between playing on BBO with
friends without Zoom, or robots, I
would rather play with robots since
I wouldn't have to wait for everyone
to bid. I have tried a few virtual club
games on BBO, but without Zoom, it's
just not the same."
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July 2020 Bridge Bulletin

July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2020