March 2020 - In This Issue

The Newsletter of Silicon Valley Youth Bridge

Livestream + BBO: It's Social and Educational

By Kai Eckert

My name is Kai, and I am a youth Bridge player who has been involved in SIVY activities since I began playing bridge about 18 months ago. After learning during a cruise vacation, I immediately became obsessed with the game and play almost 2 hours a day! The problem is, I live in Half Moon Bay, which is far away from the Bridge club in Mountain View. And in addition, only one person who is a part of my family that lives near me plays bridge. That’s not enough for a fun bridge table. So how am I able to play at least 2 hours a day and continue striving for the next level in bridge? I go online!

My favorite way of playing online is on Bridge Base (BBO). But I do this a little differently to make it more social - using a program called Twitch. Twitch is a livestreaming service. I use it to share my BBO screen with a group of viewers whom I also talk to on my microphone. Everyone can chat with me in the chat window as well.

Most of the time when someone asks about online Bridge, they get the response ‘use BBO’, which is short for Bridge Base Online. I strongly agree because of all of the ways that you can play on BBO - and a majority of these options are free! There are casual games with robots, casual games with people, and an option to just practice declaring. There are competitive games with friends or random people. You can even win ACBL masterpoints in special tournaments. Yes, there are other Bridge apps, but some cost a lot of money and don’t even compare to all of the options that BBO gives you.

At first, when I had just downloaded BBO I wasn’t really into it, because it didn’t give me the same feeling that real-life bridge did. It didn’t give me the feeling of the cards in your hands, nor was it social in any way. And often, I found myself playing with rude people that were always rushing you to play a card. But I kept playing because even though it didn’t feel quite the same, it was still practice.

During this time I was also going on YouTube to watch videos that gave me different perspectives on bidding and card play. Then I had an idea - maybe there are live streams on Twitch? Twitch, owned by Amazon, lets people broadcast live video and audio for people to watch. Most people would use Twitch to livestream video games, but I found a small community of people who livestream bridge! This was great because, by livestreaming bridge, it made the online version of the game social!

We weren’t only using Twitch we also were using Discord. Discord is an app very much like Skype, but it's meant for gamers and livestreamers. On Discord, we create a call so that when the streamer is playing we can talk and give suggestions on the play or bidding. Another thing that we do is play at an online table together, and because we are in a very casual setting, we talk about our systems, what our bids mean. And at the end of the hand, we go over it and talk about what we could have done better. This combination of Twitch and Discord has made bridge online feel very much similar to real-life bridge.

There are many Twitch streamers - we have about 15 of them including myself. If you want a super fun and social bridge experience that is extremely interactive and humorous go to V8mama. She streams from 6:30 PM PST to whenever she decides to stop. But if you want a more serious and educational stream I recommend either PeterHollands, ExtraTricky, or Bridgeoverlord201. These three stream when they can, so I can't give a definite time. And if anybody is interested, my stream can be found at Markedcardmaster from 1-3 PM PST. There is a full list below if you would like to follow all of them!

Together we have created a great community full of so many funny, understanding, and supportive bridge players from all over the world. The goal is to present bridge to a new audience on a new platform and to celebrate the game in a new way that is fun and accessible to all, even if you live on an isolated island. I have had so much fun in these streams, and I hope to see you in the chat next time that we stream!

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