[fred]

Before I describe the Big News about 4.6.3, here are some other changes:

- You can now register for a tournament (or add your name to the Partnership Desk) through the "Tourneys" list when you are sitting at a table.
- User profiles now appear in invitations to tournaments.
- Cosmetic changes to other dialog boxes with messages from the server (BBO mail messages for example).
- Nicaragua and Burkina Faso flags added. Let us know if your flag is missing.
- Various bug fixes have been made.

The Big News:

Sorry but if you live in Arkansas, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland and Tennessee, you won't be able to use this (even for testing purposes).

Otherwise you will soon be able to play bridge for real money on BBO. During the testing phase, however, you can try this out using "fake money". We have set things up so that people can acquire $100 of fake money just by clicking a button. You can then try out this new part of BBO (and send us your comments!) without risking losing anything.

Even with 4.6.3, Money Bridge will not be available on the main BBO server. In order to try this you will have to log in to our test server. Please do not get involved in this unless you have reasonable computer skills!

For those of you who want to try it, follow the instructions for installing 4.6.3 below and then edit the file named bbover.ini in your BBO folder (which is probably c:\bridge base online). You can use any text file editor (such as Windows Notepad) for this purpose.

When you open this file you will see the following near the top:

ServerHostName1=bbo.bridgebase.com
//ServerHostName1=qa.bridgebase.com

Change this to:

//ServerHostName1=bbo.bridgebase.com
ServerHostName1=qa.bridgebase.com

and save the file before you try to log in. When you log in for the first time you will have to create a user ID for yourself. I suggest you use the same BBO user ID that you normally use so that people will know who you are. You will be taken to our test server. You will know you have done this properly when you see that there are only a handful of other people (instead of 1000s of other people) who are logged in.

To return to the main BBO server, change bbover.ini back to how it was before, save it, and log in again.

You can access the Money Bridge area on our test server (but not on the main server yet) through Play Bridge!, but it is suggested that you read the following before you try this.

In order to add $100 of fake money to your account, click the new $ button that appears on the BBO toolbar once you enter the Money Bridge area.

Your first thought might be: "Playing online bridge for money is crazy because it is so easy to cheat!".

In normal forms of online bridge that would be true, but we have set things up so that it is impossible to cheat in our new Money Bridge area.

For one thing, kibitzing in not allowed at Money Bridge tables so people cannot log in from 2 computers and kibitz themselves.

More important, however, when you play Money Bridge on BBO, your partner will be a robot player (GIB). It will therefore be impossible, for example, to be on the phone with your partner when you are playing.

At this point in time the only Money Bridge games we are offering involve 2 humans playing against 2 GIBs with total points scoring.

Eventually we will offer other secure and cheat-proof variations in which people play for money.

You also might be thinking: "This is illegal!".

Unless you happen to live in certain place or unless you are under 18 years old, this is not true. Bridge is considered a "game of skill" which means that Money Bridge on BBO is not legally considered to be "gambling".

Here are some more important rules:

- The vulnerability, dealer, and relative position of the humans and robots are determined randomly before every deal of Money Bridge.
- When a deal is finished, both player must confirm that they want to play another deal or the table will close automatically.
- If one of the humans is disconnected and does not return for a while or if one of the humans plays very slowly, the table will close automatically and we will use some kind of automated process to settle the result of the deal that was in play.
- You cannot win or lose more than 2500 points on a given deal.
- The person who creates a Money Bridge table decides on the stakes for that table, the speed that the GIBs play (the slower they play the better they play), and the clock speed for the humans at the table (ie how long you have to play before your table is closed). He can also decide whether or not he wants to allow chat at his table.

We would appreciate it if as many people as possible gave this a try and sent us feedback about all aspects of this experience. You can either post your thoughts to Forums or send me an e-mail (fred@bridgebase.com).

The Money Bridge game itself is a lot of fun. Most likely you will see me and other BBO staff members on our test server playing around with this.

You can upgrade to 4.6.3 at:

Click here to update!

or download everything (including all the latest files) at:

Click here for everything!

I suggest you use the first method, but however you do this, please make sure you exit the BBO program COMPLETELY before you start the download process.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com