*Monday, January 18*, is the start of a new Silver Linings week for all virtual clubs in ACBL land. Sunday, Jan. 24, is the last day. All ACBL Virtual Club games will pay at the 200% standard 2019 club rating. (Currently virtual club games are at 150% club rating.) All points awarded this week are Silver points. Card fees at PPDVBC will be $6 to cover extra ACBL sanction fees. Why is this a big deal? The rank of *Life Master* in the ACBL requires at least 75 Silver points. Before COVID (B.C.) Silver points could only be earned at Sectional Tournaments run by units of the ACBL, and occasional Sectional Tournament at Clubs (STaC) events. To help you out, next week we're *adding two 0-500 games* to our schedule for the week: * Tuesday evening, 7:15 p.m. directed by Tom Lill (LillOleTom), 0-500 Pairs * Thursday evening, 7:15 p.m. directed by Mojo, 0-500 Pairs Here are my tips to help you get the most Silver this week: *1. Play lots of games* This should be obvious! The more you play, the more opportunities you have to "scratch" and pick up a little silver. *2. Play in more Open games!* First of all, Open games pay more points than limited games. Second, all games are stratified. I just looked through the results of our last several open pairs games, and the C strat cutoff for every game was somewhere around 250 masterpoints. Third, when you play in an open game, even as a C strat player, you have an opportunity to place in the A or B strats and pick up the extra points from winning at that level. *3. Look for other virtual club games where you might be eligible.* When you log in to BBO, click Competitive, and ACBL Virtual Clubs, the games listed are ones where you are eligible to buy an entry and play. If you were a bridge club junkie in 2019 (like I was) you may find that you have games available from several other online clubs. *4. Offer to play as a substitute* Whenever I have a new game starting, I usually get offers from two or three players who would like to play to help fill a half table. Here's how to find the games where you might do that: * From the Home page, click Competitive * Click All tournaments * In the search box, type VACB You'll see games that are starting within the next two hours, and each game will have the manager's "vacb" account in a box at the left. Drop them a note and say "I'm available to play if you have a half-table. I have xxx masterpoints." You might get into a game, and a free one at that. If you do that, remember to always be gracious and supportive of whoever might be your partner. I've had some wonderful games doing that. Be ready to play for the full game.. (As a director, I'd always much rather have someone willing to play with a pick-up partner than someone random from the substitute list.) So think of Saturday and Sunday as "tune up" days for Silver Linings week. Grab your favorite partner and come play. Saturday schedule: * 10:00 a.m. 0-500 Pairs * 12:30 p.m. Open Pairs As always, drop me a note if you're looking for a partner, or have a friend from out of town who'd like to play. 9:30 Saturday mini-lesson: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83912578991?pwd=Y1R2UnJ1TFM2dVZzYmsyTDdzeFcydz09 Meeting ID: 839 1257 8991 Passcode: 7ntxx Best regards, Mojo -- Morris Jones, Monrovia, CA BridgeMojo <http://bridgemojo.com> Old Town Sidewalk Astronomers <http://otastro.org> Mojo's Blog <http://mojo.whiteoaks.com>