We received this message from someone who recently played in our virtual game. You can click on a player's screen name at the table, and it will bring up the person's BBO profile. But this helps only if people include their real names in their profiles. We have started requiring visitors to use their real first and last names, and we expect to institute this requirement for everyone soon. In addition to being friendly, using real names is an extra assurance that we are not allowing "ringers," or visitors with masterpoints far above the club average.

We have lots to tell you in this e-newsletter. There are many opportunities to improve your game, and brief profiles of some regular players. We plan to include more profiles in the coming newsletters.

So say hello to your friends when you see them online. If you're playing with a partner from another city, please take a minute and introduce your partner to your local friends in the "chat" section on BBO. "See" you soon at the virtual game.

--Jo & Chuck

Thanksgiving Week brings four opportunities to earn gold points. We'll have our regular games at 3 p.m. Mountain on Wednesday and Friday and special games on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 28 and 29, also at 3 p.m. Mountain. Those who place will get double points, and a quarter of the points will be gold. We thank our directors, Jim Churchill and Gary Kuchcinski, for offering to run the games so you'll have extra opportunities for extra points.

--Play "speedball" with Chuck on BBO.

--Take group or private online lessons with Jo.

--Buy a package of Marty Bergen's audiovisual lessons at a special rate for Sun Valley Bridge players.

Details are below.

Want a quick brush-up? Play "speedball" on BBO for an hour with Chuck Abramo. He'll download a double-dummy analysis of the hands afterward and go over bidding and play with you. Contact him at [email protected] for details and pricing.

Do you know when to bid one more in a competitive auction? Or when to sacrifice? Learn the guidelines with Jo Murray in upcoming classes.

We'll review conventions that are problematic to remember: cue bid raises, Michaels cue bids and the Unusual Notrump Convention. We'll also revisit opening leads - something that occurs on every hand you will ever play.

A complete schedule is here. You can register for a class by sending an email to [email protected].

We started playing bridge six years ago when we moved to Sun Valley. We thought it would be a great non-sport activity that we could enjoy together.

We can keep our competitive bridge skills up while chatting with our friends.

We were both management consultants, and then Patti had a career in high-tech marketing and Roland was in general management at Nike.

Roland grew up in California and Germany and Patti in Maryland. We both lived in Washington, D.C., before moving to California and Oregon.

We both enjoy hiking, downhill skiing and traveling. Roland is vice-chair of the Wood River Land Trust, and Patti is grants co-chair of the Wood River Women's Foundation and treasurer of The Hunger Coalition.

I saw a short ad for bridge lessons in the Idaho Mountain Express in the summer of 2014. On a whim I thought this would be something to do besides riding my bicycle and going to Pilates.

The virtual games are easy to get into. More importantly, they give me an opportunity to maintain contact with my partners who have become my friends. In the virtual world, I get to play with Idaho partners when I'm in Los Angeles and with LA partners when I'm in Idaho.

I'm getting old. I can't quite remember my past life but it involved an office, a lot of people and purportedly selling "peace of mind." I now realize "peace of mind" can be found by concentrating on one thing only ... bridge.

I mostly live on my computer but it moves between Blaine County and Los Angeles.

When I'm not playing bridge, I am thinking about playing bridge, riding my electric bike and getting up early to get to the market. I still like to shop.

I want to add that I owe a debt of gratitude to Chuck, my first teacher, and to Jo, who keeps us learning and laughing together year-round.

I played lots of card games as a kid, and my folks really enjoyed bridge. I played occasionally and took a few lessons, but kids and career kept me from putting in real time until my wife, Sylvia, and I retired in Sun Valley in 2016.

The speed of play.

I was an attorney who made my career in Washington, D.C. I started on staff of Sen. Warren Magnuson, went to the Carter White House to consult on telecommunications competition and then started a small law firm in D.C. with friends. Our market niche was helping local governments all around the country deal with the dramatic changes in telecommunications over the next 30 years.

I was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and left after high school for Seattle and an NROTC scholarship at the University of Washington. I spent 4.5 years on active duty in the Navy, including a year in the MeKong Delta in Vietnam. After law school in Seattle, we moved to Washington, D.C. and Potomac, Maryland. We came here after I retired.

Wow! There's lot to do here. With bridge, fishing and golf, the days fly by. I am on the boards of the Wood River Land Trust and the local Hemingway chapter of Trout Unlimited.

This is a remarkably generous and welcoming community. The best thing is the many friends we have developed here - mostly through Sun Valley Bridge.

Editors' note: We'll introduce Nick's wife, Sylvia (BBO: SJMiller), and her sister, Elaine Pollock (Perch3), in a future e-newsletter.

Bill Bourke, 86, passed away away last month. He was a fighter pilot, a United Airlines pilot, an investor in wineries, and co-founder of the Merry Edwards Winery. We send our condolences and love to his family, especially his wife and bridge partner, Teresa.