[ublover1]

Hi

I usually play the free daylong tournement, but as I am beginner I come way down in the list, and lose hope.
Is it possible to create certain divisions for the free daylong, for beginners, intermediate, advanced, and expert players in each 4 divisions?

Regards

Anders Wennerblom

[pigpenz]

practice makes perfect...sometimes i score great and sometimes i suck thats part of bridge.
....its the learning process!

good luck

[pilowsky]

In the end you are playing to see if you can do better than you did last time.
That's the good thing about games - there's a 'next time'. Mistakes don't come back to haunt you.

It doesn't really matter what others do.

[nudnikbp]

If you misbid or misplay or misdefend a hand or two in a daylong, then your mentality should be that you will do better next time.
Improving your bridge is a slow, ongoing process.

[pgs58]

😀

[dsLawsd]

In the old days you had to play against everyone. It helped you learn, sometimes with some embarrassment. Now you get private feedback. When I score poorly I often know why- but I look
at what happened on my really poor scores- was it me, was it luck, was it those crazy robot responses to my bid or play?

Develop some friends at your (or mentors if available) to go over the hands with and see how the play could improve. Sometimes you develop great partnerships for the future.
And it is judgement that often is critical as well as pure technique.

Your interest shows that you will in time become much, much better!

[microcap]

Hi Anders!! I play all the time and the robots make me lose hope every day! One small suggestion: GIB has a lot of idiosyncracies that make it bid and defend
differently than most humans. Try to familiarize yourself with those--there are lots of videos and articles on this site to help you. And remember, when you are playing the just declare or MP tournaments, it's not enough to make the hand, you have to make as many tricks as possible...that's often hard for beginners.

Good luck!

[JJE 0]

Hi Anders

Most of the responses here have the tone of "bridge is hard; learn from your numerous mistakes, and you will get better", which, although I agree with the basic content, might not be addressing your problem.

And I agree with you -- ostensibly players who are not "expert" in some manner get a whole lot more discouragement than encouragement.

As humans, I've noticed that our (faulty) tendency is to blame or partners in bridge, before considering that we ourselves have made a mistake, or even most likely, the opponents' usually great (or catastrophic) play is the primary factor in influencing the results.

I play in a club with individual tournaments, and the number of times I've been told to "stop playing bridge" is outrageous. Are there really still places in the world where people are banned from playing a leisurely game just because an angry troll has decided that they're too stupid to be allowed (of course there are, but it's hard to say if anyone really is truly happy in those places)? When partner makes a mistake it is not sufficient evidence to conclude that they need to leave and not return until they have learned the game. How long would that even take anyway?!

Also consider Anders that there is a popular bridge instructor who uses the free daylong for instruction. He's quite good so I would imagine that hundreds if not thousands of people are playing with "extra knowledge and insight", not because they intend to cheat, but because it doesn't count and the "play along" exercise is tremendously helpful in learning.

So, for sake of argument, I agree that it would be good to have other means of comparing oneself with others who are approximately around the same level to try and measure the improvement in some manner. We all know that the Masterpoints system (BBO or ABCL or otherwise) doesn't quite capture current ability, and rewards disproportionately players who play more often. With enough money one can get the most skilled partners to help them generate as many masterpoints as they would like.

Thanks for reading
Jeff

[pescetom]

JJE 0, on 2022-January-31, 09:47, said:

So, for sake of argument, I agree that it would be good to have other means of comparing oneself with others who are approximately around the same level to try and measure the improvement in some manner. We all know that the Masterpoints system (BBO or ABCL or otherwise) doesn't quite capture current ability, and rewards disproportionately players who play more often. With enough money one can get the most skilled partners to help them generate as many masterpoints as they would like.

The ideal way to improve and to compare oneself with others is to play with and against people who are better. Unfortunately that is not as simple in bridge as it is in many other sports. I wouldn't exclude paying a bona fide professional, but I think that only makes sense if you are really ambitious and/or have money to spare. Good compromises for most people are playing in a real world club (exploiting whatever partnership and teaching opportunities that offers) and playing online (balancing and positioning the fun but randomic experience with study of books and bridge fora).

[adriennek]

Anders, you bring up a good point about overall scores against others--

But in the daylongs, keep in mind that there are thousands of players, each getting a somewhat different array of hands to make it hard for anyone to cheat. There's also some randomness in how the robots at your table choose to declare or defend, so again some randomness. So, you're not getting a head-to-head comparison against those other players on exactly the same boards.

My advice: set a goal for yourself, since you are mainly competing against yourself each day. Try to get above 50%, and celebrate the days you achieve that goal!

The daylongs are excellent for practice playing card combinations, counting out the hands, etc.

Adrienne

[mycroft]

There should definitely be events that are limited, so that players can find how well they do against their cohort. I am not denigrating that at all. There should be events where you play everybody, but can "score with your peers" as well.

There should *also* be events where you play against all comers and see where you stand - even if it's 800/1000. Sometimes it's 200/1000, and you can celebrate it.

In fact, there should also be events where you can enter as cannon fodder and see how far you have to go from where you are.

Also in fact, there are many such stratified or limited events. The daylongs are open.

The key to playing events where you know you're in over your head is to determine what is winning *for you*, and not worry about the rest of it. As all the above are saying, decide (for now) that "winning for you" is 50%. Decide that "winning for you" is making that one great read in the auction or the play or the defence that gets you that one great board, or even not throwing away the opportunity you were given by the robots when they do something odd.

Once you get "winning for you" more often than not, push up the limits some. And if it never happens, well, still, you're enjoying the game.

(Note, I practise what I preach. I may be flight A anywhere, but I enter the NABC+ events when I can. And if I get 50%, I celebrate. DC Spingold (or Vanderbilt, can't remember now) we caught the #11 seed and lost by 130 to a team who weren't exactly putting in their all. I know how good I am, I know how good I expect to be while still having the rest of my life, I work to get better, but I know what "winning for me" is.)

Somewhat off-topic: Bridge is a Partnership Game. The daylongs are individuals with and against "idiosyncratic" robot opponents. I strongly encourage you to find partners you can play with, a majority of the time anyway - the game is much more interesting and fun that way.

[pigpenz]

the robots might be a better choice than playing in the free express individuals.
There is no standard in those even those the genral card is the 2.1 GIB card.

What really helps is getting bbo helper for chrome or firefox and check what the normal
contracts are that can be made...alot of times what is the par score will only get you 30%.