Help
Add Reply
billyjef, on 2019-March-18, 16:09, said:
Wow, didn't expect to strike such a nerve. I agree with you regarding the treatment and despise the treatment as said. Their teaching is that is what fourth suit game forcing is for. Again, not defending them, just saying for some it is an agreement. I respect you, you perspective, experience and qualifications but I think you might be disparaging the ACBL's Barry Crane list a little harshly, IMO.
Hey, writing and pressing send can result in appearing to be more sensitive that I am in fact
However, I am always amused by the notion that there is any correlation between skill and masterpoint winnings. I've played against clients who would struggle to break average in a club game, if playing with their peers, but who win scores of points, even 100 or more, at Regionals, where they show up with 4 pros and play half the matches. Most clients are unlike the Nickells or the Diamonds of the bridge world
. I also have friends who, in retirement, play a LOT of bridge. They routinely finish quite high in the top 500, but they'd be the first to tell you that it is an attendance reward.
In fact, if one is playing mostly regionals, the reality appears to be that the level of competition is way lower than it used to be. Many of the best players are dead or retired from the game. Events are smaller, and the number of touring pro teams, at least in the Pacific NW events, has been dropping for years. Meanwhile the award scale results in vast numbers of masterpoints being awarded for doing reasonably well in an event in which there were very few good players.
Sit in on a discussion amongst really good players, in which they discuss prospective teammates or assess the competition in a serious event, and one is extremely unlikely to ever hear any discussion about how many masterpoints someone has or where they finished in the Barry Crane. I'm playing in our GNT District Final in April. I don't even know approximately how many masterpoints two of my teammates have (lots more than me is about it...I am sure they are both Grand LMs) and the only reason I know my partner's approximate total is that he will almost surely become a Grand Life Master this year.
As for me, my problem is that I bring down my team's average mp holdings, and seeding points. Heck, last month at a nearby Sectional the Director selling entries offered me an entry in Flight C of the Pairs
. My partner (who has 2 NABC wins, 4 Canadian Team wins and about 9800 mps), was very amused. He often finishes in the top 500, so I suspect he would have been offered at least B flight.
MultiQuote