[daveharty]

Do you have a bridge nemesis? Someone who regularly gets the better of you at the table? This might be someone in a local game who always seems to get finesses right when you are an opponent, or someone who always takes suspect actions against you but seems to catch a magic dummy, or maybe just a really good player against whom you can't quite get over the hump. My own nemesis, I believe, is an older gentleman who is widely regarded as one of the weakest players in the local club; he regularly turns in sub-40% games, but never seems to get punished at my table. I remember one specific incident where he made a vulnerable 2C overcall on a balanced 10 count with Jxxxx of clubs and was given a gentle raise to 3C by his partner. My partner doubled him off with a decent defensive 9 count, but he caught AQxxx of clubs in dummy with a side void opposite xxx. There have been two separate occasions where he has gotten a good result against me because he mis-saw his hand (he is legally blind and requires very bright lighting to see the cards, as well as holding them very close to his face), bid accordingly, and my partner and I couldn't work it out.

Anyone else have a situation like this? Is there a psychological element at work here? Were you ever able to shake the curse?

[RunemPard]

My own worst nemesis would be my partner...hah. In seriousness...wait, I was serious. I play bridge with my beginner g/f during intermediate bridge night at our club. When we play against my regular partner, it is of the utmost importance that we destroy him!

Also another gentleman who is a decent player who I cannot seem to do consistently good against. Would love a night where we play a 3 brick set against him and clean house.

Good topic, and yes, sometimes wanting to beat them so badly can bring your dumbest or so it seems, even most unlucky moments.

[Hanoi5]

I had this partner who would hold grudges against people who made better scores than him in certain hands. It wasn't exactly like having a nemesis but he would say after finishing a round 'well we got the two boards and that lady owed me' or 'this lady got me again, we'll see about that the next time'.

I confess there's some people I fear when I'm at the table against them. Usually disciplined people, the who wouldn't go for a number by making a silly overcall like I would.

[han]

I always do badly against Louk Verhees, it doesn't matter whether he plays with Jansma or van Prooijen.

[daveharty]

That's so weird Han, I've heard he says the same thing about you.

[ggwhiz]

I had a non descript nememis at the clubs when I first started playing and one day an experienced player/mentor told me to "apply the random element" to him.

After a few more bottoms, I doubled a slam that they bid hesitantly on a yarborough figuring it was just another gotcha and he went down because of it. I owned him ever after.

[jillybean]

My nemesis was a gruff, old, experienced pair at the club who would always get top boards against me. They would question our auction in what I considered to be a threatening, accusatory manner. I am sure it was their overbearing, unfriendly demeanour that put me off my game and I could add a few other players who had the same affect on me.
What's changed? I make a conscious decision each time I sit down at a table to ignore the players mannerisms and regard them simply as 2 other players. Now I'm getting my share of top boards against them and we can even discuss the hands afterwards.

[Cyberyeti]

I rarely get a good board off Brian Callaghan.

I rarely get a sensible result off Martin Garvey, this can be good or bad (and some would say a) I'm not alone b) the same applies to me).

Edit: Forgot, as I haven't played run across him in years, I never got a good board off Richard Fleet.

[Antrax]

Because my partner and I are roughly 40 years younger than other pairs in the room, we stand out, and sometimes people look at us like we're disrespectful for trying to play well despite being "young", or something. There's one old pair that takes it to the next level, though. They habitually gloat when they get a top vs. us, and generally try to get under our skin. To add to that, I'm fairly certain they're cheaters. They do things like overcall 2♣ on AJxxxx and nothing outside, vul against not, the partner normally keeps silent and we take all the finesses wrong because we place missing HCP with the overcaller. Also, they often refuse to explain leads or bids, claiming they "don't mean anything special", which is odd since combined they're roughly 180 years old, and I don't think they're a relatively new partnership.

I've started a campaign to either put the fear of God into them or get them banned, whichever happens first. Ironically, they seem to have warmed up to me ever since I started calling the director for anything not completely on the straight and narrow.

[JLOGIC]

David Berkowitz easily. I have played against him a ton at regionals and have such a poor record vs him. I can't think of anyone else who has gotten the better of me at the table remotely close to as many times as he has

Second place would be Helgemo.

[JLOGIC]

On that note I think Berk despite being obv super highly rated is actually underrated because of his style. He rarely does anything flashy, but he just consistently doesn't give anything up which is really what it's all about.

[FM75]

daveharty, on 2012-January-13, 09:03, said:

Do you have a bridge nemesis? Someone who regularly gets the better of you at the table? This might be someone in a local game who always seems to get finesses right when you are an opponent, or someone who always takes suspect actions against you but seems to catch a magic dummy, or maybe just a really good player against whom you can't quite get over the hump. My own nemesis, I believe, is an older gentleman who is widely regarded as one of the weakest players in the local club; he regularly turns in sub-40% games, but never seems to get punished at my table. [snip]

Anyone else have a situation like this? Is there a psychological element at work here? Were you ever able to shake the curse?

Well that could just be a nice example of confirmation bias (hospital staff often believe that more crazy people get admitted during a full moon), or survivorship bias - perhaps caused by your altering your play against an ex post selected opponent that did beat you a few times, and as a result continues to do so.

If this opponent is really that far below average, maybe you are playing him rather than your system.

[Phil]

I am Justin's bitch. However, Han is my bitch so things even out.

[Statto]

daveharty, on 2012-January-13, 09:03, said:

Do you have a bridge nemesis?

Yes: myself. I often manage to defeat myself in contracts that no defence could beat

[BunnyGo]

FM75, on 2012-January-13, 15:32, said:

Well that could just be a nice example of confirmation bias (hospital staff often believe that more crazy people get admitted during a full moon), or survivorship bias - perhaps caused by your altering your play against an ex post selected opponent that did beat you a few times, and as a result continues to do so.

If this opponent is really that far below average, maybe you are playing him rather than your system.

I have the same horrible experiences against this guy. He plays randomly, such as 1♠-(4♣) with an 18 count and 7 clubs. Good luck trying to figure anything out. The only thing I realized is that he plays at least one trick worse than he deserves to, so I just double him a lot because I'm more than likely to set him.

[Free]

Yeah, I have a nemesis, but he's probably unknown internationally... Whenever he declares I'm screwed. Either I don't hold the right cards, or I hold too many of them and get squeezed/endplayed. I always feel helpless. Last time however I managed to get +1100 against him, but he knew his bidding was anti percentage and it was the last board of the day - so it doesn't really count.

[barmar]

For a while mine was G.S. Jade Barrett. He used to play in the NABC midnight games frequently, and always seemed to get the better of me. And at the time he was one of the few well-known players that I often played against and who knew who I was (this was before Justin and his contemporaries were on the scene as much).

[aguahombre]

Everyone has them. Mike Smolen was actually quite funny about the subject.

During a bad streak in team games against one particular (competent, but clearly inferior) pair, he approached them the next day after a K.O. upset complaining that they had cost him 2K donated at the Craps tables during his "night off". Finally, about a year later, when his team won one, he went outside and spiked an imaginary football.

[Phil]

Seriously, when I was growing up it was Dave Westfall from Spokane. Bruce Ferguson was probablt the best player in the northwest (except for Soloway, but he never came to our tournaments) but he never gave me any issues. Westfall totally fixed me one time and it bothered me but I got him back a few months later.

Now I don't think anyone in my area gives me problems. There's a few a random h and w pairs that can get random good results but no one does that with any regularity.

[mycroft]

My old partner, obviously. I used to say (to him, but in general) "if it's a technical hand, I should play it. If it requires luck or the opponents to make a mistake, you need to play it. Opponents throw you tricks." - and when I was his opponent, even knowing that, *I* threw him tricks!

There's nobody at the moment I "always" lose to - but there are those where when I *do* get good results against them, I take them as worth two or three good results against anybody else, because it doesn't happen very often...