[32519]

The thread title says it all, "What's the point of an Individual Tournament?" What do you prove?

[Vampyr]

I like individuals tournaments once in awhile. It gives you the chance to play with people you don't usually play with, and play a system that is not your normal one, and is probably simpler, forcing you to use judgment and think.

We generally have an individual when we have a barbecue or party where some people want to play bridge -- it is a lot more social in some ways.

[ggwhiz]

I do a lot of f2f teaching and they are a great way to stay in touch with my bridge roots and develop lesson plans on common themes for a variety of skill levels. It's also how I tell my students to troll for a compatible partner.

They are also much more entertaining than robots if you have enough to drink.

[Vampyr]

 ggwhiz, on 2014-February-01, 11:39, said:

I do a lot of f2f teaching and they are a great way to stay in touch with my bridge roots and develop lesson plans on common themes for a variety of skill levels. It's also how I tell my students to troll for a compatible partner.

Are there enough individual tournaments in your area to allow the chance to do this?

[ggwhiz]

 Vampyr, on 2014-February-01, 13:42, said:

Are there enough individual tournaments in your area to allow the chance to do this?

I should have said BBO Indies. Lots of students sign up solo and have day jobs. The only restricted club games suitable for them are in the mornings.

[Vampyr]

 ggwhiz, on 2014-February-01, 17:22, said:

I should have said BBO Indies. Lots of students sign up solo and have day jobs. The only restricted club games suitable for them are in the mornings.

Are there enough of them to set up a club?

But anyway I assume that by "restricted" you mean "restricted to beginners". Your students will not progress very far very fast if they don't take the plunge into open games.

[Bbradley62]

 Vampyr, on 2014-February-01, 18:35, said:

 ggwhiz, on 2014-February-01, 17:22, said:

I should have said BBO Indies. Lots of students sign up solo and have day jobs. The only restricted club games suitable for them are in the mornings.

Are there enough of them to set up a club?

But anyway I assume that by "restricted" you mean "restricted to beginners". Your students will not progress very far very fast if they don't take the plunge into open games.

It appears to me that gg is saying that, because there are not sufficient local evening club games for his students to play, he encourages them to play BBO individuals instead, not try to set up an online club.

I just checked the BBO hand records list of tournaments, and in the past hour there were 7 pairs tournaments and 7 non-robot individual tournaments. Of course, most of the individuals were Express Fun tournaments, which may or may not actually be bridge, but may be good for learning/teaching.

[Vampyr]

 Bbradley62, on 2014-February-01, 19:06, said:

It appears to me that gg is saying that, because there are not sufficient local evening club games for his students to play, he encourages them to play BBO individuals instead, not try to set up an online club.

Is there such a thing as an online club?

[ggwhiz]

 Vampyr, on 2014-February-01, 18:35, said:

Your students will not progress very far very fast if they don't take the plunge into open games.

Wow! Many of them have never played cards beyond the level of crazy 8's before. An open game would scare them silly, never to be seen again. I've had quite a few of the solo students take the beginner lessons twice in a row because they don't get to practice/play when the lessons end. BBO Indies are a pretty good alternative for them to grow the necessary confidence.

I teach a lot of people that are into the social aspect and that will never dream of or try to make LM. Ten and twelve year old brothers in Canada now play on BBO with their grandparents who live in Tokyo and might get more serious about bridge in the future. Or not and it's fine by me.

[Vampyr]

 ggwhiz, on 2014-February-01, 21:58, said:

Wow! Many of them have never played cards beyond the level of crazy 8's before.

I assume this is not the case after they have finished your course of lessons!

Quote

An open game would scare them silly, never to be seen again. I've had quite a few of the solo students take the beginner lessons twice in a row because they don't get to practice/play when the lessons end. BBO Indies are a pretty good alternative for them to grow the necessary confidence.

I think there might be some alternative to taking repeated beginner lessons or playing BBO individuals. Perhaps forming a club is a little ambitious at this point, but that is actually how my local club started 30 years ago -- a group of students set up a club with the assistance of their bridge teacher.

Improvers lessons and supervised duplicates could perhaps be arranged by you or others, a local club could hold a pro-am event... it seems a real shame that these people, who are evidently very keen, have no opportunity to practise or, apparently, form partnerships among themselves, or become. a bit better than complete beginners.

Weekend bridge holidays are good places to play in a relaxed environment, and they usually offer lessons/lectures as well. They might be a good place to find partners too; you might want to give your students information about some of these.

And of course these students could be encouraged to hold team matches at their homes; singles could include other singles, so this might aid in practice/partner finding.

BBO individuals do not seem very helpful for the latter, because a partner on BBO may be very far away. So the students would be able to play online, but you mention that many of these students are interested in the social aspect of bridge, so they will eventually have to find real-life partners, and finding some who are at their level and interested in improving and developing a partnership is what is needed.

[lycier]

 32519, on 2014-February-01, 09:41, said:

The thread title says it all, "What's the point of an Individual Tournament?" What do you prove?

My answer is " who is the lover of the public ? ". lol....

[Bbradley62]

 Vampyr, on 2014-February-01, 19:07, said:

Is there such a thing as an online club?

Yes. Some examples are BBO Fans, BBO Hornets (neither of which is affiliated with BBO, best I can tell), and IBAA. They run games on a regular schedule, and you must be a registered member of the club to play. (To register, you simply go to their website and fill out their membership form.)

[PeterAlan]

 32519, on 2014-February-01, 09:41, said:

The thread title says it all, "What's the point of an Individual Tournament?" What do you prove?

What's the point of asking rhetorical questions on an internet forum?

[ahh]

1 view of individual tournaments is that they are the worst form of torture known to the bridge world . However I play in an event once every 4 years or so to remind me why I don't play in them more often

[barmar]

Although bridge is a "partnership" game, each player brings their own strengths to it. An individual game tests your ability to be flexible, adapting to a wide variety of partners of different abilities and with different styles, on top of your basic bridge judgement. It puts less emphasis on developing complicated systemic agreements.

It's like playing cut-around rubber bridge -- you can't depend on having a partner with whom you have years of experience.

[PhilKing]

Having just paid a monkey to play in the Zia Ghoulash individual, I think I know the answer to the question.

[nige1]

 32519, on 2014-February-01, 09:41, said:

The thread title says it all, "What's the point of an Individual Tournament?" What do you prove?

Agree with Barmar:

Individual competitions test your declarer-play skills, often in peculiar contracts. In bidding and defence, they exercise your judgement and inter-personal psychology. Usually, everybody must play the same simple-system so they largely avoid most of the usual enormous (and arguably unfair) bias in favour of long-standing partnerships with detailed understandings and sophisticated methods.

Some critics allege that individual competitions are "random" but they test different skills from other forms of Bridge. Also, with a fixed number of players, it's twice as easy to win a pairs and four times as easy to win a teams competition. This effect is usually exaggerated because good players tend to play with other good players. There's more skill in winning an individual, than in winning a teams competition with three word-class team-mates. For obvious reasons, professionals aren't keen on individual competition and that is partly why they're becoming rarer.

Individual competitions don't need to prove anything

[MrAce]

 Bbradley62, on 2014-February-01, 23:45, said:

Yes. Some examples are BBO Fans, BBO Hornets (neither of which is affiliated with BBO, best I can tell), and IBAA. They run games on a regular schedule, and you must be a registered member of the club to play. (To register, you simply go to their website and fill out their membership form.)

She already knows it. Definition is "A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal." or something similar to this. Unless of course she was referring to other meanings of the word "club" or unless she was short of imagination that this can be done online, even if we believe that she had no idea that those clubs and much more than you listed exist. Rather this is some sort of expressing her opinions/disagreement/not recognizing online clubs/tourneys etc....imo. She did not ask "Is there online clubs" she asked "Is there such a thing as an online club?"

She prefers f2f social activities, communities, clubs i guess, which is perfectly normal even if some of us disagree with her, or do not believe f2f part of clubs or so is not even remotely important as the other pluses that internet brings right into your house, in your room, on your most comfy chair with much more options. It is personal choice after all. I do not believe there are enough people for whom i would leave all of this and drive in traffic, pay more fees and gas, disable myself from doing things i like while i play, and be able to do so only on specific hours of a day.

 32519, on 2014-February-01, 09:41, said:

The thread title says it all, "What's the point of an Individual Tournament?" What do you prove?

I think some of the most important functions of individual tournaments are..

a-To be able to participate in a tourney w/o having to find a pd, or w/o having to stuck with a pick up pd for the rest of the session
b-To be able to play vs people who are not regular partners, which gives them significant advantage

In USA they used to hold money games individuals once every month i guess. 100 $ fee to enter, 5000$ for the winner and goes down for the 2nd 3rd down to first 10.They were pretty good events, with good field. Pros used to do significantly better than others, due to obvious reasons + knowing how to handle different level of pds and how to make them feel comfortable. Last one i played was when i lived in Los Angeles. Funny thing is, it can be crucial towards the end of the event, if you are playing with a pd who desperately needs big score or who is mad. frustrated for w/e reason, they can blow everything you made in a split second. I knew i was gonna play with one of them due to his attitude the round before as my opponent and he got into it with his pd. Before he came as my pd to the table, i bought 2 cups of coffee instead of one and gave one of them to him which he appreciated. This put him into more responsible mood
you may need tricks like that to tell him "please do not ***** up my session just because you already *****ed up yours" without actually telling it.

[helene_t]

What's the point of pair (or even worse: team) games at the club? OK, if you are part of a serious partnership, it can be an interesting aspect of the game to make a coherent system book, maybe add some of your home-baked cookies, get used to the subtle detail of each others style.

But getting used to each other's style comes with disclosure obligations which are rarely met. In a long-time partnership I will know which hands my p can and can not have when he makes an overcall. In theory I should make all that knowledge available to the opps. In practice I can't.

Add to this the silly jealousy issues involving people who have two or more regular partners.

All in all I would much prefer individual games, or at least single-evening partnerhsips, as long as I don't have the time and/or the right partnership to work out a system for a serious partnership.

As a BBO TD I prefer indys also. Not having to deal with partnership understanding removes most of the ethical issues.

I have always left IRL indys in really good emotions. And when moving to a new town, an indy evening is a great opportunity to get to know some locals.

[Vampyr]

Mr Ace would you get over your obsession with me, and do not presume to speak for me or say what I know.

Someone has clearly pissed in your canteen, but it certainly wasn't me -- I had never picked you out of the crowd in any way before you started all this. Put me on ignore so you are not tempted.