[thepossum]

Hi all

I first started learning bridge 45+ years ago.

I also know a fair bit of advanced and even expert theory and techniques

Very occasionally I can even execute something approaching advanced play

But I struggle to find a skill level that describes me at all other than "private"

It seems that "intermediate" is immense and meaningless

Checking dictionaries "novice" has different meanings so is a possibility, since I never qualified

Regards P

[LBengtsson]

Erfaren och olycksbenägen

that is how one of my partners described himself long time in the past. Translated "Experienced but makes accidents"

[pilowsky]

How about "trying".
That's how my mother always described me.

[pescetom]

LBengtsson, on 2021-October-29, 03:55, said:

Erfaren och olycksbenägen

that is how one of my partners described himself long time in the past. Translated "Experienced but makes accidents"

Verstappen may become world champion

[aawk]

Don't worry to much about it on BBO 90 % of self proclaimed advanced or experts are not of the level the think they are.

Your partner will learn your playing level during play and if he/she won't notice that means you are way better than them.

Putting in private is ok.

[game1980]

Try Bridge Master
That explain your skill level well

[morecharac]

I'd put inconsistent as my level if BBO allowed it. I already have it at the top of my profile.

[thepossum]

It would be nice if we could use our own descriptors

The problem is my level varies from Beginner to Advanced

I think experienced/old novice is most accurate, because the actual experience I have is nowhere near as much as the time elapsed since I first learned some basic Bridge

[thesidster]

I concur. I have been playing bridge for close to 40 years but still make
terrible mistakes, of late mostly because my concentration fades in and out
especially when playing many boards, or when I am distracted. I think the
level should be not left up to the player. It should be computed from the
player's play history, somehow.

[mycroft]

"Somehow". The issue is that everything that has been tried either fails or is spectacularly gameable.

For a while, I had a significantly better bridge history than Dano de Falco. That (obviously) didn't mean that I was better than him - just that I played with a regular partner, playing weak NT, against randoms and he played with Jimmy Cayne against other world-class opposition.

Power rankings help - but they fall prey to the insular class issue.

Hrothgar's "Permanent floating indy" would help - but falls prey to "system comfort" as well as all the rest of the usual individual issues. Plus, MikeH "only" plays IMPs, so his rating (should he play in it) would be biased toward that; I "only" play K/S, so my rating would be biased that way; everyone in Hong Kong has no idea how to respond to a 1♠ opener that could be 18 high, so...

Everything falls prey to "slam on BBO for an hour or so before my doctor's appointment" or "late night game with friends, where the conversation and the wine is more important than the bridge", or all the rest. Also, me playing with some equivalent-strength Polish player would be hilarious as we have no system in common, or language to create one. But it might be fun, for a while.

But the first question to be answered is "why do you want a level (for you, or for others)?" Once you have an answer to that, you can start looking for a rating system that will get you there. Of course, the best rating system is the old-fashioned one: "If you sit at the table for half an hour and can't tell who the fish is, it's you."

[Cibor]

The original post is so sweet... My advice to the original poster is - forget it, you don't even begin to imagine how meaningless these levels are.

Way back when BBO was created I naively read their descriptions of various levels. For Expert it read

Someone who has enjoyed success in major national tournaments

Since at the time my biggest success was winning a regional three-day congress I decided that I didn't qualify and set my level to Advanced. I quickly discovered that on BBO Expert actually meant "somebody who can tell the difference between the takeout double and the jack of clubs" and that's about it. The turning point for me came in an individual tournament when I was paired with a Turkish expert. I opened 1NT, he responded 2♣, I rebid 2♦ and he bid... 4♦. It already smelled bad, there is a common agreement that this is how responder bids a game-going hand with 4 spades and 6 hearts - Stayman followed by a delayed Texas Transfer Bid but I was highly suspicious. It seemed wrong to pass though, so I tried 4♥ but back came 4♠. I don't recall what I did next but after the hand the Turkish expert was pissed off because 4♦ was our last makable contract as he bid 4♦ with 11 HCP and 4=2=5=2. He was so angry at me that he wrote the sentence that became legendary among my teammates:

DON'T RIGHT HERE ADVANCED

It took me a few seconds to grasp that "right" was actually a spelling error and he must have meant "write" and that he was referring to my BBO level in my profile. Then I thought "damn, the chap is right!", I changed it to Novice and have kept it that way since.

Konrad Ciborowski
Kraków, Poland

[pilowsky]

I enjoyed success in the common room.
Can we have 'common' as a descriptor?