auspex

Indeed, I don't care about skill level. I played (as the "expert") in the Canada-wide Rookie-Master game last night. It's a complete crapshoot. Even when you get a capable rookie (and I did), the winning scores are rarely close to those suggested in the hand analysis. But we had a fine time, because everybody was trying to play their best. If some level of of compliance to the Laws of bridge is not enforced, or at least strongly encouraged, at the Main Bridge club, what is the difference between that and the "relaxed" club? Why does it exist? I completely disagree that this sort of thing is not possible with a computer. Simply make players sit for whole hands - if they leave without cause, the computer won't seat them again for some hours - you don't even have to ban them, just don't automatically seat them. I'd also like to see new players not seated until the end of a hand - let a robot play to completion, giving players who were disconnected through no fault of their own a chance to reconnect (I can think of drawbacks to that, though). Add a "report a psych" button. A psych is a gross deviation from agreement. Even a computer can tell the difference between a natural bid and a psych. It doesn't even need to understand conventions - if the bid was alerted, assume it was explained correctly; if it wasn't alerted, and wasn't a cue of opponents' suit, does it have suitable length and strength? Make a player play a round with a bridge robot to demonstrate basic bidding and playing skills before being eligible to play in the Main club (I wouldn't even set the bar very high - 40% against the robot, and you can take the test as often as you want). As for why the skill level on my profile says "private" - that's because I'm a better player than almost every "expert" I've ever played against here (and several of the self-described "world-class"), and I know I'm far from expert. I refuse to lie, and if that's your criterion for accepting me at your table I'm pretty sure I'm not interested. Now, if BBO devised some reasonable way of objectively rating players (which given the database of hands played shouldn't be too hard - base it on their scores relative to everybody they've played, weighting recent scores more highly than older scores - the hardest part would be giving relative values to IMPs vs MPs), I'd be pretty thrilled... You might allow some initial rating based on rankings from ACBL or other leagues - nobody believes ACBL rankings are very relevant, but they'd quickly get adjusted by actual play.

Oh, and if I'd known I was going to get responses mostly from cats...

Well, then, the general response so far would seem to be, "No, there is no interest". I've tried the business of choosing a table - more often than not, people who are far worse players than you don't like something about your profile and won't let you play. Trying to find a game that way is slower than changing games every hand. I have plenty of "friends" for a table or 5, but you know - they're either on at different times or have friends of their own to play with. Jillybean suggested Sectionals, Regionals and NABCs. I get to ALL the local sectionals (for two units), 2 regionals a year and so far an NABC every two years, so probably a lot more tournaments than many. I'm off to a sectional this weekend. I also play one or two ACBL BBO tournaments most nights - at least 4 games a week. Getting to organized games isn't the problem. I'm just looking for somewhere online where I can expect people to be serious about the game, even if they're only playing for a hand or two. I've _wasted_ more time today trying to find 3 people who would treat the game seriously than I spent playing in tournaments.

Is there any support for the idea of having "Help me find a game" take you to REAL competitive games? I set my preferences to "Competitive Game", and I get taken to tables filled with people who: - don't have a clue what duplicate is - don't have any manners - treat the play as something you do in commercial breaks - ask their partners to explain their bids - leave in the middle of hands I understand that there's no way we can have directors for the pickup games - unless we were paying for the privilege - but I'd love to see some restrictions on play in the Main Bridge club. #1 - leaving in the middle of hands. You should have to provide an explanation if you leave after having made a call on the hand (unless you're dummy). #2 - the table owner should _always_ have to provide a reason for kicking someone (though "unresponsive/too slow" is quite sufficient). A clear, and frequently mentioned, statement that players in the Main Bridge Club are expected to abide by the Laws of Duplicate. Otherwise, what's the difference between "Main" and "Relaxed"? What I'd really like is a competitive club for people who have at least a digit beside their name - indicating that they've actually had a little experience with online duplicate.