I play my worst bridge when I'm:

[Mbodell]

Alternatively, let's say there are certain areas in bridge where you are very good, and certain areas where you aren't, which is also natural especially if you're not a top player. Maybe many boards than usual came up in your weak areas, which caused you to make more mistakes. In reality you will often mess up those boards based on your skill level, or at least have a 50 % chance of making errors on those type of boards, rather than a 10 % chance on a different hand type which would be very hard for others. So, because you ran bad on those things coming up, you feel you made more mistakes than you usually make and search for reasons why you might have played badly (and again, humans are good at finding patterns and reasons where none exists).

 

So maybe my answer is I usually play my worst bridge because I have natural variance based on my skill level, and when I hit the bottom end of that I am playing my worst bridge.

I agree that people in general vastly underestimate the roll of luck/randomness/variance in life (and in cards).

 

Another place for variance is if your mistakes cost or not. We are all more likelyto notice mistakes when they cost, especially for non-top players, and if we misplay a bunch of contacts taking 60% lines when 70% lines were available some days there will be no negative downside in our score and we may not even notice. Other days we will play exactly the same but every mistake will cost, the blind guess 2-way finesses will always lose, and it will feel very different even though we are playing our normal 7.5 game each time.

[gwnn]

Seriously 7 people blame their partners for their poor bridge? :)

 

It has happened a few times that my motivation evaporated when I felt that my partner doesn't care about the game but to say that my pd is the main reason is a little off limits in my view..

[cherdanno]

Agree with Phil and Jeremy. Actually I think watching go players is more instructive than watching bridge players, because in every single game of go both players are faced with extremely challenging problems all the time. When I watch go games of players around my level or worse, it is always quite apparent to me whether they are playing at their best ability. If I start noticing little mistakes that someone usually wouldn't make, then usually they continue to make mistakes (and I would love to be able to bet on them losing the game at that point...)

[Jlall]

Obv there are things you can do to prepare yourself, and things you can do to maximize your chances of playing well. Obviously if you are tired to the point where you can't think, then you are going to play badly.

 

I think it is less obvious that there is generally only so much you can do, and sometimes you're going to play badly. Even if you get a perfect amount of rest, and eat the perfect amount, and do every little thing right, all you have done is increase the average skill level that you'll play at, and possibly decrease the variance. But variance will still exist, and you will still play at the lower end of the spectrum sometimes. I think people do not put enough weight in this.

 

Obviously if you can analyze your game perfectly, you will know exactly when you did something like Mbodell said (taking a 60 % line instead of an 80 % line) and even if it doesn't cost you will give yourself a charge and feel that you played badly, and you know exactly the average # of decisions you'll have, and will adjust how well you think you played according to that, and you will be a completely rational human being...

 

Or maybe not. Sorry but I think a lot of people make more mistakes than they realize and only charge themselves when they cost, or at least only realize it was a mistake because it cost.

 

But that is a seperate issue.

 

Watching USA1 last year on VG from Sao Paulo, you saw many 'uncharacteristic' mistakes.

 

See, which mistakes would be characteristic in your opinion? Almost all mistakes made at the top level are mistakes that could have been avoided. That being said, there are ALWAYS mistakes at the top level. I do not think "wow that particular mistake was uncharacteristic," I would think "wow given his skill level if he made 2 bad mistakes in 64 boards, that's approximately what he rates to do."

 

Look at it this way. Say there was a player who was 10 % to make a mistake on any given board. This is constant. Let's say he played 10 boards. If he made 0 mistakes, did he play great? What if he made 1? What about 2?

 

The reality is, he played his normal game, and was always 10 % to make a mistake. Whether he made 0, 1, 2, or 3 will determine whether he thinks he played well or not. If he made 3, he might think back on something that happened, and blame that "I was tired." But in reality, he played the same game he always plays, it was just variance.

 

Give me an example of an area in your game that is (relatively) weak, and where you had a challenging session where you played at the low end of your personal spectrum.

 

I have no weak areas and always play perfectly obv.

 

I am not trying to say there aren't things you can do to increase your chances of playing well.

 

I AM trying to say that no matter what you do, you're still going to make some mistakes, and that people do not consider the variance/luck in how often they blunder nearly enough.

 

Most likely we all play our worst when we are in our worst conditions (hungry, tired, depressed, hungover) and then we run badly on top of it

[Jlall]

Also, all of the things listed in the poll are either mental or physical weaknesses.

 

As far as the mental weaknesses go, if those kind of things are going to affect you, that is a weakness you have as a bridge player. There is probably x (high) % chance that you are going to be distracted by something going on in your life, and y % chance of that being something that hurts your game in a big way. Part of the reason the best players are better and more consistent than worse players is because they arent going to be distracted by stuff like that, and thus are going to eliminate that element of variance.

 

The ability to focus despite what is going on in your life is as important of a skill as a bridge player as knowing suit combinations or whatever.

 

Some of them are physical things that obviously you can improve on (don't eat too much or too little, don't be dehydrated, build your stamina).

[MarkDean]

For me it is definitely being tired.

 

I have a hard time sleeping at tournaments, not sure why, but it really can affect my play...I will miss cards occassionally, play somebody for 4422 hand etc.

 

I always play (for me) really well in local events where I can sleep in own bed, then not so great at tournaments where I travel.

[jillybean]

Most of the above, and I'm finding when we start the first 4-5 rounds with no cards, defending against part scores I lose interest and concentration. A few good hands as declarer to pique my interest and start the brain cells working are best.

 

Nerves and distractions were the main problems at first.

[Siegmund]

I purposely didn't put (I play my worst when I'm) drunk. This is a LOL, I mean does anyone ever enter a serious event ripped and expect to play well?

 

That's perfectly sensible. I just wanted to clarify I wasn't talking about being drunk, I was adding to your list my observation that (for instance) a glass of wine at dinner causes a great deal more "foggy" than the dinner itself does- about on par with getting 5 hours of sleep instead of 8 - though people will deny any impairment.

[matmat]

when i don't care.

[MFA]

How about this...

 

Let's say on average you play as well as a 7.5 (where 10 is meckstroth, 1 is someone who is playing their first session). Everyone has variance in how well they play, for the top players a standard deviation would be very small (part of being a top player is playing consistently well). For non top players, a standard deviation will be higher.

 

So let's say you play on average like a 7.5, with a standard deviation of .7. When you play like a 6.5, you will feel you've played horribly (and this is quite poor for you but happens every now and then). When you play like a 9 you will think you played great (and this is quite well for you, but happens every now and then).

 

So when you play like a 6.5 you will think of all the reasons this could happen, for instance you didn't sleep well, or something is happening in your life. Of course stuff is always happening in your life that could contribute negatively to your play. Maybe it was just one of your off days, and despite many possible reasons for it happening, it is just going to happen based on your skill level, and there's no specific reason.

 

 

Alternatively, let's say there are certain areas in bridge where you are very good, and certain areas where you aren't, which is also natural especially if you're not a top player. Maybe many boards than usual came up in your weak areas, which caused you to make more mistakes. In reality you will often mess up those boards based on your skill level, or at least have a 50 % chance of making errors on those type of boards, rather than a 10 % chance on a different hand type which would be very hard for others. So, because you ran bad on those things coming up, you feel you made more mistakes than you usually make and search for reasons why you might have played badly (and again, humans are good at finding patterns and reasons where none exists).

 

So maybe my answer is I usually play my worst bridge because I have natural variance based on my skill level, and when I hit the bottom end of that I am playing my worst bridge.

I think this is surely correct and important to realize. A corollary is that one should expect oneself to make mistakes and not allow that to have a further bad influence on the following hands.

[A cliché is that for really to be able to shine, you'll first have to show the world also how bad you can be. To win one must not have any fear of losing.]

 

But there are times when I'm really struggling. Where it's just so hard to figure out even the simplest situations, because I simply don't think as clearly as normally. That's not just variance but being on a mentally/physically low point.

 

Say my general level is 7.5. Then at those bad periods it may drop to 6.5 for instance. I might get lucky and make few mistakes (playing like 7.2) but I also might play like 5.8 if things really go bad.

The variance effect 'comes on top' of the mental/physical thing, so to speak.

[gnasher]

... not the one with the spade suit.

[Little Kid]

There isn't really a set of reasons that will cause me to 'play my worst bridge'. When I'm really trying to focus I'm pretty confident I can play my best game. Usually it isn't too much of a problem to block out everything except for the cards in front of me and devote all my attention to that.

 

The only exception is when it feels like partner is not making a genuine effort to do well and the game starts feeling like 2v1v1. Skill level is irrelevant for me in this, as long as I feel like the person opposite me is making a genuine effort to play as good as they can. If they start playing with an air of apathy it really gets to me and is distracts me from the game even when I try to ignore it. It probably has to do something with the fact that I am way too competitive in everything :P

[helene_t]

Love Justin's post. Justin, if you get fed up with bridge you could always take up teaching applied statistics. I suppose I have said that before.

 

Given it some more thoughts I think I play the worst bridge when playing online and doing other things at the same time like reading bbf.

 

But on top of the problem with spurious patterns is the fact that it is difficult (at least to me) to assess one's performance. Results aren't really indicative since they are influenced by things like partner's performance, strength of the field, and luck. Perceived errors aren't indicative either since the worse my attention the smaller the chance that I will note my own mistakes.

[billw55]

It would be nice if a poll could accept multiple answers. There are surely more than one of the responses that have affected me from time to time.

[PrecisionL]

Tilt because of me! Mistakes because I didn't think long enough trying to keep tempo even, because I am afraid of a bad committee decision.

[DJNeill]

Tilt-avoidance is a learned thing for most. I used to cause and be prone to tilt until a few years ago when I just learned to ignore everything and treat every hand differently. You have to trick yourself - I admit I am ignoring partner but it is for the good of our game.

 

Way I overcame - play with random OKB people. They will do their best to annoy you, if their software was not bad enough. If you want to practice self-control with the worst-skilled partner, play random on BBO and challenge yourself to give it your all on every one. Remember in all this never to say anything negative or expect anything positive from partner.

 

I promise you will get better!

 

Thanks,

Dan

[kfay]

Tired and low blood sugar.

 

I don't go on tilt. Generally have good focus.

 

Most of my mistakes are just exacerbated by the above because in general they come from my suckiness.

[Fluffy]

I have learnt from the years to ignore dad yelling at me for playing badly. This was extended to the point that I ignore him at home also when he yells at me for doing/not doing something. But arguing with opponents/director sadly is a different thing and disconcentrates me.

 

BTW: When I say I play badly after something I don't mean I have bad results due to it, I am realicing I am having no f** clue of what is going on at the table, to the point of being unable to count when very very tired.

[Phil]

I hate to argue with JLall, because he's usually right and I'm usually wrong. But a few more thoughts:

 

1. I would accept we all have natural variance, however, at the tails the variance rates to become smaller on both ends. A 1 is going to suck regardless, but will sometimes make the right play. Meckstroth is going to play like a god, but occasionally will have a bad session for whatever reason. A 'middling' player, especially an emotional player may very well have a wide range depending on a lot of factors.

 

2. Whats important to me, isn't so much that we have variance, but not only doing what we can to play at our peak, but also to minimize the occurrences of those bad sets. Take your 7.5 player. Usually, the distributions for this person are in a 7.0 - 8.0 range. On a 'bad' day, he might slip to a 6.5, but on a good day, he can rise to a 9.0.

 

It seems to me that this same player, by simply controlling the mental and physical aspects can move the distributions to the right, although without some serious study I would say that a 9.0 is the best he's going to play on any day. As a result, his ranking may move up a few tenths, simply through better preparation.

 

Some hands will always be tougher for some that others. And now matter how perfect our preparation is, and how effective our approach is, there are going to be bad days.

 

I used to have this site bookmarked. Glad to see she updated it.

[shintaro]

;)

 

One main reason appears to be missing "Airless and warm stuffy atmosphere in the playing area"

 

 

<_<

 

:D

 

Another is when looking at partner who is akin to a Skyscraper where you can see the lights being turned off 1 floor at a time

 

 

:rolleyes:

[gwnn]

I play my worst when old ladies poke me at the end of each round to demand boards.

[Jlall]

I think for a lot of people, they make most of their mistakes playing too fast.

 

Maybe I am projecting though :rolleyes: I always think of mistakes at least in cardplay in 2 categories:

 

1) They were too hard or complicated for your level of play, so you couldn't reasonably be expected to get it right (this could mean anything depending on where you're at in your bridge life).

 

2) They were not too hard, and you said after the hand "Obv I should have played a spade, here is why."

 

#2 mistakes should be eliminated, and we must assume that the person just didn't think it through long enough before making their error, since they were capable of getting it right. This could be just a lack of concentration or w/e, but generally it means you played too fast and didn't think the position through long enough.

 

One simple way to try to avoid this happening is asking yourself before you play any card "why am I playing this card?" If you have no reason, think through it a little bit more.

[Jlall]

I hate to argue with JLall, because he's usually right and I'm usually wrong.

Heh, I don't think we actually disagree on this subject. I was simply offering more reasons and often the biggest reason that people don't perform well.

 

Obviously I believe you can do things to increase how well you play on average and also decrease your variance, such as sleeping/excersizing/whatever floats your boat.

 

I do think that if someone slept 6 hours instead of their normal 8 and had a bad session, it's more likely due to natural variance than the missing 2 hours of sleep, and they're likely to attribute too much blame to the missing 2 hours of sleep. That being said, it's clearly better to get 8 hours of sleep than 6 if thats what you need.

 

Obv if you take some extreme and you got 0 hours of sleep or someone close to you died or something there is no chance you're gonna play well though.

[awm]

One thing to be careful of is "resulting" hands a bit too much.

 

It's often the case that when I have a tough decision to make, there are conflicting pieces of information suggesting that different actions might be successful. For example, when taking a two way guess for a queen I might figure that one opponent has more vacant spaces, whereas the other opponent showed more values in the auction, and now I have "reasons" to take either decision.

 

With this in mind, it's often easy to make a decision, get it wrong, and then say "oh, I should've done the opposite because X." But it's not really the case that I didn't play slowly enough or think clearly enough to realize about X... it's that there was another reason Y to do the opposite. Perhaps I misevaluated the relative weights of X vs. Y... or perhaps I did nothing wrong and was just unlucky.

 

There certainly are unlucky sessions, where it seems like every guess is wrong, almost every decision is wrong, and even the "good" decisions are not swinging any scores our way. But it's also the case that sometimes we just don't show up ready to play, and make an unusual number of uncharacteristic mistakes on "easy" (for our level) things. It's important to avoid the latter situation (at least for serious events) to the degree possible, while accepting that "bad luck" is just part of the game.

[jjbrr]

I hate to argue with JLall, because he's usually right and I'm usually wrong.

Heh, I don't think we actually disagree on this subject. I was simply offering more reasons and often the biggest reason that people don't perform well.

 

Obviously I believe you can do things to increase how well you play on average and also decrease your variance, such as sleeping/excersizing/whatever floats your boat.

 

I do think that if someone slept 6 hours instead of their normal 8 and had a bad session, it's more likely due to natural variance than the missing 2 hours of sleep, and they're likely to attribute too much blame to the missing 2 hours of sleep. That being said, it's clearly better to get 8 hours of sleep than 6 if thats what you need.

 

Obv if you take some extreme and you got 0 hours of sleep or someone close to you died or something there is no chance you're gonna play well though.

Ya I think everyone who cites "tired" as a reason is more or less saying the same thing just in different ways.

 

I would never attribute a bad session to 6 hours of sleep; I would attribute 10 days of 6 hours of sleep with 3 sessions per day as a reason for being exhausted at the end. My play is noticeably and undeniably worse in this case, and it is not just a case of greater variance but that the mean decreases a few points on the 1-10 scale.