I play my worst bridge when I'm:

[Fluffy]

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

 

Maybe I am projecting though :) 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.

I remember you aceepted 10 players to send you some hands where you would point the many mistakes they make on simple hands.

 

How many mistakes did you find people make on average?

[Jlall]

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

 

Maybe I am projecting though :) 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.

I remember you aceepted 10 players to send you some hands where you would point the many mistakes they make on simple hands.

 

How many mistakes did you find people make on average?

Bleh still havent done them all, thanks for reminding me :) Depends on what you define as a mistake, if you include small signalling things then a lot, if you are just talking about the general concept on the hand and what suit to go after in what order or what to discard, it is still quite a bit, moreso for declarer play because there are more decisions.

 

Obviously it depends on the level of the player.

[Fluffy]

a lot... quite a bit... :) I suspected that hehe, but wanted to know if a lot was 5 mistakes per hand or just 3, well, 5 mistakes average with only 13 cards its almost impossible I belieive, but just in case :).

 

But I guess you won't make the numbers untill you are finished, so go do some homework cos I want the stats :)

[Rodney26]

One thing not listed that I have an incredibly hard time with is playing the dummy as a defender or when declarer plays the dummy. It totally throws off my defensive stride for whatever reason; I can't recall ever making a good play while dummy is away.

 

I also think I play a bit worse when I have a good kibitzer (which not surprisingly is rare); novice kibitzers are fine.

 

The number one reason is exhaustion, especially for the second session. I can't eat, drink, not exercise, or talk about bridge in between sessions if I want to play well in the second half of a two session event. I learned a while ago to avoid intermediary post-mortems as much as possible. I honestly think I'd be better suited to play 52 consecutive boards.

[Rossoneri]

When I mentioned fatigue, it was more to do with the fact that I think I'm still not used to having to focus at such a high intensity for 3 consecutive days. This seems rather odd, considering that I'm still in university, but to put it into perspective: I've rarely played in 3 day or longer tournaments (with a pretty strong field at that).

 

I find Justin's statement pretty interesting. I have observed on several occasions myself that even after a slight lack of sleep, I've played a pretty good set of 24 boards the following day, whereas I've had really bad days even with enough sleep. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure if there's any good way to test this out rigorously, but it most certainly is food for thought as one of my friends used to say that each hour of sleep is worth 5(?) imps.

[peachy]

On tilt because of myself. On tilt because I "have to" engage in endless niceties or to listen to - even "forced" to respond to - extraneous small talk that has nothing to do with anything other than make the round late, reduce break time, distract me from the matter on hand. Then I get stressed and impatient, because I am unable to ignore it, ie. I let it get to me and let it drag me out of the mental state I want to be in when playing in an event that I want to do well = calm, competent, observant, and mostly silent. Phew, if I bothered to spend a little time, I would probably edit this into one or two lines... but never mind, this is my problem. Earplugs next time?

[Apollo81]

Lack of sleep is by far the biggest one for me.

[nige1]

Thinking about my mistakes on previous boards.

[gwnn]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage? I "have a friend" who has sometimes been influenced by opps' or caddies' choice of clothing...

[matmat]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage?

...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOL

[aguahombre]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage? I "have a friend" who has sometimes been influenced by opps' or caddies' choice of clothing...

opps or caddies? u need to choose better partners

[gwnn]

so true! haha

[ggwhiz]

My pard did the cleavage thing in a ko match with 1 of our (not very good) teammates going for his gold card.

 

Up 48 at the half, she went for coffee, my opps sat down and asked " what did you do to our partners?"

 

She returned and they said "never mind". We won by 90.

[Mbodell]

Earplugs next time?

One of my occasional partners wears earplugs when she plays to cut down on the distraction. She says it helps a lot with her focus.

[Fluffy]

Wearing sunglasses is not accepted socially (I haven't seen anybody weairing them on a regular basis), but when I got my laser-eye surgery I had to wear them, they helped me focus. And I think they also tired me less.

[Tomi2]

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.

how did you manage this? pls tell me :lol:

[Fluffy]

hehe, just starting young and practicing B), when you are a 14 year old child and your dad starts to yell so loud at you to make you cry in front of all the people, at first it makes you play even worse, but in the end you strenghthen yourself and completelly ignore his rages. Specially after you notice that he yells the most when it is actually his fault.

[Tomi2]

Specially after you notice that he yells the most when it is actually his fault.

this seems to be an all-dad-fact B)

[helene_t]

yeah but it's actually an all-bridge-player-fact. In Dutch they call it the "Howler monkey convention".

[Jlall]

Don't think my dad has ever yelled at me once, sometimes it's the other way around though I guess heh

[y66]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage?

Are you Bob Packwood?

[Phil]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage?

Are you Bob Packwood?

ROFL, Bob Packwood IS a bridge player - I've played against him!

[dicklont]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage?

You got me there!

Once in a tournament there was this beautifull woman in another team.

She was very pretty and smiling so friendly.

I had seen her all day and thought she'd also noticed me, but I wasn't sure.

This was not very good for my already poor bridge, but when we finally had to play against her, it got even worse, up to the point that I revoked!

 

Worst of all: I was really certain that everybody knew what was happening.

And my teammates confirmed this later.

[Rossoneri]

How come nobody mentioned cleavage? I "have a friend" who has sometimes been influenced by opps' or caddies' choice of clothing...

I have a "friend" whom I suspect dresses up purposely to show her "cleavage" while playing bridge.

[dburn]

It is possible, I suppose, that "cleavage" may have been incorporated in the poll under "other". Or, if sufficiently exposed, "others", or if even more sufficiently exposed, "udders".