[Michael000]

I play Bridge with real people at my Bridge club. Injured (and unable to play golf) I registered with BBO to play Bridge on-line. As you know, completing the profile asks one to select a ccompetency level. I thought about it for few seconds and selected ‘Advanced.’ Later on looking through this forum I found a post that described those levels (below). Is this the accepted standard? Frankly I don’t know what a 'mandatory falsecard' is!

Beginner: Player who has just taken up the game.

Intermediate: Frequent club player who has developed, and is familiar with, a personal convention card.

Advanced: In reference to a player who frequently plays in regional or national tournaments and is comfortable with advanced playing techniques such as endplays, mandatory falsecards and basic types of squeezes.

Expert: Player who has represented his country in an international event, or won a national event, or has frequently won regional events.

[ArtK78]

That is one person's view of what the competency levels should indicate.

Ask 5 BBO members for a definition of the various levels of competency, and you will get 6 opinions.

Having said that, if you do not know what a "mandatory falsecard" is, you are probably not an Advanced player. That is not to say that those who claim that they are Advanced players do know what a mandatory falsecard is.

[helene_t]

BBO provides guidelines for this. They can be found here: http://www.bridgebas...p/profiles.html

FWIW I don't think most advanced players by that definition have heard about mandatory falsecards.

[Michael000]

ArtK78, on 2014-December-26, 11:50, said:

Having said that, if you do not know what a "mandatory falsecard" is, you are probably not an Advanced player.

The concept and use of a 'falsecard' is a long way off new to me, it is the 'mandatory' part which is new to me but that's probably why I am not 'advanced'!

[broze]

Michael, check out this great thread for a discussion on mandatory falsecards.

[Michael000]

broze, on 2014-December-26, 12:31, said:

Michael, check out this great thread for a discussion on mandatory falsecards.

Thanks for the link, that looks like some worthwhile reading.

[Al_U_Card]

Novice: Someone that you pray you never have to play with or against.... On the 0 - 100 Dead to Meckwell scale,<5

Beginner: They cannot count past 10 so bidding and play ability is limited. DtM 5-15

Intermediate: They know enough to use conventions that they don't know when to use or how to continue. DtM 15-25

Advanced: They have seen enough hands to recognize their mistakes once they are pointed out by pard. DtM 25-40

Expert: Will point out pard's mistakes and are often confused with bridge teachers. DtM 40-60

World Class: They are ashamed of being less than expert but an expert rating gets them expert pards. DtM?

Good player: Worthy pard and challenging opponent and reasonably hard to find. DtM 40-70

Good partner: Worth more than their weight in ACBL gold points... DtM ... N/A

n.b. A DtM of >70 is a pro or someone who hasn't got a life (outside bridge)

Happy holidays!

[Michael000]

Skill Level

Amongst the option to choose from in 'Skill Level' is 'Private'. I look at an open table of players and I look at their profile and I see Private which tells me nothing. Are they below Novice or are they 'humble' Experts?

1. On a cultural level (the culture of this Bridge site) what skill level are Private at?
2. Why does BBO have this option choice available, what's the reason for it, what function does it serve?

[diana_eva]

Michael000, on 2015-January-18, 15:57, said:

Skill Level

Amongst the option to choose from in 'Skill Level' is 'Private'. I look at an open table of players and I look at their profile and I see Private which tells me nothing. Are they below Novice or are they 'humble' Experts?

1. On a cultural level (the culture of this Bridge site) what skill level are Private at?
2. Why does BBO have this option choice available, what's the reason for it, what function does it serve?

Just speculating, but I think it something like:
- if you see someone with few logins flying "private" in their profile it most likely means they don't know how to fill in their profile.
- if it's someone with say over 1000 logins (can be considered experienced with how the site works), they prefer to not choose a skill level on purpose. They are probably not beginners but can be anywhere from intermediate to world class.

As for why this exists, simple - BBO does not force people to state this info in their profile. Like anything else in user's profile, this is optional. According to the Help files:

Quote

Private
This indicates you do not wish a skill level to be displayed when people view your profile information.

[Michael000]

diana_eva, on 2015-January-18, 16:07, said:

- if it's someone with say over 1000 logins (can be considered experienced with how the site works), they prefer to not choose a skill level on purpose. They are probably not beginners but can be anywhere from intermediate to world class.

I saw one person with 5,000+ logins who chose to describe themselves as a beginner! That aside (and this is NOT important) I have formed the view that most people choose Intermediate because it's 'easy'. I wonder whether we would be better served with a category between Intermediate and Advanced to allow the beginners with 5,000+ to occupy the Intermediate category and the real Intermediates to occupy a 'Competent' or 'Experienced' category? As I say it's not important but I find myself avoiding the Privates because they're an unknown, the Advanced because I don't play 'leaping puppets' and the beginners because it's difficult to avoid getting into lengthy chats about what and why.

[1eyedjack]

Michael000, on 2015-January-18, 15:57, said:

Skill Level

Amongst the option to choose from in 'Skill Level' is 'Private'. I look at an open table of players and I look at their profile and I see Private which tells me nothing. Are they below Novice or are they 'humble' Experts?

1. On a cultural level (the culture of this Bridge site) what skill level are Private at?

They could be below Novice or 'humble' experts or anything in between.

Michael000, on 2015-January-18, 15:57, said:

2. Why does BBO have this option choice available, what's the reason for it, what function does it serve?

For one thing, it simulates real life bridge when you encounter an unfamiliar player: generally you will not be privy to their level of competence unless they volunteer it. And as opponents they generally will not.
But mainly it promotes honesty among those who choose to volunteer a skill level.
OK there is a lot of dishonesty out there, but think about it: If someone who prefers not to display his skill level is required to do so by the software, you can reasonably expect a dishonest self assessment. Better to let them display private. At least then you are on notice to have no particular expectations one way or another.

[1eyedjack]

Michael000, on 2015-January-19, 01:54, said:

I saw one person with 5,000+ logins who chose to describe themselves as a beginner! That aside (and this is NOT important) I have formed the view that most people choose Intermediate because it's 'easy'. I wonder whether we would be better served with a category between Intermediate and Advanced to allow the beginners with 5,000+ to occupy the Intermediate category and the real Intermediates to occupy a 'Competent' or 'Experienced' category? As I say it's not important but I find myself avoiding the Privates because they're an unknown, the Advanced because I don't play 'leaping puppets' and the beginners because it's difficult to avoid getting into lengthy chats about what and why.

I know a few players who rightly describe themselves as beginner, despite logins numbering in the thousand. But that is not really the point, I guess, which is:

1) Don't put too much faith in self assessed competence, and

2) If you are short of familiar partners, it costs very little of your time to play with random unknowns for about 3 or 4 hands, by which time your assessment of their competence will be more accurate than anything that they display in their profile. If the experience is not enjoyable, then move on and flag them not to play with them again. If the experience is enjoyable, then flag them as OK to play with in future (NB you may wish to do that just in the notespace area, because if you flag them as "to be followed" then they will know that you have done so if they do likewise to you).

I think that BBO is a bit too full of players who will not risk the occasional couple of hands purely on the strength of profile. Perhaps the most reliable indicator is if they spell "Stayman" as "Staymen".

[barmar]

1eyedjack, on 2015-January-19, 02:01, said:

I think that BBO is a bit too full of players who will not risk the occasional couple of hands purely on the strength of profile. Perhaps the most reliable indicator is if they spell "Stayman" as "Staymen".

I think it's unlikely that spelling and bridge competence are strongly correlated. I've seen many people refer to "Michael's Cuebid", and I don't infer anything from them not knowing that "Michaels" was the player's last name.

[helene_t]

I think the self assessment is useful for one thing: if someone self-rates as expert, there is a good chance that he will blame his own mistakes on me. If someone self-rates as intermediate or beginner, he might blame some of my mistakes on himself.

[Zelandakh]

Michael000, on 2015-January-19, 01:54, said:

I have formed the view that most people choose Intermediate because it's 'easy'.

My experience is actually the opposite of this. many more players are intermediate by BBO definitions than self-rate as such.

Michael000, on 2015-January-19, 01:54, said:

I wonder whether we would be better served with a category between Intermediate and Advanced to allow the beginners with 5,000+ to occupy the Intermediate category and the real Intermediates to occupy a 'Competent' or 'Experienced' category?

The idea I have proposed a time or two is also to split the intermediate category because it is too large. My suggestion is to use a category of "Improver" for the lower half of the intermediate range. If intermediate were tighter it might encourage some good intermediates who self-rate as advanced or expert "to separate themselves from the crowd" that this was unnecessary.

Honestly though, anyone who takes the self-ratings too seriously is being pretty silly. For me, the best part of them is sitting at an "expert" table and starting a discussion on bidding theory 2 or 3 grades above their competance level. Helene, you should try that the next time an expert starts blaming you for their own mistakes!