[bartonfinc]

I know, I know, the first 6 answers will ask why would I ever play in the stupid things. I have no good answer for that other than I sometimes have a spare 30 minutes and feel like torturing myself. I don't care if I get 6 partners who can't sort their cards, don't care if I get all zeros, blunders, poor bids, bad play, don't bother me at all. What bothers me is players are supposed to play 2/1 and the convention card is provided. If you don't know 2/1 at least have the cc open and make an effort or guess what bid to make. I played one tonight. First hand I make a support dbl (what the cc says I should do), pard does not rebid spds, which he had 5 of, bids something else. When my hand comes down as dummy he quits. Next hand I open 1nt, LHO bids 2D (cc says capp showing both majors) his pard passes having 4 hearts and 2 diamonds.

In theory these short little tourneys should be great, instead they are a complete joke. Perhaps management could make a note so when players register or the table opens. In 20pt font it says OPEN THE CC PROVIDED AND PLAY IT.

[barmar]

One of the things I've learned in my 30 years in the computer business is that it doesn't matter how prominent you make messages like this, people will still ignore them.

The other people just want to play a few boards for fun, just like you. They don't want to have to learn anything new.

[42krunner]

bartonfinc, on 2015-March-23, 20:06, said:

What bothers me is players are supposed to play 2/1 and the convention card is provided.

Perhaps management could make a note so when players register or the table opens. In 20pt font it says OPEN THE CC PROVIDED AND PLAY IT.

I swear some don't even know what a CC is. Maybe you give them too much credit?

[akwoo]

Paraphrase of an actual recent conversation between a club LOL (who is actually a fairly good player and has seen but not played a number of wacko systems over the years) and a low intermediate pair (LIP).

LIP: We're switching to 2/1.
LOL: What does that mean?
LIP: This means a new suit at the 2 level will be game forcing for us.
LOL: Won't that get you too high sometimes? If you bid a new suit at the 2 level with 10 points you'll be forcing to game with only 22 between you.
LIP: We change the new suit at the 2 level to require 13.
LOL: Then what do you do with the 10 or 11 point hand?
LIP: We bid 1N.
LOL: But I thought 1N was supposed to show no more than 9.
LIP: In 2/1, 1N shows 6 to 12. We have to make it forcing so that we don't stop too low on the 12 point hands.
LOL: That's too complicated for me.

A lot of the players in the 6 board individuals are the level of this LOL, if not worse.

Asking them to read a CC and play it is like asking someone who's only played by ear to suddenly start sight reading music.

[barmar]

akwoo, on 2015-April-01, 14:05, said:

A lot of the players in the 6 board individuals are the level of this LOL, if not worse.

Asking them to read a CC and play it is like asking someone who's only played by ear to suddenly start sight reading music.

Very good explanation.

In New Orleans, I agreed to play in a midnight zip KO with a friend. He plays Precision with his regular partner, so I thought it might be an opportune time for me to give it a try in a non-serious. I asked him if he could give me a quick lesson in the 5-10 minutes before the game was going to start, but he didn't think it would work, so we ended up playing 2/1.

And some people expect other players to pick up a system they're not familiar with just by reading the online CC? Good luck with that!