[sceptic]

Hi does anyone have any experience of huge number of rejections in tournaments?

I have tried to join 3 or 4 tourneys over the last week one ACBL and 3 free ones, I put my name down in partner desk and wait (in vain)

I invite usually intermediate or advanced players and I keep getting knocked back, I have not limited this to one or two invites either

I have on my profile, Intermediate player, basic sayc landy blackwood and standard carding. I put this on so I have at least the basics for a pick up partnership, do you feel this is the problem and if so, is it why so many people lie about their level of ability and list every convention they have heard of, as rejection on this level begins to irritate occasionally (or am I getting paranoid)

a side note, even when TD's ask the stragglers in the partnership desk just to join up and try someone new I still get rejected.

the problem has been greater since I changed my profile to the basic description

Just sounding off here, easier than throwing abuse at the screen

[epeeist]

I don't know what you consider "a huge number", but I've certainly had my share of rejections.

Part of it may be due to my profile description, which is designed to "weed out" players I would consider unfriendly. I change it periodically, but at various times it's said things like "I sometimes play when tired...you've been warned" or "post-hand criticism accepted, but I'll respond..." or "if you can't say hi and glp don't invite me" or the like. So in my case, I deliberately "encourage" rejections, in a way, because I don't want a silent unfriendly automaton as a partner -- if I did, I'd pay $3/month for GIB...

Not perfect, but when I'm invited, it's usually with someone who is reasonably friendly and often who has a sense of humour, and I not infrequently make a new "friend".

Also, like you I have a very simple bidding/carding description ("prefer sayc or 2/1 and std. carding"). If my p wants to specify dont or capp or rkcb (I usually want rkcb myself) or bergen raises or roman discards or 3/5 leads or whatever, I figure they can ask. However, I think some people, if they don't see a long list of conventions or carding agreements, figure someone is not really intermediate...

I'd rather use my profile space soliciting friendly players with a sense of humour (examples above) than specifying every convention under the sun using abbreviations that half the time can't be understood or are too vague (e.g. "rkcb" without specifying 0314 or 1430 or "xfers" without being specific -- so if you're going to have to discuss it with partner anyway, why bother putting it in your profile?).

[jillybean]

Perhaps its because prospective partners don’t want boards where they make foolish bids or plays posted on forum for all to see.

[han]

Wayne,

Given your profile, I would reject you if I had not marked you as a friend. The fact that your profile says "standard carding" is a plus, a long list of conventions would be a minus (for me). A joke or something personal as epeeist suggests would be a big plus for me. I especially like "post-hand criticism accepted, but I'll respond...".

Having said that, I'm never on such lists and I don't know what these people are looking for.

One more suggestion: write "prefer sayc and standard carding". It suggest that you would be willing to play something else but are most comfortable with this. Maybe this is also not important to others, but I like it.

[pigpenz]

jillybean2, on Oct 5 2005, 05:50 PM, said:

Perhaps its because prospective partners don’t want boards where they make foolish bids or plays posted on forum for all to see.

I like that
play with sceptic and see your hands on master solvers forum and bbo forum.
Jilly maybe on to some there

[Dwingo]

Don't read too much into these rejections.

In most cases, the the person I invite is playing a Team Match. I return to Lobby to mouseover the person's name and check what the person who rejected is doing, and he is playing al probability playing a Team Match

It happens that when you log in, you go to the Tournament section and browse through the names of people registered for the next Free Tournament. If you dont find anyone interesting, you put your name in the Partnershio desk and hang around in the Lobby and then you see some Advts for Team Matches and you join them.

Your name is still in the Partnership desk and you end up rejecting anyone who invites. I invariably send a private message to the person who invited that I am playing a Team Match and will not be in a position to play the Tournament. This is to make the other person understand that I am not high and mighty.

Godwin

[sceptic]

Quote

Perhaps its because prospective partners don’t want boards where they make foolish bids or plays posted on forum for all to see. 

hm do you really think that?

I thought most of my posts were aimed at what I do wrong

or my misunderstanding of pards bid

[paulg]

I doubt that it is due to Forum posts, as the number of readers/posters is small compared to the number of people playing tourneys.

I expect it is due to your Intermediate profile. When I scan a tourney partnership desk there is an abundance of Advanced players and few Intermediates, so the pool of Intermediate players is relatively small.

And, of course, no self-respecting, self-rated Advanced player wants to play with a beginner who has uprated himself to Intermediate!

Hard to know what to suggest to improve the situation (upgrading yourself to Advanced would be a short-term fix but probably result in a number of unhappy (misled) partners so I do not advise it) but just continuing to try and build up a pool of tourney-friends.

Finally, as others have said, I would not read too much into it personally.

Cheers

Paul

[helene_t]

It might be due to your intermediate profile but it could also just be coincidense. I wouldn't wory too much about it. I'm intermediate as well and have always had a lot of rejections, but who cares. I can always find someone. Most often I play with one of my friends, though.

I tend to accept invites but when inviting myself, I try to avoid:
- Conventions. Stayman and t/o doubles are enough for me.
- "Experts" (a real expert wouldn't play with me anyway - except maybe if he/she knows me from the forum - and I'm not so charmed by players with an inflated self-image)
- Vague system descriptions. Precision is preferable, precisionists usually have some kind of idea what system they play. SAYC would be ok but since "SAYC" usually doesn't mean SAYC I try to avoid it.

As for Cardsharps suggestions: basically I agree but what you might consider is this: keep your level as "intermediate", but add: "I'm better than most experts here". That's very honest and I think it would be attractive to many players.

[Al_U_Card]

Jlall, on Oct 5 2005, 06:01 PM, said:

The other night I asked this girl out...and...oh this is a bridge partner rejection post ok...

Some people like standard carding, some don't. Some like basic SAYC, some don't. Some girls like me...most don't. It happens, don't feel bad about it, if they reject you it probably wouldn't have been a good partnership anyways.

While the end may not justify the means, it certainly affects it......like a bridge partner. If you want to have sex, say so, you may get nine slaps on the face but the tenth request may strike gold......tell pard what you want and the one that accepts will be the one you were hoping for.