[matmat]

ArcLight, on Oct 3 2006, 08:41 PM, said:

I don't know how widepsread this is, but I have heard of people hiring pros to help them win colored (gold esp)MP so they can attain "master" status.

To me thats a complete waste of money.  If you don't earn something on your own merit, you haven't won anything and are just deluding yourself.

Why list ones ACBL Master status on ones profile?  Either put Advanced or Expert.

heh... let's not forget the other possible options... novice, beginner, intermediate... even private...

[badderzboy]

Ah the wonderful world of masterpoints!

I would have to agree with all the posters here. It is primarily an attendance award but is also used by the authorities to segregate some competitions ie with less than 5000 UK Masterpoints (not sure of US conversion ratio) u can play in the National Newcomers Pairs (below rank of master) and so on.

To be fair most people can stumble to this figure in the UK or qualify to play in a regional competition where high 100s of MPs are on offer for just turning up!

I've learnt fairly quickly that skill/MPs don't correlate more a factor of time served and how much money spent at congresses.

In fact when was the last time you asked what rank someone was as a guide to their ability?

PS Also how many trust the ranks on BBO lol - I think Adv/Int/Beg are far more accurate ratings by people who don't feel the need to fluff up their feathers...



Steve

[SoTired]

I had one world-class player tell me that he could tell how good a player was in 2 boards... Later, he revised that down to 1 board... Later, he revised that down to just watching them arrange their hand... Later, he said he could tell by just looking at them

I think I read a statistic once that 80% of ACBL players think they are above average bridge players.

Bridge is not like chess. There are no 6-year-old bridge prodigies making clever, critical q-bids in complex slam auctions. Bridge skill is definitely accumulated. But players accumulate skill at different rates and masterpoint accumulation does not directly relate to skill accumulation. Worse - ACBL MP accumulation has been skewed for marketing needs rather than by difficulty. I read recently that because Sectional tournaments were under attended, they were raising MP awards at sectional events.

Looking at masterpoints to determine expert status is like counting drinks to determine if a person is drunk. A person who has had a shot glass of beer is definitely not drunk and a person who has had 10 shots of vodka is certainly drunk. But anything in between is subject to what they drank, how fast they drank, how big they are, how used to liquor, etc. Same with using masterpoints to determine expert status.

Certainly, anybody with less than 10 masterpoints is not an expert and almost all grand life masters are expert. Anything in between is subject to more analysis.

And that does not even figure in that some players are expert in some phases of the game and not in others.