[alunand]

It is very difficult to invite or ask STAR player at BBO to play in Team Match....one of them put on his/her profile " Don't ask me for TM ". I think if we play with the STAR player it will improve our skill.

Anyone can help how to invite the STAR to play? or they must be paid? or they just want to play with their friends?

[jdonn]

Because it's annoying as heck to have 50 strangers bugging you to play every time you log on. I just enemy the people who invite me when I don't know them.

[Walddk]

"No thanks" to a private chat message is not that annoying. Worse is having to reject 5-6 times when a window appears, created by the same user. Amazing that some can't understand that Reject once must be enough. Some just don't take no for an answer.

Roland

[jillybean]

You sometimes get to play with or against stars by 'accident' in tournaments either as opposition or partners in indys. Make the most of these encounters and pick their brains between rounds

[hrothgar]

Its pretty easy to invite top level players to join a team match:

Step one: Select a player
Step two: Get out your checkbook...

[matmat]

hrothgar, on Oct 1 2007, 07:54 AM, said:

Its pretty easy to invite top level players to join a team match:

Step one: Select a player
Step two: Get out your checkbook...

there's always the other method...

[Gerben42]

Quote

It is very difficult to invite or ask STAR player at BBO to play in Team Match

Yes and no.

Yes, because: they have no reason to accept any invitations from complete strangers.

No, because: when you improve, you will get noticed by good players in live tournaments. Maybe then they will ask you to play online games with you. They may know stars who play in these tourneys. And in bridge more than other games you will then get to know the world class players.

In tennis, you just don't draw Federer as your opponent unless you're a pro.

In football, at least there is the cup where you might get a top draw in the 1st round. Otherwise, no chance to meet the top players.

We have some good chess players here but I bet none of them ever played against Anand or Kasparov.

In bridge you can.

[blackshoe]

Justin's point is well made.

I would never ask Justin (or any other star) to play on my team. Why? Because he doesn't know me, and all I know of him is that he's good. IOW, we're complete strangers, and I was taught, growing up, that it's rude to ask complete strangers to do you favors. Maybe someday, if I should happen to get any better at this game, he'll ask me. And that's fine - in that case he would be asking because it's to our mutual advantage.

Consider also that there are a hell of a lot more non-stars than stars. Justin's implication that stars get spammed by requests to play makes a lot of sense. Nobody likes spam. Is it any wonder the stars get a liitle short with the non-stars, then?

[barmar]

This is probably also the reason why some well-known champions have chosen not to be marked with a star.

[pclayton]

Or you can be like Dano and refuse a star

I get a fair amount of random TG invites and I don't have a star. I can't imagine what it would be like if I did

[joker_gib]

Jlall, on Oct 1 2007, 08:03 PM, said:

Lol is this thread a joke? How would you like to be spammed every day by several strangers to play in their team match? Maybe if you play with a star you will improve, but what's in it for the star? Your logic is so unbelievably selfish. Believe it or not it's not all about you. I'm not sure where you people get off believing it is ok to ask all the stars online for team games every day.

I totally agree and even if it is not a joke, it makes me ROFL !

Suppose you are a good advanced player, would you be happy to have 50 invites from complete beginners every day to improve their game !?

It's also a question of education, stop to bother the stars with this and try to learn from their play by kibbitzing them ! It is free !

Alain

[joker_gib]

pclayton, on Oct 2 2007, 11:39 PM, said:

I get a fair amount of random TG invites and I don't have a star.

But you are a star, Phil !

[matmat]

Walddk, on Sep 30 2007, 02:45 PM, said:

"No thanks" to a private chat message is not that annoying. Worse is having to reject 5-6 times when a window appears, created by the same user. Amazing that some can't understand that Reject once must be enough. Some just don't take no for an answer.

Roland

this should probably go in a different subforum, but i'd imagine that it would not be too difficult to have the software reject all team matches for you that have been initiated by someone marked an enemy. just a thought.

[pclayton]

joker_gib, on Oct 3 2007, 05:02 AM, said:

pclayton, on Oct 2 2007, 11:39 PM, said:

I get a fair amount of random TG invites and I don't have a star.

But you are a star, Phil !

[HeavyDluxe]

Quote

Suppose you are a good advanced player, would you be happy to have 50 invites from complete beginners every day to improve their game !?

It's also a question of education, stop to bother the stars with this and try to learn from their play by kibbitzing them ! It is free !

Some people have a lot of nerve....

I would never, in a million years, think of randomly asking a player completely unknown to me to play in a team match. To ask someone who is a 'star' would be even more ridiculous.

That said, if I even considered it, I'd at least try to ask the person via private message while they're dummy or otherwise lurking online. A random invite seems to be the height of rude.

re: kibbing - I know that I watch a lot of the players on here when I have the chance. Once, I think at a table with Hannie and pclayton, I accidentally fired a really random comment intended for another player to the table. I felt really bad about it. The fact is that a flip of a check box by the table host means that we wouldn't be able to watch at all. While 99% of what I'm watching goes over my head, that 1% that does take root is valuable. And I'm grateful for the chance to peek in.

So, on behalf of the random masses of BBOers: Sorry that some of us are idiots.

[irdoz]

Inviting people to team games because they have stars seems like a huge and incredible amount of insensitivity but all the time in the lobby I see people advertising for stars.

But for fun, here's a local story about a 'star' who I've never seen on BBO, but would qualify for a star if they played here.

I'd started playing weekly at a local club and one of the regulars on that night was a champion player who usually beat us up when me and my partner played them. In chatting, she/he discovered i was a medical practitioner and after that every time we played them the conversation turned to various medical problems and the seeking of advice. Now normally this is considered sort of rude but i guess because they were a champion player they thought they could cross that boundary.

Anyway one week we were playing the same direction and one hand was a tough major game contract that i was going one off in (with the rest of the field) except I got a misdefense. They had made the hand without misdefense. Afterwards they came up to me and steered the conversation in the usual direction. Somewhat bored by this, I decided to ask about the play on that hand - not something I would otherwise do. Without hesititating - they said - that will cost you $x - 'I spent years learning my craft' they said. I was flabberghasted and just smiled meekly and made a poilte exit after he'd told me I should get some lessons off him.

A week later - he was asking about yet another medical thing and I stopped him. That will be $x*10 I said - I spent years learning my craft you know. 'You should make an appointment' I said.

Both of us are still waiting payment.

[sceptic]

irdoz , nice one hahahaha, I am always flabbergasted by the arrogance of people, just because they are good at bridge some of them think they can post and say what they like and that they look down their noses at people,

there is a poster on these forums that I could imagine doing exactly what you described (possibly more than one) hahaha

[matmat]

irdoz, on Oct 4 2007, 10:12 PM, said:

A week later - he was asking about yet another medical thing and I stopped him. That will be $x*10 I said - I spent years learning my craft you know. 'You should make an appointment' I said.

Both of us are still waiting payment.

priceless... i mean $x*100

send them the bill for the advice you already gave him/her...