[kenrexford]

I must have missed this one. It appears that the ACBL has now moved the rank of Life Master to 500, with a need for twice the number of gold points. Grandfather clauses save those who are ACBL members now.

Not sure why I care. I just find it funny that "Life Master" keeps rising as far as requirements. Kind of like inflation, I suppose. The price keeps going up, but the money is worth less, so it all works out, I suppose.

[SoTired]

checked ACBL website and see nothing about this. Where did you hear it?

[JanM]

The ACBL Board passed it in Las Vegas, but I think it's not effective for about 2 years.

[JoAnneM]

You will find this in the minutes of the ACBL Board of Directors meeting held in Las Vegas and it will be effective January 1, 2010.

http://web2.acbl.org/documentlibrary/about...082-Minutes.pdf

Personally I think it is a good idea since masterpoints have become so cheap.

[SoTired]

Yup - found it. A BoD member wrote an article on the Internet about Las Vegas. See http://www3.sympatic...t/board082.html

[matmat]

I see they bumped up the black points requirement too.

Is it actually currently 1,5 times easier to get 1 black point than it was 10 years ago?

[ArtK78]

There are club games in my unit and in the neighboring Delaware Unit that routinely award over 7 points in a single session game.

One former member of my unit, Ken Cohen (he recently changes his membership from Philadelphia Unit to Delaware Unit), has won the ACBL Ace of Clubs race each of the last two years by playing in a couple of clubs that award obscene amounts of points. In 2007, he won over 560 points in club games! And I am not refering to special events like NAP or STAC games, as those do not award black points. It has gotten to the point where, in some cases, he earns less points by winning a Sectional Open Pairs than he would have received by winning the club game.

So, yes, it is much easier to accumulate black points in club games now than it was a few years ago, merely because so many more points are available.

[jdonn]

I think they should have lowered it to 50 points. In fact just call every member a life master.

[JoAnneM]

Raising the silver to 75 will probably be the most difficult. Now there will be a clamour to have KO's at Sectionals. Ours does but we had to add an extra day.

[pigpenz]

how about the obscene amount of points won by people playing in acbl bbo games?
Maybe they should move the amount needed to be a Life Master to 10,000.

[cherdano]

They were worried that I might become a Life Master.

[TimG]

pigpenz, on Aug 29 2008, 11:47 AM, said:

how about the obscene amount of points won by people playing in acbl bbo games?
Maybe they should move the amount needed to be a Life Master to 10,000.

There is a letter to the editor in this month's Bulletin that suggests an Online Life Master (or some such) designation.

I've recently played in a number of ACBL tourneys. As $1 per 12 board speedball, which lasts less than one hour and pays many pairs 2.00 points, I can see how it is easy to pile up online points.

(But, I don't think these count towards life master, at least I am quite sure they are un-pigmented, so really has o affect on life master requirements.)

[TylerE]

TimG, on Aug 29 2008, 11:55 AM, said:

(But, I don't think these count towards life master, at least I am quite sure they are un-pigmented, so really has o affect on life master requirements.)

Not strictly true, as the number of points needed for LM is greater than the sum of the various pigmented requirements.

[ArtK78]

Online points are unpigmented (they have no color). They do count towards the various life master and beyond rankings; however, no more than one-third of the points needed for any particular ranking may consist of online points.

For example, no more than 100 online points can count towards Life Master rank; no more than 1667 online points can count towards Diamond Life Master rank (5000 points); etc.

Online points do not count in the various annual masterpoint races except for the online masterpoint race.

[pigpenz]

ArtK78, on Aug 29 2008, 12:03 PM, said:

Online points are unpigmented (they have no color). They do count towards the various life master and beyond rankings; however, no more than one-third of the points needed for any particular ranking may consist of online points.

For example, no more than 100 online points can count towards Life Master rank; no more than 1667 online points can count towards Diamond Life Master rank (5000 points); etc.

Online points do not count in the various annual masterpoint races except for the online masterpoint race.

so why do the top 3 or 4 people rated continue to play for the 2500masterpoints that they have won?
1. extra money to spend
2. dont care about points that dont count for ranks
3. are all over 10,000 so there is no upper limit for online usage?
4. are all addicted, so they are pleading insanity

[ArtK78]

Can't answer your questions specifically, but it could just be that they enjoy playing bridge. Playing online is a lot more convenient that playing in a club game - you don't have to leave the house, games are always available, and the ACBL games are cheap ($1 for 12 boards), frequent, and fast (1 hour for the speedball games).

I almost never play in face-to-face club games (tomorrow is an exception - have to qualify for the NAP), but I am frequently playing in the ACBL Speedball Games online.

[jtfanclub]

cherdano, on Aug 29 2008, 11:51 AM, said:

They were worried that I might become a Life Master.

Rumor had it that they were going to make the requirements for Life Master "1 point more than Cherdano has", but decided that would be too much work.

They should just have different levels. Maybe it should be based on the life span of different animals. You know, Fruit Fly Life Master at 20 points, Mouse Life Master at 100 points, Dog Life Master at 300 points, Human Life Master at 2100 points, Tortise Life Master at 5000 points....

OK, I admit it, I kept the stupid little thing that says I'm a Life Master. Still, this whole thing seems pretty dumb.

[pclayton]

jtfanclub, on Aug 29 2008, 11:42 AM, said:

OK, I admit it, I kept the stupid little thing that says I'm a Life Master. Still, this whole thing seems pretty dumb.

Its quite handy for removing ice from your windshield.

[Mbodell]

Another effect of accumulating master points online is even if they don't count fully for ranks (like foo life master) they do count fully for determining brackets in KO. So if you don't want to get stuck in low brackets they can be useful there I'd imagine.

But I think for most people it is the game first, and master points second.