[awm]

Seems to me there's a lot of similarity between coffee and cell phones at bridge tourneys. In particular:

(1) Both have a somewhat tenuous link to cheating. Some possibility has been raised of people using a phone to communicate illegally with other players. Coffee, on the other hand, has been banned by the IOC as a performance-enhancing drug. You can often hear players at bridge tourneys complain about how they "cannot play without their coffee"...

(2) Both are usually innocuous but occasionally annoying. With a phone, the annoyance is when it rings. This disturbs other players in the surrounding area, and it's even worse when people answer it. With coffee, the annoyance is when it spills, and it's even worse when the person spilling it just walks off and doesn't help to clean it up. In an ideal world neither of these things should happen, but they both do.

(3) Some people seem addicted to them, even though it's demonstrably possible to live without them.

What's interesting is that the standards about these things are entirely opposite. Cell phones are increasingly banned (even if they are off). Coffee is not only allowed, but tournament organizers are usually careful to make sure that coffee is easily available (often for free) at the playing site. In fact there seems to be no penalty even for spilling your coffee all over the table and walking off (as I have seen people do on several occasions). As someone who loves my cell phone (but would never use it to cheat, and carefully turns it off before playing) and who doesn't drink coffee, I find this vaguely offensive and wonder if it's a form of ageism...

[Gerben42]

Well, the host hotel can charge for people drinking coffee, even if it's freely available for the participants. There is not much money to be made in mobile phone connectivity during tourneys.

[Elianna]

Sometimes I worry about your sanity.

[Cascade]

"* The following substances included in the 2009 Monitoring Program (bupropion, caffeine, phenylephrine, phenylpropanolamine, pipradol, pseudoephedrine, synephrine) are not considered as Prohibited Substances." The World Anti-Doping Code THE 2009 PROHIBITED LIST INTERNATIONAL STANDARD

I don't think a cup of coffee has ever been a banned substance even when caffeine was banned I am pretty sure that the banned amount was significantly greater than one could ever get from a large number of cups of coffee.

[blackshoe]

Some years ago, in a book about addiction, I read an anecdote. The author was hosting a seminar on the subject, at a major hotel in Seattle. Given the nature of the subject matter, the hotel thought it appropriate to serve fruit and fruit juices instead of coffee for the first morning's session. Seventy five percent of the doctors on the panel refused to participate until they got their morning coffee fix.

[jmc]

I think that a cofee cup also greatly enhances one's ability to cheat. Not only can one time their sips, non-sips, or cup adjustments, they could also turn the cup in many ways. Perhaps removal of the lid at certain points could be an indicator. Playing behind screens? Maybe a friendly kib walks over and says, "Hi. I just bought you a frapomochalate." The secret message being that a tricky slam is possible on board 21.

If people are worried about one signaling with a phone call or IM, I'd think they'd be just as worried about adding a new cheating prop to the table.

Determined cheats can not be stopped by allowing or denying certain items at the table.

jmc

<the above is all said a bit tongue in cheak>

[Fluffy]

In the european championship's at Tenerfie, Kavazza was giving free coffee to all participants, that was really unfair for me, I don't drink coffee and my coke's at the hotel were quite expensive .

I don't think people cheat with mobile phones, and even if they did, nobody would ever find someone cheating in the toilet with them. So banning them actually has no point.

[helene_t]

Ilonka says that bridge tournaments are like hospital admissions, so a coffee ban would be appropriate.

[dcvetkov]

Elianna, on Mar 9 2009, 06:37 PM, said:

Sometimes I worry about your sanity.

Lol, I really like this


Banning coffee? Are you kidding me? Going little overboard, dont you think?

I wd probably stop playing if someone ever implement it

What would be next? No crackers? No blondes?

[Hanoi5]

Quote

No blondes?

There are blondes where you play!!!??? I'm moving there...

[jdonn]

I just saw on Manswers that studies have shown guys become dumber around blondes, because they subconciously act like the blonde who they tend to perceive to be dumber. You learn something new every day.

Of course that means blondes can be used for cheating too, simply by having them kibitz you where 2 opponents but only 1 partner can see her, and thus the opponents become dumber by a 2 to 1 ratio. So they should definitely be banned. This is even worse with screens where it's a 1 to 0 ratio.

[FrancesHinden]

I played a session once with a female junior who had a rather low-cut top with an imposing cleavage. She said it gained her loads of matchpoints because oppo weren't concentrating on the bridge.

[Hanoi5]

Quote

  I played a session once with a female junior who had a rather low-cut top with an imposing cleavage. She said it gained her loads of matchpoints because oppo weren't concentrating on the bridge.

Interesting. I'll have my female juniors wear a sweater to check whether they're playing fine or just dumbing down the opposition.

If I were on another board (non-bridge) I visit Frances reply would have gotten a 'pics or it never happened' response.

[barmar]

FrancesHinden, on Mar 10 2009, 11:47 AM, said:

I played a session once with a female junior who had a rather low-cut top with an imposing cleavage. She said it gained her loads of matchpoints because oppo weren't concentrating on the bridge.

I'll happily play against the Swedish juniors. I don't care if it hurts my score.

[rogerclee]

FrancesHinden, on Mar 10 2009, 09:47 AM, said:

I played a session once with a female junior who had a rather low-cut top with an imposing cleavage. She said it gained her loads of matchpoints because oppo weren't concentrating on the bridge.

I can confirm that this works.

[barmar]

On the other hand, isn't there a (possibly apocryphal) story of a bridge expert whose concentration was so absolute that he didn't notice when a nude woman walked by the table?

[Elianna]

I had a partner who once wore a shirt so low-cut, and without the appropriate undergarments, that I kept thinking that she was going to fall out of it. It was very distracting to me, wondering if it was going to happen, and if I should say something to her to warn her. It was very distracting to me as her partner.

[keylime]

Terence Reese (someone check my spelling) was the center of that story with the nude woman Barry -

[matmat]

you must not have had enough coffee when you started this thread, adam.

[Elianna]

matmat, on Mar 11 2009, 08:57 PM, said:

you must not have had enough coffee when you started this thread, adam.

I admit it, I drank his coffee.