[the_dude]

BBO newbie here. I'm returning to bridge after 15 years of mostly inactivity .. and was thrilled to find that BBO had >10,000 people online! But a few days of wandering through tables has been a massive disappointment. How do you find people that know how to play?

I'm not looking for progressive squeezes or Vienna Coups here .. I'm really rusty and capable of making dumb mistakes. But most of my partners have not known to lead top of a doubleton .. or play lower of touching honors. It's impossible to count a hand or play any sort of defense .. much less believe a bid. And these are the 'advanced' players!

Is there any mechanism to find a decent game rather than just picking a table and sitting down? So far I'm about 0-100...

Thanks

[helene_t]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

The way to go is to mark the good players you meet as friends so you can ask them for a game later. Also mark people who make sensible comments on the forum (such as me!) as friends.

Joining the advances/intermediate club may be a good idea, too.

[gwnn]

While racial profiling is in general terms despicable, I know many people who have preferences wrt their random partner's country. Not sure what I think but many of these preferences seem to be similar. Of course I can't tell you specifics about this it's just something to figure out for yourself.

[andy_h]

Playing with/against pickups on BBO, I'd say a fair amount of time you can distinguish the relatively ok players by what's written in their profiles.

[zheddh]

andy_h, on Nov 16 2009, 10:49 AM, said:

Playing with/against pickups on BBO, I'd say a fair amount of time you can distinguish the relatively ok players by what's written in their profiles.

pray tell how?

[gwnn]

spelling stayman correctly is a good start. there are other signs out there.

[helene_t]

- Skill level "private" is probably best. "Expert" is probably worst.
- "2/1 with whatever conventions partner likes" is better than "sayc".
- A link to a serious bridge-related site is a good sign.

That said, usually it is impossible to say how well someone plays on the basis of his profile.

[the_dude]

helene_t, on Nov 16 2009, 10:21 AM, said:

Joining the advances/intermediate club may be a good idea, too.

THanks for the responses.

I've been looking at profiles .. but they haven't been much use. When I joined I put myself as "advanced" because while I was relearning and making mistakes I didn't want to get a reputation as a "bad expert". But after watching some 'expert play' .. apparently I am world class lol.

I guess I'll just stick to trial and error. Ugh...

Helene .. what are these clubs?

Thanks again

[helene_t]

the_dude, on Nov 16 2009, 08:47 PM, said:

Helene .. what are these clubs?

http://www.pigpen.org.uk/IAC/

[Tola18]

the_dude, on Nov 16 2009, 09:50 AM, said:

most of my partners have not known to lead top of a doubleton .. or play lower of touching honors.

While it is thrue many unexperienced players do so, either by ignorance or in a desperate try to deceive the declarer, it is not the only reasons for doing so.

So small from doubleton, or middle and then lowest from three, is played by the players using the 2/4 leads scheme. This is quite common! Especielly polish players are known for this, but also many others.

Not to mention many good players do avoid to lead from a doubleton..



But another mistake is quite common also by otherwise decent players. Following suit or answering lead, they arent playing on the lowest from a sequence....
While there ARE several possible exceptions to the rule - the rule of thumb is:
You start with the highest in sequence, but you follow or answer with the lowest.