[babalu1997]

i only play bridge online, so i am accustomed to instant results.

used to have a partner for whom there was never a postmortem.

he regularly performed vivisection, and eventually i stopped playing with him when he screamed at me for not leading his suit (i happened to be void)

not only i had to read the opening lead, i had to read his comments : What? Why?

the most annoying thing would be when he screamed at me after supporting my void in answer to what I thought was jacoby 2nt-- the bid that promised anywher from zero to 5 trumps, and from 8-18 points, if i only could guess what it was.

to this day my stomach chruns any time i see 2nt bid or have to bid 2nt, seriously, be it lebensohl, to play, jacoby, ingberman etc...

But what i find is this-- the instant results, especially following a bad board creates a cascade of bad results created a cascade of bad results because i would be simply too pissed off to concentrate.

so now i never look at result till the end of the tourney, the results got better somehow

i also ignore partners protests, especially when i do not open some 12 pointers

[helene_t]

Yeah, I usually don't opt for barometer when I run tourneys, what you write confirms my theory about the impact of the barometer.

[TimG]

I think people know when they have a bad result, it doesn't take an instant score to clue them in.

[helene_t]

Yeah could be. And sometimes the barometer saves me from being yelled at when my misplays is protected by even more ridiculous play at the other tables.

Still I think the overall impact of the barometer is bad.

A more effective solution would be to play one-board-per-round indys. But fortunately most partners are nice, so it isn't really necessary.

[TimG]

Is there really that much yelling going on? If I started an online partnership and found that my partner was prone to yelling, the partnership would end quickly.

Anyway, I think the emphasis should be on partners that don't yell rather than on scoring mode which will be more or less likely to cause partner to yell.

[peachy]

A good player sees when some play or bid or defense was bad, he/she does not need barometer scoring to recognize an error; nor will he/she yell at partner about it. Typically, yelling is done by result-merchants who really do not even know what they are talking about while having "Expert" in their profile...

[vuroth]

babalu1997, on Nov 17 2009, 10:11 AM, said:

he regularly performed vivisection, and eventually i stopped playing with him when he screamed at me for not leading his suit (i happened to be void)

I am far from a great player, but two years ago I would have at least considered the possibility that you were void. Today, on a good day, I'd start assessing what the possibility of you being void means for our chances on defense (and visualizing from there).

Given that there are thousands of players better than me around, you'll do better by moving on.

I agree with the general points about barometer, but nothing can save you from an obnoxious partner.

[pooltuna]

helene_t, on Nov 17 2009, 10:32 AM, said:

Yeah, I usually don't opt for barometer when I run tourneys, what you write confirms my theory about the impact of the barometer.

consider making all your tourneys Swiss style in spite of the inconvenience of having to wait each round for everyone to finish. This really deflects the shooters in the relatively short tourneys

[kenberg]

I have never really kept a log, but informal observation leads me to the following: If, at the end of a hand, defender A starts in on defender B, the odds are about 2 to 1 that the error was A's, not B's. Of course not every failing defense is due to an error. Sometimes a little thought will show that B was making a rational decision on the information that he had, it just did not turn out right. And of course sometimes B did indeed make an error. If I am B, and if A actually has something useful to say, I am generally OK with it. Discussion of what went wrong can be useful. If he just wants to emote, move on. It's rude, it's tiresome, and calm analysis will often show it is wrong.

[JoAnneM]

Where is all this yelling taking place? If it is on a messenger program change your status as soon as the game starts so that you are not "available". Do this with problem partners and you can play in peace. If they yell at you on the chat line either you or the opponents should have the director at the table pretty quickly.

We have become a generation of having to be instantly available, but is it really necessary? Can't we spend an hour or so without messages.

[ArtK78]

When my partner uses the old "void" excuse for not leading my suit, I respond that they didn't even try to lead my suit.

[blackshoe]

Some Italian expert is reputed to have told his novice partner "when I bid a suit, and you are on lead, lead my suit. If you don't have a card of my suit, go find another deck."

[Vampyr]

JoAnneM, on Nov 17 2009, 07:49 PM, said:

Where is all this yelling taking place?  If it is on a messenger program change your status as soon as the game starts so that you are not "available".  Do this with problem partners and you can play in peace.  If they yell at you on the chat line either you or the opponents should have the director at the table pretty quickly.

Isn't it considered improper to be on a messaging program with partner? In any case, it seems that the chat and messenger program can both be easily ignored.

Question for the OP: Do you only play online because of players' bad behaviour in real life? If so, remember that there is no excuse for bad behaviour and you should be able to get relief by calling the director.

[Vilgan]

Club play sure would be a lot more fun if people didn't feel the need to lecture their partners over presumed mistakes. My girlfriend lists the constant post mortem nonsense by opps as one of the 2 main reasons she is less interested in bridge these days (other being she is mentally exhausted from work). Disagreements/discussions after the game is over can be fine, but I can't think of many cases where telling someone what they did wrong during the session resulted in them playing any better. Frequently it resulted in them playing worse.