[bd71]

So my work and family situations limits the amount of face-to-face bridge I can play to about 10-15% of my hands.

As I incrementally progress and learn to focus on more aspects of counting the hand (i.e. declarer tricks when on defense, distribution of side suits, point count of unseen hands, etc.), I find that I do much better online than in-person. Presumably the additional stimuli of being at the club or tourney disrupts my concentration.

Has anybody else dealt with this problem, and have advice for how to handle it?

[vuroth]

I have the same problem. That said, my face to face bridge is pretty much at 0%, and is not likely to change anytime soon, so I don't really have a way to deal with it.

[NickRW]

bd71, on Feb 17 2010, 12:02 PM, said:

Has anybody else dealt with this problem, and have advice for how to handle it?

It might be just what youi're used to. Personally I tried online and stopped - I hated the lack of table feel.

[Jlall]

That is strange, most people feel the opposite. I guess in theory it should be easier to concentrate online if you do not browse/chat/watch TV/listen to music etc, but I find those distractions easy to succumb to where live it is not an issue.

It might just be a comfort zone thing also. Basically you will do best when you're most concentrated and most comfortable and least distracted. If you find live play to be distracting, just figure out what in particular is distracting you and try to tune it out.

[Aberlour10]

I have not played any single hand in f2f bridge for nearly 2 years, and it was very strange feeling for me to patricipate in a big offline tournament last month. Everything seemed to be complicated, slow, etc...I could not reach even 50% concentration I have normally playing online bridge. It was really surprising experience for me.

[kayin801]

I feel like I try harder offline rather than online, which I think helps my concentration. As Jlall said, it's way easier to get distracted and I frequently find myself doing something else at the same time when I'm playing online. I also mostly play with friends as both partners and opponents online so if I do some goofy/dumb stuff (which happens a lot) I feel like there's a more forgiving atmosphere.

Also, I can do all that goofy/dumb stuff and matmat can't jump over the table to strangle me when I continuously ignore his signals ;P