[aguahombre]

At the recent San Diego Regional, we observed two of the very young professionals in action and were very impressed.

Obviously, it would be ideal if everyone were courteous and respectful to partner and the opponents, and if instruction given by all pro's to their clients was always articulate and helpful. But these youngsters (early 20's) did it to perfection, IMO. I know it is how they make their living, but they certainly did not make it seem like a job.

Either they are among the very few who have been raised properly these days, or someone is teaching them the art of being a professional.

In either case, without naming names, I say BRAVO.

[qwery_hi]

aguahombre, on 2011-April-26, 19:18, said:

At the recent San Diego Regional, we observed two of the very young professionals in action and were very impressed.

Obviously, it would be ideal if everyone were courteous and respectful to partner and the opponents, and if instruction given by all pro's to their clients was always articulate and helpful. But these youngsters (early 20's) did it to perfection, IMO. I know it is how they make their living, but they certainly did not make it seem like a job.

Either they are among the very few who have been raised properly these days, or someone is teaching them the art of being a professional.

In either case, without naming names, I say BRAVO.

Why no names? In fact we should publicly congratulate such fine examples.

[JLOGIC]

Probably Owen and Kevin by the sound of it. They are both class acts, and BBFers to boot!

[JLOGIC]

Hmm, I looked at the MP list for SD, looks like Kevin and Owen weren't there. Can't really think of any other young 20s pros who are very nice, maybe they are local/less well known people. Agree they should be named!

[Free]

Only for bad publicity names should be hidden. This seems a case where nobody would object, because you're giving them a compliment.

Congratulations to you for giving a positive comment on young people.

[aguahombre]

The focus was on my positive impression of young pros today. There are more than a few of them, and it seems they have given much attention to their self-image and deportment and/or have received guidance and training in such.

[rogerclee]

There was another young Asian guy there who wasn't me. I was there for a few days, don't think I played against you.

[aguahombre]

rogerclee, on 2011-April-27, 17:37, said:

There was another young Asian guy there who wasn't me. I was there for a few days, don't think I played against you.

That would be one. He was taller, and --my bad--I didn't get his name. but I will next time.

[rogerclee]

You might be talking about Robert Todd, think he's in his 30s.

[aguahombre]

I never actually played against the Asian guy, but was able to overhear off-table conversations which made me include him.

The other one was awesome at the table.

[barmar]

I've generally been impressed with most of our juniors. I've mostly played against them in NABC midnight games; they can be rambunctious (did I just use that word -- I really am becoming an old fogey), but that's in keeping with the less formal nature of this event.

It took me a little while to warm up to Justin, but now we're buds.

[CSGibson]

Maybe McKenzie Myers, I think he was there, though he is also in his early 30s

[Phil]

rogerclee, on 2011-April-27, 17:37, said:

There was another young Asian guy there who wasn't me. I was there for a few days, don't think I played against you.

I saw Jeff Fang on Saturday there.

The "tall" Asian guy was probably David Yang.

[mtvesuvius]

CSGibson, on 2011-April-28, 13:17, said:

Maybe McKenzie Myers, I think he was there, though he is also in his early 30s

Z was in Toronto last week, so it couldn't have been him.
Robert was in San Diego, otherwise I don't know too many other people who were out there.

[Elianna]

Phil, on 2011-April-28, 15:42, said:

I saw Jeff Fang on Saturday there.

The "tall" Asian guy was probably David Yang.

Both of those gentlemen are comfortably over 30. Although perhaps the OP was stingy in attribution of years.

Also, at least on Sunday, they were not playing on a pro team. I don't feel like looking at all other days. But speaking of their non-pro team, perhaps the person is referring to Dayou Zhou, who I would also not guess is in his early 20s, but could be close to it.

[aguahombre]

Yeh, well everyone is young compared to me. I guess I used to be better at distinguishing between 20's and early 30's.

[Elianna]

aguahombre, on 2011-April-28, 21:56, said:

Yeh, well everyone is young compared to me. I guess I used to be better at distinguishing between 20's and early 30's.

I would not put them in early 30's either (I think that they're older than me) but I could be wrong about that.

[JLOGIC]

barmar, on 2011-April-27, 18:42, said:

I've generally been impressed with most of our juniors. I've mostly played against them in NABC midnight games; they can be rambunctious (did I just use that word -- I really am becoming an old fogey), but that's in keeping with the less formal nature of this event.

It took me a little while to warm up to Justin, but now we're buds.

Heh, BARMAR I THOUGHT WE WERE BFF FROM THE BEGINNING!

Just kidding, for what it's worth almost all of my best friends irl didn't like me when we first met. IRL I'm pretty much exactly how I am on the forums, scary thought I'm sure.

Anyways, myself excluded, I do think that the younger batch of junior pros are generally better about being nice to opps/teammates/partners than the older batch of pros. I think to the older batch, it was a more cut throat world.

An example of this. I was on a team with 3 junior pros, myself, and an older pro who is a good friend of all of us. We had a bad tournament, and we heard the older pro was talking badly about us, presumably to protect himself. He is a great guy, and I was surprised by this. I basically told him that that is not how we (the younger crowd) roll, and if he wanted to be cool with us he shouldn't either. He apologized, and just said with the older crowd it's a dog eat dog world and that's how it is.

I'm not sure what caused this change, I think the fact that there are far more clients now and more money involved contributed to this. I also think the fact that we came up playing junior bridge together, and a lot of us lived together in the same house and were basically best friends for a long time also contributed.

As far as being nice to the opps and partner though, I'm not sure if the younger crowd is moreso than the older crowd. Maybe a little bit, but it might be variance (small sample size). It might also be because a lot of us came up together, and even those that didn't were close because of junior bridge, and there was some group think about how to be a good pro.

It might also be that there are more good players now who want to be a pro now, so those who have better social skills/are nicer are more likely to survive. I'm not sure.

I will say that the group of guys I know (Joe Grue, Kevin Bathurst, John Hurd, John Kranyak, Joel Wooldridge) are an amazingly great group of guys. I know I'm biased, but I really could not imagine a better group of people as friends, pros, players, people. I think that this is a special group and it was just blind luck that we all came together. I am lucky to know them

I also think the newer group of juniors (who are actually closer to my age), like Roger Lee, Kevin Dwyer, Owen Lien are really good guys too. I agree with the general sentiment that these guys have great temperaments as pros. However, in general I think most pros have good temperament (obviously exceptions) otherwise they wouldnt survive unless they were unusually good

[Cyberyeti]

In my experience playing against them, the pros of whatever age are usually well behaved, the punters they play with can be the problem ...

In a blatant fielded psyche auction hearing "Don't you know who he is ?" from the client was a classic, and funnier as I knew the pro's expert partner very well and had played with him the previous week. I just wish it had occurred to me to reply with something along the lines of "Of course I know who he is, who the **** are you ?".

[rduran1216]

Jeff is shorter, but he's always been very pleasant at the table, Similar thoughts for Roger, though we've never actually played against each other.

Owen and I actually played together when he came through Long Beach, he was very kind as well.