Mike Heins
2017-08-14 09:32:58 UTC
...to be pretty darn good.
I played in the 57th Baltic Congress at Sopot, which I would call the
Polish equivalent of an American regional tournament. I was in
country for other reasons, so I didn't have any bridge connections
and no partners.
I studied the Polish Club prior to arrival, and played that exclusively.
I like it, and would enjoy playing it in the U.S., where everything
except the Multi 2D is allowed.
(This will all be old hat to Europeans, I am sure, but playing in the U.S.
for 50 years I have never heard a description of this other than a couple
of small articles I found on the net.)
The Pairs tournaments are fascinating in structure. Every section is 5
tables, and boards are duplicated over all sections. Each round is two
boards and you play at each table, for a round of 10 boards. After the
round, the scores are posted so you know where you stand in the field.
There is a break of about 10 minutes between rounds.
The matchpointing is done across the field, and percentage score is all
you see. Bridgemates were used exclusively -- very few people kept a
private score. I guess memory serves when you only have ten boards to
remember! Also, they show the percentage that is current for the board
when you score it. Obviously the later in the round, the more accurate --
but it is done across many sections so you get a good sense.
In the Sunday Grand Prix, there were five rounds of ten boards, or 50
boards. Most events were 3x10 or 30 boards. There was no Balkanization
of events -- everyone played the same event, and the field was
balanced after each portion of 10 boards. (There were a couple of novice
events, but nothing like the "Gold Rush" events.) You sit N-S part
of the time, E-W part of the time, except for a limited number of
stationaries.
I guess because boards don't survive more than about an hour, they have
no restrictions on cell phone use, and you can check your score online
without having to hover around the projected display.
There were typically two events per day, each 30 boards, the exception
being the Sunday Grand Prix and the final Saturday's single 4x10 event.
Each event took about 4 hours 15 minutes, so went from 10:00am-2:15pm
and 5:00pm-9:15pm.
All in all, I like the pairs event structure better than that in the
U.S. I can't say the same for the teams. There, we played four-board rounds
on a 20 VP scale, and it seemed to take forever. Nice features were
Bridgemate scoring and boards duplicated across the field, but the
structure seemed very ponderous.
For whatever reason, there was not a robust partnership desk
function, so finding a partner was a bit catch-as-catch-can. I ended
up with a monumentally bad player for the main event, and we finished
at 47%, which I consider a victory. He pushed his way onto the team
I was on the next day -- the Polish members didn't listen to me when
I told them to not take him. Alas, while he was in we didn't win a
match.
The language was a bit of a handicap when it came to finding partners,
as I haven't more than a couple words of Polish, but all the directors
and most of the young people playing can speak pretty good English. By
the end of the tourney, I could call most cards from the dummy in Polish,
and there were probably a couple of rounds in the individual where no one
knew I wasn't Polish.
All in all, I played in 5 pair events, two team events, and the
individual. I won some Polish "masterpoints", of which I know nothing.
I assume they don't accrue unless you join.
I found a nice player from Posnan for one session, and we got along
great, albeit with indifferent result. Finally, I found a UK national
who was quite good for his experience level and by the end of the
tourney we were meshing pretty well and finished in the top ten of
an event.
I also was very pleased to find an individual, which you almost never
see in the U.S. anymore. I played -- Polish Club being the system, of
course -- and finished 20th of 140. I felt like I didn't have a very
good control of my destiny, to some extent, because of poor hands, so
I wrote a program which analyzed the online scores and computed the
number of HCP held by each player. Turns out I held 9.50 HCP, which was
a bit more than I thought. No one with 9.92 or less finished in the top
14, which I thought was interesting.
(I may end up doing a statistical analysis of cardholding as a result.
One interesting subject is a stationary pro-client pair. Where the
world champion pro held more cards, they did well, where he held
fewer, not so good. More shall be revealed.)
The age of the players was on average ten years younger than the typical
U.S. Regional, and the strength of the field was on average greater. There
were quite a few young people, which was great to see.
All in all, a fascinating experience. I will be in France next month, and
hope to go to a French tourney to contrast.
I played in the 57th Baltic Congress at Sopot, which I would call the
Polish equivalent of an American regional tournament. I was in
country for other reasons, so I didn't have any bridge connections
and no partners.
I studied the Polish Club prior to arrival, and played that exclusively.
I like it, and would enjoy playing it in the U.S., where everything
except the Multi 2D is allowed.
(This will all be old hat to Europeans, I am sure, but playing in the U.S.
for 50 years I have never heard a description of this other than a couple
of small articles I found on the net.)
The Pairs tournaments are fascinating in structure. Every section is 5
tables, and boards are duplicated over all sections. Each round is two
boards and you play at each table, for a round of 10 boards. After the
round, the scores are posted so you know where you stand in the field.
There is a break of about 10 minutes between rounds.
The matchpointing is done across the field, and percentage score is all
you see. Bridgemates were used exclusively -- very few people kept a
private score. I guess memory serves when you only have ten boards to
remember! Also, they show the percentage that is current for the board
when you score it. Obviously the later in the round, the more accurate --
but it is done across many sections so you get a good sense.
In the Sunday Grand Prix, there were five rounds of ten boards, or 50
boards. Most events were 3x10 or 30 boards. There was no Balkanization
of events -- everyone played the same event, and the field was
balanced after each portion of 10 boards. (There were a couple of novice
events, but nothing like the "Gold Rush" events.) You sit N-S part
of the time, E-W part of the time, except for a limited number of
stationaries.
I guess because boards don't survive more than about an hour, they have
no restrictions on cell phone use, and you can check your score online
without having to hover around the projected display.
There were typically two events per day, each 30 boards, the exception
being the Sunday Grand Prix and the final Saturday's single 4x10 event.
Each event took about 4 hours 15 minutes, so went from 10:00am-2:15pm
and 5:00pm-9:15pm.
All in all, I like the pairs event structure better than that in the
U.S. I can't say the same for the teams. There, we played four-board rounds
on a 20 VP scale, and it seemed to take forever. Nice features were
Bridgemate scoring and boards duplicated across the field, but the
structure seemed very ponderous.
For whatever reason, there was not a robust partnership desk
function, so finding a partner was a bit catch-as-catch-can. I ended
up with a monumentally bad player for the main event, and we finished
at 47%, which I consider a victory. He pushed his way onto the team
I was on the next day -- the Polish members didn't listen to me when
I told them to not take him. Alas, while he was in we didn't win a
match.
The language was a bit of a handicap when it came to finding partners,
as I haven't more than a couple words of Polish, but all the directors
and most of the young people playing can speak pretty good English. By
the end of the tourney, I could call most cards from the dummy in Polish,
and there were probably a couple of rounds in the individual where no one
knew I wasn't Polish.
All in all, I played in 5 pair events, two team events, and the
individual. I won some Polish "masterpoints", of which I know nothing.
I assume they don't accrue unless you join.
I found a nice player from Posnan for one session, and we got along
great, albeit with indifferent result. Finally, I found a UK national
who was quite good for his experience level and by the end of the
tourney we were meshing pretty well and finished in the top ten of
an event.
I also was very pleased to find an individual, which you almost never
see in the U.S. anymore. I played -- Polish Club being the system, of
course -- and finished 20th of 140. I felt like I didn't have a very
good control of my destiny, to some extent, because of poor hands, so
I wrote a program which analyzed the online scores and computed the
number of HCP held by each player. Turns out I held 9.50 HCP, which was
a bit more than I thought. No one with 9.92 or less finished in the top
14, which I thought was interesting.
(I may end up doing a statistical analysis of cardholding as a result.
One interesting subject is a stationary pro-client pair. Where the
world champion pro held more cards, they did well, where he held
fewer, not so good. More shall be revealed.)
The age of the players was on average ten years younger than the typical
U.S. Regional, and the strength of the field was on average greater. There
were quite a few young people, which was great to see.
All in all, a fascinating experience. I will be in France next month, and
hope to go to a French tourney to contrast.
--
Life may not be quite the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance. -- Anonymous
Life may not be quite the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance. -- Anonymous