You have arrived at the local Sectional before your favorite partner,
who will arrive tomorrow, and you have plans for adding to your tally of ACBL masterpoints.
You have been adding some here and there, and you are just 12 masterpoints from Life Master,
or if you are very good (or persevering), Bronze or Silver Life Master.
Friday Afternoon Pairs
30 minutes before game time you approach the Partnership Desk and announce you
are looking for a partner of about your skill level.
Shortly thereafter the Desk worker waves you over and you have a partner who
"has less than you but has played a long time and is very experienced".
What a treat! You should do well in your stratum now (A, B, or C).
However after 2 hands you realize this person is playing a different game,
and can hardly pay attention to your signals or remember the agreed conventions.
Not a good showing.
Friday Evening Pairs
After dinner you approach the Desk again and say that you are looking for someone
with 1000 points. You are rewarded for your efforts and your partner gruffly
barks out the conventions you will play. Surely it is he who should decide what is
played since he has so much experience. The session proceeds, but your partner seems
to take every opportunity to chide you for what may be wrong plays and bids.
The evening turns out to be thoroughly unenjoyable and you don't even get a pittance
of masterpoints because your partner has convinced you that you are a novice.
Saturday Afternoon Pairs
You welcome your regular partner at lunch and confide in her the previous day's horrors.
Friday was almost a waste. However your partner is raring to go, and in the pair game
you do quite well and score up a section award of 1.52 masterpoints!
Saturday Evening Pairs
The field is a bit stronger now from the losers of the earlier knockout rounds that day.
You again manage to scratch for 0.89 masterpoints. Up to 2.43 now. Not bad.
Sunday Swiss
Your partnership pushes into the crowd around the Partnership Desk and finds another
partnership already looking. The couple introduce themselves to you and you find your
places and begin. Round after round, the other pair produces no good boards, and
some disasters. Your partnership is playing solidly but your partner is more used to a
matchpoint style strategy rather than teams, so some games and slams don't get bid resulting
in some more bad swings. In the end you have won just 2
of 7 matches, for a total of 0.50 masterpoints for the two wins. Your tournament total is 2.93.
Well, "maybe next time", you suppose. At this rate, just 3 more such tournaments.
With the hotel, food, travel expenses, entry fees, not to mention your spouse
or kids needing you most weekends, that probably won't be completed for several more months.
I've been through this too. Join the club!
Let's see what went wrong, from the standpoint of winning masterpoints.
- You did not play with a regular partner the whole first day.
The partnership desk is purely for someone that can fill the seat opposite.
I've learned not to expect much. On the one hand you got someone that was not in your league.
On the other hand, you got someone who, while perhaps a decent player, did not let you play
your best with his comments.
- You played in pairs games instead of knockouts. The knockouts pay so much more after
the first round or two. All players looking to win masterpoints play exclusively in team events.
- Teammates are the key to winning team games. Two average pairs will beat a good pair
and a deficient pair most of the time because while the good pair will grind out a
few more IMPs the whole time, the deficient pair will miss a game or misdefend,
losing huge swings.
What do you need to know then?
- Play with a regular partner or bridge professional the entire time. Not only
will the bridge be at a higher level, but you will enjoy the game more.
- Plan to play in the team events for the duration.
Leave the pairs events out!
- Plan your lineups ahead of time. I cannot stress this enough. Your teammates
should be players who have played before together in team events and have done reasonably well.
Ask them if they can play particular events with you, in advance.
If you don't know anyone to ask, start playing at the event and keep an eye out for players
that seem to play solidly, and ask them how many masterpoints they have - don't be shy!
If they turn out to be very good for their quantity of masterpoints, then ask if they
want to play in team games.
- If you find yourself with a team that is having success in their bracket, hold onto
them for dear life. You can run through a Regional like Gatlinburg and score
100+ masterpoints (yes!) that way, even in the lower brackets.
Now what kind of Master would that make you?