[Vampyr]

HighLow21, on 2012-March-13, 11:58, said:

- Length of experience: "Typically 1-10 years of experience."
- Lifetime # hands played: "Typically 10,000-100,000 lifetime hands."

Hmmm. I think some extra noughts crept in here.

[HighLow21]

Vampyr, on 2012-March-13, 18:25, said:

Hmmm. I think some extra noughts crept in here.

Just an estimation based on roughly 200 hands/week. I've been known to play 200 in a day.

[phil_20686]

In my learning days I went through a stage of playing 1000 hands a month or so, I doubt whether anyone who is an expert has played less than 10000 hands.

At some point playing lots of hands against moderate players stops being helpful, and you move to playing fewer hands with good people and more in depth analysis.

Currently I am playing probably only 100 hands a month or so.

[barmar]

If you play one club session a week, that's about 1250 hands/year. So it doesn't take much effort to get over 10,000 in 10 years.

[Vampyr]

barmar, on 2012-March-14, 09:03, said:

If you play one club session a week, that's about 1250 hands/year. So it doesn't take much effort to get over 10,000 in 10 years.

10,000-100,000 hands in 1-10 years implies 10,000 in one year. This would equate to about 8 sessions a week -- I don't know anyone who plays that much, except for full-time rubber players.

[JLOGIC]

Vampyr, on 2012-March-14, 11:21, said:

10,000-100,000 hands in 1-10 years implies 10,000 in one year. This would equate to about 8 sessions a week -- I don't know anyone who plays that much, except for full-time rubber players.

Tournament pros also (pretty sure I easily play >10k a year of just live bridge).

Anyways, online players can definitely play more than live players so it might be hard for one group to relate to the other. I went through a 500 hand/week phase on OKBridge and that was when I was in school. 10k a year does not sound like much to an online player, but of course there are few people who play that many hands of live bridge, online is just so much faster/more convenient.

[Zelandakh]

I do not think calcumated ratings or quizzes are the best solution and in any case these have been consistently ruled out by BBO staff. I will repeat here what I wrote about a month ago, that I think breaking down the Intermediate band into separate categories would help enormously. My suggestion was:-

1. Have played bridge for less than a year
2. Played for at least a year but only very rarely successful in tournaments
3. Some success in tournaments. Most club players should rate themselves in this category.
4. Regular success in tournaments
5. Success at State/County/Regional level
6. Success at national level
7. Represented your country

I have no problem with different criteria being used for the different categories. Indeed there is no reason why the category names can not reflect this, for example:-

1 = Beginner
2 = Improver
3 = Intermediate
4 = Advanced
5 = Regional
6 = National
7 = International

The names used do not really matter too much, only that the splits in the middle of the pack are more even and allow "better intermediates" to separate themselves out from "low intermediates" without clogging up the Expert categories.

[barmar]

Vampyr, on 2012-March-14, 11:21, said:

10,000-100,000 hands in 1-10 years implies 10,000 in one year. This would equate to about 8 sessions a week -- I don't know anyone who plays that much, except for full-time rubber players.

1 session a week is 1250 hands/year, or 12,000 in 10 years. Isn't that in the 10,000-100,000 range? Yeah, it's the bottom of the range, but 2 or 3 sessions a week gets you well into the range.

I'll bet most of the players who are at the top of the Ace of Clubs race each year play at least 5 club sessions a week. You don't have to be a pro, I think many retirees go to the club on a regular basis like this.

And then if you go away to an NABC for a week and play 2 sessions each day, that's another 350 hands right there. 3 NABCs is over 1,000 hands/year.

Then there's online play. In a couple of hours on BBO you can easily play the equivalent of several sessions of club/tournament play.

[Vampyr]

barmar, on 2012-March-15, 09:37, said:

1 session a week is 1250 hands/year, or 12,000 in 10 years. Isn't that in the 10,000-100,000 range? Yeah, it's the bottom of the range, but 2 or 3 sessions a week gets you well into the range.

I'll bet most of the players who are at the top of the Ace of Clubs race each year play at least 5 club sessions a week. You don't have to be a pro, I think many retirees go to the club on a regular basis like this.

And then if you go away to an NABC for a week and play 2 sessions each day, that's another 350 hands right there. 3 NABCs is over 1,000 hands/year.

Then there's online play. In a couple of hours on BBO you can easily play the equivalent of several sessions of club/tournament play.

Yes, you can easily get to 10,000 in ten years, but how do you get to 100,000? Maybe if you play online practically every day.

When I played quite regularly on OKBridge I don't think I ever played over 300 hands/week, and I played fewer than 100 a lot more often than over 100. Now, I didn't play with "randoms", but even so, I played what I consider a reasonable amount, and it was certainly more hands than I played in clubs or tournaments. Still I could not come anywhere near 100,000 in 10 years, and I really don't think that anyone would sustain the necessary level of commitment to online bridge for two years, let alone ten.

[barmar]

Vampyr, on 2012-March-15, 19:46, said:

Yes, you can easily get to 10,000 in ten years, but how do you get to 100,000? Maybe if you play online practically every day.

When I played quite regularly on OKBridge I don't think I ever played over 300 hands/week, and I played fewer than 100 a lot more often than over 100. Now, I didn't play with "randoms", but even so, I played what I consider a reasonable amount, and it was certainly more hands than I played in clubs or tournaments. Still I could not come anywhere near 100,000 in 10 years, and I really don't think that anyone would sustain the necessary level of commitment to online bridge for two years, let alone ten.

I looked back, and now see that 10K-100K was given as a suggested part of the Intermediate designation. I agree that the bottom of the range could be an intermediate, but anyone approaching the high end in 1-10 years is clearly obsessed with bridge. If they're still just an intermediate, they're not really trying very hard (or they don't really have aptitude for the game).