[helene_t]

I suck on bboskill but not as badly as I thought I did. Thankfully, Han sucks even more.

[DJNeill]

Pd indeed had the nuts, but I got it wrong and Passed.

♠x ♥AKTxxxxx ♦x ♣AQJ

[eagles123]

PhilKing, on 2013-September-16, 16:31, said:

Not really - they tend to look players up on BBOSkill to see if they are any good.

http://bboskill.com/user/philg007

according to that site I'm advanced! I think not!!!

Eagles

[mcphee]

Mike was direct and on the mark. I would hate to bid 5D and find everyone passing even though I consider that highly unlikely. I like raising to 5, I really have zero defense outside that A and its not like they are playing partner for the Q of trumps. I would be very unhappy if partner passed 4S dble with this hand, but would remember in the future to not invite him to make any decisions.

[Zelandakh]

eagles123, on 2013-September-17, 06:18, said:

according to that site I'm advanced! I think not!!!

You are one of the better players in the Acol Club, eagles. Certainly better than many who rate themselves as Advanced there. The main weakness I detected was that your lack of experience can be taken advantage of occasionally. That is a temporary thing and your understanding of the game is already at a good level. The BBO monthly average (which I use for similar reasons as PK) is a pretty good guide within a small community such as a club. You are half an IMP a board up, which is above my threshold for accepting that a self-rating of Advanced might be reasonable.

As an aside, bboskill has rated me as Expert almost every time I have visited the site. It really is a joke. Who you play against is such an important factor and is barely accounted for by bboskill at all. That is the big advantage of going via the BBO hand records - you also get to see who their opponents have been and what kind of events they play in.

[eagles123]

Zelandakh, on 2013-September-17, 07:42, said:

You are one of the better players in the Acol Club, eagles. Certainly better than many who rate themselves as Advanced there. The main weakness I detected was that your lack of experience can be taken advantage of occasionally. That is a temporary thing and your understanding of the game is already at a good level. The BBO monthly average (which I use for similar reasons as PK) is a pretty good guide within a small community such as a club. You are half an IMP a board up, which is above my threshold for accepting that a self-rating of Advanced might be reasonable.

As an aside, bboskill has rated me as Expert almost every time I have visited the site. It really is a joke. Who you play against is such an important factor and is barely accounted for by bboskill at all. That is the big advantage of going via the BBO hand records - you also get to see who their opponents have been and what kind of events they play in.

Thanks Zel but tbh Acol club is such a poor standard. the fact I know stayman probably puts me in the top 10% of players there lol
so many "experts" one of which has (un)fortunatley made his way on to the forums!!!!

[Zelandakh]

Yes, the Acol club has a poor standard but, to be honest, this seems to be the case for bridge clubs the world over for the most part. The low standard is the main reason bboskill reports me as "Expert". It just cannot differentiate between my playing there and against someone like Justin. This alone makes the whole thing nonsense.

As for experts, I have often been heard to say that there are no experts in the Acol club. The last to play there was probably Coch Draig. It is not quite as bad as knowing Stayman being in the top 10% though! It is a particularly good sign that you can recognise the lack of quality though - like I wrote before, you already understand the game better than most and I fully expect the improvement to continue.