[Vampyr]

From another thread:

gszes, on 2014-August-18, 16:43, said:

Matters not MP or IMPS though at IMPS I would pass if we were ahead as a form of
insurance against the opps making 4M. At MP its only 1 board.

I was thinking about how decisions are made based on the state of the match. If the first boards you played were relatively volatile, your decisions on later boards may well be influenced by how you think you did on the earlier ones.

In a very short match such as in Swiss teams, where there are no stanzas, so no scoring up in-between, it may make a big difference which boards you started with. The EBU have adopted the Australian method, which is sensible and time-saving, but also makes it impossible to arrange that the two tables of a particular Swiss match play the boards in the same order.

Is this a bit of a problem, or am I imagining things?

[mike777]

State of the match seems to me to be a bbo theme. One that is least important on how we bid and play the hand for 99.99% of us.

We have so many, many more issues to learn and apply.

[gordontd]

Vampyr, on 2014-August-19, 19:00, said:

am I imagining things?

Surely not?

[Mbodell]

Vampyr, on 2014-August-19, 19:00, said:

Is this a bit of a problem, or am I imagining things?

It is a little bit of a problem. But one many places share. I'd rank it below not playing the same boards across the field in a swiss teams event.

[Vampyr]

Mbodell, on 2014-August-20, 03:35, said:

It is a little bit of a problem. But one many places share. I'd rank it below not playing the same boards across the field in a swiss teams event.

Well, quite, but that is not a problem we have over here.

[mikeh]

Even at win-loss swiss, which is virtually non-existent in acbland....its all about vps now....I think it to be a huge mistake to make calls based on the state of the match as perceived at one's own table, especially in short matches.

Years ago, in a 72 board national final (CNTC), we were up 50 at the half and had a huge set. When we went to compare, we actually speculated that the opps might be conceding, since we expected to be up at least 80 imps. We had two very fine players at the other table.

We lost 37 on the set.

Had we let up at our table we might well have been tied or even slightly behind going into the last set.

In fact, one of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a teammate (ironically one of the guys at the other table) was that if playing with a lead, play as if the lead were 1 imp.

That was mostly intended to help maintain focus, but is very good advice in that it prevents letting up and then finding that your team got smoked at the other table. Even the strongest teammates can have disastrous sets.

When the event is VP, then there is even less reason to hold back based on the assumption one is winning. Pile it on!

[Vampyr]

What about in Swiss Pairs? Here there is no other table where opponents might be producing a monster card, and, in the EBU at least, the Bridgemates show the percentages. Does it make more sense here to try to claw back some VPs?