[jdonn]

LOL I didn't notice the whole middle part of this thread. Sorry for making obvious jokes everyone! BTW the suggestion that I wouldn't go without being paid was the secondary joke, the real one was the suggestion that I would expect to be invited

If any of you humorless people really want to know, if I was ever invited I would pay my own expenses if I had to.

[hrothgar]

jdonn, on Aug 18 2008, 08:53 PM, said:

hrothgar, on Aug 18 2008, 12:46 PM, said:

For example, lets assume that the average age of ACBL members is 70.  Furthermore, lets assume that the average age of ACBL members is increasing by .5 years, each year.  Furthermore, lets (hypothetically) assume that ACBL drop off the face of the earth at age 78.  This says that we're going to encounter some very real problems in 16 years or so.

But what if average life expectancy is increasing by .5 years each year?

Then the "Depends" folks are going to be very happy?

It goes without says that a real model will be a lot ore complex than what I sketched out.

A real model would want to develop a Probability Density Function describing the age at which a folks exit the system and track the extent to which this is changing over time. (As a more practical example, when a software company sells a copy of some product we get $X in revenue from the sale. We also expect that the customer will purchase support and maintenance contracts costing $Y for Z years)
If the marketing department is doing their job right, they can slice and dice this data and tell you how Z changes depending on the Industry that they are in, Nationality, or even the sate of the macro economy.

I suspect that the Vegas casinos do the same thing. The must be some model that says "It costs us $X to lure some guy from Peoria into our den of inequity. However, once he's inside we expect to take him for $Y". In contrast, folks from New England are stupod enough to play the slots, so we expect to generate $Z from them)

[mycroft]

"den of inequity" - Richard, if that's a typo, it's hilarious; if it was on purpose, a more perfect description of a LV Casino I have not seen.

Re: cup, I would think that if expenses were not paid, that would be unseemly (and hard for juniors, even the pros. Tickets to middle of Kentucky (or Ireland) are not cheap). I think the event is fun, and for promoting the game, good, even if I'd rather watch the Norwegian team trials (for instance) - but of course, you don't have to promote *me* into the game!

I think a bigger problem are the people who according to one letter-writer this month, stay away from the Sunday Swiss because they, with their 2000-5000 (!) points, don't want to score against the big boys. Seriously, people, is there not a time when you're good enough at this game that you're just a little embarrassed to admit that you need to be protected?

Michael (2nd in X, 8th in A Sunday with my 600. Guess which one I'm more proud of?)

[hrothgar]

mycroft, on Aug 18 2008, 10:00 PM, said:

"den of inequity" - Richard, if that's a typo, it's hilarious; if it was on purpose, a more perfect description of a LV Casino I have not seen.

Deliberate, but sadly not original

don't recall who came up with that one originally, but it wasn't me

[barmar]

hrothgar, on Aug 18 2008, 01:46 PM, said:

JoAnneM, on Aug 18 2008, 07:22 PM, said:

As of 6/30 the average age in ACBL was 68.56.  District 1 (eastern Canada) was youngest at 65.46, and District 9 (Florida) was oldest at 71.68.  I don't know what the mean age was.  My District is among the oldest at 69.70 but I am glad to say I am under that (barely).

Alan Sontag's "The Bridge Bum" was one of the first bridge books I ever read and I still chuckle.

Thanks for publishing this information

I don't suppose that you have any information about the rate of change in the mean membership age?

What was the mean membership age in 2001? 2002? ...

I wrote "high 50's" because I googled for median age of bridge players, and the only article I found was from 1997 and it said 54. I assumed it had gone up in the past decade, but I didn't think it had gone up so much. It's also possible that there's confusion between median and mean. I think the median skews higher than the mean, because of all the intermediate-age people who stop playing while they raise families.

[JoAnneM]

"I don't suppose that you have any information about the rate of change in the mean membership age?

What was the mean membership age in 2001? 2002? ..."

I probably have that info, but it's time for primetime Olympics, so I will look in the morning.

[JoAnneM]

I couldn't find further back than 6/30/07 when it was 68.17 so we seem to be aging about 6 months per year right now. At this rate we should all be dead in about 30 years or so.

[BillHiggin]

JoAnneM, on Aug 19 2008, 04:09 PM, said:

we seem to be aging about 6 months per year right now.

Aging 6 months per year gets my vote. Would someone please inform my body!

[Walddk]

I have just received our schedule. We will be broadcasting from the word go, most likely from 6 tables throughout the four days. I'll have the schedule listed on our vugraph web page as soon as possible.

Scoring:
All tournaments are board-a-match (or point-a-board).

The winners of each Pairs round receive 4 points.
The winners of each Team segment receive 7 points.
The winners of each Individual round receive 1 point.

If there is a draw, the points are shared.

Thus there are available:

120 points in the Pairs.
126 points in the Teams.
132 points in the Individual.

The winners are the team that passes 189½ points.

Roland

[Walddk]

It has been confirmed that the organisers have 6 laptops and at least as many operators in Louisville. In other words: every single board at all tables will be broadcast on BBO from Monday.

I am in the process of recruiting at least a couple of commentators per table for all 22 sessions. Some (commentators, not sessions) will be added as we go.

Line-ups:

Europe:
Sabine Auken and Marion Michielsen
Michel and Thomas Bessis
Boye Brogeland and Espen Lindqvist
Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann
Tor Helness and Jan Peter Svendsen
Michal Kwiecien and Jacek Pszczola

United States:
Bob Hamman and Zia Mahmood
Geoff Hampson and Dick Freeman
Alan Sontag and David Berkowitz
Tobi Sokolow and Janice Seamon-Molson
Howard Weinstein and Steve Garner
Roy Welland and Bjorn Fallenius

Roland

[Walddk]

Efter day 1 it's everybody's game. The score is 60-60 after the 55 boards of Pairs (BAM format). Teams Tuesday with four sessions of 14 boards. 126 Buffett Points up for grabs.

It's no secret that it wasn't the best start as far as our vugraph presentation was concerned (to put it mildly). Problems with computers, internet connectivity and untrained local operators.

Donna Compton (USA's NPC) has promised me that today will be much better. The tech people will test everything this morning, and the organisers have now at least four experienced operators on hand. So four tables is what we will be offering for a start. If everything goes well, we will add the last two.

The tournament deserves quality broadcasts. Many of the world's finest players are in Kentucky to fight for their respective Continents. Thousands of our viewers all over the world are delighted to watch them in action.

Roland

[FrancesHinden]

Whatever ones opinion of whether the players selected are actually the 'top 12' from their continent, this is an interesting extract from the last bulletin

Quote

The average age of the European team was 37, younger than the youngest member of the USA team (Geoff Hampson, 40). In fact the difference
in average age was roughly 20 years.

[Walddk]

FrancesHinden, on Sep 22 2008, 03:28 PM, said:

Whatever ones opinion of whether the players selected are actually the 'top 12' from their continent, this is an interesting extract from the last bulletin

Quote

The average age of the European team was 37, younger than the youngest member of the USA team (Geoff Hampson, 40). In fact the difference
in average age was roughly 20 years.

Paul Hackett (Europe's NPC) had the courage to invite three junior players (Michielsen, T. Bessis and Lindqvist), whereas USA trusted their senior players more. Michielsen and Auken are not even a regular partnership.

Judge for yourself.

Roland