[mr1303]

OK, so I've had a couple of good weeks at the bridge table. Won the county pairs and the championship pairs in a congress, and then get told I'm a cert for the Tollemache team. I then sit down at the club in a non-serious event with a nice but not too brilliant player who is dead chuffed at getting a decent partner for a change.

I score 36.4%

2 questions

1) Does this only happen to me?
2) How do you avoid these things getting you down...

[helene_t]

Last week my p and I got 37% at the club night. This happens quite often, our average is probably some 45%. We both get good results when playing with other partners so the negative synergy between us probably amounts to more than 10%. This is quite frustrating.

It would be nice to be able to figure out what causes such bad results. One bad evening can be a statistical fluke (it is not extreme occacionaly to be 10% above or below your normal average on a 24-board 10-table evening, just due to random fluctuations).

But in your case I wouldn't worry too much. Maybe you just don't suit each other too well, maybe you would need to get used to each others style, maybe it was a fluke. If you plan to play with him more often, you could dig into it. Otherwise just don't worry.

[WellSpyder]

mr1303, on 2013-March-06, 08:17, said:

1) Does this only happen to me?
2) How do you avoid these things getting you down...

1) No
2) You could try blaming it all on your partner... .

[gwnn]

It has often happened to me to finish last in one week and first the next week. It's just bridge and this is part of why it's fun (for many people).

[CamHenry]

There's a regular partnership at my local club who have a strange inconsistency: they'll produce a 60% game three weeks in a row, then muddle along in the low 40s for a month or two. Could it just be that, every now and again, there's a set of hands that really favours their particular style of chronic underbidding?

[Cyberyeti]

Be honest in your assessment, sometimes your score bears little relationship to how you played.

Example:

Many years ago I played a national pairs final, 50 pairs, overnight we had 42% for 49th place without doing much wrong. Opps were walking on water all day. We played only marginally better on the second day, scored 60%+ in each of the 3 sessions and finished 9th.

[ggwhiz]

You are not alone.

My personal record is just under 30% in a game we played pretty well and never stopped trying but the equivalent or rolling snake eyes 20 times in a row.

Towards the end, my pard got all excited when he found a criss cross stepping stone squeeze to escape for -50 in 1nt.

For a zero

[JLOGIC]

Play again ASAP. You're only as good (or bad) as your last session

[chasetb]

Yeah, don't worry about it. My lowest score ever live was a 30.56% - NOTHING went right that day, and there wasn't a single top to be found. Of the 3 that should have been tops, the same pair (more accurately, the wife) made 3 stupid sacrifices, and they finished 2nd in our direction. And on every other hand, good contracts would go down, bad contracts would make, and everyone else in the room couldn't defend.

We played again 2-3 weeks later, and were first with a ~61%.

Now it could be that you don't fit well with this player, but more likely is that the proverbial $#!t hit the fan for you that day.

[FrancesHinden]

mr1303, on 2013-March-06, 08:17, said:

OK, so I've had a couple of good weeks at the bridge table. Won the county pairs and the championship pairs in a congress, and then get told I'm a cert for the Tollemache team. I then sit down at the club in a non-serious event with a nice but not too brilliant player who is dead chuffed at getting a decent partner for a change.

I score 36.4%

2 questions

1) Does this only happen to me?
2) How do you avoid these things getting you down...

The pair who won the national pairs final last year by the largest margin I've ever seen got 45% in their club heat this year. So, 1): no.
Also, once an evening has started very badly you tend not to play at your best for the last few rounds.

2) Play again.

[EricK]

JLOGIC, on 2013-March-06, 09:58, said:

Play again ASAP. You're only as good (or bad) as your last session

The corollary to this, though, is that if you have a really great session, you should never play again!

[broze]

EricK, on 2013-March-06, 14:34, said:

The corollary to this, though, is that if you have a really great session, you should never play again!

I am suspicious that this is what's happened to the unevolved grades at the top of the EBU National Grading System which have been ~76% for a long time now.