OzOne and Poor Starts

[DavidStern]

Hi All. I do some BBO VG commentating and there was discussion about poor starts by OzOne teams. Can we have some discussion on this? Is it true? If so why do people believe this to be the case. If not true why is there this perception.

[sartaj]

Hi All. I do some BBO VG commentating and there was discussion about poor starts by OzOne teams. Can we have some discussion on this? Is it true? If so why do people believe this to be the case. If not true why is there this perception.

I believe its more a case of "bad patches" than bad starts. There is a big "momentum" type feel to Australian partnerships.
When things are going good, some of our players are world class.

But something goes wrong, (misdefending 3NT is a common sin), then our toughness level compared to the best in the world is very very LOW.
I've been witness to Back-to-back game swing losses by almost everyone in the squad (me included for sure).

I've read through the whole World Championship Books from 2000 to 2005. And "back-to-back" plotches just do not happen when America plays or Italy does.

The other thing is that our high-volatility systems (even Hans-Nunn jaded acol) create lots of possibility for swings, our style in general is ultra-aggressive (as judged by almost all the 'rest of the world').......These features of our style can become a liability if there is no mental focus after a reversal.
"I took an aggressive view" becomes an excuse now. For everyone is supposed to be sympathetic to it, "normal and boring" is not the way we, Australians, play bridge.

The Solution ??
We have discussion sessions after our BBO matches where BLACK.GREY and WHITE charges are issued.
((
BLACK = BAD. No one in your peer group is sympathetic of your action

GREY = Nebulous. Some support. Reasonable action. Didnt work. Reconsider
with more data
WHITE = Tough luck. Everyone would do the same
))

How come the ratio of BLACK to other types of charges is very HIGH in live bridge play in tournaments compared to online practice games ?

Because there is more pressure, more at stake.

We should aim to have the same sessions around the LIVE games as well. Go through every board. Let every man stand up and accept (on his bad day) that he had a bad board because he was affected by the "bad start", "bad previous board" "bad this..." "Bad that...."

Its only when we accept that TEMPERAMENT is our single biggest WEAKNESS that we have any shot of moving forward.

[mrdct]

In the BBO matches against overseas teams (including Cayne) OzOne's starts after 5 boards have been:

8/2 v Cayne: 0-8
2/2 v Hungary: 0-20
2/2 v Bramley: 8-1
13/1 v Ireland: 20-15
13/1 v Egypt: 9-28
11/1 v Cayne: 0-14
4/1 v Cayne: 13-21
28/12 v Cayne: 0-26
23/12 v Ireland: 14-7
21/12 v Cayne: 0-14
14/12 v Cayne: 6-8

So out of these 11 matches, Oz-One was behind (and a few times well behind) after 5 boards on 8 occassions. The good news is that OzOne have managed to achieve quite a few "come from behind" victories in these matches with the record standing at 8 wins and 3 losses.

It will be interesting have a look at the NEC round robin results (which are too hard to work out from website) but in the Vugraph matches, first 5 boards:

Rd5 v Japan Hana: 8-14
QF v China Beijing: 2-21 (0-21 after 2 boards)
SF v Poland/Russia: 0-22 (which was the final margin of match)

It's commendable that OzOne have often recovered well from bad starts, but it would certainly be useful to avoid them.

[sartaj]

InSF v Poland/Russia: 0-22 (which was the final margin of match)


In the second set of the SF against Poland/Russia Ozone were UP 27-2
(source:NEC bulletin)

[mrdct]

Sartaj, you might need to explain what Black, Grey and White mean for those not in the inner sanctum.

11 BBO matches and 3 Vugraph matches probably isn't a big enough sample to draw any conclusions about whether or not OzOne have "bad-start syndrome", but I think it's probably something worth keeping an eye on.

I know I used to have a particular problem with early bad boards myself and I've tried a number of techniques to really try to concentrate hard for the first few boards in long matches which, to some extent, have made a noticable difference. When I played with Gyorgy Szalay in the 2006 he was very particular about little things like:

- Only look at your scorecard when actually writing down the score and don't make any annotations on bad boards. I now use a small clickboard to keep my scorecard in so I can't casually glance at my scorecard during a match.

- Limit your talking to calling for cards from dummy. Avoid "thank-you partner", "good luck partner", "sorry partner", "i should've done this", "i should've done that", etc. Don't engage in post mortem discussions your opps are having.

- Play every hand on its own merits as if it's the first board of the match.

I doubt it will ever catch on, but I play all my face-to-face bridge with earplugs in these days which really helps me maintain concentration. You can still hear the opponent's questions, but they cut out a lot of the background noise.

When playing on BBO there is absolutely no reason why anyone should be clicking on Movie during match. Anyone guilty of that?

[Peter]

I agree with Sartaj.

The main reason I win and do well in so many Aussie events is temperament.

I taught Martin Bloom all about good temperament, with good results for him.

In my opinion, the best article ever written on bridge was written by Paul Marston in a Grand Slam Bulletin about 15 years ago. The article shows that the worlds' best players virtually all think that the game at high levels is all about concentration and temperament.

My newest client in my life as a pro has had only one session of coaching from me so far. It was all about concentration and temperament - why they are vital to siuccess at bridge and how to improve these vital elements of the game. He said it was a very good start.

I watched Marston and Prescott live on a TV screen at the BBO presentation in Yokohama. Externally, their temperament after the bad scores (e.g. -1000 then 6H - 50 on next board) seemed to be fine to this casual observer.

In the vital NOT Q/F, Oz-One got off to a good start, leading my team handily at half time Then, as the datums for the second half show (H-N -10, D- D minus twenty something IIRC) Ish and Vince had a series of poor scores early in the second half followed by a very strong finish which happened to be too late in the very short match.

Peter Gill.