[Rossoneri]

Well, locally I only see perhaps one or two such "pros" playing with clients.

One can be fairly rude at times, but generally I would think he's okay.

The other is quite polite, even after his partner handed +850 to my pair instead of gaining 200 for their side. (I was in 5♥X)

[ArcLight]

helene_t, on Jul 13 2007, 04:00 AM, said:

awm, on Jun 26 2007, 10:38 PM, said:

For a long time I assumed that in order to make money this way, the pro would have to be a good partner -- after all, while these pros are good players they usually have local competitors who are comparable card players, and one would think the clients would migrate towards the most polite and friendly option. But my empirical observations of this caliber of pro hasn't quite matched my intuition...

I donno about bridge (as said we don't have pros here in NL) but in other areas there are masochistic students who prefer teachers who insult them. I'm one of those students. When I take art classes or sports classes, for example, I really hate those teachers who keep smiling and saying I do all fine. Because I know I suck and I know that if they paied attention they would know that I suck, and they should have the guts to telling me that I suck.

I get nothing out of "You are playing so well".
But "You butchered that" wouldn't help my concentration either

How about this:

"There was a better way of playing that.
From the bidding, why didn't West bid with all those HCP? They must have a had a trump stack. So knowing that how do you play? ..."
"Very good. Now keep that in mind for next time "


Its not that hard to be polite and also give criticism if the student wants to learn (rather than just win some event).

[SoTired]

I think berating partner or other impoliteness (or being polite and cheerful) is a personality feature. It is completely separate from a player's playing level. I have seen total fish blaming their partner for their own mistake. I have seen a WC pro doing the same thing.

Although I would expect that a pro would try to be more polite to his/her client in order to get repeat business, in practice in the heat of battle, a person's true personality is hard to suppress.

A common trait that I have seen among pros is how they rank other players/pros. Anyone who is a lesser player than them (even other pros) are "terrible." They seem to reserve their respect and awe of other WC players based on accomplishment rather than ability.

[helene_t]

SoTired, on Jul 13 2007, 05:55 PM, said:

They seem to reserve their respect and awe of other WC players based on accomplishment rather than ability.

Like all those who think I'm a bad player just because I always lose. Ridicolous.

[helene_t]

Yesterday I went to a meeting for bridge teachers. We played a tourney as well. Many played with a much weaker partner, often the spouse. Some partnerships consisted of two decent players, could be two teachers. I played with a first-year student, donno how many did that.

I would say that those semi-professional bridge teachers were generally much more polite than average players. Maybe they did their best to behave now that they were being watched by so many fellow bridge teachers.