Quarterbacking with incorrect advice

[biwebof]

I know a lot of people hate quarterbacking, but I especially hate quarterbacking when the advice is wrong.

Scenario, I'm bidding nil with:
S: 39J
C: 2358TQ
D: 357A
H: -

Then my partner complains when I discard 7D before CQ, and 3D before 8C. (This is very crucial so I can escape a high spade if RHO ruffs high on diamonds!)
This is after I told them to not quarterback twice!
This is frustrating, because when my partner berates me for my discard order, what can I say?

"Please stop quarterbacking"? I already said that!
"Relax, I have 6 clubs bottomed by 235"? That would be giving away information!
So I stayed silent and told them after the game, but can people please stop doing this?

[All7Pangaea]

I just reread your post, I get it now. It is often called "table talk". I see in your situation the player in the middle of the hand makes a complaint in which an answer would signal what is in your hand. Best you can do is stay silent and explain the ideology after the hand. A thought to correct this is perhaps discussing general strategies on the table before the game starts so everything is played fairly. Sometimes two partners each think their partner stinks and it is just a variance in strategy. Also talking strategy in between hands is perfectly fine. The problem is talking strategy while looking at the cards is not. Perhaps BGA can insert a minute between hands or just a clear click button to click before looking at their cards so players can discuss strategy. That would take less luck and hatred for partner differences out of the game more.

[MANNY-OLIVIA]

Is there a translation guide for this Post?

[tcarlaw]

This is one of the biggest problems. It is frustrating getting advice even when you make a mistake but often it is offered because of the poor play of your partner or just a different approach. I've had partners constantly trump my low leads on 10 bids, instead of discarding their own problem cards and complain that I was costing too many bags with my cards that should have been winners while they were winning tricks with their trump that should have been bags for our opponents.

Often when advice is offered you already realize your mistake and are annoyed enough at yourself. It is also unpleasant when you are winning listening to your opponents ridicule each other when often it is just a strange distribution that they don't really have a chance of defending against. I am pretty sure I had COVID or something similar a few days ago, and between bad cards and foggy thinking I've had horrible results. Most of my partners have been great sports and I've been more annoyed at myself. I've had some opponents though that even while losing feel they need to dissect every misplay from their point of view while being underbid and not setting.

Unfortunately it seems like there have been so many trolls this season, and people have red-thumbed so many people there are fewer people to play with. I hope BGA invests more into their statistical model for pairing people to produce quality games. A couple people I have been paired with a few times in the past few days have been unfairly penalized for my poor play while a better algorithm would let me red thumb or green thumb opponents and partners not to avoid playing with them but to give a qualitative, and quantitative assessment of whether I would enjoy playing with them again and as a measure of how well I believed they played. It would also be good if a double dummy analysis were done on hands to determine a par score and people's performance was either assessed as par or sub-par based on the results. Even if you lose badly, if you play par for the cards you were dealt you should not be badly penalized. That sort of par score also gives you a much better idea of how well you are bidding and playing. The double dummy analysis is done automatically on many bridge sites and adding it to the hand stats would really enhance the proccess rather than people critiquing their partners based on incomplete information and lowering people's enjoyment. If you are bidding above par for your hand than you are obviously going to be set by good opponents, and if you are bidding too far below par you will waste many valuable points.

As it is, there are far too many critics who are driving people away from the site, and making waiting time for games longer.

[MANNY-OLIVIA]

Well Said!

Found this great extension to mute chat:
https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... =extension .

[biwebof]

This extension is excellent!
I'm tired of playing against people who "zzzz" me in chat for taking time to think when I am playing within my alloted time (and they should have chosen a faster time control if they are in a hurry!), muting chat should be an option on BGA by default!