[macart]

I play a great deal of tournament bridge on BBO - much of it in individuals and i can not get over how poorly the STARRED players both bid and play and the license they take in distorting the auctions.

In many cases they play for no cost - even though they only collect as little as 50% of the prize money they are very destructive to the game.

There are two ways to solve this problem - be more discerning as to who gets "STARS" or have the clubs/tourneys charge them like everyone else and maybe they will not be as reckless as they seem to be.

I invite your comments

[inquiry]

I suspect the complaints about stars from your description is in the events with cash prizes. MAnhy of these are very short, often as few as 3 boards, and 6 and 8 boards are common. In such an event, playing down the "middle" will not win, or at least not often. So there is a strategy to "shoot", that is to try to create a wild swing. If it goes in your favor, great, you are ahead of the game. If not, then you are not going to win, but someone else shooting would have won anyway if you played normal.

The "Condition of contest" set up the event that allows such a thing to happen. Get up to 12 or more boards and this stategy is clearly wrong. Try not to judge them too harshly for trying to win under the conditions set up by the TD-director. Best, is to find a game where the condition of contest favors "good bridge" rather than "gambling" by shooting on every hand.