Bridge Winners Profile for Doug Couchman
Basic Information
- Member Since
- Feb. 25, 2014
- Last Seen
- an hour ago
- Member Type
- Bridge Player
- about me
Once upon a time a part-time TD and semi-serious (well, I thought so) player and student of the game, I fell out of the swing of it (moving around a lot doesn't help) but have recently come back and am now active on my unit and district boards, and second alternate to the national board. Having a girlfriend who — somewhat to my consternation — has taken up the game has helped me bring me back.. and also helped make it even more fun than before.
When not playing bridge I tutor, preparing people for standardized tests. (SAT and ACT for undergrad admission; LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, and GRE for grad school.) If you or someone you care about needs help on a test, I'm your guy. See details on my website.
Sadly, I've never played bridge outside the US and Canada, but I certainly hope to. I currently live in the San Francisco bay area.
- Country
- United States of America
Bridge Information
- BBO Username
- atakdog
- ACBL Ranking
- Silver Life Master
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- I'd be fine with allowing players to win masterpoints that they somehow won in each of two simultaneous events provided that we first eliminate teams of more than four people in all events. In fact, do that and I'd drop my objection to drop-ins from team events to ...
- Clarification of Tom Kniest Hand
- When the players agree there has been a break in tempo, there has been a break in tempo. The specific number of seconds claimed by players, all of whom stink at estimating how long actions take, is not important. Players rarely (but sometimes) claim their opponents appeared to have a ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- Michael, I was the one who mentioned six man teams so I'll chime in: I probably still wouldn't favor the drop-in proposal with the alteration that it applied only to pairs that had played every hand, but I'd feel a lot better about it. It's not ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- "You think making it to the KO stage of the Soloway event, winning two matches, and then slogging it out in the QFs is less of an accomplishment than qualifying on day 1 of a pair event? Give me a break." This is quite the straw man. While I and ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- None of what I would say are the premier events is decided in just two days, though. And if we want the Blue Ribbon Pairs to be one of the very top ACBL pairs events (I think it arguably is, with only the platinum pairs and the three day LM ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- Max, what part of your argument is limited to dropping in on day 2? Conceptually, wouldn't it be exactly the same to allow dropping into the final day, for pairs who had been otherwise occupied in a major event and whom we judged to be sufficiently strong? Wouldn't ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- Assuming arguendo that the odds are "very very high" that they would have survived day one, I reply "so?" High odds ≠ 100% odds. The first day of the Blues is not intended only to weed out the pairs who shouldn't make it to second day in general, it's ...
- Drop ins to the Blue Ribbons
- You cite a drop-in pair's having won the event as evidence that drop-ins should be allowed. I think it's evidence that drop-ins should [i]not[/i] be allowed. If an event is three days long, I believe the winner should be required to play those three days.
- Tempo question ( too fast over a jump)
- This might be one of those few times when polling the meaning of a tempo break could be useful. Here, to avoid biasing the pollees too much one could ask first ask them what action they would take on the auction, then as them what a [i]slow[/i] 5 ...
- Tempo question ( too fast over a jump)
- (relocated)
