erratio comments on A Player of Games - Less Wrong

15 Post author: Larks 23 September 2010 10:52PM

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Comment author: wedrifid 30 September 2010 06:46:04PM *  1 point [-]

Radical experimentation is simply illegal in tournament Bridge.

It was an interesting game a few decades ago when artificial systems were nominally legal, but resulted in judicial harassment. Then you had to balance the in-game advantage against the human factor.

You would not believe how nauseating the thought of playing a game like that is. It's taking a game then removing all the parts of it that are fun. I can see why you would use those sort of rules if you were a bridge club full of old women verging on senility. They could maintain a high level of bridge performance based on heavily crystalised knowledge even though their ability to handle (and remember) novel information is shot to pieces. But why have a tournament at all players are basically primitive bots?

I think I'll pass on that and go play some basketball instead. And use a full court press! ;)

Comment author: erratio 30 September 2010 08:05:03PM 0 points [-]

My understanding of the game is that the fun part is trying to determine whether you have the points and suits between you to go for a minor or major slam, and then finessing those extra two or three tricks you need to actually get it. The rest is just window dressing to build tension.