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  • Howell movement

    From Bill Lentz@21:1/5 to All on Fri Sep 9 15:35:38 2022
    This relates to the use of acblScore in a U.S. club game. In a six table Howell, pairs at one table sit the wrong direction for all three boards. acblScore allows a fix by using the Edit Movement command to swap the pairs for that round only. Practice
    in our club is to assign average minus to both pairs because “changing movement is unfair to field” and one of the two pairs might have received an advantage against the other pair. Is there a theoretical basis to using EDMOV vs assigning average
    minus?

    Thanks
    Bill

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  • From Wes Powers@21:1/5 to Bill Lentz on Sat Sep 10 07:54:17 2022
    On 9/9/2022 6:35 PM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    This relates to the use of acblScore in a U.S. club game. In a six table Howell, pairs at one table sit the wrong direction for all three boards. acblScore allows a fix by using the Edit Movement command to swap the pairs for that round only.
    Practice in our club is to assign average minus to both pairs because “changing movement is unfair to field” and one of the two pairs might have received an advantage against the other pair. Is there a theoretical basis to using EDMOV vs assigning
    average minus?

    Thanks
    Bill

    Yes. It's always better to use actual bridge results than artificial adjustments.

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  • From Bill Lentz@21:1/5 to Wes Powers on Wed Sep 14 07:22:07 2022
    On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 6:54:20 AM UTC-5, Wes Powers wrote:
    On 9/9/2022 6:35 PM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    This relates to the use of acblScore in a U.S. club game. In a six table Howell, pairs at one table sit the wrong direction for all three boards. acblScore allows a fix by using the Edit Movement command to swap the pairs for that round only.
    Practice in our club is to assign average minus to both pairs because “changing movement is unfair to field” and one of the two pairs might have received an advantage against the other pair. Is there a theoretical basis to using EDMOV vs assigning
    average minus?

    Thanks
    Bill
    Yes. It's always better to use actual bridge results than artificial adjustments.

    That is my understanding too. I guess what I should have asked is “Is there a theoretical basis to not modifying the movement?”

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  • From Peter Smulders@21:1/5 to Wes Powers on Thu Sep 15 19:54:37 2022
    On 15-9-2022 19:40, Wes Powers wrote:
    On 9/14/2022 10:22 AM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 6:54:20 AM UTC-5, Wes Powers wrote:
    On 9/9/2022 6:35 PM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    This relates to the use of acblScore in a U.S. club game. In a six
    table Howell, pairs at one table sit the wrong direction for all
    three boards. acblScore allows a fix by using the Edit Movement
    command to swap the pairs for that round only. Practice in our club
    is to assign average minus to both pairs because “changing movement
    is unfair to field” and one of the two pairs might have received an
    advantage against the other pair. Is there a theoretical basis to
    using EDMOV vs assigning average minus?

    Thanks
    Bill
    Yes. It's always better to use actual bridge results than artificial
    adjustments.

    That is my understanding too. I guess what I should have asked is “Is
    there a theoretical basis to not modifying the movement?”

    Not sure I understand the question, but I think the answer is No.

    It's true that modifying the movement will wreak havoc with the balance,
    so some pairs may be compared more or fewer times than they should.

    But the edited movement represents what was actually played, so that's
    what you should do.

    I suppose you could switch up other tables in later rounds to try to
    restore the balance, but it's subject to great potential for error, and
    I don't think it's worth the effort.

    Besides, a lot of Howell movements are unbalanced to start with....

    As I understand it editing the movement was done with the purpose of
    improving the balance. Of course if you can improve the movement by
    simple means there is no "theoretical basis" for not doing so. Not to
    mention handing out average minus, which only makes things worse. If you
    show us the complete movement (I don't have access to acblscore) I will
    tell you the optimal balance that may be obtained by swapping pairs.

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  • From Wes Powers@21:1/5 to Bill Lentz on Thu Sep 15 13:40:15 2022
    On 9/14/2022 10:22 AM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    On Saturday, September 10, 2022 at 6:54:20 AM UTC-5, Wes Powers wrote:
    On 9/9/2022 6:35 PM, Bill Lentz wrote:
    This relates to the use of acblScore in a U.S. club game. In a six table Howell, pairs at one table sit the wrong direction for all three boards. acblScore allows a fix by using the Edit Movement command to swap the pairs for that round only.
    Practice in our club is to assign average minus to both pairs because “changing movement is unfair to field” and one of the two pairs might have received an advantage against the other pair. Is there a theoretical basis to using EDMOV vs assigning
    average minus?

    Thanks
    Bill
    Yes. It's always better to use actual bridge results than artificial
    adjustments.

    That is my understanding too. I guess what I should have asked is “Is there a theoretical basis to not modifying the movement?”

    Not sure I understand the question, but I think the answer is No.

    It's true that modifying the movement will wreak havoc with the balance,
    so some pairs may be compared more or fewer times than they should.

    But the edited movement represents what was actually played, so that's
    what you should do.

    I suppose you could switch up other tables in later rounds to try to
    restore the balance, but it's subject to great potential for error, and
    I don't think it's worth the effort.

    Besides, a lot of Howell movements are unbalanced to start with....

    Wes

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