Posted 2018-October-25, 10:42
average imps per board are completely dependent on the relative skill level of one's partner and opponents, if playing as a pair (which is the usual format in BBO) or one's partner, and teammates and opps, if playing a head to head team game. If playing a tournament, with real people, you are still very much bounded by the quality of the field and, often, the randomness of the opps (and partner).
A WC pair playing another WC pair will, on average and in the long run, score pretty close to 0 imps per board. The saem WC pair playing a less-skilled pair will, on average and in the long run, score as plus...the amount of the plus being inversely related to the skill level of the opponents.
Playing a lot of bridge online, whether against bots or random opps, and with random partners, is not, imo, a way to improve one's game. The hard truths are that one's ability to recognize mistakes is limited by one's knowledge of the game, and that seeing how one might have done better on any given board is no indication that one 'should' have done better.
As an example of the latter, many clubs in NA offer printouts of the hands at the end of the game, and each printout lists how many tricks EW and NS could make in various contracts. I used to give lectures at the local club, and many times people asked me how they should get to 4S (as an example), and would explain that, firstly, reaching 4S would require very bad bidding and, secondly, that the only way to make 4S would be to badly misplay the hand. Bridge is a game of percentages and one strives to reach the optimal contract based on percentages and to make the best play based on percentages, but the software that tells one that one could, for example, make 4S is based on double-dummy play.
Going back to that first hard truth....not only are you going to be limited in your ability to identify your own mistakes, but so too will be your partners and opponents. Indeed, at your level, most of the 'advice' you get will not merely be wrong but may be actively harmful.
Obviously that doesn't mean you stop playing. It does mean that you should avail yourself of other means of learning. Play to practice...read or watch to learn.
Look for 'good' team games on BBO, with good commentators. This means, usually, major events, but can also mean some of the better team matches, such as those with Cayne and his teams.
Read...read...read. Texts are fine, tho I'd look for books on play more than on bidding. Find old Kelsey books...the bidding is antiquated and of little interest, but the play is the thing. Read in all the bridge forums here, and read on Bridge Winners. If the budget can stretch to it, subscribe to the Bridge World.
Find a partner who has as much interest as do you, and spend time discussing things.
One of the most enjoyable and challenging parts of this game is that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I think it was Hamman, the world's top-ranked player at the time, who, when asked about what he hoped to accomplish said words to the effect that he hoped that he'd learn how to play the game.
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari