[mikl_plkcc]

Among all the free daylongs, only the Wednesday one is IMP, all the others are MP, including both Just Declare during the week.

Why aren't there any more IMP daylongs, especially Just Declare IMP?

[hrothgar]

At the most basic level, BBO adjusts the types of tournaments that they offer based on their popularity.

One classic example is the switch from long tournaments (27 or 24 boards) to short tournaments. Players strong prefer short tournaments, both because it doesn't require as large a block of time but also because the results are more random. over time, BBO offered fewer long tournaments and more short tournaments.

In a similar vein, I presume that folks have a preference for MPs rather than IMP pairs and they adjust product mix accordingly...

(Here, I suspect that underlying dynamic is simply one of familiarity. People don't play teams that much any more and many aren't as comfortable with the strategic choices)

[barmar]

I don't think we've ever offered Just Declare IMP. I think this may be because IMP play is much more sensitive to finding the right contract, and JD games often bid to silly contracts. Figuring out how to minimize the number of undertricks can net you a pretty matchpoint score, but it's usually negligible at IMPs. There may occasionally be hands that bid to a close game, so finding the play that makes will be valuable, but not enough to make the whole thing worthwhile.

For the rest, it's as Richard said -- we expand on the popular formats, reduce the unpopular ones. The average size of ACBL Daylong (MP) 1 is nearly 1200 tables, while ACBL Daylong (IMP) 1 is a little over 200.

Robot duplicates are similar -- the number of tables in IMP tourneys are consistently much lower than MP.

Speedballs currently alternate MP and IMP each hour. For a few weeks we tried having both MP and IMP at 8pm, hardly anyone entered the IMP game. We thought the less experienced player would prefer IMPs because precise play for ever trick isn't as important. But even they preferred MP, probably because it's what they're used to in club games.

The curious thing is that IMPs are more popular in the main bridge club. That could be because it's the default when you start a table.

[smerriman]

barmar, on 2025-April-22, 15:51, said:

For the rest, it's as Richard said -- we expand on the popular formats, reduce the unpopular ones. The average size of ACBL Daylong (MP) 1 is nearly 1200 tables, while ACBL Daylong (IMP) 1 is a little over 200.

When I load the list of ACBL tournaments, the MP ones are all at the top.. I have to scroll down a long way to find IMP. Agreed MP is going to be more popular in general, but I suspect that has some impact on how big the difference is.