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Dec. 6th, 2014 03:41 pmSo I'm here in Providence as the Fall NABC winds to a close...I played a bunch of major events with new partnerships this week and did not expect to do well. Hey, I met my expectations! Seriously, though, I'm feeling good about my game. I just don't have a lot to show for it results-wise. One last shot for sort-of glory.
We had a pretty good team for the North American Swiss, and I had high hopes, especially after we drew a team of all world champions in the first round and quietly beat them by 21. We then proceeded to lose our next five matches to teams we really should have destroyed. Oh well. Not our day. We did win our last two matches of the day, though. So we didn't make the cut, and we entered the same team into a new, much less prestigious event today. We're now competing in the 0-10,000MP 2-day Swiss Teams. Winning or doing well in this would still be quite an accomplishment, but it's not a real national event. Meh.
I've had two really unpleasant runs-in with opponents this week. The first was a guy who was just a complete fucking asshole...I could tell the story but it's boring if you don't play bridge so just take my word for it that the guy was a complete dick. But then I found out yesterday that he collapsed during the finals of his event and he had to be rushed out by ambulance. I feel no sympathy or pangs over this. I don't know if he's okay or not. Don't care. He is a bad person. (I say this based on my admittedly limited experience, but he was THAT MUCH of a dick. And also Z knows him and corroborates that he is in fact a complete jerk.)
The other thing was today in the Swiss. Swiss matches are 7 boards (hands) long, and last about an hour. They give you 8 minutes to play each board. Really it takes about 4-5 on average, and then you have time for discussion or whatever, or extra time for the boards that are real thinkers. So we're playing against this old couple, and they are kind of grouchy with us from the start. Nothing specific, just really unfriendly. Then on the third board of the match, they take FOREVER to play. Like 12 minutes or so. Way too fucking long. So we've got four boards left to play and a little less than half the allotted time for the match. Jen, who is always a very polite and nonthreatening person (I can't say the same for myself), calmly stated "We need to play a little quicker if we're going to get in all of our boards." Well apparently, them's fightin' words. The old folks lost their shit at her for this. They insisted that they play fast enough and we still have 28 minutes left, who do you think you are to tell us how to play, etc. Seriously, they just went off. They fed off each other until they were so worked up that they called the director to complain about what Jen had said. Mind you, the whole dialogue after her statement was just between the two of them, getting increasingly more bitchy about the fact that she'd called. When the director comes over, the woman says "These ladies are BADGERING us!"
Seriously, WHAT. THE. FUCK.
And the thing is, this is how young people are treated in bridge all the time. The ageism is INSANE. Merely being young is offensive, and no matter how politely we handle ourselves or treat them, we are an affront and must be punished.
There are times when I have badgered opponents. (Not recently; I've grown up a lot.) But this is not one of those times. And just thinking about it makes me so angry, because THAT FUCKING BITCH. Like, does she realize she blew the comment way out of proportion? Was she intentionally lying to the director to try to get us penalized so she'd have a better score in the match? Or did she really believe that my partner's one simple comment was the most offensive thing anyone has ever said to her? Anyway. This is why I hate bridge players. I have experiences like this at every goddamn tournament. I love the game, I love most of the people I play with, but holy shit, there's always someone who just wants to make it a shitty time for everyone else...and also to blame me for it. Because apparently 31 is still a punk-ass kid.
We had a pretty good team for the North American Swiss, and I had high hopes, especially after we drew a team of all world champions in the first round and quietly beat them by 21. We then proceeded to lose our next five matches to teams we really should have destroyed. Oh well. Not our day. We did win our last two matches of the day, though. So we didn't make the cut, and we entered the same team into a new, much less prestigious event today. We're now competing in the 0-10,000MP 2-day Swiss Teams. Winning or doing well in this would still be quite an accomplishment, but it's not a real national event. Meh.
I've had two really unpleasant runs-in with opponents this week. The first was a guy who was just a complete fucking asshole...I could tell the story but it's boring if you don't play bridge so just take my word for it that the guy was a complete dick. But then I found out yesterday that he collapsed during the finals of his event and he had to be rushed out by ambulance. I feel no sympathy or pangs over this. I don't know if he's okay or not. Don't care. He is a bad person. (I say this based on my admittedly limited experience, but he was THAT MUCH of a dick. And also Z knows him and corroborates that he is in fact a complete jerk.)
The other thing was today in the Swiss. Swiss matches are 7 boards (hands) long, and last about an hour. They give you 8 minutes to play each board. Really it takes about 4-5 on average, and then you have time for discussion or whatever, or extra time for the boards that are real thinkers. So we're playing against this old couple, and they are kind of grouchy with us from the start. Nothing specific, just really unfriendly. Then on the third board of the match, they take FOREVER to play. Like 12 minutes or so. Way too fucking long. So we've got four boards left to play and a little less than half the allotted time for the match. Jen, who is always a very polite and nonthreatening person (I can't say the same for myself), calmly stated "We need to play a little quicker if we're going to get in all of our boards." Well apparently, them's fightin' words. The old folks lost their shit at her for this. They insisted that they play fast enough and we still have 28 minutes left, who do you think you are to tell us how to play, etc. Seriously, they just went off. They fed off each other until they were so worked up that they called the director to complain about what Jen had said. Mind you, the whole dialogue after her statement was just between the two of them, getting increasingly more bitchy about the fact that she'd called. When the director comes over, the woman says "These ladies are BADGERING us!"
Seriously, WHAT. THE. FUCK.
And the thing is, this is how young people are treated in bridge all the time. The ageism is INSANE. Merely being young is offensive, and no matter how politely we handle ourselves or treat them, we are an affront and must be punished.
There are times when I have badgered opponents. (Not recently; I've grown up a lot.) But this is not one of those times. And just thinking about it makes me so angry, because THAT FUCKING BITCH. Like, does she realize she blew the comment way out of proportion? Was she intentionally lying to the director to try to get us penalized so she'd have a better score in the match? Or did she really believe that my partner's one simple comment was the most offensive thing anyone has ever said to her? Anyway. This is why I hate bridge players. I have experiences like this at every goddamn tournament. I love the game, I love most of the people I play with, but holy shit, there's always someone who just wants to make it a shitty time for everyone else...and also to blame me for it. Because apparently 31 is still a punk-ass kid.
