Bridge Warmups
Apr. 13th, 2008 09:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicZ and I went to Fairfax yesterday to play in their sectional and pick up Fingers for Gatlinburg. We're leaving whenever Fingers wakes up, I guess, which could be awhile, but it's not like we're in a hurry or anything.
So Z and I have only played a few sessions together since January. Mostly I've felt rusty, and playing in the A/X pairs this afternoon, both of us were off our game a bit, but especially me. A well-known and highly respected pro totally cheated against us, which put us both in a really crappy mood, but neither of us had the cahones to call him on it, which I now wish we had. The auction went P-1C(Proguy)-P-1H-P-2H-P-P(long tank)-X-XX-3C-3H-P-4H-all pass. 4H made, but if we'd called the director, it probably would've been adjusted to 3H making 4. We should've called. Pros shouldn't get away with that bullshit. Sigh. So I already felt kinda wobbly about my game, but after that I just felt really discouraged. When the scores were finalized, I was actually really surprised to see we had a 51% game. It's nice to still play better than average in a competitive field when I feel like I'm playing my worst.
Before the evening session, though, Z noticed a 0 on the recap sheet for one board, and while he agreed we didn't play our best, he didn't feel like we had any 0 actions, so he checked it out, and sure enough, the score had gone in the wrong column. When it was corrected, 0 became 5.5 on a 12 top, which was good enough to pull us from not scratching to 1st in X, 2nd in A our direction, and 6th overall. Ha! So that was pretty sweet. The evening game was a lot smaller, so it was just ABC instead of A/X. We had a few miscues, including going for -2300 when Z psyched a spade bid and I preempted to 4 with five of them and no points over the opp's strong club. Oops. We were favorable, they were forcing to game, and I had heart shortness -- how can this not be right? When partner psychs, of course. I get how psyching can be good, but when it throws your partner off worse than the opponents, maybe you should hold off. I can think of a few hands where we've been absolutely pounded because I failed to notice Z's psychs, and I can't remember any that worked well for us. But maybe that's just me being bitter about looking so stupid on that hand. He knows the game better than I do.
Anyway, despite a solid 0 on that board, we had a really solid set. I felt good after almost every table, and when we left table 3 and table 9 with partners bitching at one another, I knew we were rolling. It was close with one round to go, as we were winning by about one matchpoint, but we ended up winning the event with a 64% game, 8 matchpoints ahead of 2nd. I love winning up there. Winning in Charlottesville is nothing special to me, because I don't feel like there's any solid competition in our local games, so we should win. But DC is where the big dogs play, and everyone up there knows me as that caddy girl, so it's nice to come in, sit down at their tables in the open game, and walk away with top honors. It was a good day.
I still feel a little rusty, honestly, but I'm ready for Gatlinburg. I'm playing with a group where the average masterpoint holding is under 1000, I believe, so the competition in our KO bracket shouldn't be anything we can't handle. I don't know a whole lot about our teammates, but Kevin is confident in them, and I'm looking forward to the games. I'd like to get on some more KO teams for the rest of the week (we're just lined up for the first event), but I'm sort of in limbo. Jeremy F. has promised me at least one session, and I can't wait to play with him again. He's definitely my 2nd-favorite partner ever, just behind Z (who is my favorite not-just-bridge partner), and edging out Molly, who pretty much dropped out of the race when he jilted me for another woman. Sigh.
I might go the partnership desk route, but I'm afraid where that will land me. Everyone says they're better than their masterpoints indicate, but I'd like to believe it's actually true in my case. Still, A players looking for a partner are unlikely to take my 350 points very seriously, and I didn't bring any evidence of my recent BRQ's with me;) I may be able to play in the KOs with team Goslings from Bermuda. I played with one of those guys at the Bermuda regional and really liked him, but I would actually pull that team up a bracket. Maybe not. They're all in the 100-200 range, and the Gatlinburg brackets are REALLY tight, because so many people show up. I'll try to catch up with them and see if they want me for Wednesday-Thursday events, but the difficult thing about scheduling with different groups is that you never know when someone will be ready to start a new event. With the KO format, if they survive the first day, then they're committed for the next day, too, but if they get eliminated early on, they're going to want to start a new event the next day. Meh. I know enough people that I'm sure I'll find someone willing to play with me, I just hope it's worth my while. It'd be cool to play some with Jay...wonder if he's available...
Okay, enough, no one cares, I know.
Peace.
So Z and I have only played a few sessions together since January. Mostly I've felt rusty, and playing in the A/X pairs this afternoon, both of us were off our game a bit, but especially me. A well-known and highly respected pro totally cheated against us, which put us both in a really crappy mood, but neither of us had the cahones to call him on it, which I now wish we had. The auction went P-1C(Proguy)-P-1H-P-2H-P-P(long tank)-X-XX-3C-3H-P-4H-all pass. 4H made, but if we'd called the director, it probably would've been adjusted to 3H making 4. We should've called. Pros shouldn't get away with that bullshit. Sigh. So I already felt kinda wobbly about my game, but after that I just felt really discouraged. When the scores were finalized, I was actually really surprised to see we had a 51% game. It's nice to still play better than average in a competitive field when I feel like I'm playing my worst.
Before the evening session, though, Z noticed a 0 on the recap sheet for one board, and while he agreed we didn't play our best, he didn't feel like we had any 0 actions, so he checked it out, and sure enough, the score had gone in the wrong column. When it was corrected, 0 became 5.5 on a 12 top, which was good enough to pull us from not scratching to 1st in X, 2nd in A our direction, and 6th overall. Ha! So that was pretty sweet. The evening game was a lot smaller, so it was just ABC instead of A/X. We had a few miscues, including going for -2300 when Z psyched a spade bid and I preempted to 4 with five of them and no points over the opp's strong club. Oops. We were favorable, they were forcing to game, and I had heart shortness -- how can this not be right? When partner psychs, of course. I get how psyching can be good, but when it throws your partner off worse than the opponents, maybe you should hold off. I can think of a few hands where we've been absolutely pounded because I failed to notice Z's psychs, and I can't remember any that worked well for us. But maybe that's just me being bitter about looking so stupid on that hand. He knows the game better than I do.
Anyway, despite a solid 0 on that board, we had a really solid set. I felt good after almost every table, and when we left table 3 and table 9 with partners bitching at one another, I knew we were rolling. It was close with one round to go, as we were winning by about one matchpoint, but we ended up winning the event with a 64% game, 8 matchpoints ahead of 2nd. I love winning up there. Winning in Charlottesville is nothing special to me, because I don't feel like there's any solid competition in our local games, so we should win. But DC is where the big dogs play, and everyone up there knows me as that caddy girl, so it's nice to come in, sit down at their tables in the open game, and walk away with top honors. It was a good day.
I still feel a little rusty, honestly, but I'm ready for Gatlinburg. I'm playing with a group where the average masterpoint holding is under 1000, I believe, so the competition in our KO bracket shouldn't be anything we can't handle. I don't know a whole lot about our teammates, but Kevin is confident in them, and I'm looking forward to the games. I'd like to get on some more KO teams for the rest of the week (we're just lined up for the first event), but I'm sort of in limbo. Jeremy F. has promised me at least one session, and I can't wait to play with him again. He's definitely my 2nd-favorite partner ever, just behind Z (who is my favorite not-just-bridge partner), and edging out Molly, who pretty much dropped out of the race when he jilted me for another woman. Sigh.
I might go the partnership desk route, but I'm afraid where that will land me. Everyone says they're better than their masterpoints indicate, but I'd like to believe it's actually true in my case. Still, A players looking for a partner are unlikely to take my 350 points very seriously, and I didn't bring any evidence of my recent BRQ's with me;) I may be able to play in the KOs with team Goslings from Bermuda. I played with one of those guys at the Bermuda regional and really liked him, but I would actually pull that team up a bracket. Maybe not. They're all in the 100-200 range, and the Gatlinburg brackets are REALLY tight, because so many people show up. I'll try to catch up with them and see if they want me for Wednesday-Thursday events, but the difficult thing about scheduling with different groups is that you never know when someone will be ready to start a new event. With the KO format, if they survive the first day, then they're committed for the next day, too, but if they get eliminated early on, they're going to want to start a new event the next day. Meh. I know enough people that I'm sure I'll find someone willing to play with me, I just hope it's worth my while. It'd be cool to play some with Jay...wonder if he's available...
Okay, enough, no one cares, I know.
Peace.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-14 04:12 am (UTC)