More Gburg
Apr. 17th, 2008 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicSo today was fun. I was scheduled to play with the bunnies again in a new KO. We drew my friend Sandy's team for round one. They were very conservative bidders and I held a lot of powerful cards, which was a nice change from yesterday when I went 12 straight boards without bidding at all. +52 at the half, win by 67 total. I guess we kind of fell asleep in the second set.
On one hand, I was playing 4H and we had a double fit in hearts and diamonds. The end position is two good diamonds on the board and a good heart. I lead up to the diamond ten, at which point the opponents fold. But then I explained to them that I was intentionally playing out the hand because I was going to score the beer card. They didn't know what that was, so I explained it to them, but then told my partner that I don't like beer and it's really just for fun, not to worry. He asked me what I do like if not beer, and I told him bourbon was my favorite liquor. I didn't think anything of it until he met me for the second session with a brown bag. He bought me a fifth of Wild Turkey! What a pard! I think my fee as a professional bridge player has just been established.
Anyway, the second match was fun. We played against a really nice couple, and I was afraid we were down 30 at the half. We had a +260, which is never a good thing, and they bid back to back slams on the most ridiculous auctions. Such is life in bracket 26. Despite our ugly card, nearly every board was a push (except our 260 - that was a win three!), and we were up a whopping 7 to 2 after 12 boards. Just a couple of overtricks here and there. The unbid game/cold grand slam was our best board. Unbelievable. Anyway, the second set was a whole different story. EVERY board was a swing, or so it felt, but it all evened out in the end for a straight tie, 24-24 for the set, so we held onto our five imp lead and advanced to the money round. My teammates got very excited about the gold point we earned:-P We're going for 11 masterpoints total if we win both sessions tomorrow. Not a huge gain, but it's something, and I'm having a good time with these folks. They're very sweet, and they've all agreed to come to my regional.
My dinnerbell team lost badly in our set today. We had three boards with costly errors, and it would've taken two of them to not lose, so no one has to feel the weight of the loss on their shoulders -- though I am proud to say that I've been playing pretty well. I bid properly, but didn't declare much of anything in this set, so I didn't have the opportunity to eff up. A woman at the table next to me spent the whole session crying because her partner and teammates couldn't stop bitching at each other. I've been there. On the one hand, I really felt for her, but on the other hand, she chose a giant asshole of a partner, so she was asking for it. That was sort of distracting. Anyway, there's a 3/4 playoff tomorrow which we were required to buy into when we made it to the semis, which I think is stupid and I wish it didn't exist, but Z won his dinnerbell match (by 48, even though he thought they had no chance after finishing at his table), so it's not like we'd get to hang out more if I weren't playing. So it's another 2.5 session day for me tomorrow, assuming our team wins the afternoon KO match -- if we don't, I might be willing to play in the loser Swiss with them, or I might give myself the night off.
I have three more people I've been hoping to play with and only a handful of sessions left to fulfill these wishes. Hopefully it all falls into place. I think any playing I do in the next few days will be in single session events, because I feel like taking some time off. I haven't played any mornings since I got here, and I'm still really tired all the time. It's a killer schedule -- but we love it, of course. It looks like I'll finish the week with somewhere between 10 and 25 points for the tournament (4ish from the midnight KOs, 3-5 for our dinnerbell, 3-11 for the Wed/Thu KO, and any other fractions picked up along the way...some match awards here and there. And I guess it depends what I play the rest of the week.) I'd say I'm pleased with my results so far, given that I've been playing with pickup partners most of the time, and I haven't been playing as many sessions as I usually do at a regional. I guess I could do something spectacular this weekend and double my expected returns, but whatever...any double digit number (which I've already reached) is fine, considering my partnership situation for the week. Add the 8.5 Z and I won on Saturday, and it's been a great week. Of course, any tournament where I get to partner Z all week (which we haven't actually ever done before) should be much more profitable, pointwise, but it's not about the points so much for me as it is about just getting better. But it sort of is about the points for me now, because I know no one will respect me as a player until I've cracked at least 1000, but I'm getting there.
Anyway, enough, it's bedtime.
Peace.
On one hand, I was playing 4H and we had a double fit in hearts and diamonds. The end position is two good diamonds on the board and a good heart. I lead up to the diamond ten, at which point the opponents fold. But then I explained to them that I was intentionally playing out the hand because I was going to score the beer card. They didn't know what that was, so I explained it to them, but then told my partner that I don't like beer and it's really just for fun, not to worry. He asked me what I do like if not beer, and I told him bourbon was my favorite liquor. I didn't think anything of it until he met me for the second session with a brown bag. He bought me a fifth of Wild Turkey! What a pard! I think my fee as a professional bridge player has just been established.
Anyway, the second match was fun. We played against a really nice couple, and I was afraid we were down 30 at the half. We had a +260, which is never a good thing, and they bid back to back slams on the most ridiculous auctions. Such is life in bracket 26. Despite our ugly card, nearly every board was a push (except our 260 - that was a win three!), and we were up a whopping 7 to 2 after 12 boards. Just a couple of overtricks here and there. The unbid game/cold grand slam was our best board. Unbelievable. Anyway, the second set was a whole different story. EVERY board was a swing, or so it felt, but it all evened out in the end for a straight tie, 24-24 for the set, so we held onto our five imp lead and advanced to the money round. My teammates got very excited about the gold point we earned:-P We're going for 11 masterpoints total if we win both sessions tomorrow. Not a huge gain, but it's something, and I'm having a good time with these folks. They're very sweet, and they've all agreed to come to my regional.
My dinnerbell team lost badly in our set today. We had three boards with costly errors, and it would've taken two of them to not lose, so no one has to feel the weight of the loss on their shoulders -- though I am proud to say that I've been playing pretty well. I bid properly, but didn't declare much of anything in this set, so I didn't have the opportunity to eff up. A woman at the table next to me spent the whole session crying because her partner and teammates couldn't stop bitching at each other. I've been there. On the one hand, I really felt for her, but on the other hand, she chose a giant asshole of a partner, so she was asking for it. That was sort of distracting. Anyway, there's a 3/4 playoff tomorrow which we were required to buy into when we made it to the semis, which I think is stupid and I wish it didn't exist, but Z won his dinnerbell match (by 48, even though he thought they had no chance after finishing at his table), so it's not like we'd get to hang out more if I weren't playing. So it's another 2.5 session day for me tomorrow, assuming our team wins the afternoon KO match -- if we don't, I might be willing to play in the loser Swiss with them, or I might give myself the night off.
I have three more people I've been hoping to play with and only a handful of sessions left to fulfill these wishes. Hopefully it all falls into place. I think any playing I do in the next few days will be in single session events, because I feel like taking some time off. I haven't played any mornings since I got here, and I'm still really tired all the time. It's a killer schedule -- but we love it, of course. It looks like I'll finish the week with somewhere between 10 and 25 points for the tournament (4ish from the midnight KOs, 3-5 for our dinnerbell, 3-11 for the Wed/Thu KO, and any other fractions picked up along the way...some match awards here and there. And I guess it depends what I play the rest of the week.) I'd say I'm pleased with my results so far, given that I've been playing with pickup partners most of the time, and I haven't been playing as many sessions as I usually do at a regional. I guess I could do something spectacular this weekend and double my expected returns, but whatever...any double digit number (which I've already reached) is fine, considering my partnership situation for the week. Add the 8.5 Z and I won on Saturday, and it's been a great week. Of course, any tournament where I get to partner Z all week (which we haven't actually ever done before) should be much more profitable, pointwise, but it's not about the points so much for me as it is about just getting better. But it sort of is about the points for me now, because I know no one will respect me as a player until I've cracked at least 1000, but I'm getting there.
Anyway, enough, it's bedtime.
Peace.
