…and a great start to the bridge summer
This evening, Sheri and I went to Bridge Etc. They were having a special 2 for 1 night (play tonight, and the next time you come is free), so we had the largest game I’ve seen there since they closed the old building – a 6 table Mitchell! I went into the evening expecting to take dead last, since Sheri and I haven’t really played with each other very much. We’ve played for several hours a night for 2 nights in a row, but we didn’t really go over conventions. This is partly because Sheri seems to rely much less on conventions and more on intuition and bridge sense (consequently, she has great bridge sense). So, after a frustrating number of bottoms and a surprising number of tops, we actually took 3rd of the 6 North-South pairs (1st in our division)! This gave us 0.32 Black Master Points, putting my total up to 2.59. If I can double that over the summer, I won’t technically be a novice any more, and that’s starting to look like a feasible goal!
There weren’t many hands that stood out this evening. In one of them, we were defending against 3NT. My RHO lead a spade, and I played low, holding up my king. Dummy’s ten won the trick, and I figured that RHO had the ace, and Sheri had crap in the suit. On the next spade, I played my king before it was drawn out, and Sheri… played the ace. It turns out she had a doubleton and was holding up as well. My king was safe for one more round (I had 4 spades, and I pegged the ace to be on my right, so I could have held up one more time). We had a bottom board there. Oops!
On another hand, I lied slightly in the bidding but managed to stop at 3D (with 6 1/2 HCP in my hand and about 9 on the board, mind you). Against perfect defense, I would go down at least 2, possibly 3. However, the defense got greedy, waiting to set up their hearts, and continued to sluff spades as I ran the clubs. Because of this, I actually managed to make the contract and take top board, though this was much more from defense’s mistakes than my good play.
On the whole, I’d say that Sheri’s and my play was spectacular (except for the spades in that 3NT contract), though we need to learn to communicate more in the bidding and play. We’ve decided to try to learn a new convention each week, though I’m not sure if we’ll actually do that. Let’s hope the summer only gets better from here!
what are you *actually* doing for the summer, by the way?
I’m staying at Harvey Mudd and working in the Robotics Lab. It’s awesome. The vast majority of it is building a robot to show off at the AAAI conference in Pittsburgh this summer. Though the website hasn’t been updated in a while, you can find some stuff we did with the robot during the schoolyear here.
Alan dahlink, I don’t think I’m ever going to understand all of the bridge notes you put in your LJ…senior year you’ll have to teach me the basic game or something so I have a vague idea ^_^;; None of the point stuff, just the basics…I’ve no desire to go insane BEFORE my portfolio is done!
I’m so glad you’re having a fun start to your summer! Hope it stays that way! Btw, what is your home address? It is now to late to send postcards to Mudd, and I finally found one that I think you might like ^.~ Love and hugs, and I’ll see ya in three months!
Since I’m staying on campus, it’s not too late to send a postcard to Mudd! Wait… a postcard that I might like?! Am I really that picky? ;-P
btw, it’s great to hear from you; I didn’t think you had read my blog all year.
Nope, if you’re on my friends page, I’m reading you! Even if half of your journal is stuff I know nothing about *grin* Bridge, politics, mudder stuff…but I’ll make a point of commenting more often now! I didn’t realize you didn’t think I read yours… ;_; sorry about that!
In terms of the postcard, good deal on Mudd. I knew you were staying on to work with Riccobot and a couple of people but I didn’t realize you were going to be there ALL summer! Thought you got a break first…and no, you’re not that picky, but so far I’ve tried to tailor cards to people. Suppose I could send generic city shots, but those are so BORING ;p Admittedly though, not many postcards have been sent as a result…hmmmm…mebbe three or four all year. I might need to change my high standards. Love and *hugs*!
yes do send whoever my e-mail to ask about oberlin