BBO Fun Club

Come-back: did you know....

2007-10-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Trying to get back on track, folks...
I did have some sort of vacation (holidays in Brit-speak) in hospital. It was very valuable, in terms of putting things into perspective. But not much to do with bridge, so I will spare you the details and accompanying musings. I am alive and very much kicking, and (attempting)getting back. I might use a powerful kick in the b*** to get into my happy-puppy-player-TD-entertainer (no Joplin bridge tune?)-mood&mode, though... You can do this via the chat toy or posting a comment.
In a nutshell for the curious ones? I moved back to my hometown (Rousse) for good, putting an end to a stage (at least) in my academic career. I am still working at the (local) university here but the switch is somewhat painful (very different milleau), difficult (time-consuming) but NEVERTHELESS a great challenge (and challenges make me tick, even if only like a clockwork orange). The students are terrific, absolutely so; the colleagues are fantastic; I have solved some of the logistic problems (i.e. I don't have to commute 115 km to get to work; I just walk for 5 minutes and voila!)
but... Maybe the problem is I hate to say good-byes (just a tune I love; not some kinky twist on an Oedipal complex with the Alma); or the effort to re-adjust is taking its toll.
Enough of that bitching... I am happy, even if a bit anxious - and quite a bit tired, too.
The happiest discovery of late is that days CAN be stretched to have 27 hours 36 minutes.
* 06.00 - 08.00 having a shower & coffee + cooking breakfast for family + reading/preparing lesson plans - coefficient 1.5 cos I am doing it simultaneously => I gain 1.5 hours minimum
* teaching, on average 4 hours a day; at least 10% of the time, while the kids are doing written exercises, I am checking other kids' tests => 36 minutes plus
* fitness - 1 hour a day - I listen to lectures on the mp3 player while sweating on the treadmill; now this is a gold-mine, time-wise - another 1 hour gained yeah!
* the "gig" that actually pays the bills - 3 hours a day of stand-by translation; when I am not busy, I write my lesson plans, respond to emails etc - about 1 hour plus.
The problem? I have to be careful when crossing streets! BUT if I manage to find a water-proof mp3 player, I would be able to add at least 20 minutes of some lectures to the day.
If I weren't such a stupid disorganised git (like Sir Walter Raleigh), I might stretch the day to accommodate at least 48 hours - but, hey, I am getting there!
Adding a clip, because it is soooo funny :)
Any suggestions/ideas (chocolates in the mail - pls, only the very black, no sugar, no milk, no nonsense variety only, very much please!) welcome!

Still alive, and

2007-08-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

even kicking. Though there is no time to play, whenever I get the chance, I resort to bridge - this time testing some options for live video embedding. The picture is blurry, the audio is even worse, but hey, it is a start. Miss you, all - and, hopefully, see you around soon!

Second attempt:
bbo2.swf
Second attempt, embedded (huh... I hope):

If you see a broken icon, it means you don't have the Flash plug-in installed. Hm, now I wish I could find out how to add the start/pause/stop buttons.
P.S. Fixed! Not a very elegant solution but it works - press the green arrow to start the clip.

Summer Wine Indy

2007-08-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

It was meant to be restricted to a small, 20 max, friends-only indy, sort of a get-together party (and so I could play too!) but I typically forgot to set the friends-only restriction when opening the tourney, and before I knew it, the 20 slots were taken. But, optimistically, we got to meet new people and it was fun, without any incidents, barring the odd disconnection. Surely a tourney like the one on the picture below is a nice sight to behold :)

Congratulations to the winners:

Springold 2007 on BBVu

2007-07-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

The Springold 2007 Knockout Teams is being broadcast on BBO Vugraph this week. I was lucky to run into the match between the Cayne Team (Versace - Lauria; Fantoni - Nunes today) and the Mahaffey Team.
I tried to google up more on the history of Springold but among the numerous interesting sites that came up, nothing was making sense for this problem exactly. The mystery was solved by cardpotato (a great guy who enjoys helping old ladies like me cross the street), who suggested this link . Springold is just one of the many events in the Nashville NABC 2007.
For a complete schedule of BBO vugraph broadcasts, please check here.

P.S. Paul, i know you are reading this - so here's something for you. :)

Joye Silver (BBO ME argent) was one of the commentators in the Open Room (where Fantoni and Nunes were playing). And, no, I didn't persuade him to change his level to "novice"! Looks like it is contagious enough! ;)

Tournaments, unplugged

2007-07-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my personal black day for tournaments, both as a TD and a player,with all the usual issues blown out of any sensible proportion. It never fails to amaze me why rude, antisocial people ever take to bridge at all. I am still at a loss what the particular offence, "native goat roper" is supposed to mean, for example. It may well be that I should better remain in blissful ignorance about it.
Life, however, can be so sweet on the funny side of the street. It took me several days to stop sulking, and see everything from a new perspective.
Top auction:

Top alert:

Top lesson:

The multi is my pet-peeve. I would hate to get repetitive but the problem of abusing multi keeps raising its upgly head over and over.

Top reason for calling TD to a table:

Please, tell my partner to stop drinking beer! During the previous tourney he told everyone "Cheers!" instead of "glp"!

Minibridge, anyone? :)

2007-07-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my latest discovery (as in discovering the wheel...). I have always been curious about minibridge, especially since it seemed to be a more natural way to introduce an already keen, very cute 8-year old to bridge (and, hopefully, he will realise sooner than me that bridge is not a computer game!).
BBO offers minibridge as an option but whenever I tried to make a table, noone joined. So yesterday I was lucky to hop into the 4th seat and actually play some! Gosh, I loved it! Here is how you play it: you count your points and press the appropriate button; then you look at the combined point count for both pairs.

The pair with less than 20 hcp become defenders (if both sides have 20, you just redeal). The person in the other pair that has more hcp is able to see partner's hand, and, after analysing the hcp power and distribution declares - yes! just declares - a contract (there is a menu between the play zone and the chat zone):

It feels very unusual, and is in fact great fun :)))
Apart from being a fun way to introduce kids to the game, I thought it might actually be a great tool for beginners (and obnoxious novices) because you can practise declarer techniques and counting. For defenders, as well - counting partner's hand is slightly easier but nevertheless quite a challenge - well, at least for me!

In fact, I liked it so much I will continue researching this topic!

2007-07-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to TD ah que!!!
Many happy returns of the day, and many fun tourneys! Be very very happy!

Happy Saturday :)

2007-07-21T08:14:00.000-07:00

Have several verrrrrrrrrrrrrry serious posts in tow... but the sun is shining, fish are jumping (somewhere) and the cotton is high (probably) so thought it was high time to lighten up and just let life go in a less predictable, more enjoyable manner. Dance, or, smile, or why not both? :)

The Carrapicho project, in case you are curious to check, is here.

Congrats, M & F!

2007-07-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Marty (aka mschwartl) and Fa (aka sailormoon) who came 3rd in an ACBL tourney yesterday!
Go get 'em, pals!!! I am very happy for you! :)

Memti's BIL Project

2007-07-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

which includes both a tourney and a follow-up with analysis, focusing on defence play, is something you wouldn't want to miss. The only draw-back is only Intermediate level players are allowed to get their feet wet, which, as most of you know, means that I won't be playing there until I have the Bermuda Bowl trophy on my coffee table (well, and since I don't even have a coffee table yet, the matter is impossibly complicated).
The best thing would be to judge for yourself. There is a nice starting point here - you do need to be a registered forum member to access that post (fast, free and easy to become one). There are also movies in lin format, which include examples, explanations, and even let you practise by playing the hands out as a Bridge Master hand - check here. Make sure you follow Miksa's instructions strictly (i.e. not just open the lin movie but do save it on your local hard drive), or you will not be able to make use of all the features.

Summer Wine Teams #15

2007-07-17T07:00:00.001-07:00

Thanks to sailormoon, we managed to run the Summer Wine Team Match #15; this time the playful wines were Porto & Riesling. The formal result was boring 19 imps won by the Portos (ze micas - jocarr fractal - rae123) but I believe we all had great fun - even the bubbly Rieslings (sailormoon - joe_45 mschwartl - jwheelerh) who threatened to make a fearful come-back during the next match!
Special welcome to JoCarr who played in our team match for the first time!

LazyHazyCrazyDaysOfSummer Tourney

2007-07-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we all survived the tourney :). In the very first place it was started because during that lazy hazy and just sleepy afternoon of summer there were no free tournaments to play. In strict adherence with Murphy's Law, though, while I was configuring a small tourney for friends, at least 2 other were created. This drew an angry remark from one of the TDs - really not sure why, as his tourneys are usually huge, and there were so many people online that I was surely no competition for him. AND his tourneys are excellently managed, too - despite the fact that he is brave enough to run 150 - 160 pairs + single-handedly.
The first round was fairly quiet. Then the hazy-lazy-sleepy atmosphere turned a brighter shade of crazy, with me turning a whiter shade of pale by the minute (btw, how many calories does a TD burn during an 8-board, IMPs, unclocked?). Disconnections, reconnections, slow play, players who don't speak English, unhappy opps (no alerts and no intention to even attempt one) and even name-calling. Though it might all be part of the game, figuratively speaking, from a technical stand-point, I think, these are no minor offences (except the incidental disconnections, of course). My solution is blacklisting such offenders, and praying they will not be joining under any other nickname. Anyway, it could have been much worse, considering the temperatures soared to new highs during the afternoon!

Still, it was great fun - despite the glitches!

Yet another treat from Jimmy Cayne

2007-07-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

Who Is Who:
llorenzo Lorenzo Lauria: photo & EBL profile here; more photos and interesting links (incl. interview) on the WBF Open Top 50 page; most of the links that come up in Google are in Italian.
nevaio Alfredo Versace - the WBF page with photo here; WBF Open Top 50 page with photo collage and links here;
jec Jimmy Cayne - the WBF page here with photo but not much info apart from that; if anyone discoveres an interesting link, pls drop me a line;
miamiwiz Michael Seamon - the WBF page here; the bridgeguys photo profile here;

The team from Egypt:
azzam1 Ayman Azzam
thejewel Adel Elkordy
A_Samir Ahmed Samir
mavrick Reda Amiry
Unfortunately, Google wasn't very helpful providing links with info about them.

The match was very interesting to watch. Yuo can see the travellers here. Predictably the kibs always knew better. And again, I kept wondering, if these guys play bridge, then what the heck is the name of the game I am playing on BBO...

Willover's Tango

2007-07-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

Top Reason for Calling TD:

playerX: my partner hasn't played a card for 1.5 minutes
fractal: your partner can't - he is the dummy....

Happy Friday 13th :)

2007-07-13T15:49:00.000-07:00

It was very lucky for me, actually. Off-bridge life and biz are going great; I am almost in love with Drupal (hopefully, not unrequitted 100%); and on-bridge I think I set a personal record today - ran a tourney with 200+ pairs. Luckily with the help of 3 coTDs! Spiralsnow, AnnC8 and Vapa came to the rescue!

Top reason for TD presence request:

Tourney 620 Director needed by xxx at Table 031 Player said:we need a warm body at south

Beat that, eh?

I do miss Summer Wine Teams, though! Hard to imagine, but is a fact - it is easier to gather 400+ people willing to play accidentally than 8, just 8, in the same time/place continuum for a teams match! Go figure! :(

BTW,

2007-07-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

consider yourself lucky I haven't learnt how to add sound to video. As a result of more or less fruitless efforts to configure my site - as my baby-brother said, it is very intuitive and quite easy. Oh yeah! And some say the same about the allegedly "natural" bidding... But digressing... - the not-so-creative-but-much-deserved outlet was this clip (click on the pic up on the left).

Whew, shared misery is almost fun!
* Except that I am completely pooped!

* If you can read the above text normally, please do not read it - it just means your browser doesn't support bi-directional override (bdo).

Life is hectic,

2007-07-10T13:41:00.000-07:00

and unfortunately not much time for bridge recently. I think I still remember what Stayman is about but not much else, I'm afraid. Maybe I should remove the gelatine-gunpowder concoction from my profile, and revert to the safer disclaimer that I play with random precision (no, that is not a system, it is a diagnosis), upside-down inside-out carding and stray bullet discards. Which is, unfortunately, not a joke at all!
If anyone is interested, came upon 2 sites with bridge quotes (some overlapping): the Pattaya Bridge Club and the site of the Calgary Duplicate Bridge Association.
Apart from that... gosh, it is SO HOT here....Have a terrific time of the day!

Yet another update

2007-06-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

Some weeks take a long time to finish. This was one of them. Off to a July Morning party, and, when I return, will be a happy-puppy again. Meanwhile, enjoy:

Jazzing Summer! :)

2007-06-22T20:25:00.001-07:00

Summer is finally here!

Here is a huge lovin' spoonful of wishes for a great many lazy hazy crazy days of summer and lots of fun, on and off bridge.

See you on the roof-top! ;)

Congratulations!!!!!! :)))))))))))))))

2007-06-22T05:10:00.000-07:00

BULGARIAN PAIR SWEEP TO VICTORY

A terrific final session saw Bulgaria’s Dessy Popova & Rosen Gunev brush aside the opposition to claim victory in the Mixed Pairs Championship.

They finished just ahead of the Bulgarian/ Turkish partnership of Ahu Zobu& Victor Aronov, their teammates. It may well be the first time two pairs from the same team have finished first and second in any major Championship.

Good luck to all Bulgarian players in Antalya, Turkey - and especially to D. Kapitanski (kapitanski on BBO)!

Recipes, anyone?

2007-06-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Chris's comment about the origin of the word "sandwich" coincided with a rather too extended period of work (or plain sitting) by the computer for me. The nature of the business didn't permit taking long breaks to have proper meals or whatever so I wondered if any of the geeks or mouse-potatoes out there have a recipe or two or three to share. They should be 1) safe for the PC (no messy stuff pls); 2) low-cal, healthy and tasty; 3) require minimum preparation time; 4) any other plus you can think of?
My own suggestions:

a bottle of mineral water
two bottles of mineral water
an apple
a bottle of mineral water with a slice of lemon in it
a "multi 2" sandwich: a carrot wrapped in a lettuce leaf, or an egg wrapped in a lettuce leaf, or a lettuce leaf wrapped in a cabbage leaf
.............................

yarborough

2007-06-20T03:22:00.000-07:00

The original definition of "yarborough" qualifies it as a bridge or whist hand containing no honour cards (10 is also an honour card). It is termed after Charles Anderson Worsley, Second Earl of Yarborough (1809–1897), who was said to have bet 1000 to 1 that noone will ever pick a hand like that. More about this, and other bridge odds in a most interesting article, BRIDGE; BETTING WITH THE ODDS by Alan Truscott in The New York Times (January 18, 1987).

1NT again

2007-06-19T18:46:00.000-07:00

Began (again...) reading (and taking notes, but too rough to post yet) Caitlin's "Standard Bidding with SAYC". Here is a deal generated in the BBO partnership bidding room. You hold this hand:

Would you open 1NT, or something else? Here is what I did:

and what Gibbie McGee did:

What is your preference?

Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

2007-06-17T10:48:00.001-07:00

BBO has proven to be a great resource in more than one way again. I had been flirting with the idea of trying to make home-brewn kvas (a traditional Russian beverage made from bread, yeast, water and different spices - sounds yukky but is yummy when chilled enough!) for a long time, and today finally decided to venture. And just when I set out to make the big leap, I realised that the recipe says "a loaf of rye bread". Huh, OK... I haven't been to Russia for more than twenty years now, and I have a very vague recollection just how big the loaf is supposed to be. Googling for the answer brought up a lot of interesting facts and facets to the "loaf of bread" problem - all sorts of recipes, idioms, political implications (eg. top Russian politicians don't even know how much a loaf of bread costs), you name it - I found it - except that there was no definitive answer about the weight of that loaf. So, yes, you guessed correctly, I went to BBO, filtered the users by country, spotted 2 female nicks and asked. I love you, janoo and Problema!

There was a great treat in store, too: the Cayne Team Match. And as usual, the kibs knew better what should be played, how and why. Life is funny! :)

After several unsuccessful attempts during last week to organise the Summer Wine teams (yeah, many friends love it but try to get 8 of us at the same time online, free and willing!), I tried to make a mini-indy under the title "Summer Wine Swinging Singing Singles". Several people wanted to join and I am happy I have added Annette7, Amicale and almo to the friends' list! Welcome and hopefully we'll play again. The winners were almo, followed by Rae123 and bazylc who ruthlessly ruffed and doubled me on his way to the top (and I hate to admit he was right to do it)!

On a positive note, came upon Fred Gitelman's article in BBO's Bridge Library, the Articles section (yes, right, fourth door on the left in the Other Bridge Activities wing) under the title "Expert Errors". I found it very satisfying I make not only newbie errors but expert errors, too! Joking, of course; but I am absolutely serious the article makes great reading matter!

Update (at last!)

2007-06-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

There have been some technical issues that had to be resolved so the blog couldn't be updated for some time. Hope I won't miss some very important bit of news that should be handed down from generation to generation! Anyways, if I do miss it - please feel free to leave a comment.

The Summer Wine Series - and I suspect that match #13 is at the bottom of the blog mess! - after a long break we did 2 matches in one evening and for the first time there were more people wishing to play than seats available! That's OK too, cos now we can run it as a swinging party(aka individual) for commitment-freaks like myself, or as a pairs event.
The Hall of Fame screenshots for the latest two matches are below:

and

Gamer's BBO Beginner Tourneys took off nicely (remember Gamer1800?)- we manage to run about 2 events daily, mostly during the European daytime hours, but until there are more TDs available it is hard to commit to any regular schedule. These tourneys are still limited (and will continue to be that way) only to beginner level players so it is funny seeing advanced+ members downgrading their level tag in order to participate. Well, didn't your mum told you lying is bad for you... The only punishment they get, of course, is not being able to yell at their partners for opening with balanced hands with 3 hcp, or having their transfer bids passed. My statistically non-representative impression is most of them never come back, and those who do tend to be beginner-friendly. So if you spot BBO Beginner tourneys in the Free Tournaments list - jump on board, fasten seat-belts and prepare for what may be a bumpy but nethertheless quite enjoyable ride! Even if, as they say, misery loves company, you will be in very good, friendly and compassionate company. :)

The most memorable encounter during a tourney in these last two weeks:

There was nothing we could do to get an explanation; not even the TD could... So if you thought English is enough to get you through your life, it might be time to reconsider!

A funny toy from a huge site with lots of lots of useful bridge-related stuff: the Personal Deal Creator by Richard Pavlicek. Well, at least unsuspecting me found the whole idea hilarious - "Have you ever wondered what your personal bridge deal would be? Well, wonder no more!". You only have to enter your name, the month and the day of your birth, and location. I did, and then got served THIS:

Dull as ditch-water... Since I can't change my name and my birthdate, the only thing that can make the deal more exciting is changing location. Off we go to play - and if it means moving to some uninhabited volcanic archipelago, trust me, I will go there (provided they have a tobacconist and a steady internet connection, of course!).

An interlude: philosophy of bidding ;)

2007-06-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

"Aha !" said Pooh. (Rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.) "If I know
anything about anything, that bid means fit," he said, "and
fit means Game," he said, "and Game means Imps and
Listening-to-Me-Humming and such like. Rum-tum-tum-tiddle-um."

More mistral is sweeping

2007-05-31T12:05:00.000-07:00

through BBO... The # 337 Pairs Heart of Gold tourney was a disaster. From a newbie's standpoint, it was a very interesting situation. One opp opened 2!d, alerted proudly "multy" (sic! yes, and I know I am a beach/y babe!), and the auction went on in Chinese. Yours truly sighed and hurried to google, which brought up multiple versions of multi(1, 2, 3 - want more? go goggle on google), and it didn't make the situation clearer. Wiki looked reassuringly short but wouldn't you give it up when you have approx. 6 minutes to read, digest, and defend something that starts with:

An opening bid of 2♦ classically shows one of four types :

Weak two in a major suit (6-11 HCP)
A strong balanced hand of a defined range
Strong three-suited hand
An ACOL 2 type ; typically in a minor
Often the convention is played with only one of the strong options being present, ie a three-way bid.

Cool eh... In the end I got into a very multi mood myself too - and to say I was majorly pissed off would be an elegant understatement in Queen's English:
1. Opps refused to explain properly, even when p asked and called the TD.
2. P accused them of cheating - quite a grave accusation; they were being sloppy and even arrogant but that is not really a crime; failing to alert properly is penalisable, though.
3. TD replaced my partner in the next round (took the original one out) and I only noticed half-way through the bidding that the new one doesn't play anything I do, and vice versa, and doesn't or wouldn't speak English.
4. I asked the TD to sub me, she promised to do that after I finish the board, and then forgot. So I left - didn't disturb the game, as the new p was playing it so that should have given ample notice to find a sub to replace me.
5. When I did log back to BBO, the ex-p was already playing in another tourney with someone else. Oh well.... And they say women are fickle?!?!?! C'monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn... Give me a break!
Pretty please...

Choose your tourneys carefully....

2007-05-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Contrary to its proclaimed title, Enjoy The bridge, the TD pijo5 made the experience not quite enjoyable by constantly urging in a somewhat harsh manner players to play faster. Might be a language problem. However, bridge is supposedly a thinking game (unless you are an expert) - so think twice before joining. You need to play very very fast.
Just for the record, we always finished at least 2 minutes before the allowed time elapsed. And, as a matter of fact, I typed this whole post while playing the last board - in fact we were defending, quite successfully for one down!

Slospin.net

2007-05-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

Yet another great (well, in my opinion, at least) bridge site for handy reference. There are four major categories:

The Conventions part features not only the most common conventions you see on the profiles of BBO players, but also articles on carding and leads. You can get a handful of doubles, and don't miss the snapdragon, which is a very useful tool if you are not obsessive-compulsive about the penalty double at the 1 level.

The section of Treatments includes

Balancing Seat Bids
Cue Bidding Opponent's Suit
Cue Bidding for Slam
Fit-Showing Bids
Leads
Law of Total Tricks
Losing Trick Count
Minor Suit Bidding Principals
Opening Bids of One-of-a-Suit
Opening 3- and 4-Level Preempts
Overcalling
Point Counting
Responses To 1NT
Responses To 2NT
Responses With Interference
Reverse Bid
Squeeze (Rule Of 14)

Systems do not offer much for the SAYCers out there so just for the record there are system notes on an approach to the "Two-Over-One" system, based mostly on Max Hardy's treatment, as well as a condensed description of "Simplified Precision" by C. C. Wei. However, remember curiosity killed the cat...

The Agreements section was a revelation for me, personally, cos I had never seen such a detailed, well-structured example of what a "partnership agreement" might stand for. You can't count on me to have much experience, so if you have seen similar stuff somewhere, please post. It is a great idea, and seems extremely useful even if it only helps one sort out differences with one's more or less regular partners.

Summer Wine 012

2007-05-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

Well, it started in a peaceful, quiet way. The Amarone team (bazylc - grez, nikbon - fractal), the Allegirini team (rob63 - mschwartl, sburke - emmee) and a couple of friendly kibs were toddling happily towards the finale with the Allegrini winning by quite a bit when suddenly Rob remembered that Amarone means Verona, and Verona means Romeo and Juliet, and what Romeo and Juliet might mean to Rob I dare not enquire but this set him to such a romantic mood that neither his intrepid partner could bring Rob back to our californicated, Corona-driven matrix of a planet, nor their sweet team-mates who were moaning for guns to shoot their way out.
Just 22 imps is worth the trip to Verona, I think! :)

This clip is especially for you, Rob, please stay as wonderful as we have always known you to be :)

Summer Wine Teams 011

2007-05-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

Well, finally the team I was playing (Pinot Noir: joe_45 - sailormoon, nikbon - fractal) managed to break the losing streak of so many events - despite the fact that our very own mschwartl (aka Marty, aka Sunflower since yesterday!) was running around with a baseball bat and threatening to boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew. That was scary but obviously not enough, and the last board provided the much needed imps to steal the match from the Pinot Blanc Team (bazylc - grez, mschwartl - sound375).
What can I say, Marty - try, try, try just a little bit harder... :)

Congratulations :)))

2007-05-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my terrific Russian p Konstantin (Gomon_k) who swept 13 pairs off their feet during the Moscow Open Pairs Championship 2007. Way to go!

Blues in Black

2007-05-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

Busy Day on BBVu

2007-05-26T04:55:00.000-07:00

Summer Wine Teams 010

2007-05-26T04:14:00.001-07:00

Summer Wine Teams 009

2007-05-24T15:57:00.000-07:00

Gragnano (juvenal1 - mschwartl, rob63 - phillippa) had a close encounter with Brunello (bazylc - grez, sailormoon - john933) tonight. 7 imps - but I did forget who won!
Cheers and a song for all of you, guys! :)

Karen's Bridge Library

2007-05-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Karen's Bridge Library is one of the first resources I encountered, and it was very helpful. You can browse through the numerous topics and read up bits and pieces here and there, or follow a more logically structured route, according to your level.

Summer Wine Teams 008

2007-05-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Again it was almost a tie. The Portos (ssager - sandione mschwartl - fractal) splintered, transferred, staymanned, blackwooded, doubled and defended like there's no tomorrow match but the Rkatsitelis (bazylc - grez, rob63 - john933) won by 32 IMPs.

Photo, right: The playing captain of the winning team (who shall remain anonymous) is preparing for the post-team match party.

Cheers, all! :)))

Bidding Blues

2007-05-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

We were practising 1NT in Partnership bidding (sayc, Caitlin's way).

Hand 1:

Any way to bid this better and/or reach 7NT?

Hand 2:

Yet another can of worms... Bidding looks OK but the contract will fail. What to do?

Summer Wine Teams 007

2007-05-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Cheers to the Chianti team (bazylc + grez, rob63 + juvenal1) for scoring 14 highly contested IMPs during tonight's match!
The Mosels (sailormoon + fractal, mschwartl + kelkatcol) hugged each other and departed into the cold dark night. To have a drink. Alone...
*****
Don't fret, folks, just plagiarising - from Hemingway this time. ;)

Happy Birthday, Bob :)))))))

2007-05-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Bob Holmes!!!

Many happy returns of the day and may all your wishes, slams and finesses come true!

We love you, Bob - be very happy! :)

p???????? sry bye

2007-05-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

Cool... But where do you go to, my lovely? (Bear with me, I am trapped in mostly Right Said Fred clichés today!).
***
This is the umpteenth attempt to start this topic, which is hard enough to formulate, let alone develop more or less comprehensibly. So I will scatter the notes around, and if you have the patience to read to the end, you'll make your own story of it.
***
Maybe the market is too small for a John Gray to write "Saycers are from Mars, Precisionists are from Venus", but even if he did, I'd rather stick with Eric Berne as his Games People Play is more readily transposable onto the bridge table (and surrounding chairs), albeit it may be lacking practical advice.
***
Or we can try and rehash "Zen, or the art of partnership maintenance". This extract is copied from an article on other types of relationships but, in my opinion, even a pick-up partnership or a close encounter in an indy tournament has all the features of a relationship dynamics.

A young woman approached the Zen master in a meditation hall. "I am searching for perfection so that I may be truly happy," she said. "How do I find perfection?"

"Bring me a butterfly and you will have your answer," he replied.

So the woman set off for a nearby field of wildflowers dotted with beautiful butterflies. Anxious to learn the secret, she chased a butterfly until she captured it. But when she returned to the master and opened her hand, all that remained were the crushed wings of a once-lovely creature. "What have I done?" the bewildered woman asked.

"Bring me a butterfly and you will have your answer," the master said.

The second time she returned she opened her cupped hands and exclaimed, "Master, I have brought you a butterfly." But this time the creature lay in a circle of glistening dust; it had beaten itself to death. And once again the woman asked, "What have I done?"
Advertisement

"Bring me a butterfly and you will have your answer," the master said.

When the woman returned to the field a third time, she noticed a glorious butterfly drifting from wildflower to wildflower, drinking deeply from dewy petals. Gently, she picked a flower and set it on her shoulder. After a while, the creature landed on it. Slowly, the woman began walking back to the meditation hall. When she arrived, the butterfly was still perched lightly on her shoulder.

"Now you have your answer," the Zen master said.

Easy does it.

***
In Success at Bridge Victor Mollo writes:

"Technique in bidding or play can be studied, practised and eventually mastered. Kindness to partner is a virtue requiring a rare combination of gifts - patience, detachment, forgiveness, and above all, the ability to dissimulate.
You are either born with these precious gifts or more likely you are born without them. It is purely a matter of luck."

***
Allegedly Easely Blackwood warned that if you try to convince partner that he is in the wrong he will play badly on the next deal. If you succeed, he will play badly on the next ten. Dare try?
***
Last but by no means least, my absolutely favourite bridge teacher Bob (bobh2 on BBO) put it best in his post on the BIL forum:

Now, here's some advice for you. If your object is to win at bridge, play with partners who are playing winning bridge and keep them playing that way. This is a simple fact. Bridge is a partnership game and a huge factor of winning has to do with taking good care of your partner. They do best when they are chirping along, not stressing out. Your behaviour and style at the table matters a lot. This is not hard to accomplish, you just have to be aware of this, and do it. What I have just said applies to the game regardless of your skill level or anything else. It is a universal truth.

***
Or, to quote Right Said Fred, "You're my mate, and I will stand by you" pretty much sums in up.

Btw, this is the official partnership song for the Summer Wine Teams matches. As to the guys who are too sexy for your table, you might politely suggest that they take their little tush some other where, in the hope it will be better appreciated by someone else. No hard feelings here, we are all different, and that's fine; yet you might wish them luck cos, I suspect, they might need quite a lot of it. ;)

Today's Puzzle

2007-05-22T06:07:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Bobby (attentive) for this puzzle taken from Victor Mollo's Bridge Psychology.

You are declarer. What will you play now?

This particular hand was played by José Le Dentu (thanks to the FFBBO yellows for their kind assistance!).

BBO Basic (summary)

2007-05-22T04:37:00.000-07:00

to-do list:

add hyperlinks with expl.
add links to alternative sites
when all is ready, move the whole bunch to a static site for reference

General Approach: Standard American
1NT = 15-17 HCP

Stayman
Jacoby Transfers
2S for minor bust
3m (3 Minor) invitational
3M (3 Major slam invitational)
Gerber
System ON over double

2NT = 20-21 HCP

Stayman
Jacoby Transfers
Gerber

3NT = 25-27 HCP
!!! Make sure your partner knows you are (not) playing 3NT as Gambling 3NT!

Stayman
Jacoby Transfers

Minor Suit Openings & Responses
3+ suits* - bid suits up the line
2NT = 13-15 HCP
3NT = 16-18 HCP

Major Suit Openings & Responses
5+ majors. Responses:
2NT = 4-card forcing raise (Jacoby 2NT) (* now I play it with 3+ cards support as a fit showing GF bid; discuss with partners)
3M = limit raise
3NT = 15-17 HCP

2Clubs strong (artificial)
2D - "waiting"

Weak Twos
2NT - feature-asking bid. Raise only non-forcing (RONF).

Strong Jump Shifts. Preemptive Jump Overcalls. Neg. X thru 2S.

After Opps' Take-Out X:

New suit: 1 level = forcing. 2 level - NF.
2NT = limit raise or more.
Preemptive Jumps.

After Suit Overcall:

New Suit: non-forcing.

After 1NT Overcall:

Stayman only.

After Opps' 1NT Opening:

2C - majors only **

Standard Blackwood
4th suit = 1-round force
Unusual 2NT & Michaels

Leads & carding:
Standard leads, carding & discards

Summer Wine Teams 006

2007-05-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sangue de Boi (rob63 - jimi56, bazylc - grez) won this teams match by 6 imps. The Traminerians (meeto - larsbg, juvenal1 - sailormoon) fought bravely to the very last drop. Everyone is a winner as the match was fun, and I am very happy that the guys who are taking part in it for the first time (the whole Sangue de Boi team, as well as Larsbg) enjoyed it, too :)
Looking forward to Summer Wine 007!

(Sun)Day at the races...

2007-05-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

It was certainly a very strange day, lots of ups and downs, and I suspect some bridge mistral was sweeping through BBO all day yesterday.

It began OK. I coTDed my first tourney with Gamer1800. It is a bit hard to play and keep an eye on the tourney proceedings, even though we barely had to make any substitutions. There was one incident, when a player called his partner an idiot for doubling opp's contract or some other capital offence. This got him to the very top of the enemy list (yeah, isn't it sad there should ever be need for one...), and I sincerely hope he will stay there and not run into any of us again. Such extraordinary creatures who presumably never make mistakes should be kept on Vesuvius: it is private there but sulphorous. Btw, Gamer's tourney got mentioned in BIL's Gazette (19 May 2007):

BEGINNER/NOVICE TOURNAMENTS

There is some good news for those who want to play/compete in tournaments that are restricted to beginner / novice level - somewhere for you to ‘get your feet wet’ , where you have a chance of being in the top % .

Gamer_1800 is going to be running ad hoc tournaments in the BBO Free Tournament section every day . These are not being run under the auspices of the BIL as he cannot commit to any specific schedule - he has power supply problems. So they will be listed at short notice randomly. You will have to look for his id in the Host Field in the tournaments - the titles will not mention the BIL. However, I am sure it will be clear that they are restricted to level.

He has my permission to announce these in the BIL 10/15 minutes prior to the start (except when a lesson is in progress).

Those of you playing in them must ‘cut him some slack’ when it comes to subs - a tournament cannot continue if he cannot find a sub so it may well be that he will from time to time have to use an Intermediate/advanced player .

The Sunday Teams League match was a pleasure indeed, as Marty and I played with Bob (rq4mulae) and Norrie (Norrito1 aka club2over1), and what made this encounter even more pleasant is the fact that we won, despite my misbids, misclicks, misplay, misdefence, mis-you-name-it-i-did-it...

Unfortunately, later I ran into another rude fellow, and got so pissed off that reported him to BBO abuse. Yes, Virginia, it was THAT bad... He could always get off the hook though by claiming temporary insanity due to climatic conditions. On the other hand... Maybe I was a bit too short-fused myself, and shouldn't have bothered with that luser at all? In a brief moment of poetic rapture I began writing this poem but only got to Line 5 - the muse disappeared AWOL:

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

Well done, Lawl Brigade!

2007-05-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE WONDERFUL PERFORMANCE ON SUNDAY TEAMS MATCH!

Thanks and best of luck to The Splinters, it was great pleasure to play with you, guys!

Turn on the BBVu !

2007-05-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

There are currently 2 events broadcast on BBVu(graph): Camrose Trophy and the Scottish Cup.

The Camrose Trophy, the Home Bridge Internationals for England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland (then called the Irish Free State) was launched in 1937. Lord Camrose, at that time proprietor of the Daily Telegraph, donated the trophy in 1936. The original trophy has been lost, but a replacement is competed for annually. More about its history here, and more about the current event we are watching here.

Unfortunately, I couldn't google up anything coherent about the other event, the Scottish Cup (as paulg explained, "it is the Scottish teams of four championship final"), and was late for the start of the broadcast so maybe, if you are interested, you can check The Beercard Blog of BBO's paulg (Paul Gipson) for any comments and other words of wisdom, and the very curious explanation about what the beer card is. :)

BBVu schedule: http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php

Summer Wine Teams 005

2007-05-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

Riesling Team (boclient -mschwartl, juvenal1 - sailormoon) delivered a devastating 19 imp blow to Pinot Noir Team (nekcarolyn - john933, nikbon - fractal). Next time I will sneak in a beer label, just in case! :)

Congrats, Riesling! :)

Apart from that, the match was fun as usual!

Private Bridge Lessons with Cascade

2007-05-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

One of the BIL Lecturer's Cascade publishes the blog Private Bridge Lessons, featuring hands and analysis from his sessions in BIL. You can browse the posts one by one, or use the Labels to take you directly to the topic you are interested in.

Club "2 over 1"

2007-05-18T03:52:00.000-07:00

Club 2 over 1 is a private club for players of all skill levels wishing to learn, play or teach the 2/1 system. There are regularly-scheduled teaching sessions and club tournaments. You can always contact any member of the management and support team:
Norrito1, Badmonster, Wyoming33, Middlec, Ladystar17, greeter, fractal, cc1313, Onaway and whoever is wearing the club assistant hat at the moment: that would be BBO user "club2over1".

Teaching sessions for May:

Sylad - Bidding for advanced players
Hoki - Play and discuss
Vincoach - Open mentoring sessions
Hondo - Open mentoring sessions
Lioncub - 2/1 Bidding
Ckleiber - Open mentoring sessions
Hoki - Tourney and Review
Caitlin - 2/1 Basics
Sylad - 2/1 Basics (beginners/intermediates)
Keylime - The Language of Doubles
Grizz - Defence

The Club Tango Tournaments are held regularly (pls check in the Tournaments section on BBO if the time suits you - and jump in to have fun in a friendly but competitive environment!)

You can join the club by sending a message to Norrito or anyone else on the support team.

Meet Gamer1800 :)

2007-05-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

I asked Gamer to introduce himself, and he kindly answered the questions I suggested. So next time you see the Ind. BBO Beginner tournament on, join, or just stop and say hi :)

Why did you decide to make tournaments for beginners?
My decision to hold exclusive Beginner level tournaments has it's roots in my very basic temperament.

My main work has been in the Training field (Human resource development, Adult Education, Corporate Training, Communications/ledership/group dynamics Training etc.

My Basic Qualification is Graduateship in Engineering, after which I did several post graduate level studies.

I would rather stay anonymous and not tell my Real Name, because I have been a reasonably well known person in the Academic field and I would rather be just a humble "gamer" to all my friends, not the "imposing...Mr so and so".

I am Male, in my mid 60's, and now my health is not very good.

While playing, because of my humble and friendly nature, many Beginners confided in me and I realised they were in need of encouragement to play in tournaments. It was just an "inner urge" ,stemming out of my very basic nature, I would say, that I decided to hold a few exclusive tourneys and see how it works out.

BIL holds it's own sessions, however, I found that many of the BIL tourneys were "teaching" type, where the hands were "discussed" later on. Undoubtably, an excellent learning session, but not a simple "fun place " to play just tourneys and enjoy. The BIL "pure" Tourneys are few, and you must be knowing that those have BBO masterpoint status, hence VERY SERIOUS tournaments again.

Your plans for the tournament (usual time-slots etc)?
I live in India, and my Internet connection is not very reliable. Indian time is GMT+5 hr 30 mins. My convenient times are usually afternoons, and evenings. However, at times I also find myself free during my mornings (11 am approx) and Late night (after 11 pm). I am always scared when I host a trny that my net may go down. Luckily nikky has been very kind to be my co-TD in most of my tourneys till now. Because of my net/power unreliability, I can not make a "fixed" time slot for my tournaments. However, as you have noticed, I try to be there around 5.00 pm my time as far as I can.

A few words about yourself and bridge?

I began playing bridge in 1963, played intensively for almost 15 years before work and other commitments took me away from bridge. I was also a good chess player during those days :).

Only a few years back, after retiring from active work, I started playing bridge again, now only on internet because my health does not permit me to go and play in clubs.

I play for fun, I am not interested in "masterpoints/championships/STARS/blha blah...." and I think that is how any card game (except gambling with real money) should be played.

Unfortunately, I am in minority. As Alan Truscott has said "Bridge is essentially a social game, but unfortunately it attracts a substantial number of antisocial people".

Beginner BBO is my humble effort to make bridge a social and enjoyable event, and encourage our Beginner friends.

I am a BELIEVER. If people can really enjoy and benefit themselves from my humble efforts, I shall consider myself blessed that the LORD thought me a suitable person to serve some people.

I thank you for your kind interest.

May God be with you ALWAYS

Gamer

Summer Wine Teams 004

2007-05-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

Pinot Blanc (mschwartl - sailormoon, fractal - juvenal1) vs. Pinot Gris (Ruskabello - micks_2_u, stilsen - john933) ended with 3 imps in favour of Pinot Gris. Congratulations to the winners, and let's have a replay! :)

Gamer's Tourneys

2007-05-17T05:25:00.000-07:00

BBO is, of course, a terrific place, and generally newbie-friendly but occasional encounters can be quite intimidating. In case you still shy away the bigger events, there is a nice opportunity, especially for people in the Euro time-zones. Gamer1800 runs exclusively tournaments for beginners, and the atmosphere is very stimulating. There is one thing that you may find hard to cope with, and that is the ban he has imposed on the word "sorry". So try to come up with a round-about way, or, even better, with a consoling cup of coffee or beer for your partner!

BIL News

2007-05-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Calendar of events (lessons, tournaments etc) can be found here. You can even change the table (via the Options button at the bottom) so that it shows your time-zone.
So if you are not a member of BIL yet, maybe you could consider joining. Btw, Bob Holmes (aka bobh2 on BBO) will be holding a session on Sunday, at 16:30 EDT, and it is certainly something you won't want to miss! :)

BBVu: Bonn Nations Cup 2007

2007-05-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

Today on BBO Vugraph: the Bonn Nations Cup 2007. During the whole Bonn Nations Cup 2007 there will be a broadcast by Bridge Base Online. In every session one match will be shown from both tables (Open and Closed room). 20 top European teams are divided into two groups where they play a complete round-robin (matches of 10 boards). The winners will play a final over 24 boards tomorrow

This is the link to the official web site in English with real-time running scores in all matches. On this site you can find all need-to-know about the Bonn Nations Cup 2007 on May, 16th and 17th in the Stadthalle in Bonn-Bad Godesberg. There is a list of participants, as well as former winners.

Here is the direct link to "Live-Ticker" where you can see the latest standings.

Btw, for those who remember my first kvetch: the nice Star is currently playing on BBVu; will keep my fingers crossed for him!

BBVu schedule: http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php
For the curious cats out there, who would like to put a face behind a nick, here is the link to help you get to know (or, at least, see) your commentators better.

GIBercising on a sleepy morning...

2007-05-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Deal 1:
Here are the hands:

and this is what my GIBbie and I came up with:

How to reach 6C here?
P.S. Ooooooooooooops... Do we really need 6C... On a spade lead even 5C can go down. But then why didn't the GIB opps lead a spade?

*****

Deal 2:
To open or not to open?

The actual bidding went on like this (and I regretted being a good lil girl again...)

Both hands:

*****

Deal 3:

What now? 3D is alerted as "New Suit, 4+ D, 5+ S, 10 + points.
5S supposedly means 18+ points - must be grand slam try.
Chickened, and left it rest at 6S - one top honour in the trump suit; on the other And I keep missing slams... the traveller shows someone made 7NTxx for 18 imps!

The complete deal:

*****

The butterfly effect

2007-05-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is what I looked like the last couple of days - except my hair stood on end, the way it does when you plug into a wall socket (supposedly).
And it all started last week when a BBO pal misunderstood me and walked out. I got upset and misplaced a flash drive with over 2 GBs of data and the back-up files for over 150 pages of a crappy translation that had to be submitted. Needless to say, the deadline was THAT day, and I had no other back-up files... While searching for the flash-drive (why do they make them the size of a key-holder... normal brick-sizeful would be visually nice and reassuringly heavy, for starters... go misplace a log like that...well, maybe I could...). Then I dropped the external CD recorder. This freaked me out even more, and voila, the coffee mug tipped all over the keyboard. The mouse seemed ok but it stopped working a couple of hours later. Phone and mobile kept ringing, family were doing something that resembled Star Wars in the background, and the damn flash-drive was nowhere in sight. It did come up just in time; however, the whole week seemed hell-bent to continue that way. Until yesterday. Then I managed to get 16 hours of happy brain-dead sleep. Back on track now.
Optimistically, it could get much much worse - remember Terry Gilliam's Brazil? Watch that fly - and, if you haven't seen the film yet, maybe you could rent it.

Taking the short cut...

2007-05-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

You are sitting North. West opens the bidding with 4 clubs. Silence at the table. West is asked to explain the bid, and he enters "Aces" in the alert box. The following exchange follows:

South: ???
West: ok sry
->East: want undo? your p alerted it as "Aces"
West: p, was askin how many aces you have.
->East: no idea what it means
West: thats 4clubs
North: opps, pls feel free to discuss system or anything
North: Maybe your p doesnt know that convention - i dont know it either
East: what the heck is bothering you opps
West: called Gerber i think
West (requests undo & rebids 4 Hearts): thnx opps :)
North: but gerber is only after 1nt
West: was just saving time
...

The complete deal:

Got comments? I haven't... :)))

In Da House: Garozzo

2007-05-15T05:16:00.000-07:00

Benito Garozzo plays on BBO - just in case you didn't know! :)

Monday, Monday...

2007-05-14T05:08:00.000-07:00

Today's task:

The instructions are in Japanese so you have a built-in excuse NOT to do anything, should you wish so!

BBVu: Cavendish Live!

2007-05-14T05:05:00.000-07:00

Now you can watch the event live - there is a working webcam on site, which renews every 40 seconds. Believe it or not, that is enough to capture funny stuff!

Sunday Dummies

2007-05-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

OK, today's fitness exercise might be a bit more romantic and less tasking than usual; blame it on a fantastic sunrise over the Danube this morning! :)

Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss - Wiener Philharmoniker and Wiener Staatsopern ballet. Lorin Maazel, conductor.
New year's concert 2005

5th Chair

2007-05-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Chair Foundation defines itself as "a not-for-profit organization that fosters online bridge education". The site is impressive, with a whole lot of various resources for newbies of all skills levels (from complete beginner dummy to world class novice and beyond).
In the Bridge School section you can find a well-structured intro to bidding (SAYC-based, I think) in the form of separate lessons, which are very newbie-friendly and with just the right dose of humour.
The more convenient pdf's of back-issues are in the Archive section here. The main headings are:

Bidding
Conventions
Defense
Declarer Play
System Notes
Miscellaneous

The Bookshelf contains a list of books that are suitable for different beginner levels; no reviews are provided but you can easily get them on Amazon, or just ask about on BBO.
Btw, I absolutely love their definition of players' levels:

B - Beginners (duh, what's a bid?)
N - Novices (I know just enough to get into serious trouble.)
I - Intermediate (Hooked and getting serious about this game.)
A - Advanced (If you've reached this level, you know it.)
E - Expert (If you've reached this level, your opponents know it.)
P - Professional (If you've reached this level, the bridge world knows it.)

There is a small but nice Links section as well as a glossary of the most common bridge terms in the Bridge Jargon section.
Overall, liked the site a lot!

BBVu: Cavendish update

2007-05-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

The website is back on: http://www.cavendishinvitational.com/

The link to the standings after 3rd session: http://www.cavendishinvitational.com/2007/PAIRS3O.htm

Link to Daily Bulletins: here

Right now there is no way to know in advance which players/teams exactly will be shown on the vugraph, unfortunately, but it might be a good thing, too cos otherwise my weekend would have been rescheduled around watching Zia!

Next session 10:30 west coast 03:30 Sydney 19:30 Europe 18:30 London 13:30 NY

Saturday Dummies: Great Balls of Fire!

2007-05-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

I guess our team that got beaten black and blue yesterday needs this. Less than two minutes but get that energy flowing - if you have recovered from the step-dance, that is.

Summer Wine Teams 003

2007-05-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

Chandon (mschwartl - kelkatcol, sailormoon - ze mucas) won but it was only with miserable 27 imps; it was a close match. Moet (DarekPol-fractal, meeto-Ruskabello) are planning the revenge for tomorrow night. Cheers! :)

Need a partner?

2007-05-11T05:01:00.000-07:00

... It was then that the fox appeared.
"Good morning," said the fox.
"Good morning," the little prince responded politely, although when he turned around he saw nothing.
"I am right here," the voice said, "under the apple tree."
"Who are you?" asked the little prince, and added, "You are very pretty to look at."
"I am a fox," said the fox.
"Come and play with me," proposed the little prince. "I am so unhappy."
"I cannot play with you," the fox said. "I am not tamed."
"Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
"What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"You do not live here," said the fox. "What is it that you are looking for?"
"I am looking for men," said the little prince. "What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"Men," said the fox. "They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?"
"No," said the little prince. "I am looking for friends. What does that mean-- 'tame'?"
"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."
"'To establish ties'?"
"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world..."
"I am beginning to understand," said the little prince. "There is a flower... I think that she has tamed me..."

The whole story is here.

BBVu: Polish Trials on vugraph

2007-05-11T00:09:00.000-07:00

BBO is broadcasting also Polish Open Team Trials (link is in Polish; if you prefer, full schedule, please go to http://online.bridgebase.com/vugraph/schedule.php where all the times are local to you). As usual, the most discombobulating thing is the names of the players - or, as Roland Wald (walddk) quoted "As Zia once said: "No one can spell their names, but they sure can play". Beats me: people who are able to start with a minor suit bidding and get to a slam in a major (and do it) should have no problems pronouncing a name like "Skrzypczak"?!

Hm... Obviously someone asked how they can become vugraph operators. Here is the answer, just in case you are interested in that, too:

Walddk: For newcomers. This is what you must look like in order to become a BBO vugraph operator ....
Walddk: http://www.pzbs.pl/kadra/2007/open/zd0506/imagepages/image15.html
Walddk: Apply within

Friday dummies

2007-05-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Take your pick: have a look at these links (interview with Fred Gitelman in 2002 and a couple of curious articles about him 1, 2)

try a new dance today:

The plot in a nutshell: the video begins with the chorus of kibs. A lonely dummy (Jean Butler) enters and tries to steal the show (with very good chances to succeed), but is soon joined by a dummy from an adjacent table (Michael Flatley). In the end all the kibs join in the dance. If your muscles feel a bit sore - as this 6 minute exercise can prove quite strenuous for the unwary and particularly the untrained! - get Aspirin C. Ouch!

P.S. Bingo!!! I knew it intuitively!

48,000 pounds of chocolate have been consumed (for energy!) by the cast.

Dummy Fitness

2007-05-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

Of course, there are myriads of things you can catch up with while your parthner is sweating the contract out and assuming you are holding your breath with love or calor (as the case may be). Making a badly needed cuppa, getting a drink or grabbing a sandwich are but just a few of the options. However, considering how much time we spend as mouse-potatoes, a good choice might be to use the short spell to add some physical activity - to spice up that hateful contract or just relax a bit so the "npp" sounds almost earnest and "sry p" is more optimistic that it would have otherwise been.

Just a suggestion for a dummy workout! :)

P.S. You don't have to tell your partner "me gustas tu" but it does help! :)

BBVu: The Cavendish Invitational 2007

2007-05-09T20:33:00.000-07:00

The Cavendish Invitational 2007 is being broadcast on BBO this week - you can check the schedule of the upcoming events here. More info about the Cavendish: what it is, who's playing and, alternatively, here.
You can also download and watch past matches in BBO's own Bridge Library - if you haven't discovered that wonderful quiet place away from the maddening crowd in Main & Tournament area, maybe it is high time you did! It is located in the Other Bridge Activities, go straight ahead, it is the first door after Lecture Hall. I really love to hang around there, with a cup of hot chocolate and a fair supply of cigarettes.

Sweet dreams are made of this... :)

2007-05-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well, that is probably the only sure-fire slam I will bid at the drop of a hat after a sleepless night with the nose to the grind-stone between occasional peeks into BBO!
I want to sit South and bid bid bid that 7S redoubled! :) And then play it!
Back to reality...

Accidents happen but...

2007-05-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

The contract would have been ditched if sillafu (Benito Garozzo himself) had doubled, instead of trapping opps in, but, being himself, he didn't. The more amazing thing for me, though, is that the declarer didn't lose his cool and played it for only 1 down (you can get the .lin here). What can I say... except WOWOWOW... I have no idea how many tricks down I would play it for, and it certainly doesn't matter cos I can't count to that much... blissfully...

BBVu: Schapiro Spring 4s Final

2007-05-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

A curiousity from Schapiro's Spring Finals:

3NT made +2 here. And in the other room 7S made as well.

Panther Dbl

2007-05-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to Panther Double, just in case you got bored with all the X, XX, Neg X (is there a positive X?), Lightner etc out there...
This one comes from Zia and as such is most probably double as good. :)

Summer Wine Teams 002

2007-05-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, the good news - in, fact, the GREAT news - is we got to play with some new pals from BBO - Lucky Lino, magicalmom and sailormoon's very own joe_45. The bad news is, the Chardonnay team won by devastating 64 imps!
Congratulations, guys from Chardonnay, and thanks for all the fun!

P.S. When is the play-off???

BBO Sunday Teams: ClubSodas

2007-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Lawl Brigade (this week mschwartl, goobers, shadycats, fractal) survived the match without major losses. In fact we won by 10 imps! The most important thing, however, is we met a really nice pair of opps - waldheini/Acer2 - and will be looking forward to playing with them again! Congrats, gang! :)

Summer Wine Teams

2007-05-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

... are off to a start! Yesterday was the pilot run of the Summer Wine Teams. There are 2 teams so far, the Cabernet team (meeto- Ruskabello, mschwartl-fractal) and the Chardonnay team (sburke-sound3675, rcgoode-hamraz40). The Cabernet team won by an impressive 20+ imps, which, as rumour has it, would have been even more impressive, if mschwartl, aka Marty, didn't feel too frustrated when he ran out of his illegal boost (Corona beer). Should this happen again, he will be disqualified and publicly reprimanded! Please stick to your particular team-drink - or do not admit it if you don't! This has a very pronounced negative effect on the team spirit (pun intended!).
Cheers and see you at the table! :)

New gadget

2007-05-06T08:58:00.000-07:00

Bridge and blogs are about communication, so if you feel so inclined, you can use this cute toy on the left to leave a comment, make a suggestion, or just say "hi" :)

Kvetch!

2007-05-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

Just in case you wondered what "kvetch!" is, most dictionaries suggest it means "to complain persistently and whiningly". I first encountered the word way back when a tamagochi friend sent me the link to a now deceased website, www.kvetch.com, which was a forum for people to complain about anything and everything, and get a friendly hug in return. Frankly, I prefer this extended meaning, even if it might not comply fully with the dictionary definition.
Sooooooooooo... After about 16 hours of non-stop gruelling translation, and 3 hours of nightmares, I got up, made a mug of coffee, logged into BBO and enrolled in an indy in order to wake up. The very first board spelt disaster - and it also proved disasters tend to come in threesomes.
OK, here it is:

2D was alerted as "waiting", merrily we rolled along to 4S, and went down 2 a bit later.

Sunshine: sorry p, but u cant bid 4 !S with 5 points
fractal: p, you had a 6-loser balanced hand, why open 2!c?
Sunshine: plz plz plzzzzz
fractal: sry about that game
Sunshine: npp

Well, at least we didn't get into a cat-fight about it! I wasn't being hypocritical, either - I did feel sorry about the game, but not about the bid. I still think - and I might be wrong - that bidding 2C on a balanced 6-loser with 19HCP is not the right thing to do, and Sunshine will probably continue to do that. Different strokes...

The second disaster was very funny; unfortunately, it involved one of the BBO-starred players I love to kibitz best! After I recovered from the initial shock of playing WITH a star (somehow, playing against a star is less intimidating), we got this wonder deal:

The 4D bid was, naturally, a splinter - and Star, naturally, looked at my profile and, deducting that it cannot have been a splinter, bid 5D. Yours truly had a dilemma: if Star thinks I am a rookie and the 4D bid is not a splinter, he must be confirming a diamond fit, so we can't have slam; if he did take it to be a splinter, then I don't know what he is trying to convey with the 5D bid because I am really a rookie but it doesn't look like good news, so better escape to 5S as a sign-off. And we, naturally, missed a slam!

fractal: glp
Star: thx..sry pd..I believed your own profile :)
fractal: sry - but what do you mean? :)
Star: later
fractal: ok :)
Star: you said: then I am going to bid someth. stupid.....so I was not sure I 4!d was splinter or 8-9 !d s..:)

And just when I thought life couldn't really get much harsher this early am, I ran into PartnerFromHell. He moaned when I led K, and then A out of AKxxx, picking his Q on the second round, and went absolutely ballistic during the second board - so I am really not sorry I passed his forcing bid! If I ever run into him again, I will do it over and over, and then some! - unless I can get him to play his splinter as a 4-level contract at least! I do realise that we can't be nice to everybody all the time, and maybe he is a brain-surgeon or a forex trader whose ex had just left him for the proverbial plumber, leaving behind her hateful cat which had just devoured his favourite gold-fish, but still.. there are limits... And telling your partner "fy" is transgressing them quite a bit.

P.S. Sunshine and Star are not the real nicknames of the people involved. And I removed the quote from "Something Stupid" from my profile, just in case...

Club Bar's OPEN :)

2007-05-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

... and let's say, the dress rehearsal for the grand opening is tonight. The Room is online, with me and sailormoon in it, listening to music while we are waiting for the gang to gather and enjoying the drinks kindly supplied by rob63.
What's on tonight? More hi's to share as more trekkies are joining, deciding on an action plan and maybe run our first topical teams match. That is top secret, btw.
Cheers!

Finally!!!!!

2007-05-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well, it was great fun meeting some of the addicts on Paltalk tonight! It was nice to put a voice behind the nicknames, too!
I also registered our very own chat room - that should be even more convenient to use than the room we met in today. So next time you log into Paltalk, look us up - the BBO Fun Club. To do this you need to open the rooms listing, tick adult content, then go to Games => Other. Once inside the room, you can add it to your list of favourites so that next time you take the short route. If this seems too complicated, the alternative is to message me (bridgetrekkie) and I will beam you up.
The group's URL is here. An added bonus is that if you visit this URL, you will be able to see if the room is online or closed. If it is open, you can push the <<Room Open! Chat Now>> button and your paltalk messenger will start, taking you directly to the room.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Stay in touch

2007-04-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Just a note to let you know that the communication tool for voice chat and music broadcast we have started using is PalTalk. You can download it free from here, and send me a message (my nick is bridgetrekkie) so I can add you to my pal-list and put you in touch with the other trekkies.
See you there! :)

Half-Full or Half-Empty?

2007-04-26T05:30:00.000-07:00

When did you bid-and-make your last slam? Oh you can't even remember... It might be purely incidental, or it might have something to do with your general disposition. The "turn of a friendly card" might not be so totally arbitrary as we have grown accustomed to think.
For example, how many tricks do you expect to take in this suit if you held this between you and dummy?
Please, do not attempt to give the "it depends.." answer! That is a cheap cop-out, and, though perfectly correct, that is not the issue here. Just imagine: you are playing the hand as declarer, and be honest with yourself - does the sight of this suit combination fill you with enthusiasm or trepidation?
The example, btw, has been taken from one of Fred's lessons in BBO (more specifically, from Learn to Play Bridge 1).
An optimistic attitude has been proven to increase the probability that your finesses will work, that the splits will be favourable, and overall you will be dealt better hands in the long run. In contrast, a pessimistic attitude has shown to decrease levels of performance, while bidding glitches become more numerous and more frustrating.*
So, to return to the question above: if you thought you can take only one trick, then you need a cup of hot chocolate and lots of unconditional no-holds-barred overdose of TLC (yeah, that is tender loving care, not LTC - which might come in handy, too!). If you expect that LHO will have the A and K, and RHO will hold the Q and J (any 2-2 split will do), so you can collect your very own, absolutely deserved 3 tricks to make that impossibly overbid and redoubled 3NT contract come through, contact me so we can go play the next goulash tourney. :)

*P.S. I made it up, as a lay cod-psychologist... but... It might well be true... Heh, dare me (if you dare!)... ;)

LTPB 1& 2

2007-04-26T04:22:00.000-07:00

This free software is presented in two volumes: Learn to Play Bridge 1, for beginners, and Learn to Play Bridge 2, for those who know the basics but want to develop their playing, bidding and defense skills. The end goal is to get you to a working knowledge level of SAYC, for all practical purposes - both online and offline. In my experience the two LTPB's manage to accomplish this rather ambitious goal, and on top of it all it is great fun going through the lessons and exercises, tests and practice deals. There is no pressure to hurry and no performance fear - try to solve the problem, until you get it right, or take a peak and check the answer if you give up (cos this might happen in the more advanced sections). No point beating yourself about it, either, as you always could (and maybe should) go back in a while and redo it all - for fitness purposes.
You can download both programmes here and practise offline, or log into BBO => Other Bridge Activities => Learn to Play Bridge (at the very bottom) and work on it online. In either case the software tracks your progress and bookmarks the last page which you have been working on.

SAYC Survival 101

2007-04-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered what chocolate, crocodiles, drama and surgery have in common, you should have attended our top-secret meeting in a BBO chat-room today at which we discussed how we should approach SAYC for survival purposes. The only reason to study SAYC is everybody plays it (or, at least, claims to play), and if, like yours truly, you are a commitment-freak and love indy's, then you just need it. So we decided that studying it together might be more fun than doing it on our own (and, actually, doesn't misery love company! - especially such great company as mschwartl, Paige_R, sailormoon, rob63, kelkatcol, juvenal1, philippa.... And the list is not complete!).
General approach is BBO Basic - you can find that if you go to the Useful Links from the main window, and then to Bridge Base Standard. There are system notes for BBO Basic (SAYC-based) and BBO Advanced (2/1-based).
Another major reference we can use is the Annam.co.uk site - one can either use the pages online, or print out the pdf version.
SAYC basics:
http://www.annam.co.uk/sayc01.htm
Some conventions to go along:
http://www.annam.co.uk/sayc02.htm
Enjoy! :)

Hello, World! :)

2007-04-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BBO Fun Club's Playground!