Think pink

The Memphis version of Race For the Cure was this morning. More than 16,000 runners signed up. Of course, all of them didn't run. Some saw it as a way to donate, some wanted the tee shirt and some just wanted to feel like they were part of the event.

Two ladies drove all the way from Connecticut to run. Why? Their goal is to run a Race For the Cure in each of the 50 states. Very ambitious, ya?



These three ladies above are being interviewed by Lamar Davis of Eyewitness News.


They had different categories from runners who wore a chip in their shoe to be timed, to runners who only wanted to run one mile to those who walked. The ladies above were walkers and stopped to mug for the camera.


The event was more like a happening than just a race. People were there with signs, costumes and all sorts of stuff. They had a guy play the bagpipes. You know it's serious when a guy plays "Amazing Grace" with the pipes. They had an American Idol finalist. But mostly, they had people who were out to have a good time for a good cause (Susan G. Komen Foundation).

First three photos taken with my DSLR and last one taken with my P&S. For the first one, I stood on a ladder to try and get a good shot, but the shadows were awful.

Pink is not for sissies

If you've seen me during the past year, you might have noticed I wear a pink bracelet doodad on my right wrist. No, it's not a fashion statement or some weird thing. Last Fall, I donated money to breast cancer research/awareness. I have no relatives who've been struck by breast cancer. I consider myself lucky -- many people aren't so fortunate.

My sister, Debbie, told me she researched and found that the Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is one of the top ones as far as money donated going towards doing some good (versus administration and other costs). That sounded good to me. In return they gave me this pink thingie, and I've worn it since.

Do you watch football on Sundays? If so, maybe you've noticed that some players have been wearing pink gloves or pink shoes lately. They are doing this to contribute by raising awareness of this important organization.

Memphis has a big fund raiser each year for the Komen Foundation. It's called The (Komen) Race For the Cure, a 5K (5000 meters) race and it's tomorrow. Two people I work with are heavily involved. One is in charge of organizing and running the event. The other is a breast-cancer survivor, so you can see why it's important to her. She told me today that this year they have 16,000 runners registered and have pledges for more than $1 million (for the first time).

I'm going to get up bright and early tomorrow and take my camera with me. I want to see and record what 16,000 runners look like. They let the women who are survivors wear pink. I wonder how many I'll see who've survived what used to be a death sentence.

After the event, I'm leaving for St. Louis to see the Rams play the Carolina Pathers on Sunday. After I return, I'll have some photos to share. Maybe some of the Ram or Panther players will be sporting pink -- wearing pink doesn't make you a sissy, you know.

Poker pearl #52

The Sept 8 issue of Card Player magazine had a column called Head Games. Sorel Mizzi was asked what he was looking for when scouting an unfamiliar opponent.

"Any information is good information. I want to know his level of education, what he does for a living, how many kids he has, what his favorite movie is and so on. Every piece of information can be used to begin to build a profile of that person's life, and, in turn, figure out how he plays poker.

"I want to know what he's capable and incapable of doing at the table. Paying attention is so important.

"Once you've gather this information, you must then analyze and interpret it. This will make close decisions that arise a lot easier to make."

Not prime time yet, but . . .

Last month, bridge blogger Linda Lee posted with this catchy title: "Are bridge robots ready for prime time?" Her conclusion was that robots still have a lot to learn about bidding in contested auctions. She does say in the comment section that: "The next generation of robots could be scary good." You can read her piece here.

The World Bridge Series Championship just concluded in Philadelphia. I've seen lots of articles about the winners and the deals they played. Did I say lots of articles? I should say lots of articles about humans.

Computer programs (called robots or "bots" for short) had their championship, too. Robots from the U.S., Denmark, Japan, Germany, France and the Netherlands took part. They call it the World Computer-Bridge Championship and this was the 14th year the event has been held. It's sponsored jointly by the ACBL and the WBF. A team consists of four identical robots.

The winner in Philly was Jack (the Netherlands). It might just be a robot, but you can't say it doesn't know jack about bridge. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) In the 64-board final, Jack overcame a 45-IMP deficit with 12 boards to play and defeated Wbridge5 (France) in an exciting match.

Here's one of the deals that helped Jack mount its comeback:

                 ♠ 8
                 ♥ A Q 10 6 2
                 ♦ A K Q J 10
                 ♣ A 7
♠ 9 6 4 3 2                    ♠ A 5
♥ 9 8                          ♥ K 7 5 3
♦ 9 2                          ♦ 7 4
♣ Q J 10 4                     ♣ K 9 8 3 2
                 ♠ K Q J 10 7
                 ♥ J 4
                 ♦ 8 6 5 3
                 ♣ 6 5

   West     North     East      South
   Wbridge5 Jack      Wbridge5  Jack
            2♣       Pass      2♠
   Pass     3♥       Pass      3♠
   Pass     4♦       Pass      4♥
   All Pass

At the other table, Wbridge5 played 3NT. This failed with a club lead. Jack played and made 4♥ with the same cards, for a 13-IMP pickup. At first, it looks like 5♦ might make, but Deep Finesse says that no other game makes for North-South.

The event coordinator, Al Levy of Commack NY, maintains the official web site that gives the history of the event. This great site, www.computerbridge.com, has a comprehensive description of the event and many bridge articles on robotic play. I got the deal above from one of Al's reports. Go there and check it out.

Here's a link to an article by two programmers at Great Games that explains how computers play bridge (go here.)

You can read what Wikipedia says about computer bridge here.

It's time to vote

Just for fun, take a second to vote in the poll above. Maybe one day a blogger will be nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame.

Blogger freeroll

I'll be in St. Louis at a Rams' football game on Oct. 31, so I won't be playing in the freeroll. I do want to support Poker Stars, however, for giving to bloggers, so I'm posting the badge you see.

Poker pearl #51

The Oct. 20 issue of Card Player magazine (see scan of cover above) has an interview of 23-year-old online poker pro, Adam Sherman. It was pointed out that Sherman either wins the tournament or misses the final table altogether. His response:

"I think my results are a reflection of my playing style. Some top players are playing too passively at final-table bubbles. The major mistake they make is agreeing with the ICM* assumption that their chips are worth just as much as everyone else's. That's flawed thinking, because any good player knows he can accomplish more with a big stack thank any random player can.

"I understand that nobody wants to bubble a final table, but passive play is not going to get you the big money, which is reserved for the top three payouts."


*ICM (Independent Chip Model) is used to determine a player's equity in a given tournament, based on the percentage of chips he currently possesses, relative to the total amount of chips in play, the number of players remaining and the remaining prize pool.

It's worked out pretty well

"Six years ago, I was a senior in college and didn't know what I wanted to do," said Carrie Underwood at her show last night. "So, I did what anybody would do -- I tried out for a TV reality show," she joked. "It's worked out pretty well."

Underwood brought her show to Memphis Friday night. I bought my ticket last April, after the event was first announced. Good thing, too, as 20,000 plus fans showed up to a sold-out FedEx Forum. Yes, there were lots of young women in cowboy boots, but the audience cut across a wide spectrum of age and gender -- her appeal is wide.

Underwood played the piano and the guitar, but mostly she sang -- and did she sing! Listening to her voice on TV or the radio doesn't do her justice. It's amazing how such a strong voice comes out of a 5'3" frame. She sang powerfully and with emotion.

What did I like about the show besides the singing?
The band was excellent.
The staging was awesome.
She related well to the audience.
Nobody was short-changed -- the show was more than two hours long.

One nice touch was when she got in an old, blue pickup truck and was transported around the venue. I'm not kidding, see photo below. Even if you were in the cheap seats, you had a chance to see her up close. There were other stage props with gizmos that went up and down. There were two large screens on each side of the stage for close-ups. The backdrops and lighting colors were constantly changing.

Underwood has won more than a TV show contest (American Idol). She has Grammys, People's Choice Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, is a member of the Grand Ole Opry and much more. It's hard to argue with her that it's worked out pretty well.








Photos by MOJO with my P&S.

Kate had support for me, but I had support for East

The majority of tournament players in North America use support doubles. A common example is this auction:

   West    North   East   South
   1♣     Pass    1♥    1♠
   ?

A raise to 2♥ shows four-card support and double indicates a three-card raise. The rationale is that distinction is more important than the occasional penalty double at the one level.

When players first started using this treatment, I remember that some didn't like it. "If I use the red card, it means they are doing down," they said.

Using support doubles doesn't give up a penalty double. If West passes (as above), East will often be able to reenter the auction with double to say, "I have 9 or more points, partner, let's don't sell out." West can obviously pass, in that case, with a club stack.

Another advantage is that you can penalize them when the responding hand has the trump stack, as Kate and I did in Philadelphia at the World Bridge Series (both sides vulnerable):

                ♠ J
                ♥ K 7 6 5
                ♦ A 5 3
                ♣ A 8 7 6 2
♠ 10 7 6 5 3                   ♠ K Q 2
♥ J 10 3 2                     ♥ Q 4
♦ J 10                         ♦ 8 6
♣ 5 4                          ♣ K Q J 10 9 3
                ♠ A 9 8 4
                ♥ A 9 8
                ♦ K Q 9 7 4 2
                ♣ ---
    West    North    East    South
                             1♦
    Pass    1♥      2♣      Dbl
    All Pass

I passed the support double. Yes, Kate had support for me, but I had support for East, haha.

Kate (South) led the ♦K Q, and paused to think. She knew I had three diamonds, only four hearts and (likely) five clubs. That left me with a stiff spade. She led the ♠A and another as I ruffed. I played the ♥K and another to her ace and she gave me a second spade ruff. I still had the ace of trumps to win, and that was down 800. I wonder why they aren't all this easy.

Yes, I was lazy. I should have overtaken the second diamond and shifted to the spade myself. Also, notice that East had a perfectly normal overcall.

A few pairs bid and made 6♦, but we scored 89.6% on the deal. I'm wondering why more pairs didn't have the same result. Maybe South rebid his diamonds instead of making the support double.

You can see the hand record and results if you go here, and look for board #7.

Sharks have teeth, but I do, too

There's something called the Shark League that Wolfie told me about. Blogger lightning36 also plays there occasionally. The head Shark gets Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker to add money to the prize pool, so there's an overlay.

I've played three or four times and never done anything. Mostly, I haven't played because the games are on the weekend and I'm doing other stuff.

Today, I opened my e-mail and there was a note saying they were having a tournament tonight, so I made a note to check it out. Good move (don't get excited - it wasn't for big money).

When we got down to four players, I had (around 38,000) more than the rest of them put together (they were in the 8000 to 12,000 range), so I was able to abuse them and build my stack -- each of them wanted to move up the payout ladder.


In a big tournament, they say you have to come from behind twice to win. In a small one like this, you don't usually have to do that -- just avoid bad beats. I did get lucky in the deal above, however, when a guy slow played his ♥A ♦A.

Sweet blogger money

Above: We all know that winning blogger money is the sweetest.

I played in the Poker Slut tournament tonight, arranged by Gadzooks64. It was a limit hold 'em tournament. I play the game occasionally at the casinos, but seldom in a tournament. Being a little unsure, I probably looked like the nitty old man that I am just tried to stay out of trouble.

I got lucky twice when the blinds were high. I am too lazy to look at the hand records can't remember the first one, but in the biggie, I held A-x of clubs and three clubs hit the flop. I play so good!

There were nine runners -- second was WendyWendy and third was ELM22. Sorry to report our host, the lovely and fun Gadzooks, was the bubble person. I'll link second- and third-place if someone will leave a comment.

I've missed poker

I've been so busy lately that I haven't gotten my poker fix. Every weekend, I've done something since back in August. Oh sure, I've played online, but that's not the same. Last night, I headed to the Gold Strike Casino (see image above) to feed my poker addiction play.

They have started a new tournament on the third Saturday night of each month. The Gold Strike promises a certain prize pool ($5000), no matter how many players show up. In fact, they had 70 who paid the $110 to enter ($100 to prize pool, $10 toke to the dealers). First place was $1960, second a little more than half that. When we reached the final table, about half had good-sized stacks and about half were hanging on. Ten places were paid, but the lower positions weren't much more that getting your buy-in back.

The blinds and antes are usually the killer, but because I had a healthy stack, they were my friend. Slowly, the short stacks busted out. A few times they doubled up, but when you have a small stack, even a double-up doesn't help that much -- you still have a short stack. With four of us left, we each had about equal stacks, so agreed on a chop of $1021. We'd started at 7 p.m. and it was 12:30 a.m. and the chop for second-place money sounded good.

During the tournament, I realized how much I had missed live poker. Tournaments are exciting when the adrenaline flows -- it's fun.

Early on I had ♥7 ♦7 and limped in. Maybe I should raise, but I was in early position and didn't want to create a large pot when out of position. The flop was amazing for me: ♦10 ♣10 ♠7 -- I'd flopped a boat. Unfortunately the turn was the ♠8 giving a guy to my left a bigger boat (he had pocket 8s). I bet right into him on fourth street and the river and was lucky not to lose more money than I did.

Later, when I was short stacked, ♠3 ♣3 saved me. I limped in, got two callers, and the big blind moved all in. Something didn't smell right, so I moved in, too and the two limpers folded. The BB was caught with his hand in the cookie jar when he turned over ♥Q ♣9, but he still had two overcards. The board bricked out, however, and I was back in business.

The tables at the Gold Strike have automatic shufflers. I think they are great. They speed up the game and you get a more true shuffle. Most dealers don't riffle the cards as many times as they are supposed to. Also, the shuffler counts the cards. I've been in casinos when a deal is played out and there are 53 cards. I've seen this twice, and both times there were two ace of spades!

The shuffler at our table failed. Here's what happened. The dealer dealt 2-4-5 on the flop. Everyone checked. He burned and put out the turn: a 3 (sorry, I don't remember the suits). The dealer then called for the floor. Notice that anyone with an Ace has a wheel. In fact, one lady had A-6, so she had a higher straight, although not the nuts (someone could have had 6-7). We were all curious why the dealer had called for the Tournament Director. It turns out, that the next two cards in the deck were "boxed." This means they were turned face up -- the automatic shuffler had failed.

What do you think the ruling should be?

I suspected they would take the top card and use it for the burn card. Then put the second one back in the deck and reshuffle the remaining cards. Nope, that's not what happened. They declared the deal null and void and redealt it.

Another odd situation: There were three players in a hand. The flop was ♣A ♣Q ♠10. The first guy to act, moved all in. It folded to the button who had ♣K ♣9. He called, but the first guy (who was all in) thought everyone folded, so he tossed his cards to the dealer who mucked them. He claimed later he had Q-J, so not sure why he went all in, but that's another story.

The Tournament Director had gone to the bathroom and left another in charge. They called him on his cell phone to come take this ruling ("I wasn't touching this one," the other guy who was filling in said.) The TD ruled that the guy's hand was dead, even though they could identify which two cards in the muck were his. But, he didn't make him put any money in the pot (even though he'd declared all in). I guess the first guy had been punished enough by losing his rights to the deal. The second guy got a pot in which he was on a flush draw. Neither was happy, but neither was mad. I'm not sure what the tournament rules are, but I'm glad I'm not a TD and have to make rulings -- usually someone won't like it.


Above: We started with $10,000 in chips -- look at how high the blinds are during Level 15.

Photos by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

World bridge competition high tech

At the world bridge competition being concluded in Philadelphia, there were gadgets and gizmos. The computer-generated boards were duplicated across fields, so players in the regular championship played the same deals as those in the Plate competion. BridgeMate wireless scoring devices sent results immediately after each contract was played. Each deal was played behind screens. The tournament also had many impressive flat-panel displays (see here for a photo of some of the smaller ones).

But wait, there's more!

I've just read that in the 2011 world championships, to be held in Eindhoven, Netherlands, they plan to have web cams at each table to record the bidding and play. Spectators will be able to watch any players they wish to see. Maybe if I go play, my mom will watch me. "Hi, Mom!"

You can read more about it if you click here, then click on bulletin #14, then go to the interview on page 18.

Robots: A true love-hate relationship

I still play with the robots, but haven't blogged much about it lately. They are not great, but not the worst either -- they are what they are, and you have to accept it. One advantage of playing with a bot is that if you do something bad, they don't yell at you, although one time one of them raised an eyebrow at me.

When you play with the bots, one of the conditions is that you always get the best hand. Sometimes, you can use that to your advantage. This morning I held:
♠Q 10 7 3 ♥Q 10 4 3 ♦K 7 ♣A J 8.
I opened 1♣, left-hand opponent bid 2♥ and my robotic partner bid 2♠. RHO passed and it was my turn. What would you do?

At "real" bridge I guess you should raise to 3♠ or maybe bid 2NT. I didn't do either one -- I passed!

Remember my partner had a worse hand than mine. Yes, he could have the right 10 or 11 points to make game, but more often (I think), he'll bid game after I raise and go set -- the bots are aggressive game bidders.

I was rewarded more than I deserved when a heart was won by the ace, a heart was returned, ruffed, and they took two more diamond tricks and the ace of trumps -- making exactly 2 for a 92.59% score for me. Here are the hands (rotated):



I bid a trivial slam on the North-South hands below. West led the ♣Q! I drew two rounds of trumps, then played clubs and ruffed my fourth-round in the dummy -- the East hand with four clubs had the third trump. This was a no-cost play -- if a club is ruffed, I would still make six, and that was all I could ever make.



This was a 95.16% board. Four of us bid 6♥ and made seven. Five bid 6NT, and made six. Twelve players bid 6♥, but made only six. Eight players were in game and three were in part-scores!

You can see all the deals from this session if you click here, then click on "show boards."

Driving a coupe

Trump coup: to capture without loss or to reduce the trick-taking power of an opponent's trump holding by any combination of trump reduction and/or arranging effectively to lead a plain-suit card through that opponent in an ending.

[From the Bridge World Glossary, see here. Also see the Wikipedia definition here.]

Two weeks ago, there was a regional tournament in Tunica at Sam's Town Casino. Because bridge players like to gamble, it was well-attended.

I played Saturday in the Open Pairs with Cindy Bernstein. We had a big game in the first session and around average in the second to come in fifth. I forgot our system on one board for a 0. Then, in fourth seat I had a 12-count with a singleton spade and chose to pass it out for 0.5 matchpoints -- ouch! If I turn those two around we win.

This was my favorite deal of the day (rotated).

                ♠ Q 8 3
                ♥ K 4
                ♦ K J 10 9
                ♣ K 10 9 5
==
                ♠ K J 7 4 2
                ♥ A 7 2
                ♦ 7 5
                ♣ Q 8 3
       West   North   East   South
                      Pass   Pass
       1♦    Pass    1♥    1♠
       3♥    3♠      All Pass

West led the ♥Q. How would you tackle it?

I won the lead in dummy and played the ♠Q, taken by East with her ace. She returned a heart and I won this in hand to advance the ♦7. West grabbed his ace (so I put him on the ♦Q as well) and he exited a low club. I put in the ♣10, jack and I won the queen. What is going on?

First, how do you place the high-card points? East showed 6 and West showed 16-18, counting distribution. There just aren't enough points to go around. Somebody's cheatin' and lyin' or maybe they slipped in a pinochle deck.

Because West has only the ♣A, ♦A Q and ♥Q J, I decided he must have a singleton spade to have the values for his jump rebid.

I ruffed my heart loser and advanced the ♠8. I had decided to let it ride, but East made it easy by covering with the 9. I won this and led a diamond to the jack before cashing the ♦K. East could see it was a give-up play to ruff, so she discarded a club, as did I. I led dummy's last diamond and ruffed, then exited with a club at trick 11. West took his ace, but my last two cards were ♠J 7 positioned over East's ♠10 6. Life is sweet.

Here are all four hands:



You can click on "next" to advance through the play.

Philly finale

Leaving technology behind
I took my laptop to Philly (to the 2010 World Bridge Series Championships), but didn't use it. I love to blog, but that would have been a distraction that I didn't need. I was trying to focus on bridge, so the laptop remained disconnected from the Internet. I did turn it on once to play free cell, lol.

Big card is big letdown
I spent some time, before going, creating a detailed WBF convention card. There was some software to download, then I had to figure out how to use it. This was pretty much a waste of time. Almost no one asked what system we used or about any of our bids other than for us to explain our Alerts. They were interested in our signals (we use upside down count and attitude), but just asked. In fact, Kate left her card on a table and couldn't find it, so she whipped out a regular ACBL convention card to take its place -- no one cared.

What were the people like as players?
They were, with only a few exceptions, competent for this level on up to world-class. This makes sense. Why would someone spend a ton of money to travel to a foreign country, stay in an expensive hotel, take time off from work, etc. unless they expected to be competitive.

What were the players like as people?
There was one jerk who claimed, flashed his cards, then acted annoyed that we asked to see them. I know you think you're a stud, buddy, but we have the right to see your cards when you claim. The large percentage, however, were friendly and courteous. Good! Speaking of nice people, it was nice reconnecting with blogger Jeff Miller.

You hold:
The deal below created a problem (rotated):

                ♠ 8 7
                ♥ A K 6 4 2
                ♦ 5
                ♣ A K Q 6 2
==
                ♠ A K 6 5 3
                ♥ J 7 3
                ♦ Q 6
                ♣ J 9 7

I was North (rotated) and opened a precision 1♣ and Kate responded 1♥, showing five plus spades and nine plus points. I bid 2♥ and, when we played a heart contract, that made Kate declarer. I must say that some partners will do anything to hog the dummy!

At one point in the auction, I jumped to 5♥ asking about trumps. With three to the ♥J, she passed. Notice that if she had ♥Q 7 3 (instead of ♥J 7 3), then a 6♥ contract would have been a fairly good spot. As it was, however, we were off one diamond trick and likely one heart trick.

East won the diamond opening leadand shifted to a spade. Kate took the ♠A and led a heart. Her left-hand opponent played the ♥10, won by the ace in dummy.

Now what?

If the ♥10 was singleton, she had to lead low towards her ♥J to avoid losing two hearts. But, her LHO could have had ♥Q 10, and it's matchpoints.

After some thought, she took the safety play, and it was a good thing she did. Here are all four hands:

                ♠ 8 7
                ♥ A K 6 4 2
                ♦ 5
                ♣ A K Q 6 2
♠ J 10 9                      ♠ Q 4 2
♥ 10                          ♥ Q 9 8 5
♦ J 10 9 4 3 2                ♦ A K 8 7
♣ 8 4 3                       ♣ 10 5
                ♠ A K 6 5 3
                ♥ J 7 3
                ♦ Q 6
                ♣ J 9 7

Photo by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Philadelphia: A look back

Above: Players check flat-screen displays to find out their standing and also their seating.

During the third session of the Mixed Pairs Plate, I held:
♠J 10 8 ♥A 10 ♦A K 9 4 2 ♣J 8 4.
Partner opened 2♣ which in our big club system showed 10 to 15 high-card points, five+ clubs and could have another suit. Right-hand opponent bid 3♣, Michaels. I doubled to set a force. Yes, I could bid 3NT, but Kate could be short in spades -- I wanted to hear what LHO would bid. He cooperated by bidding 3♥ which was passed back to me. Now I bid 3NT, and LHO bid 4♥. I think if he was going to 4♥ anyway, he should have bid it over the double, don't you? This is passed back to me, and . . . ?

It looked to me like doubling them would lead to a bad score (correct, it's only down one), and I didn't fly all the way to Philadelphia to play in five of a minor. So, I bid 4NT, ending the auction. Here are all four hands (rotated):

                 ♠ K 9 7 6
                 ♥ 9
                 ♦ Q 7 5
                 ♣ A K Q 10 3
♠ 4                           ♠ A Q 5 3 2
♥ K Q 6 4 3                    ♥ J 8 7 5 2
♦ J 10                         ♦ 8 6 3
♣ 9 7 6 5 2                    ♣ ---
                 ♠ J 10 8
                 ♥ A 10
                 ♦ A K 9 4 2
                 ♣ J 8 4

West led the ♥K, and I took 11 tricks for an excellent result.

I was sorry that I missed meeting Bob and Jen of Jennbridge. They made the cut to the big game and finished 57th, an excellent showing.

I also met and played against blogger Michael Yuen.

For some reason they made the males sit North and West. That meant there was a male and a female on each side of the screen. I'm not sure what that was all about.

The WBF has a funny way of doing the scores. With one round to go, they bring a sheet with all your results through the next to the last round. After that, you have to go belly up to a wall with each board listed and all the scores. I don't mean to whine about that, it's just that I'm used to seeing a sheet with all my scores at one place.

Overall, I give the tournament high marks. They started mostly on time, directors prowled the playing floor and kept the game moving and it was well-run.

The starting times for each session were 11 a.m. (one day at 10 a.m.) and 4 p.m. (one day at 4:30 p.m.). This meant we were finished each day in time to go out and enjoy a nice dinner. We were on vacation, so calories don't count, right? Yum.

Kate and I went to three nice restaurants: Table 31 is an awesome Italian restaurant that we went to the first night. Kate's daughter and son-in-law live in Wilmington DE and they joined us Saturday night at Lolita's, an upscale Mexican place that was jam-packed and rocking. We also ate at Tweed, a delightful place that the concierge told us about. At Tweed, our waiter was one of those types who has a ton of personality. We asked a few questions (from which he could tell our preferences) and then he basically ordered for us!


Above: Maegan, Kate and Ken at Lolita's.


The tournament was held at the Downtown Marriott on Market Street.


Players had to wear what they called badges (see above) to enter the playing area.

Photos by MOJO and taken with my P&S.

Chilly in Philly

Above: Some of the 426 players get ready for the 1st session of the Mixed Pairs Plate.

In Philadelphia, the weather outside was chilly, but the bridge was quite hot inside the Downtown Marriott where the World Bridge Series Championship is being held.

I just returned from playing. Kate and I played three days in the Mixed Pairs. There were three sessions of qualifying and 156 pairs made it into the final -- unfortunately, we weren't one of them. We hovered around average and never seemed to get things rolling. We were in good company as many world champions also didn't make the cut.

Some of the non-qualifiers chose not to play in the Mixed Pairs Plate (the closed consolation). I understand that they would be disappointed, but I can't really imagine not playing. I believe 213 pairs finished the Plate and we were 28th with a composite score of 54.43%. This was not as good as we hoped, but not disgraceful. For comparison, Jeff Meckstroth and his fiance Sally Chapleau were 16th with 55.72%.

Players came to play from all over. I'm not sure how many countries were represented, but more than 50. We even played against a pair from Cuba -- I'm glad to say that bridge can transcend petty politics.

You can see from the photo above, that we played behind screens. We also entered scores on a BridgeMate, an electronic scoring device that sends the results to the directors after each round. The second session, I was taking care of the tray that is used to send the boards back and forth, as well as doing the BridgeMate and keeping a private score. My partner, Kate, ordered me to let her keep a private score and let her handle the boards and tray. Well, ok, she didn't order me, but she was perceptive enough to see that it's easy to become distracted, so she volunteered to do some of the "work."

Here's a deal that was written up in the Daily Bulletin. The opponents against Jeff Meckstroth were in 1NT. He led a low spade from ♠K Q 8 x x. His partner won the ace and returned the suit. He won the ♠Q, cashed the ♠K, and his partner played the ♥2, encouraging. The dummy had started with ♠9 x x x and declarer ♠J 10 doubleton.

Meckstroth didn't lead another spade to set up his 5th card in that suit. The dummy had ♥K x x and Meckstroth had ♥Q x x, so he shifted to the queen and was rewarded when his partner had the ♥A J 10 left and they held the contract to one (yes, the ♥2 was the setting trick, but he won't find the shift without that play). Holding it to one was a huge score. I'm mentioning it because Kate and I found the same defense, card for card. That's the fun of playing in a tournament like this -- you get to try and match wits against the world's best.

I'll have some more deals, tidbits, thoughts and reflections tomorrow (or Thursday) when I've had a chance to catch my breath. In the meantime, you can find results, Daily Bulletins and a lot more if you go here.


Above: A Tournament Director works on his computer. Behind him are large flat-panels that give the standings in the Mixed Pairs Plate.

Photos by MOJO and taken with my P&S.