A gloomy morning but I’ve a pretty good serving day: feeling right, in full motion.
A gloomy morning
Kempton Angler’s pool
660 Washington Ave
South Beach FL
… more pix
The rooftop pool is about 20 yard long. In the morning it’s always just me, water and sky, many times the birds.
Asking aces & kings – 1st bridge of 2025
I bid a slam and we made it! What a winning night of bridge.
This is the third hand of the night, with 32 hcp: me 21 and partner 11. 4 aces and 3 kings.
I dealt and opened with 1N, which is incorrect: should be 2N.
My thinking goes: open low, so others have a chance to bid, especially for my P. With 21 points on hand, their hands share 19 points. IF I were to open 2N, I could face 3 passes (?)
- 1 NT, P, 2♦️, P
- 2♠️, P, 3♦️, P: partner really loves her diamonds
- 4N, P, 5♦️, P: me confirming that P has an ace.
- 5NT, P, 6♦️, P: = 1 king
Bid 4NT: asking for aces = how many do you have?
- 5C: 0 / 4, 5D: 1, 5H: 2, 5S: 3
Bid 5NT: asking for kings
- 6C: 0 / 4, 6D: 1, 6H: 2, 6S: 3
The hand is played at 6♦️, which my partner played. It’s safer suit to play diamond (I’ve A K 9), instead of spade or NT, which I get to play.
Hooray: bid 12 and made it! [愉快]
问完了A 再问老K [调皮] 最后叫了小满罐 & 赢了 第一次叫的
小🐔冻
整晚 好牌
Happy Monday
Chess and jeans
Chess doesn’t make much news. But today the reign champ and current #1 Magnus Carlsen (1990-) who had won five times, said “I’m out, f— you” and quit the FiDE tournament in New York over … eeehhh … a pair of jeans.
He’s from Norway and won the championships five times.
Why the regulation? It seems so passé.
PS. New Yorker followed up with an article a week later, titled What Carlsen’s jeans have to do with chess.
In talking about chess, a Chinese male Ding Liren (丁立人, 1992-) from Wenzhou had won 17th (2023-4) world chess championship; and Hikaru Nakamura (中村 光, 1987-), is perhaps the wealthiest chess player.
Chess ♟️ 国际象棋
News: Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen quits championship tournament over a pair of jeans: ‘I’m out, f— you’
国际象棋大师马格努斯·卡尔森因一条牛仔裤退出锦标赛: “我退出,去你妈的” [偷笑]
大概没听说过 与时并进 [偷笑]
象棋本是没啥颜色的游戏. 如有人喜欢奇装异服来比赛 我会欢迎: 三点 牛仔 天女散花… 通通欢迎
… 不化
小喜欢郎朗多过李云迪 因为朗spunky虎头虎脑活泼些 有些眼前一亮的感觉 虽然很短暂
因为这个新闻 发现丁立人 (1992-) 以前都是ni🇨🇳女娃拿女子冠军
前不久有🇨🇳个男娃拿过冠军🏆 庆祝 … 不过他现在排名22 看来是burn out 倦怠 (?) 不知道’倦怠’啥意思 谷歌翻译给的 = 厌倦? 娃还年轻 希望他找到自己喜欢的路
🇺🇸 Hikaru Nakamura 应该是象棋界的富人. 可幸好的棋手不一定都需要睡汽车吃垃圾
Xmas week: 2 good wins
Today, Tuesday, Dec 24: 5-0, 5-3, 2-5, played under the heavy fog, w/
又一个雾晨
完结的快 someone needs to be kicked out [闭嘴][偷笑]
每次那个男娃总是输
还总是来
…
李鸿章还是曾国藩说
百输 还是永输不服 还是啥啥啥的 [可怜]
…
得 咱就这二根葱 [闭嘴]
俺回家歇着吧
Thursday, Dec 26: 5-2, 5-3, 5-4. Both days I got #1 at pill. Today is a blue sky. Graham, Bruce and Pete. The 2 in the first set were my two serve games … I got off to a terrible start. … but over all, the Christmas time is a good week for me.
这星期 二次抓号 都是1 [偷笑] 巧合
… 第一局的2 都是俺发球 [嘘] 别提了
第二局和B. 赢了一个game 俺戏说 “行了 咱们不会吃🥚了”
B “Irene 我们会赢的.”
第三局 和已经输了二局的男搭档
“Irene, pick me up 俺想赢一局.”
[偷笑]
…把自己说成救世主似的
歇菜
好消息 群主今天来探班 – 前几个月刚刚换了❤️ 还是 肾[Worship] 仍然还是这群男同胞里最帅的一个
Swimming pool @ Renaissance Riverside
The last swim of the SE Asia trip @ Renaissance Riverside.
… looking out to the Ba Son Bridge; the pool at the night, and Melinh Point Tower, Hilton hotel Saigon that just opened in March, and Vietcom Bank.
The roof top pool at Renaissance Riverside in Saigon is decent in size. I get to swim laps there daily, always by myself.
The last swim was followed by the Last Supper and a night cap … then I retired the green bathing suit.
… a short video
… and a long one
Yoga on Victoria Mekong
MSG: Navarro & Pegula
Two billionaires’ daughters, Emma Navarro (2001-; 2015, $3m) and Jessica Pegula (1994-; 2009, $16m) met at Garden Cup @ Madison Square Garden.
Both girls did well in 2024, are well liked and quiet.
Rajadamnern Muay Thai Stadium
Two club bidding
At clubhouse, my Lefthand opponent Ira opened with a pass. My partner Mark called two clubs, and said ‘you’ve to response.’ A pass followed. I answered with 3 clubs.
My hand is weak, with 8 points, with 5 low clubs cards, which was my longest suit. Since it’s informal and I’ve been asking questions on my bidding, Mark said ‘2 clubs’ meant a strong hand and not necessarily mean in club suit.
A few notes for Two Clubs bid and responses:
- 22 points to open bid (doesn’t show/deny club suit)
- 2D response bid = a bad hand, 0-6 points (doesn’t show/deny diamond suit)
- 2 No Trump bid only needs at 20-22 hcp with a balanced hand.
… a few hands from last night with the girls
We chitchat a little between hands. And sometimes after a rubber or twenty some hands (22 hands here), we tend to loose focus. This will be the time we make mistakes. Most often, by playing the wrong card. Such as, one intends to use ♥️ to trump but instead plays ♦️. The dummy is usually keeps a tape on things, like who goes and if it should be led by the hand on deck. All the times, such mistakes were only pointed out afterward. No one, not even the partner would say a thing. And I like it a lot: at Guandan or other kind of card games with my fellow countrymen, oh boy, do they talk and cheat!
