Tonight’s game is dominated by good heart, again. ♠️♥️♦️♣️
- Those two hands, although short on ♥️ but have identical two: ♥️5 & 8.
- this hand bid 4♥️ but only made 3: I was too careless at the end – played the wrong card. No going back.
Archive for July, 2023
Another heartfelt night
An even hand: short club bid
A rather even hand with 14 HCP – not enough for 1NT.
Mistakenly I started with 1♦️ because it’s the longest suit. The correct bid should be 1♣️ the short club bid – the convention means you’ve 13 HCP no ability of making this suit into the trump suit = any other suit is better. Learn here.
My question is, what to do when your partner doesn’t understand? And when you don’t have strength to go level 2? When three passes, and you stuck with it?
… you bid the short club expecting to go down unless your partner bails you out
My teacher & companion
A little frog is my companion this morning. My front crawl has improved immediately -:)
Zhang Shuai retired in tears
A panic attack (惊恐发作) forced #2 seed Zhang Shuai to retire at the first round @ 2023 Budapest Grand Prix. The cause was a bad line call when the ball was clearly on the line. 9:20 unedited video. However, the chair umpire Laura called it out when she went to the court when pointed to the wrong mark: a similar scene? Recall FO 2021…
I’m so glad Zhang protested. However, the umpire insisted and supervisor – also a blond woman said it was not her call to call a ball in or out. “That’s the way it is.” @ 1:00
Zhang is heard saying toward her box, “没有办法打了, 没有办法打了!“
The conduct by the Hungarian tennis player Amarissa Kiara Tóth (2003; $35,778 as of 2023.7.26) has stirred controversy online with a few players voiced their support openly for Zhang. Toth is disgusting by erasing the ball mark and raising her arms to celebrate soon after Zhang shake hand with her to retire. What’s more disturbing is the Hungarian tennis association defended her by saying she’s only 20 and this is her first WTA tourney – what a lame excuse.
LOL: Hungarian GP wrote “… A Hungarian tennis play may not have behaved correctly in all situations in his first WTA main tattle match, but he did not do anything that could be described as being dishonest. … The Chinese are manipulating the world with a manipulative video”
Wimbledon women’s final 2023
The second time in a row, Ons Jabeur (6 seed this year) lost to unseeded Marketa Vondrousova / Vondroušová (1999; 2016; $5,447,411 with only two titles with £2.35 / $3.08m from this toruney) of Czech Republic on Saturday, July 15. My heart goes out to Jabeur: I’m so hopeful for her to win, to make an impact for the women of Tunisia and the region at large.
Weak two, in bridge
I’ve an interesting hand: a void, ♠️2345678, ♥️AQ76 and ♦️AK.
My partner played a weak 2♠️ a couple of hands earlier (se below ⇓). So I tried it on this hand.
Weak two means you’ve weak hand (5-10 pt) but with at least 6 ♠️/♥️/♦️. 2♠️ is the most effective, because it’s the top suit, making it harder to top – only 2NT or going to 3 …
My hand has 13 HPC without counting in the void which is an additional 3 pts. But I went with it anyway, for the novelty. We ended up making 10 tricks.
According to my expert, my bidding was wrong:
Count your points! You can’t bid a weak 2 anything; with distribution you have over 13 points!
My partner’s weak 2 bid: she opened bid by weak 2♠️, 2N, me pass, 3♦️. I doubled it. They only made 9 tricks – didn’t make it.
No NT bid with void/singleton
I’ve an interesting hand at today’s bridge: K♠️ + A♥️ + A♦️+ A♣️=15 points, without counting in two singletons, which worth 2 pt each (a void is 3 pt).
This hand maybe an easy decision: bid ♠️ because I’ve 7 of them (as it turned out, my partner has two: A♠️ and 6♠️.
Just remember the scoring: 3NT or 4♠️ makes a game, score 100 points below the line.
Correct opening bid ought to be 1S: you have 15 points and 7 spades. An alternate opening bid could be 3S bc you have 7 spades. Either one is NOT perfect but FAR better than 1NT bc you have too many gaps in the other suits and you have 7 S
Long suits in spade & conventions
Perhaps due to my Sunday lousy tennis match, tonight on the bridge table I’ve many very interesting and good hands, with two lovely decks of cards.
I’ve been resisting to learn the conventions and keeping scores. But as I play more, I do feel the urge or need to learn these – they’re part of the game and knowing them, only add more fun to the game. SOOOO … I’ll start learning.
The very first hands. My partner has 5 ♦️so opened it at 1♦️; 1 N and I bid 2♦️, pass. My partner rebid to 3♦️ and played the hand: we made 3. However, with 7♠️ I considered to bit at 1♠️ at the first round, and at the 2nd round but I didn’t. Just wanted to support my partner’s diamonds. Was I wise? Probably not n I should have bid spade ♠️, knowing my partner has good diamonds. Oh well.
Ira: With distribution points, you have no C’s, you had to respond 2S showing opening points and a S suit; if partner responds 3D then bid 4D
Today is, perhaps the first time that I feel I should learn some conventions.
This hand I was wrong to open at 1♣️ without specifying it was a short club. My partner took it at face value and bid 2♣️ – of course we lost.
If there was a hand or two that prompt me to wanting to learn conventions, this has to be it.
Short club bidding means a pretty even hands with the club being the weakest and shortest suit – letting your partner to bid a new suit. Below is two examples:
– When 1♥️ and 1♠ guarantee 5 cards and 1♦️ guarantees 4 cards, 1♣ can be as short as 2 (4=4=3=2).
– When all of 1♦️, 1♥️ and 1♠ guarantee 5 cards, 1♣ can be as short as 1 (4=4=4=1).
♠️♥️♦️♣️
This hand I doubled my mate who played 2♥️, and we won.
Double refers to bridge score, which means I dare the mate to make what s/he has bid.
The normal score for 2♥️ is 30 point per trick. If they fulfill the contact, there should be 60 point below the line – which will be part to the total 200 rubber.
They failed, so we score ??
Three hands below: the first (left) played ♣; the middle hand, although we won but clearly we should’ve played heart ♥️ with all the five high cards – miscommunication and me not good at conventions. The third hand with 18 points, not counting two doubletons, which worth 1 point each.
Too hot to play
I played tennis last Sunday at 6:30pm and today at 7:30am. Both days were hot, in the 90s and humid. My sweat is raining down like a broken dam. The swimming pool temp is also very high, uncomfortably high.
🎾 Three 3.5 and one 4.5 on Sunday July 9
没有打过比今天更烂的🎾了
地球的吸引力🧲 好像特别强 [Lol]
肯定是大地🌍的错误 [偷笑]
Too many 9s
Today perhaps is the first time that my hands weren’t too good.
All nines [Lol] 二手全九的烂牌🃏 with one has no point. The bottom hand, the opponents played 2N
整晚 除了9⃣️ 还是九 [Lol]
有朋友说 不错了 好过 23456 [偷笑]
也是: 要求低常乐, 人傻也常乐
