Weekend Update (with Stronae Aredante)
-- Friday --
Friday evening Bridge was cut short due to lack of people with sufficient stamina. :) In this session, though, BestFriend and I had a very possible 7NT, but I needed to know about his Queens. So, the auction (unopposed) entered a standard Gerber sequence:
4C-4S-5C-5H-?
At this point I know I have all the Aces and Kings, but I'm missing two Queens, and I know we don't have sufficient length in either suit to attempt dropping them. Since I don't like the prospect of two possible finesses to make, I decide to invent a Queen-asking bid right there:
6C
to which BestFriend was utterly confused, thought I really wanted clubs, and passed. Given that we hadn't talked about it before, I don't blame him -- it's just one of those things that most other players take on faith at that point, and I'd prefer to be a little more scientific about.
As it happened, he had a missing Queen, and I could finesse the other. 7NT was makeable. D'oh.
-- Saturday --
Basketball! bordersguy was in town, so we chose to celebrate by playing basketball. I lost the first game, won the second, and was hotly contesting the third game when SuperJ re-injured his calf. Unfortunately, it was the same injury that put him out of the game eight weeks ago, so to say that this was a sucky return to the courts would be a serious understatement. We hope for his re-recovery soon.
Later, dinner with bordersguy and the vast majority of the Localcrew at his favorite dining establishment down here (mmm, wings), followed by some classic MtG action. We tried a new format, a three-headed Ettin arrangement, which is kinda like Emperor, only that each team of three does all their casting at the same time, synchronizing each phase, and there is only one attack/defend point between the two teams. Each team member can see the cards of the other members and discuss what they're going to do, and the leader head makes the final calls for their team, for the most part. It wound up being a protracted slugfest, but kinda fun nonetheless. We lost. On the plus side, DP found my black/white schizoid deck to be brilliant on multiple occasions, which is high praise coming from a tournament director and master player. *Especially* when there are no modern cards in it.
And finally, a little CoH, where Raq helped my main character get closer to Portal Jockey.
-- Sunday --
The day of rest. Late in the night, ijk and I gathered with DB and BestFriend for some Bridge action. She must complete the training! :)
Friday evening Bridge was cut short due to lack of people with sufficient stamina. :) In this session, though, BestFriend and I had a very possible 7NT, but I needed to know about his Queens. So, the auction (unopposed) entered a standard Gerber sequence:
4C-4S-5C-5H-?
At this point I know I have all the Aces and Kings, but I'm missing two Queens, and I know we don't have sufficient length in either suit to attempt dropping them. Since I don't like the prospect of two possible finesses to make, I decide to invent a Queen-asking bid right there:
6C
to which BestFriend was utterly confused, thought I really wanted clubs, and passed. Given that we hadn't talked about it before, I don't blame him -- it's just one of those things that most other players take on faith at that point, and I'd prefer to be a little more scientific about.
As it happened, he had a missing Queen, and I could finesse the other. 7NT was makeable. D'oh.
-- Saturday --
Basketball! bordersguy was in town, so we chose to celebrate by playing basketball. I lost the first game, won the second, and was hotly contesting the third game when SuperJ re-injured his calf. Unfortunately, it was the same injury that put him out of the game eight weeks ago, so to say that this was a sucky return to the courts would be a serious understatement. We hope for his re-recovery soon.
Later, dinner with bordersguy and the vast majority of the Localcrew at his favorite dining establishment down here (mmm, wings), followed by some classic MtG action. We tried a new format, a three-headed Ettin arrangement, which is kinda like Emperor, only that each team of three does all their casting at the same time, synchronizing each phase, and there is only one attack/defend point between the two teams. Each team member can see the cards of the other members and discuss what they're going to do, and the leader head makes the final calls for their team, for the most part. It wound up being a protracted slugfest, but kinda fun nonetheless. We lost. On the plus side, DP found my black/white schizoid deck to be brilliant on multiple occasions, which is high praise coming from a tournament director and master player. *Especially* when there are no modern cards in it.
And finally, a little CoH, where Raq helped my main character get closer to Portal Jockey.
-- Sunday --
The day of rest. Late in the night, ijk and I gathered with DB and BestFriend for some Bridge action. She must complete the training! :)