Career-driven?

I'm not a very career-driven person. I mean, I'm never going to be someone who is a lazy bum who doesn't want to do some kind of work, but there isn't one thing I want to do all the time and no burning desire to have a prestigious job that will occupy me 80 hours a week. I'm good at my job and value having a stable job, but it's not what I live for - I live for the time off to play a lot of bridge, hang out with the dog a lot, play tennis a little bit, go out to dinner some, and go out for drinks with friends some. Everything in moderation is generally a good rule to live by.

However, the people I have been most attracted to and interested in throughout my life are very career-driven, sometimes to the point where in inhibits their ablity to have a normal social life. Does this make sense?

The TV shows I like all center around characters who work 80 hours a week and wind up having to choose between career and social life - Kate Beckett from Castle, Robin Scherbatsky from HIMYM, Monk, Mary Shannon from In Plain Sight, all the characters from Grey's Anatomy, the detectives on Criminal Minds, all the lawyers from Suits. I admire these people, even if they are made up. Is it because I want that kind of life and that kind of passion for something or is it because I am glad there are other people doing those jobs that are so time-consuming?

In real life, looking back at the ladies I have dated, there's a string of smart career-driven (soon-to-be) doctors and lawyers (with a Math Ph.D. throw in the mix), starting with Kristen in 9th grade.

I read a Dilbert blog post today about becoming an expert. Supposedly it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert, assuming you are practicing the right things and have the right genes. Because bridge is pretty much the only thing that I could potentially have passion to become such an expert on and because this is mostly a blog about bridge, let's see how my bridge experience applies here.

Since I started playing in 2000, I estimate that I've played 1600 sessions of bridge, which is roughly 5600 hours. Time spent in post-mortems, teaching bridge, writing about bridge, and reading about bridge probably brings that up to around 7000 hours, so I have a couple of years to go to reach 10,000. However, the amount of time I spend on bridge has been steadily on the rise since 2008.

Am I practicing the right things? I think so. 95% of the time I play it is with a good partner while paying pretty close attention to things. Playing non-seriously or with a partner you can't trust can be counter-productive to improving because of the need to compensate for partner. Furthermore, more recently my tournaments have included a lot more regionals and bracket 1 knouckouts and fewer mid-bracket knockouts and sectionals and still winning just as much. That's gotta be better for improving one's game. Do I have the right genes? I think so.

Not much bridge for awhile

The "Play lots of bridge" portion of my year has come to a close, with a very fun but not very successful Atlanta NABC. Cristal and I did make the second day, placing in one, of the three Open NABC events we entered. That in itself is something of an accomplishment, given that she had not placed overall in an Open NABC event before and our Swiss team wasn't very impressive. Prior to this NABC, Sean and I had a week in Richmond where we kind of sucked, a week in Greenville, where we played decently, and a week in Reston, VA, where we were excellent.

I know I marked at least 3 boards as blog-worthy and 2 as book-worthy so I hope I find them amongst the 20 scorecards I have.

The post-NABC letdown is here, as it is back to the desk job and struggle finding a social life in Macon/Warner Robins, with no trips longer than a weekend until probably the fall NABC, although a return trip to Seaside is still a possibility. I'm taking one class at Mercer this fall - another statistics class - starting next Monday, so hopefully that will be interesting.

...from the Atlanta NABC

There are a lot of things I have to complain about and a lot of crap that I've had to deal with during this tournament, mainly arranging teammates, failing at arranging dinner plans, and most recently having a date scheduled and her not showing up or calling. I really could go on and on about those frustrations but this will be a happy post.

The first three days, I played with Jule and Sean and we were 3rd/4th in a KO. It was a pleasant enough time, complicated greatly by bringing my dog with me and driving around Jule and Jim Wall and his wheelchair. I was glad to assist and those three days were actually pretty fun.

Tuesday through Friday, I played with Cristal Nell and it has been rather pleasant. Coming in, I didn't really know what to expect bridge-wise, but she is a fine partner and we got along great. I've found myself trying to be more aggressive than usual because it was immediately clear that she, like me, is typically a conservative bidder. I believe that over 9 sessions there was only 2 bidding misunderstanding both surrounding transfers over doubles. 41st in the Wernher Open Pairs. Tonight someone commented that she keeps moving on to better partners: from Mitch to JDonn to me! I'm sure there will be a repeat, but I am disappointed I didn't get to play an NABC event with Sean, given all of our recent success in regionals.

Today some of my favorite bridge people and Arjun won the 0-5000 spingold - Max Aeschbacher, Alex Dezieck, and Josh Parks. Yay!

While I still think 10:00 is too early to have to be playing bridge, I do really like the bar atmosphere better with these starts. there's a lot more time to relax at dinner without being concerned about having to be back at a particular time and with games ending at 6:30 there's just more time to socialize. with the traditional start times, bridge doesn't finish until 11 pm and if you play midnights, there leaves very little time to chatm find out who won what, and enjoy the hospitality before playing again.

I'm tired and I probably should have gone to sleep hours ago, but it's hard to turn my brain off.

Preparing for the Atlanta NABC

So, the NABC is coming up in a few days in Atlanta. For me it will be very different experience from previous NABCs, mostly because it's kind of at home and partly because of what I'll be playing in and with whom I'll be playing.

When flying to an NABC there are very few logistical issues because there isn't really a choice - you must fly, you must stay at a hotel downtown, you can't bring your pet. When the NABC is in your home town, there also isn't really a choice - you're staying at home. When the NABC is this in-between distance of 95 miles away from home, there are several logistical options, and I can't decide what to do:

a) Take Winter and staying at a cheap suburban hotel, not unlike what I do for regionals in the district. With the 10 & 3 start times, that would effectively make it similar to my regular lifestyle, only with a much more interesting "work day" and incentives to go out late night.
b) Commute from home. It's about a 1.5 hour drive as long as traffic is okay.
c) Treat this like most NABCs by leaving Winter with my parents or in a kennel while I go all out playing bridge, socializing, eating, and drinking.

The 10 and 3 start times are particularly draining because bedtime doesn't really change. I won't be able to resist going to bars or playing midnight games if I am in the area, so if I leave Winter home alone, I'll be forced to drive home right after the game and no longer be in the area. Basically, this schedule just means we have 4 extra hours after the bridge game to drink and 3 fewer hours to sleep in the morning. This logic is urging me to go with option b, at least for part of the time, even though I know that is not a very practical plan. I kind of wanted to boycott the tournament to express my displeasure with the start times but it's just too damn convenient, and furlough Fridays mean I can play 6 days without using any vacation.

So, I'm playing mid-bracket regional knockouts the first Friday-Sunday. That'll be a possibly welcome big change of pace from the stressful top bracket knockouts I've been playing a lot of in the last couple of months. Monday I'm going into the office before coming back to play the last 6 days with Cristal in NABC events. Good teammates for the Mixed BAM and Open Swiss would be appreciated.

Last time the NABC was in Atlanta in 2005, I had a summer job working on updating the software for a flooring company just outside Atlanta while also working as a teaching assistant at GT. I lived in Buckhead across the street from a Marta station so commuting to the tournament was really easy. Life was pretty awesome. However, I wasn't a particularly competitive bridge player. Being a regular college kid was too appealing.

I think I played a couple of days but I don't remember with whom or anything like that. I do, however, remember going to the awesome Swichfoot concert with Amanda instead of playing bridge one of the Saturdays during the tournament. I had my priorities straight back then. Well, I still have priorities in the same order today - there are just fewer non-bridge opportunities.

Reston July 4th Regional

I'm too old for this stuff. Playing bridge Sunday somewhere further than Atlanta, traveling home, and working Monday is annoying enough. When that's at the end of a week of high level bridge followed by copious amounts of late night activities every day, it's a real struggle. At the Reston/DC regional, it was another big step toward being respected as a ligitimate contender at the highest levels of bridge. Despite a couple of major distractions, I managed to play pretty well all week as Sean and I (with Daniel Korbel and Jonathan Steinberg) won about 100 points, just behind Meckwell, Krzyzstof-Grzegorz, and Joyce-Jenny. We faced them head-to-head twice, winning in the final of the 1st KO and losing in the semi-final of the 3rd KO. Fortunately, that semi-final loss was on the afternoon of july 4th so we were able to have the evening off to participate in normal July 4th activities.

So, why was I distracted? I felt kind of bad all week about being at the tournament rather than at the hospital with my dad, where the doctors apparently were screwing things up. I also felt bad about leaving Winter in a kennel and about lying to Allie about where she was in hopes, I guess, of avoiding these emotional subjects. I also had that butterflies in the stomach feeling you get when just getting to know someone really special. It's been awhile since anyone has had that strong an effect on me.

I actually missed having Winter with me at the tournament. Simply having a dog to take care of stops the drinking and partying while it's still fun. The jogs and trips to the dog park physically make me feel better and limit going out to dinner, which also is probably healthier and more conducive to good bridge in the evening. We saw the Rodwell's dogs there quite a bit, and while they're cute, they aren't nearly as fun (or demanding) as my husky.

This weekend I plan to go through all of the scorecards to find something blog-worthy. Our slam bidding was so much better than it was in Greenville - only 2 or 3 disasters all week, including the first board of the second half against Meckwell (we had a 28 imp half time lead): We bid to 6S, knowingly off 2 key cards. We did have a 10 card fit and some 32 hcp. The K was onside so it rolled in. The Poles duplicated our auction to the slam off 2 keys but then proceeded to not take the finesse. Also, I think we played as many redoubled contracts last week as I had in my whole life. This led to a terrible score (-1000), 2 great scores (+760 twice), and one only slightly bad score (-200).

Not much in the way of bridge until the Atlanta NABC starting 3 weeks from today. I think I'll be staying in the suburbs or possibly commuting from home and hour and a half away and foregoing a lot of the evening hangouts so I can get my daily dose of Winter.

Auctions to blow your mind

I'm still pretty exhausted from last week in Greenville. Bridge tournaments wear me out.

Sean and I had several slam bidding disasters, which are unfairly magnified in imps, but otherwise played pretty well. 40 MP for the week is not terrible but it's not up to par either.

Hopefully the Reston regional in a couple of weeks will not drain my energy so much. We'll be flying so no dog to deal with, and I know fewer people there so probably less socialization. I want this to be a more relaxing vacation, but I know it won't be.

Here are a couple of auctions that blew my mind with some added commentary. From the Saturday open pairs:

1NT(1)-P-P-2♦(2); P-2♥-2NT(3)-P; P(4!)-X(5)-P(6)-P; XX(7)-P-P(8)-P

1) 15-17

2) Majors

3) this certainly looks like "pick a minor"

4) I don't know what's going on but I don't think I have to bid.

5) I know LHO wanted RHO to bid a minor so I'm going to give them a second chance because I have a prime 14-count and can double 3 of a minor as well.

6) I know my hand sucks for 2NT but I told you to pick a minor and you didn't so you must have a good reason.

7) I don't know what's going on, p, but 2NTX can't be the best contract. Let me in on the joke.

8) Spite pass with a 2-2-4-5 4-count.

From the Sunday Swiss:

P-P-2♥(1)-2♠; 4♥(2)-4♠-P-P; X(3)-P-P-XX(4); P(5)-P-P

1) 8-13, 5+ hearts (should have 6 hearts if at the low end)

2) 4♥ looks reasonable with AKJ-A and 6 card support.

3) Yeah, my 3 trump tricks are enough to set 4♠. So what if we have a giant heart fit.

4) We need more than 5 imps because we just went for 800 against nothing.

5) The trump split in our 11 or 12 card fit at the 5 level might do us in so I better pass and hope partner has a trick.

Rich Regan is a wild man. As alluded to above, he went for 800 on the first board while we could make nothing, then collected 880 on the second board, this was a couple of boards later. I was declaring 3NT and he led the ten of clubs, I ducked a couple of clubs and he showed out on the 3rd round.

♠KQ

♥KTxxx

♦KQx

♣Axx

♠Axx

♥Q

♦AT9xx

♣xxxx

Clearly if diamonds come in, that's 9 or 10 tricks but if they don't, how do I scrounge up 9 tricks? At trick 4, I led a heart toward my Q, which held. The right play now may well be to take a diamond finesse through LHO. If LHO had ♦Jxxx, this will allow me to score 5 diamonds, a heart, a club, and two spades (can't take all 3 spades because I would need to overtake a spade to get to the last 2 diamonds. But that's quite a strong position to take even if the gut says to do it.

Alas, I cash the ♦K and ♦Q at tricks 5 and 6, seeing the 4-1 split. I can't afford to give Rich a diamond because there would still be the problem of then not being able to take all 3 spade tricks, leaving me a trick short. So, I go into the tank after what so far had been a round played in lightning speed. Rich kept trying to claim down 1, saying his partner has good clubs and the ace of spades and other crap that pissed me off. This time I was able to stay concentrated and figure out how to make it. I cashed the ♠KQ, then came to my hand with the ♦A and cashed the ♠A. Now, RHO who started with ♠xxx, ♥AJxx, ♦xx, ♣KQJ9 was stuck. If she discarded a heart, I could throw her in with a club, forcing her to lead up to dummy's ♥KT at the end. In reality, she pitched the club so I just cashed my little club for the 9^th trick.

Strangeness in Bridge This Week

Monday and Tuesday nights, I did 3 things that I’m not sure I’ve ever done in bridge.

Monday, Joel and I were playing imp pairs online against Bob Heller and Emory. I held something like ♠xxx, ♥AKQxx, ♦x, ♣Qxxx. The auction was something like 1♣-1♥-X-2♥; 2♠-P-4♠-P; P-P so I was on lead against 4♠ and selected the singleton diamond. Joel dutifully won the ace and led one back for me to ruff. Obviously he didn’t lead a high spot for a heart suit preference, but with a singleton in dummy, I took a chance that he had the ♥J and led low from my heart honors for a second diamond ruff. It worked! Plays like that are so fun when they work, and that’s one of the few things I like about imps. When the opponents are in what seems to be a fairly easy game, you can take risks like this. In matchpoints, I probably would not underlead the hearts because I figure we may already be ahead of the field by getting the ruff.

Tuesday, playing with Emory, I held -, Axx, AKQJxx, AQxx and opened 1♦. Partner not surprisingly bid 1♠ and I jump-shifted to 3♣. Now he bids 4♥. I guess this is a splinter with club support, but wasn’t entirely sure. Not knowing what 4♠ or 4NT would mean here (there’s a reasonable case for both being natural), I tanked for at least a minute to mull over things. 5♠ exclusion to find out about the ♣K might be what I want to bid, but since that’s partner’s long suit, I’m not sure of that one either. Clubs may still not be a great spot if his clubs are only Kxxx as a 4-1 split could cause problems. Eventually I decided to jump to the diamond grand. If p has short hearts, he has to have some diamond support. Worst case scenario for this bid is for p to have ♠KQxxxx, ♥x, ♦xx, ♣Kxxx. With that, a trump lead would leave me needing a ruffing spade finesse and 3-2 clubs, but 7♦ is a cold if p has ♠Axxxx, ♥x, ♦xxx, ♣Kxxx – I can always score 2 heart ruffs and pitch the potential 4^th round club loser on the ♠A. His actual hand included 6 wasted hcp in spades: ♠KQJTx, ♥x, ♦xxx, ♣KJTx.

Later that night, I picked up ♠-, ♥xxxxx, ♦xxxx, ♣ATxx and at favorable vulnerability saw it go 1♣-X to me. Some days I might try 1♠ or 2♠ but Emory doesn’t take such jokes well and settled for 3♣ as my way to preempting. It didn’t work as LHO has a 7 card spade suit (I don’t think anything would have kept him from bidding 4♠), but this is the only time I can remember raising partner’s minor with 4 card support rather than bidding a 5 card major.