I recorded the hockey game and watched it as soon as I got home from my set with Adam.  It wasn't too bad watching it recorded.  You definitely lose a bit of excitement when you know you're not watching it live, but you get to fast forward through commercials and those stressful 10 second bursts on power plays when the other team has cleared the puck and your guys are skating back to get it.

The game was very exciting and hard-fought and as regulation time ended, the score was 2-2.  NBC thinks that this is a good time to stop covering the game and switch over to some gay little midgets-on-horses race.  Apparently midgets on horses racing each other is a more interesting event than 40 superbly trained athletes going after each other to try to put a puck in a net.  Sigh.  The least they could have done was said 'When the hockey game is over, we will immediately cut over to the last 2 minutes of the game so you can see the result.'  That would have at least maintained a semblance of suspense and given a bit of satisfaction.  Ottawa won 3-2 when captain Daniel Alfredsson scored on a pretty harmless looking play by putting the puck on net.  Good advice in bridge, too.

So Adam and I had a volatile set.  Here's my favorite hand:

You pick up at favorable:

JT876 / - / A7 / AK8542

Lefty opens 1NT and Adam bids 2 Hearts, DONT (Majors.)

You're playing against one of the top pairs in a matchpoint game at the club (Lefty is a Platinum Life Master.)

Righty passes and you're up.

With Jeff I'd probably bid 5 Spades (blame transfer) but all I need is Kxxxx xxxxx in the majors and slam is great.  With Axxxx xxxxx in the majors, slam is virtually cold.  As I pulled the 6 Spades bid out of the box, I thought to myself 'Well, either way at least I have a hand for the blog.'

Lefty (George Pisk) doubled like a guy with the AK of trumps and I stifled an inner sigh.

He led the Ace of Hearts (maybe there's still hope) and this assortment tracked:

Q943 / KQ93 / JT98 / 3

As ugly as that hand is, just reverse his majors and 6 has play (though it's down on a diamond lead.)  I don't think we had the tools to find it or not intelligently, though.  I just needed to guess better.

It could have been worse.  Down 1 was worth a matchpoint or two.  We might have ended up in 5 Spades redoubled and George might have found the trump lead from AK tight.