Had a 3/4 set with Jeff tonight. It went alright except for one hand. You pick up in 3rd at unfavorable:
K9643 / - / K9876 / QT7
Pard passes and Righty opens 1 Heart.
...
C'mon now, am I really supposed to pass with this hand? With any other partner I would have bid 2 Hearts in a heartbeat. With Jeff it took about 15 seconds (we promise an opening bid red) after deciding I'd pull any penalty double he made below the 5 level. Yes you're at unfavorable, but voids are huge on offense and to me not bidding this hand borders on criminal.
Of course I got the nightmare auction. 4 Hearts on my left, double by Jeff, pass to me.
Any other partner I'd pass proudly with my scattered defensive values but once I've promised an opening hand, is this really enough to sit? Is running gonna make it worse?
I ran, whipped, sticks and wheels, sitting would have been not as bad (-590). Jeff wouldn't and couldn't have doubled without the agreement (he had a thin but acceptable double opposite an opening hand: A8 / JT87 / QJ3 / 8643.)
Bottom line it was really stupid of me to violate our agreement. The way to get Jeff to see the light is to get bad results from playing it, not to get bad results from breaking system. -1100 was 13 IMPs away (-590 was 6 IMPs away.) That was the only board we lost more than 2 IMPs.
What else happened this week? Booked my flight to Boston. Wished I was in Nashville (I'm so Jonesin' to take a last minute road trip.) The Dems tried to show voters that the reason we're still in Iraq is Shrub and the Banana Republicans by pulling an all-nighter to try to get the wingnuts to agree to allow a vote on a timetable to get out. No dice. I'll probably change my banner to John Edwards soon. I admire Ron Paul, but Edwards has about a 5% shot and Ron Paul has about a .5% shot, so I'm gonna be practical and go with the candidate I like who has a shot instead of the candidate I really like who doesn't.
Followed the final table of the World Series of Poker. It came down to an American against a Canadian. The Canadian had no clue how to play heads up (way too passive) but that didn't stop him from winning a few million dollars, which is a tad more than I can say.
Oh, I also saw a great speech by Julia Sweeney this week on CSpan. She's that chick who did the character Pat on SNL for many years (you couldn't tell if Pat was a chick or a dude.) She was talking about how she came to be an atheist. She was very eloquent and entertaining. For a long time I was a 'live and let live' atheist but as the wingnuts get nuttier (trying to take over the government and impose their views on society) I get less and less tolerant of superstitious nonsense and people who espouse it.
Might as well sign off there. Next Friday will be here soon.
