January 04, 2004
I'm back

Well, we made it to the finals, but we didn't finish in the money, so no free trip to Reno for me. I'll be back tomorrow with my usual posting, and a few hands of interest for those who like that sort of thing. Thanks to everyone for the good wishes.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 04, 2004 to See, I do have a life! | TrackBack
Comments

Take consolation in the fact that there's no such thing as a free trip to a gambling hell. There may be free transportation, food and lodging, but it'll get you in other ways. ;)

Posted by: Linkmeister on January 4, 2004 11:28 PM

Chuck, dude...if you kick ass at bridge (which you obviously do), why are you NOT playing poker? And making money every frikkin' day?

I hate to see talent lay fallow...

Posted by: Scott Chaffin on January 5, 2004 12:56 AM

Linkmeister, I won a trip to Reno back in 1989 for a collegiate bridge tournament. As a poor student, I was more interested in the all-you-can-eat buffets than the gambling tables. From that perspective, I did pretty well. :-)

Scott, all I can tell you is that I've just never gotten into poker. I could work on it - some friends of mine have a mostly regular game that I generally don't attend - but I've just never been as motivated by poker as I have by bridge. Maybe one of these days.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on January 5, 2004 7:03 AM

Well, Chuck, I encourage you to attend our poker gatherings. There's no all-you-can-eat buffet, but it's enjoyable both from a computational/analytic standpoint and the human factor. Oh yeah, I also want your money.

Posted by: HWRNMNBSOL on January 5, 2004 8:47 AM

Chuck,

Stick to bridge. Poker requires a different set of analytical skills than bridge, plus bridge requires you to communicate with a partner, as opposed to the mano-a-mano game of poker.

The way I see it, if you can get to the final table in a regional bridge tournament, you're doing something right.

Posted by: William Hughes on January 5, 2004 9:17 AM

I should clarify here: There were 34 pairs in the qualifying round. Of those, 20 made it to Day 2. We were in something like 14th place going into Sunday. We finished in 11th place. We didn't have any really bad sessions, but we didn't have any really excellent ones, either. Had we avoided some of our more egregious brain farts, we might've placed.

This was also Flight B competition, meaning that no one could have more than 2000 Master Points. There are good players in Flight B, but the best ones are in Flight A. Generally at tournaments I play in Flight A because it's more fun, but it makes sense in the North American Pairs and the Grand National Teams to play in a lower flight.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on January 5, 2004 9:59 AM

For what it's worth, I'm still impressed. :-)

Posted by: William Hughes on January 5, 2004 10:46 AM