Mashed by Miller
What it felt like this morning
Today started out well. I was asleep. Then the alarm went off and things went downhill.
Mike and I are out for the first half in the morning, because I believe that the early worm gets eaten, the smart worm waits until the birds are full.
So I show up for our half of the match, and we are down 44 against the fearsome Billy Miller team. Normally the pair coming in would sit E/W, but we play the Katz rule where we switch seats if we are losing, so Mike and I got the N/S seats.
We were playing against Leo Bell, a mountain of a man (6′ 3″, about 310 pounds) in bright blue Crocs with black socks and a Hawaiian shirt. He is a retired lawyer from LA, I think, and a longtime expert player. His partner is Jay Barron, who I don’t know but surely recognize–he is a relatively young guy who dresses all in black and wears a black do-rag. I asked him if he was a pirate, because all he needs is a peg leg and a parrot to complete the outfit. He said no.
When you are down 44 there is only one thing to do–swing for the fences. You can’t get it back an imp at a time in 12 boards, you need big numbers. That will either work, or you will lose by huge numbers. See the illustration above to figure out which one applies today. I bid game on everything, and didn’t make it. I doubled them in a very distributional auction, and they scored it up.
Mercifully, it finally ended. Our teammates were swinging too, and had the same luck. Billy won, we still came in second in the event and will get some points.
I had the Fast Track lunch at the convention center–sandwich, chips and a drink, $8. They called what I had “ham”, but it looked more like bologna to me. The chips were fresh, so that ‘s something good.
The afternoon session started, and Mike and I were still not playing happy wonderful bridge, we ended the first half down 13. Then I went to the grocery store, where I was a raging success.
Totally Unauthorized 