[42]

Hello!
Last weekend I was playing in the league. We start after 5 hours in train at 13:00 and the last hand is over around 00:30 (not really important...), we play with screens. The last segment of the day had begun, on my side of the screen everything was fine (I had a goodlooking nice opp, our mood was very relaxed ). Suddenly my partner looked over the screen and asked my opp "Is your partner sick?" I heard before that on the other side was sth. going on but didn't care - focussing on the hands is not easy for me when it is late, I needed already all my energy. I wondered if my partner meant "sick" = stupid or "sick" = ill, all is possible as I learnt during my bridge career . Opp said "Yes, he is". In the meantime the sick man had left, TD came and told us that a doctor (another league player) was taking care because the poor guy had collapsed because of an allergic reaction! After some minutes poor opp returned and the match went on. I always catch all vibrations and I felt it won't be ok with him, we played on but my senses were on the other screen side. My screen opp played very well, it was possible but hard to defeat his contract but I failed. One good board followed and another bad one for us. Suddenly my p said:"He is lying on the ground!" Now the playing at our table definitely stopped and we took care of the poor guy (I made a foot massage, brought water etc.). Time ran out and we could not play 5 boards (--> 5 x 3 IMPs for us), no substitute was there. ALL went out for comparing the scores, except me, I was busy, things became worse and I scared and I asked a waiter to call an ambulance. 5 minutes later the night portier came back with a telefone, I should call myself. Huh??? When I was talking to the man on the line I got an idea why: he was very unkind and talked like a boss teacher. The portier said that they do not even send the ambulance when someone of the hotel staff calls! After 30 minutes and a bucket full of §$%&/ (opp had become green) the ambulance arrived.
Happy end: next morning the player was back from hospital, looking MUCH better
Isn't bridge exciting? The only thing I must work harder on is to keep concentration, no matter if a landslide ruins half the hotel, a wife murders her husband at the neighbour table because he misplayed the hand, a handfull of male strip dancers perform around our table, Santa Claus himself is TD, or what other minor things may happen....
Caren
PS: that was not all that happened, I am looking forward to play the last 3 matches in april
PPS: Luis, what about writing a book together?

[luis]

We might need to write that book :-)

Did your pd ever got slapped in the face from under the screen by an opponent who felt badly in a psychic bid ? :-)
Did you ever had to ask the director for "an extra supply of double cards" ?

I'm happy your opp is fine

[42]

luis, on Feb 27 2006, 07:10 PM, said:

We might need to write that book :-)

Let's start soon, I have the strong feeling that it would be only the first in a series

Quote

Did your pd ever got slapped in the face from under the screen by an opponent who felt badly in a psychic bid ? :-)

Not me, but my p was yesterday short before to catch sth. by his screenopp (another match against a very "dry" international experienced player): my p just asked how the bidding went and that guy said, he forgot (they know each other since a lifetime and they are not really friends...). You can imagine that an interesting discussion followed. TD was there and prevented the worst. Good that we play with big screens (no foot contact or an upcoming event possible *hehe*).

Quote

Did you ever had to ask the director for "an extra supply of double cards"?

No, I just ran out of pass cards, normal

Before any match had started on saturday, one of our team members asked what the result of the first segment of the day was This pair went home early in the afternoon....

Bridgetactics can be really bad... do you know the Cola Coup? There was a good player, always dressed very elegant which was very important for him. To distract him before the match, his opp ordered a Cola, put it on the tableside of this gentleman and *oooops*... he did not really recover

To be continued....

[Tomi2]

42, on Feb 27 2006, 11:51 AM, said:

Happy end: next morning the player was back from hospital, looking MUCH better

yeah and don't forget the fair score, 15VP for us and 18VP for you because some boards could not be played ))))
this evening could have ended worse