An Interesting Evening
After going to the Musee de Picasso we found the Bridge club where I was to play with a partner of mine from Bridge Base Online. There was a nearby store where Amber, Brodey, and I got a quick dinner of quiche and soda-pop. Amber and Brodey went to see X-Men and I stayed to play bridge.
WARNING: ESOTERIC BRIDGE INFO
The game was a once a week IMP pairs game. The sign up process was a bit different than in Omaha, but that changes a bit wherever one goes. The biggest difference was THE CARDS. I just didn’t think about the fact that they would use different letters, symbols, etc. The first 10 boards I was in a daze. R for king, 1 for A, D for Queen, V for Jack may not seem tuff, but I kept getting the V and the K confused. Part of this is because the French bridge table is larger than the ones we use at the Omaha clubs, and part is because my vision is blurrier than I realized. (Note to self: See Dr. Ramsel) I was a little amazed that most everyone at the table could understand the alerts whether I gave them in French or English: clearly they are skilled at both English and very poor French.
The standard of play was somewhat weaker than a Bridge Studio Thursday but probably close to a Saturday or slow Tuesday at the Center Mall. The French convention card is larger than the ACBL’s and uses normal 8.5 x 11 inch paper (or the European Equivalent) and contains similar sections but with more white space for specific methods and less check boxes. Hardly anyone came to the table with a filled out card because they all played French standard. It is similar to Standard American but Micheals is a bit different and both 2§ and 2¨ are strong bids. My partner informed me that I needed to alert game forcing 2/1 bids and 1NT forcing.
The playing sight was awesome. It was near La Place de Victor Hugo and had a full service bar with a mixologist. One could order a beverage (Un Coca-Cola Light si vous plait!) and take it to the table. The ceilings were like 15 feet with French style crown moldings. There were huge windows that they had open during the game that provided a nice, slight, breeze. I sat at the table thinking, “I’m in Paris playing bridge, talking to French people, while I enjoy a nice breeze. Life doesn’t get better than this.” I wish I could end this story by telling you my partner and I won, but a misunderstanding that lead to a grand slam hurt us pretty bad. My partner and I were close to average ;-). Sigh.
NORMAL POST CONTINUES
The trip home was crazy. The game started at 8:30 P.M. and we didn’t get finished until almost 12:20 A.M. The play was slow, and the director didn’t push much. Where is Jim Nash when you need him? The last Metro train leaves every given station at 12:30 so I was hurrying to the station before they started closing. I made two transfers before I got stuck. I still wasn’t too worried as I was now within a 30 minute walk to the hotel and I planned to hail a cab if possible. Now things took a turn for the worse. The road I was on that was supposed to take me right by the Louvre either didn’t, or I didn’t recognize it in the dark. I realized the neighborhood was getting sparse of people, checked my bearings, and found I must not be where I thought I was. At this point it was 1:10 or so. I didn’t panic but I was worried Amber would be getting nervous back at the hotel. I finally found my bearings and was on a trick I knew well back to the hotel. It was 2:00 or so and I hoped Am wasn’t frantic. I got to the room about 2:45 A.M. An adventure to be sure!
Enough about yesterday. A post about today coming up. You can view todays pictures at Flickr.
WARNING: ESOTERIC BRIDGE INFO
The game was a once a week IMP pairs game. The sign up process was a bit different than in Omaha, but that changes a bit wherever one goes. The biggest difference was THE CARDS. I just didn’t think about the fact that they would use different letters, symbols, etc. The first 10 boards I was in a daze. R for king, 1 for A, D for Queen, V for Jack may not seem tuff, but I kept getting the V and the K confused. Part of this is because the French bridge table is larger than the ones we use at the Omaha clubs, and part is because my vision is blurrier than I realized. (Note to self: See Dr. Ramsel) I was a little amazed that most everyone at the table could understand the alerts whether I gave them in French or English: clearly they are skilled at both English and very poor French.
The standard of play was somewhat weaker than a Bridge Studio Thursday but probably close to a Saturday or slow Tuesday at the Center Mall. The French convention card is larger than the ACBL’s and uses normal 8.5 x 11 inch paper (or the European Equivalent) and contains similar sections but with more white space for specific methods and less check boxes. Hardly anyone came to the table with a filled out card because they all played French standard. It is similar to Standard American but Micheals is a bit different and both 2§ and 2¨ are strong bids. My partner informed me that I needed to alert game forcing 2/1 bids and 1NT forcing.
The playing sight was awesome. It was near La Place de Victor Hugo and had a full service bar with a mixologist. One could order a beverage (Un Coca-Cola Light si vous plait!) and take it to the table. The ceilings were like 15 feet with French style crown moldings. There were huge windows that they had open during the game that provided a nice, slight, breeze. I sat at the table thinking, “I’m in Paris playing bridge, talking to French people, while I enjoy a nice breeze. Life doesn’t get better than this.” I wish I could end this story by telling you my partner and I won, but a misunderstanding that lead to a grand slam hurt us pretty bad. My partner and I were close to average ;-). Sigh.
NORMAL POST CONTINUES
The trip home was crazy. The game started at 8:30 P.M. and we didn’t get finished until almost 12:20 A.M. The play was slow, and the director didn’t push much. Where is Jim Nash when you need him? The last Metro train leaves every given station at 12:30 so I was hurrying to the station before they started closing. I made two transfers before I got stuck. I still wasn’t too worried as I was now within a 30 minute walk to the hotel and I planned to hail a cab if possible. Now things took a turn for the worse. The road I was on that was supposed to take me right by the Louvre either didn’t, or I didn’t recognize it in the dark. I realized the neighborhood was getting sparse of people, checked my bearings, and found I must not be where I thought I was. At this point it was 1:10 or so. I didn’t panic but I was worried Amber would be getting nervous back at the hotel. I finally found my bearings and was on a trick I knew well back to the hotel. It was 2:00 or so and I hoped Am wasn’t frantic. I got to the room about 2:45 A.M. An adventure to be sure!
Enough about yesterday. A post about today coming up. You can view todays pictures at Flickr.
posted by Jonathan at 3:52 PM
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