Thursday, September 30, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 39

Board 39 – Dealer South – All Vul

My hand: Q J T 9 3 A K Q 9 4 Q 9 2

And another 5-5 hand! This time I have opening points and open 1 heart. West bids 2 hearts as Michael's. Partner raises to 3 hearts. Could we have a slam here? Maybe, if partner has clubs and hearts sewn up. I can make one move with a 3 spade bid if partner will view that as control showing. Maybe he'll pass it and let me play. That will at least be funny. It's sad that I need to think that that might happen. I go for it. I bid 3 spades, West bids 4 spades and partner doubles. This double has to be for penalty, but what did he think my 3 spade bid meant? I have to hope partner has spade extras which increases the odds of setting them and decreases the odds of making slam. I pass. Partner leads the 5 of hearts.


NORTH
5



WEST
T
A 7 4 2
J 7 6 5 2
T 5 4



SOUTH

Q J T 9 3
A K Q 9 4
Q 9 2


West North East South



1
213 Pass 32
4Double3 All Pass
1Michael's
2Spade control for hearts
3Penalty

Huh, I wonder why dummy didn't pull to a minor. At any rate, 5-A-3-6. Declarer shifts to a club. 4-2-A-3. And another. 6-K-5-9. Partner shifts to the 8 of diamonds. 8-2-Q-9 of spades.

Declarer goes back to clubs and partner foolishly ruffs my Q. Declarer is 7-1-0-5 which means partner is 5-3-3-2. We have whatever trump tricks partner has and that's it. Turns out that number is 1, so they make 4 spades doubled.


NORTH
J 6 5 3 2
K 8 5
T 8 3
K 3


WEST
A K Q 9 8 7 4
6

A J 8 7 6


EAST
T
A 7 4 2
J 7 6 5 2
T 5 4


SOUTH

Q J T 9 3
A K Q 9 4
Q 9 2


Professor Jack disagrees with my 3 spade bid. He did not consider it and wonders what I had in mind. It was alerted as showing spade control for hearts so it did mean what I meant but Captain Jack doesn't think my hand was good enough for it I guess.

I tried bidding diamonds with the same result, partner doubles 4 spades. I tried just bidding 4 hearts and partner gives up.

He also disagrees with my pass. Apparently I'm not allowed to trust partner's double here and should pull to 5 hearts.

My signal on the first trick was wrong as well. Apparently I'm supposed to encourage despite the fact that partner knows the full layout of the suit. Whatever.

He further disagrees with my diamond play after my hand was irrelevant. Again, whatever. I can count the hand Jack. You're a computer. Why can't you count the hand?


On the replay my hand bids 4 hearts. West bids 4 spades again and North voluntarily doubles. South doesn't trust his partner and pulls to 5 hearts. West sacs again by bidding 5 spades. North doubles again and South sits this time. At my table where I apparently misrepresented my hand I can see pulling the double. At this one? You have to trust partner to have a real double here. Of course he doesn't have a real double so maybe it's right to pull...

The play goes essentially the same. North ruffs his partner's Q of clubs. Down 1, doubled.

Nick: -790
Jack: 200
IMPs: -14 (-20 total)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 38

Board 38 – Dealer East – EW Vul

My hand: 9 2 Q T 9 8 4 J K J 8 5 4

East passes. I have another 5-5 with no points so I have to pass. West bids 1 spade, partner overcalls 1 NT and East bids 2 spades. I bid 3 hearts and partner raises to 4. West leads the 7 of clubs.



NORTH
K 8 5
A J
A 6 5 4 3
A 9 2
WEST
7

SOUTH
9 2
Q T 9 8 4
J
K J 8 5 4


West North East South


Pass Pass
1 1NT 2 3
Pass 4 All Pass

I have 4 hearts, 3 clubs, and a diamond. I can get a 5th heart if West has Kx of hearts. I can get 1 or 2 extra clubs if they split favourably. I can get a spade if West has the A or if I can make East lead them. But first, the club... 7-9-3-4.

I'm not sure which of them is going to ruff clubs but I worry that one of them is. I want to just get rid of trump now, so I cash the A. A-5-4-3. J-2-Q-6. T-4 of spades-3 of diamonds-K.

East shifts to a diamond. 2-J-K-A. East has a trump left and I'm on board. What are my options here?

I can ruff a diamond to hand, draw the last trump, and set up clubs. If it works I make. If it doesn't I lose a lot of diamonds and the A of spades.

I can play A and a club. This loses if East ruffs the A of clubs and makes otherwise.

I can play a low club. If East ruffs then West's Q will drop and I will lose just the A of spades and make. If East doesn't ruff then I can rise with the K, draw trump, and play a club back to board. I will then be stuck on board again. If clubs split 3-2 I will make. If they're 4-1 I'm down. Well, I could not play the 3rd club to board and finesse spades.

The low club wins every time ruffing the diamond would win and some other times too and playing a spade from board is nonsensical. So the question is the A or the 2 of clubs. A is wrong when East has a stiff club. 2 is wrong when West has a stiff club since I don't plan on finessing. Would West have led the 7 from QT76? Would East have played the 3 from QT63 after I inserted the 9? Neither seems to make sense, but the 7 from QT76 could happen. I decide to play the 2 of clubs.

2-6-?... Would West have lead the 7 from Q7 or QT7? Maybe I should finesse. But wait... I know East had 3 spades and 4 hearts. If he also has 4 clubs then he only has 2 diamonds. I can win the K of clubs, play a club to the A, ruff a diamond, draw his trump, and throw him in with his club. He has to lead a spade and I make whenever he has the A or if West pitches all his diamonds. Or I can finesse spades without ruffing a diamond and make whenever West has the A of spades. So I can always make here, I just need to find the A of spades.

West opened and has only played 3 points so far. he could have KQJ of diamonds, QJ of spades and...? Nothing. He has to have the A of spades. I play the K of clubs. West shows in with the T so I'm good. I draw trump, cash my A of clubs, ruff a diamond to hand and cash my clubs. West had the A of spades and a diamond left so I'm just in. Making 4.


NORTH
K 8 5
A J
A 6 5 4 3
A 9 2


WEST
A Q J T 4
6 3
K T 9
Q T 7


EAST
7 6 3
K 7 5 2
Q 8 7 2
6 3


SOUTH
9 2
Q T 9 8 4
J
K J 8 5 4


Professor Jack disagrees with my 3 heart bid. He says it promises 6 and should bid 3 spades instead. Apparently bidding 3 spades here shows exactly 5 hearts. Has anyone ever heard of that?


On the replay my hand makes the weird 3 spade bid. North bids 4 hearts, so they get to play it from the other side. East leads a spade which gives declarer the K of spades without needing to think about it. West plays passively by drawing trump so the defense doesn't even establish any threats. They get a club but have nothing to do when they win it so they traded a club trick on the lead for a spade trick on the lead. Making 4.

Nick: 420
Jack: 420
IMPs: 0 (-6 total)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 37

As a point of information I recently bought a new computer for Civ V and FFXIV. I finally got around to installing Jack on my new computer and will be playing on it going forward. I think I have all the settings set the same way but something weird may happen. We'll see!

Board 37 – Dealer North – NS Vul

My hand: 8 5 A J 7 5 2 J T 6 5 3 K

Two passes to me. I pass as well. West opens 1 club and East bids 1 diamond. I pass and West bids 1 heart. East jumps to 3NT which gets passed out. They bid both of my suits so I lead the 8 of spades hoping it's partner's suit.



WEST
A Q J 6
K Q 4 3
8 7
Q 6 2



SOUTH
8 5
A J 7 5 2
J T 6 5 3
K


West North East South

Pass Pass Pass
1 Pass 1Pass
1 Pass 3NTAll Pass

8-J-2-7. I'm pretty sure declarer has at most 3 spades since he didn't bid them which means partner should have at least 4 himself. Maybe he started with KJT2 and we can get 2 spade tricks if I lead them again.

Declarer plays the 2 of clubs off dummy. 2-9-A-K. That feels like cheating. Boo! He plays out another club. What should I pitch? I think I can afford 2 hearts and a diamond for sure. I start with the 2 of hearts. 3-2 of hearts-Q-7. He plays another club. 6-J-5-3 of diamonds.

Partner cashes the A of diamonds. A-4-6-7. He plays the Q. Q-K-5-8. Guess I have 2 diamond tricks on top of my A of hearts. Declarer cashes a club and I pitch a heart. T-5 of hearts-3 of hearts-8. Another club. 4-7 of hearts-4 of hearts-6 of hearts. Declarer cashes the K of spades. K-5-6-9. He has a low spade to dummy's 2 high spades. Making 3.


NORTH
T 9 4 2
T 9 6
A Q
J 9 8 7


WEST
A Q J 6
K Q 4 3
8 7
Q 6 2


EAST
K 7 3
8
K 9 4 2
A T 5 4 3


SOUTH
8 5
A J 7 5 2
J T 6 5 3
K


Professor Jack disagrees with my second pass. He wants me to overcall 1 heart. On the play he disagrees with my first pitch and wants me to pitch a small diamond instead of a small heart. And then when partner cashes the A of diamonds he wants me to discourage with the 5 instead of the 6.


On the replay we get blown out. My hand gets in there with 1 heart, partner 'preempts' with 2 hearts over 1 spade and they end up playing 3 clubs. They make 3.

Nick: -400
Jack: -110
IMPs: -7 (-6 total)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 36

Board 36 – Dealer West – All Vul

My hand: A 8 5 T 8 7 A K 6 3 2 A 4

Partner opens 1 diamond with both opponents passing. I turned on inverted minors oh so long ago, so I hope 2 diamonds is a good start. Partner responds 2 no trump which gets alerted. I have no clue at all what that could mean. It's time to bid some things and go down a lot again! I try 3 clubs in the hopes it shows the A. Partner bids 3 diamonds. I hope that means his hand sucks. I bid 3 no trump which gets passed around. Now, what were all those alerts?

2 diamonds showed 10+ points and 4+ diamonds or 9 points and 5 diamonds and in all cases denied a 4 card major. 2 no trump was a minimum with no extra diamonds. 3 clubs showed a strong club suit and 14+ points. I only lied a little!

East leads the T of spades.


NORTH
6 3
A Q 9 5
J 7 5 4
K Q 8



EAST
T

SOUTH
A 8 5
T 8 7
A K 6 3 2
A 4


West North East South
Pass 1 Pass 21
Pass 2NT2 Pass 33
Pass 3 Pass 3NT
Pass Pass Pass
1Inverted Minor
2Minimum
3Strong second suit

I have 1 spade, 1 heart, 3 clubs, and 2 diamonds. I need 2 more tricks, which are pretty easy to eventually come by in either hearts or diamonds. Only problem is I have but 1 spade stopper so eventually isn't really good enough unless spades split 4-4.

The T is an odd lead. It means West should have KJ, QJ, or KQJ. I duck. T-5-K-3. West switches to the J of clubs so I get to make. I hope! 4-0 diamonds with East having the 4 and I need to work on hearts, but I get to cash the A to find that out. Might as well get on that. I win the club on dummy. J-8-2-A. I cash the A of diamonds. A-9-7-T. I cash another. K-8-4-Q. I now have 10 tricks and no losers pending, so I should play on hearts to go for more overtricks. 8-6-5-J.

East goes back to spades. I can't gain by ducking, so I win. I'll cash out everything but hearts and decide to finesse or not at the time. My carefully preserved 5 of diamonds on board is my entry back to the diamonds.

When we come down to 2 cards each I know the opponents have a spade, 2 hearts, and a club. I know West has the spade from the opening lead, so finessing can't work. He has the club, too, so East gets the heart K at the end. Making 4.


NORTH
6 3
A Q 9 5
J 7 5 4
K Q 8


WEST
K J 4 2
6 4
9 8
J T 9 7 6


EAST
Q T 9 7
K J 3 2
Q T
5 3 2


SOUTH
A 8 5
T 8 7
A K 6 3 2
A 4


Professor Jack disagrees with my 3 club bid since it, you know, was a bald faced lie. He'd just bid 3NT which is what I'd bid too. Jack also wants me to cash my winners instead of finessing hearts when I did. Maybe that's right, I donno.


On the replay they aren't playing inverted minors so they have a different auction that still ends up in 3NT. It's played from the other side, so West starts by leading the J of clubs. Declarer doesn't find any way to get any extra tricks or throw any way. Making 4.

Nick: 630
Jack: 630
IMPs: 0 (1 total)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 35

Board 35 – Dealer South – EW Vul

My hand: A 5 4 3 2 J 5 2 K Q 2 A 2

I open 1 spade. West overcalls 2 hearts and partner jumps to 3 spades. This should be preemptive I think. East passes. I don't think I have good odds of making 4 but maybe I'm wrong about partner's bid being preemptive. Go big or go home, as they say. I bid 4 spades which gets passed around. West leads the 7 of clubs.

NORTH
Q 9 7 6
T 7 3
8 5
K J T 5



WEST
7



SOUTH
A 5 4 3 2
J 5 2
K Q 2
A 2


West North East South
1
23 Pass 4
PassPass Pass

Well, on the plus side I don't think we were making 3 either. I have 3 heart losers, a diamond loser, and anywhere from 1 to 3 spade losers. I only have 6 to 8 tricks and not a lot of hope for more. I finesse clubs for the Q. 7-T-9-? I have entry issues. Theoretically I could overtake here, lead a club up to the J and cash the K for a heart pitch. If East was being sneaky I go down an extra trick. If it works I'm still down 1. I suspect sneakiness so I play the 2.

I draw trump. 6-T-A-8. 2-K-7-J. West shifts to a diamond. 6-5-T-K. Huh. I have 3 tricks in. I have 3 spade tricks and two clubs still to come at least. Unless I can sneak another diamond in without them switching to hearts I can't get any extra diamonds, hearts, or ruffs. If the Q of clubs drops, though, I make. I don't think I have any endplays or squeezes so I go for it. I cash the A of clubs. A-6-5-3. I play a spade to board. 3-9 of hearts-Q-4 of clubs. I cash a club. K-8-2 of hearts-4 of hearts.

Hmm. East has the Q of clubs. I don't see any legit lines anymore. I play a heart for fun. 3-8-J-Q. West cashes another heart. A-7-K-5. Interesting. My T is good now. West cashes the A of diamonds so it doesn't matter. Down 1.


NORTH
Q 9 7 6
T 7 3
8 5
K J T 5


WEST
K 8
A Q 9 6 4
A 9 7 6
7 6


EAST
J T
K 8
J T 4 3
Q 9 8 4 3


SOUTH
A 5 4 3 2
J 5 2
K Q 2
A 2


Professor Jack disagrees with my 4 spade bid. He says I'm one point too light for the bid. Yeah, yeah. My bad. 8P


On the replay they end up in 3 spades. West leads a club and dummy plays low. Declarer draws one round of trump and then plays a club to the K. He then plays the 7 of spades off board. This line guarantees he loses 2 tricks to any Kxx-x split (I pick up Kxx-x in West for 1 loser with my play) so it seems pretty questionable but it doesn't cost him. Declarer doesn't try anything to pitch any hearts and as such loses 3 hearts, a diamond, and a spade for down 1.

Nick: -50
Jack: -50
IMPs: 0 (1 total)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 34

Board 34 – Dealer East – NS Vul

My hand: J 9 8 4 3 J 7 5 3 2 T 3 2

East opens 1 club. I pass, West responds 1 diamond and partner passes. East bids 1 heart, West goes to 4. I lead the 7 of hearts.

WEST
7
A Q T 2
K T 9 7 4
K 9 7


SOUTH
J 9 8 4 3
J 7
5 3 2
T 3 2


West North East South
1 Pass
1 Pass 1 Pass
4 Pass Pass Pass

7-T-6-9. Declarer finishes what I started and draws more trump. Q-4-3-J. Then he shifts to a spade. 7-2-A-3. He cashes the K of spades. K-4-7 of clubs-5.

Declarer switches to the Q of diamonds. Q-2-4-8. Then another. 6-3-K-A.

Partner draws more trump. 5-8-8 of spades-A. Declarer ruffs out partner's J of diamonds and then shifts to a club. 5-2-K-A. Partner cashes the Q of clubs. Q-6-3-9. Dummy is up. Making 4.


NORTH
Q 5 2
6 5 4
A J 8
A Q J 4


WEST
7
A Q T 2
K T 9 7 4
K 9 7


EAST
A K T 6
K 9 8 3
Q 6
8 6 5


SOUTH
J 9 8 4 3
J 7
5 3 2
T 3 2


We have 4 top tricks if I'd lead the T of clubs. I hope they don't find that on the replay...


Professor Jack disagrees with my heart lead... But he suggests the 4 of spades.


On the replay the auction is the same. South leads the 4 of spades. Declarer cashes a second spade pitching a club. Making 4.

Nick: -420
Jack: -420
IMPs: 0 (1 total)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Monthly Fees Redux

I was talking to my friend Jeff at work about MMOs and he mentioned that even if monthly fees could be worthwhile if you spent enough time playing he didn't want to have the pressure of needing to play enough to make them worthwhile. He didn't want to be in a situation at the end of a month where he hadn't played enough to justify paying a monthly fee and therefore felt obligated to play the MMO instead of going out with friends or such.

I'm in a similar situation right now. You see, there are currently 5 computer games I really, really want to play. It's been a good couple months in my computer gaming world, you see, and some excellent sequels have come out recently to go with some longstanding games that demand time as well. Those games are:
  • World of Warcraft. We may be in a pre-expansion lull but I still have things I want to get done. I haven't decided on my "realm first" yet but whichever way I go I'm going to either want to level mining on my DK or finish leveling my druid to 80. On top of that there are still achievements I want to get, notably some reputation based ones and Loremaster.
  • Jack Bridge. I enjoy playing the game and it generates a lot of the recent content for the blog. I'd posted my last played deal yesterday so I played 3 more to build a minor buffer last night.
  • StarCraft 2. It came out 2 months ago and I still want to play it a lot. I finally finished all the single player campaign achievements off but I really like playing on the different ladders. 2v2, 3v3, 4v4... All awesome. But if I'm not logged in to the system my friends don't ping me to play games with them.
  • Civ V. This came out on Tuesday and has a lot of innovations I really like. 1 combat unit per square, cultural borders growing 1 square at a time, cities having innate defenders, and the reworking of ranged attacks are all awesome. I'd one more turn myself into oblivion if society would let me.
  • Final Fantasy XIV. The came out on Wednesday and is the new Square MMO. I thought FFXI was a better game than WoW and it looks like FFXIV is a better version of FFXI. They've done a bunch of things differently and I like them all so far. Only problem is despite trying to get my friends to play no one else has. Since they're all going to stick with WoW it seems pretty likely that I'll have to quit this once the next WoW expansion comes out.
Where's the monthly fee related problem? Well, since I'm going to be committing a lot of time to WoW when Cataclysm comes out it doesn't make much sense to pay monthly fees for two MMOs. As such, once my free month of FFXIV runs out I'll put it aside and won't be able to play it any more. But that means I bought the game for just a month of play, so if I want to get my money's worth I need to play it a lot this month. Even if I don't care about money's worth so much I want to get through a lot of the story and I have a very limited time to do so.

I'd rather play Civ V. But I can play Civ V next month. I can play it next year. Civ V will always exist. FFXIV won't. If I want to play it, I need to play it now. And I do want to play it. But more than that, like Jeff said, I feel obligated to play it.

There's a new Magic set being pre-released tomorrow, with a Grand Prix coming up in Toronto next month. I want to play in both of those events. Will doing so cost me critical FFXIV time?

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 33

Board 33 – Dealer North – No Vul

My hand: J 6 3 K A 9 6 3 2 A J 9 8

Partner passes and East opens 1 spade. I bid 2 diamonds. West bids 2 spades, partner passes again and East bid 3 spades alerted as a limit raise. I see no reason to bid again. West goes to 4 spades which gets passed out. I lead the A of diamonds.



WEST
9 8 5
A J 8 7 2
Q J
T 4 2



SOUTH
J 6 3
K
A 9 6 3 2
A J 9 8



West North East South

Pass 1 2
2 Pass 31Pass
4 Pass PassPass
1Limit

A-J-8-7. That 8 looks pretty encouraging. I return the 2. 2-Q-4-5. Declarer decides to draw trump. 5-7-K-3. Q-6-8-T. A-J-9-4 of hearts. Declarer cashes the T of diamonds. T-3-2 of clubs-5 of clubs. And another diamond. K-6-2 of hearts-5 of hearts.

Declarer then shifts to a heart and ducks my K! 3-K-7-6. Now, can we set them somehow or should I just cash my A of clubs? Declarer has 2 spades in hand and no diamonds left so he has 3 cards in clubs/hearts. Partner has 5 cards in hearts and clubs. Could he have the Q of clubs and the Q of hearts? If so then we can set them if I lead passively. Can I lose my club A? Yes, if declarer has the Q of hearts then he has 3 heart tricks and two trumps. But why didn't he beat my K of hearts if he has the Q of hearts? Maybe he thinks I have the Q of hearts and is going to finesse me when he gets in?

I play the 9 of diamonds. West and North pitch clubs and declarer ruffs. He returns a heart. 9-8 of clubs-A-T. He comes back with the T of clubs. T-7-3-J. I cash the A of clubs, dropping declarer's K. He ruffs the last trick. Down 1.



NORTH
T 7
Q T 6 5 4
8 4
Q 7 6 5


WEST
9 8 5
A J 8 7 2
Q J
T 4 2


EAST
A K Q 4 2
9 3
K T 7 5
K 3


SOUTH
J 6 3
K
A 9 6 3 2
A J 9 8


Professor Jack disagrees with my diamond bid. My suit sucks so I shouldn't get it in there. He also disagrees with my opening lead. He says the A of diamonds is the systemic lead but likes a spade lead instead.


The auction is different in that my hand doesn't bid. They still get to 4 spades. My hand starts by drawing trump. After trump is drawn they attack hearts, but they actually beat the K of hearts with the A. Then they go after their diamond tricks. Really it doesn't matter since they have the same 4 losers and do lose them. Down 1.

Nick: -50
Jack: -50
IMPs: 0 (1 total)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 32

Board 32 – Dealer West – EW Vul

My hand: Q 9 Q J A Q 8 7 6 9 5 4 2

East opens 1 club in third seat. I bid 1 diamond. West bids 1 spade, partner bids 2 diamonds, and East bids 3 spades. I pass and West bids 3 spades (alerted as a limit raise). North and East both pass. I see no reason to act here. Partner leads the T of diamonds.


NORTH
T



EAST
K 7 4
K 9 5 4
5
A Q T 6 3

SOUTH
Q 9
Q J
A Q 8 7 6
9 5 4 2


West North East South
Pass Pass 1 1
1 2 2 Pass
31 Pass Pass Pass
1Limit

T-5-A-4. Declarer should have 4 diamonds and therefore wants to ruff some of them. I return a trump to cut down on that. 9-T-J-K. Declarer draws more trump. 4-Q-A-3. And a third round. 8-2-7-6 of diamonds. Guess he doesn't want to ruff diamonds after all.

Declarer attacks clubs. J-K-A-2. T-4-7-8. Q-5-2 of diamonds-6 of hearts. Declarer ruffs out my 9 of clubs. He plays a heart towards board but partner hops with the A. Partner returns the 9 of diamonds. I play the Q but declarer wins the K. He plays a heart to board's K, ruffs the club back and cashes his high diamond. Making 5.


NORTH
J 3 2
A T 6 3 2
T 9 3
K 8


WEST
A T 8 6 5
8 7
K J 4 2
J 7


EAST
K 7 4
K 9 5 4
5
A Q T 6 3


SOUTH
Q 9
Q J
A Q 8 7 6
9 5 4 2


Professor Jack disagrees with my pass. He wants me to bid 3 diamonds. My hand seems pretty terrible and I already got my diamonds into the picture so I don't know about that.

On the play he disagrees with switching to a spade. He wants me to play the Q of hearts for some reason. I guess to attack declarer's eventual entry to board's clubs?

He also disagrees with my first club since I signalled odd instead of even. Meh, I don't think that matters at all and if anything tells declarer his clubs aren't running if that matters to him.


On the replay my seat gets in there with 3 diamonds. West doubles for penalty which becomes the final contract.

West leads the J of clubs which his partner wins with the A. East switches to a trump, West winning the J. West draws another round of trump. West wins the A of spades and goes back to clubs. West throws away the setting trick by ruffing the next club low (overruffed), but then gets it back when declarer plays a low spade to him. East ends up getting his K of hearts and Q of clubs for down 3 doubled.

Nick: -200
Jack: -500
IMPs: +7 (+1 total)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 31

Board 31 – Dealer South – NS Vul

My hand: Q 5 3 A Q T 6 Q T 5 3 6 3

I pass. West bids 1 NT which gets passed around to me. I don't have a Cappelletti bid here so I pass. I guess maybe I could double but I don't see a good place to land. Our best chance at a plus is probably to set them here. Partner leads the 3 of hearts.


NORTH
3





EAST
6 2
K 7
J 9 8 7
Q J T 8 4

SOUTH
Q 5 3
A Q T 6
Q T 5 3
6 3


West North East South



Pass
1NTPass Pass Pass

Guess we should start by taking as many hearts as we can. 3-K-A-5. Q-9-2-7. T-2 of diamonds-8-2 of spades. 6-6 of diamonds-4-6 of spades. Or maybe not? Why would partner possibly duck his J of hearts here? He must have an entry and want me on lead. Dummy looks to have both clubs and diamonds locked up solid so it must be spades. Should I lead the Q? Probably. Q-7-9-7 of diamonds. 5-A-4-8 of diamonds.

Declarer now taunts us by leading the 7 of clubs which floats around. Then the K. Then the A. Then the 9, as partner pitches the J of hearts. Declarer also has the A of diamonds and gets his J of spades at the end when partner pitches his K for no reason. Making 2.


NORTH
K T 9 4
J 8 4 3 2
K 4
5 2


WEST
A J 8 7
9 5
A 6 2
A K 9 7


EAST
6 2
K 7
J 9 8 7
Q J T 8 4


SOUTH
Q 5 3
A Q T 6
Q T 5 3
6 3


Declarer has 7 top tricks and no right to get an 8th. Partner blew us out two different ways to make that happen, so I expect to lose an IMP here.


Professor Jack disagrees with my Q of spade shift. If I lead a spade I should lead the 3, apparently. He'd rather I lead the 3 of diamonds. I don't think that makes sense given that partner did everything in his power to keep me on lead. Why diamonds as opposed to spades? I guess I 'know' he can't have 4 spades since he didn't make a Cappelletti bid, but then it turns out he did have them.


The replay has an identical auction. They take their 7 tricks and go home. North ducks his heart trick here too, but South returns a diamond which forces declarer to cash out.

Nick: -120
Jack: -90
IMPs: -1 (-6 total)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Cataclysm Realm Firsts

World of Warcraft has had an achievement system built into the game for the last couple years. The vast majority of these achievements are things everyone theoretically can do if they play enough or are good enough. These achievements are worth points (that do nothing tangible, it's just a number you can make bigger) and sometimes also grant extra things like titles, pets, or mounts. The rest of the achievements are what they call "Feats of Strength". These tend to be things you could have done in the past but can't do anymore due to changes in the game over the last 6 years. Things you may want to have a record of, but which other people can't do so it wouldn't be fair to have them be worth points. Others are things people theoretically _can_ do but it would be unreasonable to do so. (Such as Insane in the Membrane which took me the better part of 6 months to get done.)

A few of the Feats of Strength are for doing something first. The first to clear a dungeon on hard mode, or the first to hit max level. With the next WoW expansion due to come out any month now it's time to think about the impending Realm First Feats of Strength. I didn't get one of these last expansion (starting at level 55 with no trade skills meant a lot were out of reach) but really want to get at least one this time around. The first two WoW expansions I was starting over with a new main; this one I'll be sticking with my current character so I have a big gear advantage for the first couple levels.

Sky made a post recently about how he intends to turn a massive amount of gold into realm firsts for his two crafting professions. I have a less massive amount of gold but still a pretty substantial amount and could try to do the same... Only problem there is we're both Jewelcrafters. There's no Realm First Loser achievement, so getting second place is right out. Sky has more than four times my gold, but I think the amount needed to get to max is less than what I have. I definitely think I could get it over him, but I also think if I try for it that he could get it anyway. There are many different achievements I could go for, so I figured I should take a look at all of them and see if there isn't a better way to spend my time and money than going for the same thing as my friend.

Now, for historical data I could look at worldwide or just at Vek'Nilash. Vek is pretty widely regarded as a terrible server with not a lot of players so getting these things 'should' be easier here than on an average server I would think. Unfortunately there's no easy way to get worldwide data but I can easily get "Americas" server data, so we'll go with that.

Level 85.
  • Took 1 day Americas, 2 days Vek.
  • Involves just playing a lot for a couple days and focusing on questing and maybe running each dungeon once to do the quests.
  • Can be 'cheesed' by having an out of group healer or body-puller to just drag mobs to you. I believe a guy from France did this last expansion and got it done in less than a day.
  • Or by having someone else play for you when you sleep.
  • Should probably stock up on flasks and food beforehand.
  • Low downside to trying and failing. Even without achievements I'd be playing a lot on expansion release.
  • Assuming comparable leveling speeds may come down to who has the better sleep schedule timing.
Level 85 Death Knight
  • Took 2 days Americas, 4 days Vek, took me 10 days. (I was actually closer than it looks, but once it was clear I wasn't going to win I got other stuff done and went back to work.)
  • Nothing special compared to the above. Is a potential consolation prize if I lose out on 85 in general.
Level 85 Night Elf
  • 1 day Americas, 3 days Vek.
  • Same as above. Note that all three of these achievements can be 'tracked' in real time. I can get updates on what level everyone is and can push harder or abort as needed.
Max Level Herbalism, Skinning, Mining
  • All done same day both Americas and Vek.
  • I don't have any of these tradeskills right now and don't want them longterm. (They give worse raiding bonuses than jewelcrafting/blacksmithing.)
  • Could be used in conjunction with another trade skill to alleviate the gold cost of powerleveling it.
  • Americas the guy who got first miner also got first blacksmith. The same is true on Vek. (Different guys.)
  • Has the big upside that if people are paying through the nose to get these achievements (hi Sky!) then by being a gatherer you can make a mint. I'm not sure what I'd do with a mint, though...
Max Level Fishing
  • All done the same day. Presumably by people who went to a midnight release, went to a trainer, bought the skill, hearthed to Ironforge, and fished until they hit max.
  • I do still need to catch Old Ironjaw, so fishing for a few hours in Ironforge isn't the end of the world for me. It does make it extra unlikely to get the level 85 ones if I spend 6 hours not leveling.
  • I do like fishing, and I'm pretty sure I was the world first DK to get the Salty title for fishing. The internet isn't being a lot of help here but it took me barely a month to get it. Certainly one of the first, anyway, and it would be nice to have a realm first related to fishing.
  • If I spend the first 6 hours of the expansion fishing in Ironforge and don't get Old Ironjaw or the realm first it will really, really suck.
  • Or I could find a nice expansion fishing hole and get new fish to cook with while striving for the achievement...
Max Level Cooking
  • 1 day Americas, 6 days Vek.
  • No one cared enough about cooking to power level it last expansion on Vek.
  • Not even sure how you'd try. Kill lots of beasts? Focus on fishing pools? Get everyone in your guild to mail you meat? If they did the same mechanic with the spices then you probably would want to get people in your guild to loan/sell you spices to start.
  • Being a cook really has no benefit.
  • On the plus side, I do have the faster cooking hat!
Max Level Firstaid
  • Same day Americas, 1 day Vek.
  • I'm sure this goes to someone who buys/borrows all the cloth early on.
  • Being a tailor undoubtedly helps for scooping up the bonus cloth.
Max Level Archaeology
  • The level 80 version of this achievement hasn't been handed out yet and apparently does exist. So there are two up for grabs here: first to skill 450 and first to skill 525.
  • Archaeology looks awesome. You can get epic weapons and armor for level 85, along with pets and mounts. It looks like something that someone into optimizing their routes will be able to level faster than other people. I expect someone with time and skill will beat someone with time. (As opposed to fishing, for example...)
  • I want to level it eventually since apparently it will grant a minor raiding bonus. In order to level the skill as I level in game I'd need to go back and power level it anyway. If there were no achievements I'd probably go back and do this right away, or level in dungeons when my guild had a group together and otherwise do excavating.
Max Level Blacksmithing, Jewelcrafting, Engineering
  • The tradeskills which require mining mats to level.
  • Americas they were all done same day. On Vek it took 2 days for blacksmithing and 4 for the other two.
  • Unless the raiding benefits change I'll want to level blacksmithing and jewelcrafting eventually anyway.
  • I expect it will be substantially cheaper to do so a couple weeks after launch, but there's no guarantee that will actually hold. It really depends a lot on how much inflation exists in new quest rewards and in how many exploiting farmers we have.
  • Getting high level jewelcrafting early means making a fortune prospecting ore and cutting gems.
Max Level Tailoring
  • Took 3 days in Americas, 7 days on Vek.
  • Would help get first aid.
  • There's no way I'd keep it longterm, so I'd be picking it up solely for the achievement.
  • I know next to nothing about it. Did it take that long because of cooldown issues? Or would it just be buying massive amounts of cloth?
Max Level Enchanting
  • Took 2 days in Americas, 12 days on Vek.
  • Wow, Vek was really bad at getting this done last expansion.
  • You can turn massive amounts of cash into greens into enchanting mats fairly easily.
  • You can enchant scrolls now (though you could last expansion too) so it wouldn't even be a huge waste of money to do so.
  • Being in a guild that runs a lot of dungeons and will want to enchant their blues for heroics provides lots of opportunity to get 'free' skill-ups.
  • I suspect someone else in my guild will already be going for this, so I'd be in the same boat I'm in for jewelcrafting.
Max Level Leatherworking
  • Took 3 days Americas, 12 on Vek.
  • Uh... Double wow. Vek was really, really bad at getting this done.
  • I don't really want to be a leatherworker.
Max Level Alchemy, Inscription
  • Alchemy was same day/4 days. Inscription was 2/10.
  • My rogue alt is currently max inscription and I have no intention on leveling it again. Sky wants to do alchemy and if I'm going to challenge him on something it'll be the one I already have, thanks.
  • I could try to hit max on my rogue, but I'd really rather have these achievements on my main. If no one gets it in 7 days though maybe I'll double back and scoop it up...

Interestingly, it looks like there's a new one added in not for players, but for guilds...

Realm First! Working As A Team
  • First guild on the realm to obtain 525 skill points in all professions and secondary professions.
  • I think more than anything else I want this one.

So, what should I do? There's lots I want, which may be the biggest danger. If I go 85% at a bunch of different things will I get any of them? (If it was last xpack and I was going for cooking or inscription the answer is yes, otherwise no.)

I like the idea of picking up mining and angling towards first miner/blacksmith/85 DK. I also like the idea of just doing archaeology. And then I like just fishing and turning those fish into potential cooking. Tailoring into first aid has a certain appeal as well. And part of me still wants to take Sky head on and charge for jewelcrafting. Or if it turns out my guild has everything covered but something specific I could dive into that and aim for the guild achievement...

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 30

Board 30 – Dealer East – No Vul

My hand: K 9 8 7 5 4 K Q J 9 4 K 9

East passes. I open 1 spade. West passes and partner bids (of course) 2 hearts. I bid 3 diamonds and he bids 3 hearts. I bid 3 spades. Partner bids 3 NT.

Do I want to let him play here? If he doesn't have a club stopper then my K9 could get finessed off the hop and we'll go down a bajillion. If he does have a club stopper then won't 5 diamonds be a good spot? I bid 4 diamonds to give him a choice. He chooses 4 hearts. He should know I have 6 spades and 5 diamonds and still wants to play in hearts. Can he have 7 of them? I don't think so, but my spades are really terrible. I have at least 3 trump losers unless partner has something in spades and he'd better not be bidding hearts here with something in spades. I reluctantly pass. East leads the 4 of clubs.


NORTH
Q
A K Q 9 6 2
8 7
A 6 5 2



EAST
4

SOUTH
K 9 8 7 5 4

K Q J 9 4
K 9


West North East South


Pass 1
Pass 2 Pass 3
Pass 3 Pass 3
Pass 3NT Pass 4
Pass 4 All Pass

Arg! Partner had reasonable support for both my suits but bid his own a third time anyway. I make 4 spades pretty easily and I think I can make 5 diamonds too. I don't think we can make 3NT though. None of that matters though. Can I make 4 hearts?

Well, I have a heart loser unless they split JTx-xxxx. I have a spade loser. I have a diamond loser. I have 2 club losers. That's 5. I have no trump on board so I can't ruff the clubs and there's no way to get rid of the other losers. My only hope is to set up diamonds for pitches. I think my line of play is going to be win the A in hand, cash 3 rounds of trump to prevent any weird ruffs and then lead a diamond. I will still have the K of clubs as an entry to the diamonds so I should be ok unless I get ruffed before I can pitch.

Alternatively I can set up the K of spades for a single pitch. I can't get ruffed unless spades split really terribly. One pitch isn't good enough though... I don't see a better line than the first one, so I go for it.

4-9-J-A. I draw trump, pitching spades. Everyone follows to 3 hearts, with the J still outstanding. I still see no logical play but diamonds so I attack those next. 8-A-4-6. East switches to a spade instead of a club! J-8-2-Q. Uh... There goes my spade loser? Did they really duck a spade because they thought I could have 2 in my hand? Maybe they thought I had 0. I sure did on the bidding. Anyway, I now have just a heart loser and make them take it right away. Making 5.


NORTH
Q
A K Q 9 6 2
8 7
A 6 5 2


WEST
A 2
J 8 7 4
6 5 3 2
Q J 3


EAST
J T 6 3
T 5 3
A T
T 8 7 4


SOUTH
K 9 8 7 5 4

K Q J 9 4
K 9


Professor Jack disagrees with my 4 diamonds bid. He wants to play 3NT. I hope they do that at the other table!


Sadly they don't. For some reason despite the same auction leading up to that point North decides to bid 4 hearts instead of 3NT. South pulls to 4 spades which is where they play. Turns out you actually can't make 4 spades on the layout as they take 3 spades and the A of diamonds. Down 1.

Nick: 450
Jack: -50
IMPs: +11 (-5 total)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 29

Board 29 – Dealer North – All Vul

My hand: T 8 Q 7 5 K T 9 4 K 7 4 2

Partner opens 1 club. If I had a 4 card major I should bid it instead of diamonds but I don't. Partner jumps to 3 no trump. Yikes! East leads the 3 of spades.


North
K Q 6
A K 8 2
A 8 6
Q 8 5




West
3

SOUTH
T 8
Q 7 5
K T 9 4
K 7 4 2


West North East South
1 Pass 11
Pass 3NT All Pass
1Walsh

I have 1 spade, 3 hearts, 2 diamonds and an eventual club. I might be able to get a second spade with favourable lies of the cards. (A in West hand or J/9 in East hand or by forcing East to lead away from the A again.) If any of the other suits split 3-3 I can get a long trick in them. I can finesse in diamonds either way to try to pick up extra tricks, or I can get an extra diamond by dropping Jx or Qx.

First order of business, how do I play spades? By the rule of 11 I know West has 3 cards higher than the 3 of spades and so does East. There's no particular reason to assume the 9 or J are in either hand. I think I'll play East for A9xx or A9xxx so I insert the 8 from board. West plays the 9. Boo! I win the Q.

I want to set up my club trick and I'd really rather not let West get in so I want to lead up to the Q. If he has the A and hops then I get an extra club trick by doing so and hopefully spades split 4-4 so I'm not just down. I play a heart to dummy. 2-3-Q-4. Then the 2 of clubs back. 2-3-Q-9.

Ok, so West has the A of clubs. If I lose a diamond to West I'm down. If I lose one to East I'm down if he returns a club but not if he returns a spade. I play a diamond from hand. 6-J-K-2. The J is an interesting card... Assuming the 2 is count and shows an odd number of diamonds they're either 3-3 giving me an eventual long diamond or they're 5-1 and I'll have to lose one to West eventually but I'll get a third anyway. If they are 3-3, who has the Q? Would East hop with the J from Jxx? If so then there's nothing I can do since he's going to win it. It's only right to play to the A if he has specifically QJ tight, but then West gave false count. I should finesse. 4-5-8-Q.

East returns a heart. 9-5-T-A. I cash the A of diamonds. A-3-9-7. My long diamond is set up but it's stranded on board for now. Thinking back, both opponents signalled odd for hearts and have both played 2 hearts, so hearts are also probably 3-3. I cash the K. K-6-7-J. I cash the 13th heart. 8-T of clubs-T of spades-2 of spades.

East either started as 4-3-3-3 or 5-3-3-2. West was either 4-3-3-3 or 3-3-3-4. So East has left either 3 spades and a club or 4 spades. West has 2 spades and 2 clubs or 1 spade and 3 clubs. Pretty sure I'm down no matter what I do. I lead a low club. 5-J-4-A. West returns a spade. 7-6-5-T of diamonds. Another spade. 4-K-A-7 of clubs. East cashes the last spade. Down 1.


NORTH
K Q 6
A K 8 2
A 8 6
Q 8 5


WEST
9 7 4 2
J T 4
7 5 2
A 6 3


EAST
A J 5 3
9 6 3
Q J 3
J T 9


SOUTH
T 8
Q 7 5
K T 9 4
K 7 4 2


Professor Jack disagrees with my diamond play. He wants me to cash a heart after winning the Q of clubs. He also doesn't want me to play a diamond back after winning the K. He also wants me to win the A on the same trick instead of finessing. Finally he wants me to insert the K of spades instead of the 6. I was hoping East would duck and West wouldn't have any spades left but I guess that's probably a pipedream and I gave up the chance of winning when West had the A of spades all along.

The auction is different but they end up in 3NT anyway. They're playing it from the South hand though so West is on lead. Dummy inserts the Q on the spade lead and East ducks it. Declarer attacks clubs the same as I did, going to board with a heart. He then also played a diamond. Screw you, Captain Jack. He does return to hearts instead of diamonds though. Instead of cashing his 13th heart he cashes the A of diamonds. He goes back to hearts and everyone pitches a spade. He throws East in with the Q of diamonds. East returns the J of clubs, ducked around and then another to his partner's A. A spade through gives them the rest of the tricks. Down 1 also.

Walsh let us right side the contract and it almost let us make. I had to guess if East had the 9 or J of spades and if I was right we would have made because the right hand was playing.

Nick: -100
Jack: -100
IMPs: 0 (-16 total)

Friday, September 17, 2010

Monthly Fees

I was reading some spam email after work yesterday and browsed an email from 1UP.com with blurbs about articles on their site. I didn’t go read the article but one of them was about Lord of the Rings Online. Apparently it’s gone free to play, which caused the writer to consider checking it out. He never plays MMOs solely because monthly fees turn him off. Every few months I have basically this debate with Andrew since he’s morally opposed to continuing to pay for games after he’s bought them.

Now, I play MMOs, I pay monthly for MMOs, and I’m happy to do so. I’ve played WoW for almost 6 years. Before that I played Final Fantasy XI for 6 months. I’ve dabbled in City of Villains, Eve, and Star Trek Online. Heck, I just bought a new computer so I can play Final Fantasy XIV (and Civ V) next week… Pretty clearly I put a pretty high value on getting entertainment from games. But I’ve also spent a lot of time and money on non-MMOs as well. I mentioned Civ V above and I’ve played an awfully lot of games of its prequels. It got me wondering… How much value am I actually getting for my money when I play MMOs? There are a lot of console games I’d love to play but a lot of my video gaming time is spent on WoW. From a strict money per time point of view would I be better off dropping WoW?

Excluding MMOs, how much time have I spent on games in the past? I’m looking for max/min time to start and then I’ll try to extrapolate out an average time from there. Console RPGs tend to have a timer on them to differentiate save games among other reasons, and I can remember getting excited when Final Fantasy X had a third hour digit. I’ve played it three times and I rolled into that third digit every time so I’ve probably spent 400 hours on it. Technically I’ve never paid a cent for it, having played it on James’s copy, on my brother’s copy, and on Byung’s copy. (Only FF game I don’t own… Maybe I should rectify that.) Assume I did buy it for $50 though, and you’re looking at 8 hours of enjoyment per dollar.

Final Fantasy IV is my favourite game alltime and I’ve played it through somewhere in the 10-20 times range. It’s a pretty short game though, so each time through is only like 24ish hours. I don’t think I’ve played it as much as FFX, and I own 3 copies of it (Super Nintendo, Super Famicom, DS) so it’s probably more like 5 h/$. (This ignores the fact that many of those plays were made on a rented copy from Midnight Video in Riverview Mall, which would drag down that number. I can remember my save game still being there when I rented it again…)

Civ 2 is the 4X game I’ve played the most by far. I used to play it multiplayer a bit in University and on top of that I’ve probably played 50 games solo. Assuming 40 hours per game (much less for multi) I’m probably around the 2000 hour range. That’s like 40h/$.

Warcraft 3 is a game I didn’t play very much in and of itself but I played a ton of “use map settings” maps, particularly Defense of the Ancients and misc tower defense games. I played maybe 20 hours a week for a couple years? That would put it in the same range as Civ2 but for twice as much since I had to buy an expansion. 20h/$.

Mario Kart 64. I used to play this game with my brother and our friend Robin after school in high school all the time. It had to split time with Goldeneye 64, Star Fox 64 and various WWF games. Between them all you’d be looking at at most 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 3 years. Combined that’s more than Civ 2 but split 4 ways? Not so much. Still, since Mario Kart 64 was the most played of them all it’d probably be around 15h/$.

NHL ’09. I played a couple seasons of Be A Player mode, including playoffs, which would be around 200 games. I played on medium length periods so maybe 45 minutes a game, which would make 150 hours total. So a little over 2h/$.

Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego. Probably my biggest video game mistake. I can remember slamming down $70 for this bad boy and it was really terrible. I played it a few times to try to get my money’s worth out of it but I’d be lying if I said I really enjoyed it and even then I’d only be looking at maybe 7 hours total. .1h/$.

Tales of Vesperia, which will have an even worse number, since I’ve played it for about half an hour. Yes, that would make it in the .008h/$ range, but I don’t consider it to be a big flop since I’d still like to play it at some point. It’s sitting on my shelf, mocking me, wishing I would stop playing WoW and Starcraft 2 and pop it into the 360.

More generally I’d expect a console game that I liked to be worth between 20 and 60 hours of gameplay with a bunch of flops and a few homeruns tossed in. All told I’m probably getting 1h/$ with a max in the 15h/$ range. There’d have to be a lot of turnover though so I couldn’t stay in the top end of the range very long without having to get a different game. Almost every game on this list played alone is maxxing out in the 200 hour range. A few games went above that but they’re all games I played with other people. (Civ 2, DotA, Mario Kart, etc…) I definitely wouldn’t have played any of them as much as I did without other people to play with.

How about a board game? I’ve played Vegas Showdown maybe 40 times and it’s my most played game I own. An hour and a half per game and I’m up to barely 1h/$.

Television on DVD? I bought BSG for $150 or so. 75 episodes total, 45 minutes per episode… .375h/$ I’ll probably watch them again a second time at least and maybe more well into the future. To get up to even FFIV though I’d need to watch them 11 times. Possible, but unlikely.

Television on cable? At $90 per month I’d need to spend 360 hours a month or 12 hours a day watching to get to 4h/$. (Maybe that’s why so many people spend their lives in front of the tv… Just trying to get their money’s worth!)

A movie in the theatre? It’s pretty fixed at $13 for an hour and a half, or .11h/$.

How about a novel? I bought a few books a couple months ago in a series I liked. Paperbacks are like $10 each and I can plow through one in like 4 hours? So, .4h/$.


Now, how much time do you think I’ve spent on WoW? Any guesses? Today I went through and added up my total play time across all my characters…



396 days, 22 hours, 9 minutes, 16 seconds. In hour terms, 9526. For reference, there have been about 50000 hours total since I started playing WoW, so about 20% of my life has been spent in game… Wow. Now, some of that time was racked up when I was working since my old job had a lot of downtime so I would fish on my laptop while working on my desktop but that’s still a stupidly high amount.

How much money have I spent? Well, 1 game and 2 expansions is in the $150 range to start and then tack on 67 months at $15 a month and you’re looking at $1155, or ~8h/$.

So, I can think of 3 games which have ever yielded a higher time per dollar amount and another in the same ballpark. Of course, I can always go back to those old games and raise the bar on them. I wouldn’t mind playing FFX again, for example. (Maybe I’ll do another FF marathon at some point!) I have a reasonable collection of console games which I can always just plug in and play with no cost involved. WoW on the other hand is probably spiraling downward since I can’t play from work anymore. WoW is really fun because of my friends that play it too, but the same was true of everything that beats WoW. Mario Kart 64 wouldn’t have been the same if I couldn’t huck red shells at my brother. I wouldn’t have played DotA as much as I did if I wasn’t on a league team with Robb.

To maintain an 8h/$ rate I’d need to play WoW 30 hours a week which really isn’t happening right now, but will spike well over that when the next expansion comes out and will stay over it for months. (Unless FFXIV is awesome!)

I wasn’t sure what the numbers were going to end up at, but I’m not at all surprised that WoW has been a better investment than almost every other game I’ve ever bought. Every source of entertainment, really. Books, movies, television, games, icetime for curling or hockey… They’re all at least an order of magnitude away from the value WoW has provided in terms of hours per dollar.

You can argue that spending 20% of the last 5.5 years in an online game isn’t healthy, or that I’m a loser for doing so. I don’t know that I could dispute that. I’m not normal. But my WoW monthly fee is a sixth what my cable bill is. WoW may not have long lasting value but neither does cable tv and you have to spend an obscene amount of time watching tv to be as cost effective. Take into account commercials, interacting with friends, and just having your brain working and it seems obvious to me which way to go.

To be fair I live alone so cable is as cost inefficient as it gets here. Cable scales well with extra people in the house, WoW does not. I could go to the library to get books instead of buying them and get insane value out of it. I could have roommates that buy board games or console games so I don’t have to. WoW isn’t a godsend and it’s not the best possible way to spend money for entertainment but it’s not anywhere near as bad as the people who refuse to pay monthly fees on games assert. If you have the $15 to spend and like video games then MMOs can be awesome value for your money.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 28

Board 28 – Dealer West – NS Vul

My hand: A K J 3 A K Q 4 9 T 9 8 5

Three passes to me. I open 1 club. Partner responds 1 diamond which is alerted. Presumably this is because of playing Walsh as partner can't have a bad hand with a 4 card major. I don't know what I should do here but that's partly why I put Walsh on my card. I know with a worse hand I should bypass my 4 card majors and bid 1NT. Bidding 1 heart should show a distributional hand which I don't really have. I think 2NT is probably the right bid so I give it a try. Partner raises to 3.

After the bidding a sneak a peak at what the bids meant. Partner's 1 diamond is either 6+ points, 4 diamonds, and no 4 card major or 6-11 points, 5 or more diamonds, and no 4 card major, or 12+ points, 5 or more diamonds, and longer diamonds than hearts or spades.

My 2NT bid showed 17 points and 5 clubs or 18-19 points and no 4 card major. It was forcing no matter what. Looks like I probably should have bid 1 heart; I will have to replay and see what the bids mean.

West leads the 2 of spades.


North
9 6
T 5
Q 7 6 5 4 3
K Q 4

WEST
2



SOUTH
A K J 3
A K Q 4
9
T 9 8 5


West North East South
Pass Pass Pass 1
Pass 11 Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT All Pass
1Walsh

Hmm. I have 3 spades and 3 hearts. I can brute force 2 clubs. I don't have the entries to set anything up in diamonds. My 4th spade and my 4th heart are both terrible so I can't set them up with lucky layouts. I can get a 3rd club with Axx in West or with Jx in either hand which definitely seems like the way to go.

At any rate, 2-9-Q-A. I lead a low club. 5-3-K-A. East comes back with a spade. T-K-4-6.

So, now I can get my 3rd club trick by either dropping an initial Jx or by finessing West to pick up his Jxx. Any Jx is a third of all 4-2 splits (48.5%/3~=16%). Jxx in west is half of all 3-3 splits (35.5/2~=18%). I decide to finesse. T-2-4-J. East returns yet another spade. 8-J-5-3 of diamonds.

Now what? I can cash out for down 1. They have 3 more top tricks so I'm down whenever they get in, so I don't see anything better to do. Nothing funky happens. Down 1.


NORTH
9 6
T 5
Q 7 6 5 4 3
K Q 4


WEST
7 5 4 2
8 7 6
A J 8 2
3 2


EAST
Q T 8
J 9 3 2
K T
A J 7 6


SOUTH
A K J 3
A K Q 4
9
T 9 8 5


Professor Jack starts out by disagreeing with my 2NT bid. He says my hand is good for Walsh, that I shouldn't skip biddable suits, and that I should bid 1 heart.

He also disagrees with my play after cashing out. They had 4 winners and 3 cards left so I don't know what it mattered.


On the replay the auction goes a lot differently (they aren't playing Walsh, after all) but they still end up in 3NT after my hand bids clubs, hearts, and then a fourth suit forcing 2 spades.

The play differs as well. Declarer attacks diamonds when he gets in with the opening spade which sets up some easy diamond tricks for the defense. Giving up a tempo on clubs means he can't set them up in time. Down 2.

Nick: -100
Jack: -200
IMPs: +3 (-16 total)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Bridge Match 1 - Board 27

Board 27 – Dealer South – No Vul

My hand: 6 3 K J T 9 4 2 A T 6 9 5

I open 2 hearts. West overcalls 2 spades. Partner raises to 3 hearts. East raises to 3 spades. I pass, West goes to 4 spades and everyone passes. Partner leads the K of clubs.


North
K





East
Q 9 7
Q 7
K Q J 9 8 5
T 2

SOUTH
6 3
K J T 9 4 2
A T 6
9 5


West North East South



21
232 2 Pass
4 Pass PassPass
1Weak Two
2Preemptive

K-2-5-A. Declarer goes after diamonds right off the bat. 2-7-J-?. Partner's 7 should be count, so I expect he has 2 diamonds. As such, declarer has 2 diamonds himself and I should win the second round. Alternatively if partner only has one diamond then I could win this one and give him a ruff. What tricks do we have? It looks like a club, a diamond, and a heart assuming partner ever gets around to leading one for me. We need one more which is either the A of hearts in partner's hand or a ruff. I think they're 2-2 so I duck this round. 2-7-J-6.

Declarer returns the Q of diamonds. I cover. Q-A-3-4. I return a club. 9-4-J-T. Partner cashes the A of hearts. A-7-J-8. Partner thinks a long time and then plays a club. That can't be right unless partner only bid 3 hearts with 4 of them. I pitch the 2 of hearts. 7-7 of spades-2 of hearts-3.

Declarer draws trump from board. 9-6-8-2. Then he ruffs a diamond. 5-T-T of spades-3 of hearts. Declarer ruffs another club. 6-Q-Q of spades-4 of hearts.

Unless partner underlead his A it looks like declarer has 3 club tricks. Oh well, not much I can do about that. 9-2-T-A. Declarer exits a diamond. 4-K-J-?. If partner lead a stiff club then I could overtake and give him a ruff. But if he wanted me to get in, why didn't he duck the diamond? Hopefully he'll return a trump to cut down on diamond ruffs in dummy. I play the 8.

Declarer plays a diamond off board. I don't know what good my trump is going to be so I ruff with it. 8-3 of spades-J of spades-5 of hearts. Declarer draws partner's last 2 trump and then cashes a club. Making 4.



NORTH
5 4 2
A 6 5 3
7 4
K Q J 7


WEST
A K J T 8
8
3 2
A 8 6 4 3


EAST
Q 9 7
Q 7
K Q J 9 8 5
T 2


SOUTH
6 3
K J T 9 4 2
A T 6
9 5


Professor Jack disagrees with my 2 heart bid. He says my hand should preempt and isn't suitable for a weak two. He wants me to open 3 hearts. I guess that suit's a lot better than some suits I'd bid 2 hearts on so maybe I should have, but Andrew yells at me when I do things like that.

On the play he disagrees with my ducking the first diamond. He wants me to win with the A. He also disagrees with my signal on partner's A of hearts. He says I should encourage and therefore play the 9. Is the J not encouraging too? I give up.


The replay has an identical auction. I wonder if my messing with the convention card is what is causing Jack and Captain Jack to make different plays. At either table I would bid 4 hearts in North's seat. He has Axxx support! Obey the Law, Jack. Obey the Law.

On the play Jack wins the A of diamonds and cashes out the same three tricks we got. Declarer gets the rest but has to work a lot less hard for it since his diamonds set up while he had a spade entry to board.

Nick: -420
Jack: -420
IMPs: 0 (-19 total)