Parting Shots

Well last night was the awards ceremony and banquet. It was held on the rooftop of the playing site, which looks down over the hillside through several miles of Asia and eventually down to the Bosphorus. It was a beautiful view, and the skyline was highlighted by a crecent moon that turned blood red before it set, which seemed a fitting sign of the end of our stay here. There were cocktails and a live band and everyone was dancing, it was a lot of fun.

Today we went on a tour of the city. We saw the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace (where the sultan kept the harem), and a very old Greek Orthodox church, the Kariye, that had some stunning mosaics. Finally we went on a cruise up and down the Bosphorus, which is like a real-life episode of The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The houses are out-of-this-world and everything is set in perfect order as if there were going to be a big party at each house at any moment. They had sailboats, yachts, pools, and there was even a private club set on a floating island in the middle of the straight. It was pretty incredible. Here are a few of the better photos I was able to take last night and tonight before my battery died. Actually I didn't have my memory card in last night at the ceremony so those pictures may have to wait until I get home, where I have the cables that can transfer everything. I just posted a lot of photos of the trip on Facebook, so you can have a look at them there. Anyone should be able to see them!

Again I must thank my teammates and my captain for a wonderful tournament. It is always an honor to represent your country, and to be on a team of great friends is very heartwarming on top of that. I hope to play with you all again sometime, I know you'll have great successes and hopefully maybe one or two of those will be together again. Cheers!!

Finished!!

Well... it's all over. Maybe with a stellar session today Jason and I might have been in medal contention, as it was we came in 15/54, about 3 boards back of 3rd. If you remove our 2nd session, in which about a million and one things went wrong, then it probably would have happened. Justin Lall and Jeremy Fournier came back from 29th to be in 4th place with 3 rounds to go, but 3 Polish pairs put paid to that. Alex Hudson and John Marriott won Gold for the U21 category. Justin and Jeremy had the top result for the Americans, taking 10th. I managed to win a couple side bets, so it wasn't all bad.

Here were a few interesting hands from the final set:

Exhausted

Non-players probably wouldn't believe how exhausted playing bridge all day will make you. I've been trying to eat right and sleep right for this whole tournament, yet waking up after a full night's rest at ~8:30am only takes me until about 8pm before I'm totally spent.

This evening there's an exhibition match between some of the Turkish organizers, two Dutch girls, and Adam Kaplan, Howie Weinstein and Matt Meckstroth. I'm kibbing Howie and Adam, here was one hand:

It's hard to pick out one good hand from a match when you don't have any hand records, but this one was funny because nobody at the table really had any idea of what was going on, yet I think that N/S found a pretty nice defense.

None of the hands that we played today are really worth mentioning. Both Jason and I didn't play particularly well, and we had a 1st set that was a total wreck. We're in 18th, I believe, with 26 boards to play and need a pretty healthy set plus some luck to medal. But I'd be happy with a top-10 finish.

I'll be happy to arrive home and get back to school... bridge is just too hard!

A Few More Days

Kate informs me that I need more photos on the blog. Well... I'd post them if I had them. Over the past week we haven't been able to do much sight-seeing, but we will be going on a very extensive tour of the city the day before we leave, hopefully I'll have a lot of photos to post at that point. In the meantime:

Here's a photo of the team a day after our bronze-medal win. Front row: Justin Lall, Matt Meckstroth, Kevin Dwyer. Middle: Me, Jeremy Fournier, Jason Chiu, Dr. Jim Sternberg and at the top our awesome captain, Howie Weinstein.

You may have notice the beard. Well it's easy to explain, it seems the love of my life is now into facial hair, so I must comply.

The final round of qualifying for the pairs starts in 10, so I have to go. Ch00 and I are in 5th right now and are playing some rather entertaining conventions... ask privately for more details.

Jokered

Well my team has been mentioned twice in the NYT this week. Once for a hand in which I receive some slightly bad press here and once for coming in 3rd here. It's the second hand that I'd like to talk about, in the diagramed position below (hands rotated):

These are the jokers who are playing in the finals instead of us? First off, who bids Michaels with this hand? This is something you do when you're like 10 years old. And then who doesn't know that this second double is penalty? Anyway the hand is just extremely frustrating.

There was an interesting hand from our semifinal match against Italy in which you can pick up a big swing for aggressive bidding and good technique as declarer:

OK... so that's now really how the auction went. But it does make things more interesting. Can you spot the winning line? Often on these 'obscure' plays, the extra tricks seem to appear from nowhere. Solution to come later.