A dream hand

November 28, 2023 at 3:02 pm · Filed under Musing

An unbelievably handsome hand to cap the girls night in.

Linda dealt, paused and then said, 4N. She has 26 hcp: 4 aces, 2 K+J and 1Q.

Me? A lonesome ♦️J. So I passed, reluctantly.

Her partnerJoyce, looking pleased, 5N.

My partner Barb said cheerfully, pass. As it turned out, she was blessed with a ♥️J.

After I led with my only prized possession and the dummy laid down her hand, Linda said, “let’s not to play …” ha ha ha… no point, indeed.

… asking for aces 4NT & kings 5NT: ♣️4 or none,♦️1, ♥️2, ♠️3 kings.

 

Ira: Correct response to 4N (asking for aces) sb 5C (all or none); next bid sb 5N (asking for kings since they have all the aces) correct response sb 6H (2 kings) then 7N

… 7N is the proper bid.

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Artists: squeeze bottles

November 27, 2023 at 9:00 pm · Filed under pottery 陶

All my potter mates are artistic and creative. Me? Practical, making plates and bowls … as if I don’t have too many of them already. I’m just a lazy bone, don’t even want to use my brain to imagine.

One of my mates Amy purchased pottery glaze squeeze bottles from Amazon and teacher showed us how to use it. She did say that it will look totally different once it has been fired. The under glaze won’t bleed – will stay as painted – but not as shiny and colorful as the clear glaze. It’s a two step process but you don’t need to fire in between.

Wait and See.

I made three of the Four ¼ for my 24″ lazy susan turntable Saturday.  Today I finished the last 1/4 pie, with imprint. I inscribed the wrong date tho 11.26 – should be 11.27. Many of them are on the molds, should take off after about a day or two.

3 pieces from this one clay dough: white square bowl hump; push plate and rectangle tray

 

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Strong two: slam, missed

November 27, 2023 at 4:11 pm · Filed under Bridge ♠️♥️♦️♣️

My first hand of the night: 15 hcp, six spades, one void ♦️. My right hand opponent opened bidding with a pass.

  1. Pass
  2. 2♠️ – me
  3. P
  4. 3♠️
  5. P
  6. 4♠️ – me

We ended up, making 11 total tricks. Did I open correctly? Is this hand possible for a 12 tricks? How could we bid better?

Ira: You opened short of a true strong two opening. Your partner’s first response should have been 4C , asking for aces bc of partner’s point count. You would have been in small slam. Probably 6S

If partner responds 5C, it means you have all the aces and is asking for kings.

Bidding convention of strong 2 bid opening: wiki, bridge bum,

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Guandan 掼蛋

November 25, 2023 at 3:14 pm · Filed under Some fun

An old Chinese card game (since 1960s), that becomes popular in recent years. I started playing it about three months ago with my neighbors.

Each player has half deck of cards, playing in two teams. The first one gets rid his or her 27 cards wins the most points, and the last one gets no point: the points system decides which team advance to the next level.

Today I’m lucky to have many great hands. It only occurred to me to take a picture after a couple of them.

Here is the intro on Wikipedia:

Guandan is a shedding-type card game that originated in Jiangsu province, China.

The game in played by four players, sitting opposite each other in partnerships, and uses two decks of standard international playing cards (including the Jokers) for a total of 108 cards. The basic objective of the game is to play increasingly high combinations of cards, so as to empty your hand before your opponents. In Guandan, a team’s score is expressed as a level, of which there are 13 levels in total, corresponding to the card ranks from 2 up to A (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, A). In a Game-based tournament, a team only wins the game if it wins on Level A.

 

掼蛋扑克牌

牌点 牌型 规则

牌点由小到大排列为, 2至10, J, Q, K, A 级牌, 小王, 大王.
❤️红心的级牌是掼蛋最为特殊的一张牌, 可以充当任意牌点的花色牌(即除大小王) 搭配使用, 称为逢人配, 进贡时不用进.

牌型

  1. 第一类：
    * 单张: 任意一张单牌
    * 对子: 任意两张牌点相同的牌,包括对大王或对小王
    * 三连对: 三对牌点相邻的对子, 如223344
    * 三同张: 三张牌点相同的牌
    * 二连三: 两套牌点相邻的三同张, 如333444
    * 三带二: 三同张加一个对子, 如55522
    * 三三带: 三同相邻+任意两对, 如333444+22JJ
    * 三三三: 222333444
    * 顺子: 五张牌点相邻的牌, 如23456
    * A连2变1: A2345, AA2233 AAA222 (AAA22 beats KKK55)
    ↑以上想出牌必须跟随牌型而且大过上家;改型需要压牌或用炸弹/同花顺 ↓
  2. 第二类: 可以改变牌型的组合
    * 炸弹: 四张或四张以上牌点相同的牌
    * 同花顺: 五张花色相同的顺子
    * 大小王炸: 大小王各两张或三张或四张. ♥️不可代替

大小王及其他炸弹大小排列如下：

  1. 四人 两副牌, 炸弹大小顺序：
    1. 两大王
    2. 两小王
    3. 六张及以上的同数炸弹
    4. 同花顺
    5. 五张同数炸弹
    6. 四张炸弹
  2. 六人三副牌, 炸弹大小顺序：
    1. 叁大王
    2. 叁小王
    3. 七张及以上的同数炸弹
    4. 同花顺
    5. 六张同数炸弹
    6. 两大王
    7. 两小王
    8. 五张同数炸弹
    9. 四张同数炸弹
  3. 八人四副牌, 炸弹大小顺序：
    1. 四大王
    2. 四小王
    3. 八张及以上的同数炸弹
    4. 叁大王
    5. 叁小王
    6. 七张同数炸弹
    7. 同花顺
    8. 六张同数炸弹
    9. 两大王
    10. 两小王
    11. 五张同数炸弹
    12. 四张同数炸弹

计分

  • 四人 两副牌, 总共7分
    1st player gets 4 pts
    2nd gets 2
    3rd gets 1
    4th gets 0
  • 六人 三副牌 总共16分
    1st – 6 pts
    2nd – 4
    3rd – 3
    4th – 2
    5th – 1
    6th – 0
  • 八人 四副牌, 总共29分
    1st – 8
    2nd – 6
    3rd – 5
    4th – 4
    5th – 3
    6th – 2
    7th – 1
    8th – 0

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Unbelievably bad line calls

November 23, 2023 at 9:13 pm · Filed under Pickleball 匹克球, Swim, Tennis

It’s the Thanksgiving Day, and I’m thankful for my family and friends and foes in my life, and an interesting life I lead so far.

I started my day with a warm up swim, then tennis, pickleball, and capped the morning with another short swim – static stretching. I know the verdict (if the static stretching after a game is good or suitable …) is out there, and swimming is certainly NOT static stretching, but I like to do it, to relax.

Tennis:

I’m still trying to correct my serve: to keep my left tossing arm high longer and eliminate waiter’s tray (why is waiter’s tray no good?)

Two double faults in my first serve game – I didn’t practice much in between matches – my bad. Bad line calls one after another; one of the opponents said he can bagel me. I replied, “not off me.” I thought I was going to have a relaxed game on a holiday, but it turned out not to be the case. So I reverted back to my waiter’s tray serve. We lost 4-5, 5-3, 4-5 (first to five and 1 point decides a game – no deuce).

Pickleball:

Played with a new group of players. The best player (3.5 – apparently there is a rating in pb? ) in the group teamed herself up with her husband who’s equally good, vs me and one guy who’s also a newbie. The couple has been playing for more than three years. I’d think they would split up to make the game more interesting, which is the way I would have done. Oh well. We lost 2-11.

 

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Box in – pottery

November 20, 2023 at 7:47 pm · Filed under pottery 陶

Boxing day: how to make a box, with the cover. Many classmates made 1/4″ clay ahead of the time, so it would be leather hard. I used Smokey’s leftover – thanks!

A few tools we used: cutter, beveler to cut 45° edges, and a wooden flat stick to smooth out the insider corners – not really but better than finger tip.

I also mapped out my lazy susan tray. We also discussed Sax ceramic glaze, which is truer to its color, as Amaro’s Potter’s Choice glaze.

Repair the crack: I used Amaco’s Bisque Fix ($28 for 4 oz can).

 

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Water volleyball

November 20, 2023 at 3:27 am · Filed under water sports


My first time playing this … don’t know how, except serving … thought I could just wing it … but didn’t work well. So my hands hurt.

Taking a lesson or two would be a good idea.

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Threesome … waiter’s tray

November 19, 2023 at 5:54 pm · Filed under Tennis

After a couple of rainy days, we’ve a blue clear skies. However, the 4th didn’t show up till I was about to leave.

We all played well. I’m pleased with myself.

The three of us played five rounds of Canadian. I won 3 singles and lost two. The two gentlemen didn’t win any singles. I made short video before the game: still trying to improve, with my toss and make sure my left arm is up …

 

Still working on my serve: I shared this video, soliciting for critics. The first comment mentioned grip, waiter’s tray, which is very prominent – this will be my next project – getting rid of this tray.

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Pickleball team tourney #2

November 14, 2023 at 10:46 pm · Filed under Pickleball 匹克球

We played our second game today, against the Crushers that had 4:4 from week 1. I played two matches

Needless to say, I played terribly. What’s happening? Afterward, I played with one of the opponent who said, “it’s so difficult to play with you. You need to come up. You’re playing tennis on the pickleball court.”

So right.

Oh Gosh.

  1. with Ava v. Nancy n Beth, 7-11
  2. with David v John n Beth, 9-11

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Girls night in bridge

November 14, 2023 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Bridge ♠️♥️♦️♣️

A night of exciting bridge: all girls, and many interesting hands.

It’s the first time I bid 5 →

  1. Pass – my right hand; 1♣️ me; 1♦️; 2♣️
  2. 2♦️; 3♣️ me; 4♦️; pass
  3. pass; 5♣️ me

And I made it.

This hand, my right side opponent opened with 1♣️ – this is my suit as well: 6 clubs and total 14 hpc plus a singleton. I chanced it by bidding 1♠️ and made it.

Ira’s opinion:

You have two options: double 1C or pass. The double tells your partner you have opening points and the opponent took your bid, therefore your partner if possible make a bid; passing forces the left side opponent to bid or pass or lets your partner to bid. If everyone passes, you play 1C and most likely opponents will go down.

Below are some interesting hands

… more

  1. A dream hand: 26 pts

 

 

 

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