Golf … the first time

December 7, 2023 at 4:17 pm · Filed under Sports

My first lesson with a pro, at Ace. It’s an hour long session, with five players in the group. The pro did little other than showing us how to swing. When my friend asked him about another how to, he replied, “for that, you’ll have to take a private lesson when I have more time.” But he has plenty time, that he checked his phone often…

Looking at this drive video, one take away is to keep your left arm straight.

I don’t have my own set, have to borrow his. Looking at numerous clubs, I’m  lost. Actually, there are perhaps only three that being used often according to this 2023.12.01 post:

  1. Putter at 53%
  2. Wedges at 19%
  3. Driver at 17%
  4. Iron 4%
  5. The rest 7%

… so why do weekend hackers buy so many?

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My serve, David and Edwin

December 6, 2023 at 9:10 pm · Filed under Tennis

Continuously, I’m working on my serve: keep left arm up, getting rid of the waiter’s tray. After posting my videos Senior Tennis Tips, many players provided good feedbacks, thank you all.

Last Saturday I teamed up with Tony played David and Jay: 1-6 and 7-5. It was an awesome game. Today, David and I lost 3-6, 4-6 to Edwin and Pu, also a very good match.

 

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Team tourney: the 4th

December 5, 2023 at 7:38 pm · Filed under Pickleball 匹克球

We played the second to the last team tournament. Due to the contractor’s change of schedule, I missed last week’s play when my mates won 5 out of 8 games: my team is better off without me -:).

Today’s games are flawless, everyone, us and opponents played well and no bad line calls at all.

My 3 games:

  1. w/ Bev, v. Matt / Bob: 1-11
  2. w/ Linda, v. Tia / Jeff, 11-9
  3. w/ Barb v. Matt / Tia, 1-11

Ultimately, we won 4 and lost 4 games from the #1 standing team the Kitchen Crew. Their cumulative total win is at 23 (us at 14). One more match to go, against the current #2 who had 18 wins.

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Paint over

December 4, 2023 at 3:03 am · Filed under pottery 陶

When you’re not satisfied with the color, you can re-glaze it. The re-painted piece needs longer time to dry, before going into the kiln.

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The Chinese value

December 3, 2023 at 9:33 pm · Filed under Bridge ♠️♥️♦️♣️, Musing

Playing Guandan with Chinese from mainland is quite an experience: they talk A LOT, like telling their teammates, how their hand is, and what should they play, especially toward the end, with fewer cards, it’s usually the most exciting time of the game: testing your playing and bluffing skills. It looks like cheating to me. But because they don’t see it that way, therefore, they do it openly and continually.

… not a word at bridge …

They say …

  1. … my hand is lousy, you guys go
  2. … you can’t play single
  3. … you’ve to play double
  4. … what should I play

… so I wrote the following on WeChat. A few playmates are in my friends circle. One of them, with a PhD from Oxford, replied, “[偷笑][偷笑]等打出来默契后,就不需要通气了” Google translates “Once a tacit understanding is established, ventilation (talking) is no longer needed.”

I disagree.

掼蛋 … 老太婆也时髦

还记得我们小时候在北京, 牌都很旧, 毛边 每张都很厚. 现在的娃们可能都不知道俺在说什么

昨天晚上我的牌一直都挺好 (归功于观看的娃[拥抱]谢谢 希望常来喔) 大家打的都好 双双晋级到A – 我们先到珠峰 但是第一次没有打过. 他们奋起直追 连续打了几个胜仗🐮… 小嫉妒大开心. 我们第二次才打过A. 俺的二个搭档都棒 (会打牌的那种) 舍命陪君子 又肯牺牲色相[闭嘴]俺的护航舰队[得意]

同胞们打牌都很热闹
商榷 推敲牌技[强] 相互通气[弱] 不知道打桥牌是不是也这样?

桥牌是例外一班人马. 很早以前一次见俺搭档犹豫不决 我多口说了句 ♥️K已经出了. 他们三人虽然没有出声 但明显感觉很不当[闭嘴] 很难为情. 搭档选择出♠️ … we didn’t make the contract.
Lesson, learned [捂脸]

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Tennis & diving

November 30, 2023 at 9:09 pm · Filed under scuba diving 潜水, Tennis

It’s a glorious day for tennis.

Better yet, I won all my three sets with three guys. We played at vl.

… perhaps because I wear my dive shop’s t shirt – how do I look? -:)

 

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A dream hand

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

An unbelievably handsome hand to cap the girls night in.

Joyce to my left dealt, who has 12 hcp, bid 1♥️. My partner passed. Linda 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 partner Joyce, looking pleased, 5N.

My partner Barb said cheerfully, pass, 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 – above the first two photos: the left (first) is before the firing and the middle pic is after – due to gravity. She did say that it will look totally different once it has been fired. Note: 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. The right photo is made by me – practical, and … don’t they look like the unearthed cultural relics 出土文物 lol

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.

… my experience: cheating or what

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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