This weekend was the Bellisol Tournament that our club organized. On Saturday there was an invitation-only tournament for the Dutch top-players. One of my hero’s (Berry Westra) was playing also, a good reason to go ‘n watch. Together with Tom I play 4card majors as taught by Westra… so when I told him his biggest fan (Tom) was coming to watch also he, unfortunately, had to report that as of recent he’s also playing 5card majors now… oh well, he’ll return to 4card majors soon enough I’m sure.
Saturday evening was relatively slow, watching some TV and going over the bridge system with Perry. We’re playing the new HeX version with some new toys (Ekren 2♥, Drury and a good complex after 1MA openings). Today we played the regular tournament. Some things went wrong, of course, but we also did a lot of good things. On one of the deals I held something along the lines of:
| x |
| KJTxx |
| x |
| AT9xxx |
In 3rd position I opened 1♥, LHO bid 2♦ and partner invited with 3♦. This is hardly a maximum but with excellent shape I bid 4♥ anyway (we were playing at imps). I ended up making the contract for quite a swing!
Another nice deal was:
| Ax | Qxxx | |
| KQTx | x | |
| Kxxx | xx | |
| Jxx | AT9xxx |
Partner opened 1NT (12-14) in 3rd seat and RHO doubled (showing either long clubs or diamonds and hearts). After this conventional double I could bid 2♣ (Stayman). After partner’s 2♥ I ended up playing 3♣. Opponents could (perhaps even: should) have defeated the contract but I ended up making it with a squeeze play. My first, ever! The end position was:
| Ax | ||
| T | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| Kx | - | |
| J | x | |
| - | xx | |
| - | - | |
| Qx | ||
| - | ||
| - | ||
| x |
I played my last club and west couldn’t make the right decision 
yay! All in all we did pretty well despite the blunders, and earned ourselves €100 for our 3rd place. Pretty cool! The tournament committee, while handing us our prize, said he was particularly happy that he could give us the price… Oh, I’ll post a link to the pictures when they’re online.
Some other big news that I hadn’t blogged about yet: I got a promotion at work! A while ago I applied to the position of Sr Software Architect. As I’m still pretty young they made me Software Architect first (but there’s still plenty of opportunity to grow).
And finally, for the geeks: I have wifi installed at home (for my new laptop) and I recently bought a new webcam. If you want to skype (with or without video), just send me a nudge!