[jillybean]

LOL I still havent read through all of these and they seem to get get better the older they get...
(quote) "I'm something of a crank"

[Double !]

2005 winds down, and in a few days I have to go back to work, yuck!
I have actually had a chance to meet (online) and play with more BBF members this past year, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
So, with the year ending soon, I just want to wish you all the best of a happy new year, the best of health, happiness, success (however you define it), and all the warm fuzzies you could ever ask for.

D.H.L.

[toothbrush]

Hi,

my name is Willem De Visschere, 21 years old and studying dentistry in Gent, Belgium.
I learned to play bridge in the year 1997, but just the last 3 years I've started to learn intensively how to play this game. I changed from bridge-club and I decided to play less with my father and that seemed to be a good decision!
I'm not an expert, but I'd like to become one!

[Vilgan]

Greetings all,

I'm a comp sci major at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I started learning the game in September when I showed up at a newcomer game hoping to learn and started playing occasionally in the main games in November. I didn't break 5 points until 2006, but have been having some success since then in the mini-mckenney... at least till I take a 3 month break to have fun in Europe this summer. It'd be fun to get to know other juniors who play bridge, as we seem to be a rare breed in Oklahoma.

As for systems.. I started with standard, but just recently switched to precision after a bad morning round. We got knocked out in the first round of a KO, so at lunch my partner suggested a switch to precision. He gave me a 5 minute rundown of the various responses and away we went (and scored a 58% game that afternoon). Having played it more, I am really really loving precision and 10-13 notrumps.

Anyways.. fun to meet new bridge players and maybe I might meet some of yall at Dallas in March. I'm also planning on going to the Junior camp this summer since I'll be in the area already.

Eric Sieg

[the saint]

I'm Alan, and I will be 30 in a weeks time....

I'm a former England U25, been playing for about 14 years now. I play the odd national event, but do a lot of junior coaching (including helping out the England U20 squad). If there is a junior event on BBO, you may see me on vugraph.

Outside of bridge?

I am a rocket scientist (impresses relatives at weddings!).

Hobbies?

Love sport (basically anything without horses) and keeping fit. I also DJ (deep/electronic/techy/acid house & breaks) every now and again.

Still single, but trying (yes I'm very trying).

Love to you all and see you round

Alan

[hrothgar]

Jlall, on Feb 27 2006, 10:41 PM, said:

Hi Eric. I'm a junior player, and live in Dallas so will be at the nationals obviously. Also will be in Slovakia, look forward to meeting you.

VERY important comment for any Junior heading to Slovakia:

The beer in that part of the world is strong.
VERY VERY strong

[mr1303]

Sounds like some useful advice, duly noted.

I'll be in Slovakia as well by the way. I'll be looking forward to playing you Justin. I'll be the one with a cute blonde bird (can I say that on here?) sitting opposite.

[Codo]

Hi

I am Roland, but not as good as the well known hero from my northern neighbourhood.
And I am a Hambuger, but maybe not as tasty as your favourite ones.

I own and run a company which sells empty bottles and caps for pharmaceutical customers. Does not sound very sexy, but is a good way to earn money and spend time.

Playing bridge and writing in forums is a nicer way to spend time, but I am not good enough to be paid for it. Yet.

Other hobbies? I have a family with two kids and play volleyball.

[akhare]

Hi folks,

Atul here (foobar on BBO) -- currently located in the Pacific NW (USA) and originally from India. I will be 37 soon and my profession is probably pretty evident from my BBO handle . I started playing bridge about 10 years ago and wish I had learnt it sooner. Being somewhat of a system aficionado, I am conversant w/ several systems, but greatly prefer those w/ limited openings (FP, Strong Club, Moscito, etc).

Anyway, other hobbies include running (marathons), racquetball (similar to squash for the uninitiated), reading (in addition to bridge books that is) and movies.

BTW, I have been trying to convince my wife to learn bridge for the past few years, but to no avail -- any suggestions? She's got the right aptitude for the game, but thinks that it's an old person's game....

[sceptic]

try tellling her, she is getting on a bit and she would fit in well with the bridge crowd, if this fails I know a good divorce lawyer

[Trysalot]

I just discovered The Water Cooler and missed an ACBL tourney here on BBO because I couldn't break away from reading it from beginning to end. What a wonderful group of bridge players you are!

I'm too tired to write anything much about myself other than to say I am an ACBL Silver Life Master who hasn't been able to travel much so the only National tournament I've attended was the one in my own city a few years ago (in which I played in the Regional events) and I expect my next one will be when a National is in my city again two years from now. I didn't have Internet access until spring 2004 so compared to most of you I am a newcomer to online bridge. The hours I have spent playing bridge online the past 2-3/4 years have been very enjoyable and I plan to hang around for a long time.

Trysalot

[jocdelevat]

Hi
My name is Florin Diamandi(38 yearss old) and Im from Romania and live In USA since 1996. My job is to mess up with computers and networks.My bbo id means playing tricks in my language. In my country I had play the oldbridge wih 2 bids strong. I learn SAYC 3 years ago playing rubber bridge in Yahoo leagues( more of social than bridge) where still play sometime because I have a lot of friends there.
First time I played in bbo was a night mare when I saw all kind of systems and conventions with a lot of players experts and advanced. Now I enjoy BBO more than any other bridge online site. My level is beginner-intermediate-forever . I play for fun and relax however I do not like to loose.

[ohioply]

I'm Angela. If you can't tell I'm from Ohio. Go BUCKEYES! I've played bridge off and on since I was 18. I'm pretty much a self-taught-online-seat-of- the-pants player. I started playing at www.playsite.com where I was ravengirl80 or alegna18, so if any of you played there nice to see you!
I've played in a few tourneys, but with school (full time student) and work (full time job) I don't get much time to go.
Its nice to see that other young people are here, finally I'm not the youngest!

[jvage]

My name is John Våge (hope the Norwegian letters works....). I am 39 years old, working as a civil engineer for our national railways. This has given me the chance to play (and win!) the last 4 European Railway bridge championships

I started playing bridge relatively late, converting from chess during my last year at university. I consider myself an OK player, playing in our Premier league (top 10 teams, we did well last year but dropped out this year) and qualifying for the last 6 national pairs finals (several placings just below the top 10). I am fortunate to play in the same club as most of our national Open, Junior and Schools players. Together with some other very strong players they provide many good partners and opponents even at the local tournaments.

I am also an occasional tournament director and the NPC of the Norwegian Schools team.

John

[Mr. Dodgy]

Well, it's about time I introduced myself in a little more detail too, I guess, as I'm currently rather intoxicated and feeling especially social for once...those few who already know me this is, I hope, no great surprise - I like to have fun but maintain a rather aloof attitude much of the time.

I am Justin, MrDodgy on BBO. I am perilously close to turning 37 years old. I Currently live in Brisbane, Australia.

I was first introduced to bridge by my grandmother, 'Oma', in my early teens, but she was a hard taskmaster and my unknowing mistakes were met with some lack of sympathy which deterred me from pursuing the game.

I did enjoy playing 'Oh Hell', taught to me by my father in my youth, and later I was taught Five Hundred by a family freind and eventually played it regularly with freinds.

Back at Oma's I then found myself engrossed and intrigued by a few of the books she kept on the subject; Victor Mollo's "Bridge in the Menagerie" and one by Charles Goren / CC Wei on Precision. I dealt myself hand after hand to bid and play, and started cleaning up at the weekly 500-and-pot evenings

So I read more, even joined a club, then discovered bridge on Yahoo, Pogo, and eventually BBO. I've been stuck here ever since

I work in IT&T support, my other hobbies include 8-Ball, ten-pin bowling, dancing, girls, and fantasy fiction/art.

I consider myself a good intermediate player; my knowledge probably surpasses my real skill, but I'm improving . Next week I will attend my first big Congress on Australia's Gold Coast. God help them.

I love my freinds on BBO and the game in general. Also rain, sleeping, Kahlua, girls, chocolate milk, and reading old BBO Forums posts.

Thanks to Fred et al. for a great second home. G'nite.

[Lemm1ng]

Hello, I suppose this thread is as good as any for my first post here.

My name is [Edited]. I was born in China but emigrated to Southeast England aged 5; so culturally I am very much British. Now 20 years old, I am a second year Economics undergraduate with a little too much time on his hands. On BBO, my moniker is "Lemm1ng", originating from my like for lemmings

I stumbled upon bridge during break times in Sixth Form (high school equivalent) when I would play with friends. None of us were any good and we knew nothing about bidding systems; it was merely a casual game where people rarely bid beyond the 3 level and nobody bothered to keep score. This all changed after I left for university.

I began to read bridge columns (Andrew Robson's in the Times is a particular favourite) and learned everything I know about bidding from Karen Walker's excellent bridge library; http://www.prairienet.org/bridge/ Essentially I am entirely self taught, learning to run before I could walk by reading about elaborate declarer play and defense. This is perhaps why I am occasional fallible to the most rookie errors!

SAYC is my bidding system of choice and I play all sorts of gadgets. I am a willing student of the game and would love the opportunity to improve my skills, but this is difficult because nobody else my age seems to play bridge (at least nobody near me). Age is important I think because I need to be able to relate, to build a rapport. My inability to find a partner has hurt my interest in the game, and I seem to use BBO less and less nowadays.

As a person, I am very talkative with a less than conventional perspective to everything, and full of random trivia. I work part time as a teaching assistant at the local Sixth Form College. I love British sitcoms, namely Blackadder and the Office, and personally I have a dry sense of humour. Chopin and Liszt make up my music of choice, though I also enjoy British rock (n roll). Cooking and following cricket make up my other main hobbies

Good job if you read all that.

[gwnn]

Hi everyone I just saw this topic and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce myself.

My name is Csaba Daday (albeit my very funny bbo nickname is the abbreviation from "guy with no name"). I am 19 years old. I was slowly but surely persuaded by my parents to pick up playing bridge I used to play chess competitively but I lost the passion for it etc. From the first hands I got hooked and I am not going to be unhooked for a long, long while, I think.

Currently I study Physics @ Cluj, Romania, a little less than 100 miles from home. In our dorm port 9999 is blocked so basically that's why I started coming here. Also, I tend to read bridge books in my free time. I must say I'm now thankful for the blocked port - playing a lot of bad bridge doesn't improve it very much, or it improves it all too slowly. In weekends I am on BBO a lot (from home). The Forums are a great great help.... I cannot stress it enough how wonderful EVERYONE here is. Thorough, helpful, funny, incisive responses, advice and so on. I can't imagine any other domain in the world where there are so many helpful, wonderful people like bridge. It really is amazing.

I must admit I'm not much of a card player (yet) but I really like bidding much more. (communication between two people through a code, you know, inferences, negative inferences, ... I think it's really nice and it helps in life also) It's a junior's plague I guess, but I am very much drawn to conventional bidding... (Andrei Sharko's symmrel version) Actually it's because I found that it's a whole lot easier to be bidding sequences that are known to be understood by both parties than so-called natural bids that can be very ambiguous.. Of course, a natural system ought to be discussed and then it becomes equally clear, but somehow (most average) players overlook this aspect and say something like "KISS". My p (Lorserker on BBO) told me this funny story: when his father had finally persuaded him to start playing, after a while he started to tell him about bidding... 4 card majors, la longue d'abord etc etc. He didn't really understand anything. Then his dad sighed and told him "you don't like all this stuff? Here's a system where u don't have to think at all." and he gave him a 30-something page long (super?)precision sys. Lori was relieved and learned it all

Anyway I think this was a very long and boring introduction. I apologize from anyone who read it all.

[Apollo81]

I'm Noble, 25 and from Maryland near Washington DC. I am better at doubling making contracts than making doubled contracts. Thankfully my 15% slams always make, or I would never score above a 42%.