Hi all
So here’s a small … kink from Philadelphia. Setting: Second day of the Spingold. Let’s call my RHO “Mad Bross”. I ask his partner for their convention cards and he hands me one. I politely ask if they have a second one for my partner, where “Mad Bross” responds: “You can share, we play very vanilla.” I say that the rules require you to hand over two cc’s. At this point he spits out: “Are you f*cking kidding me?”.
Fortunately his partner smoothly defuses the situation and offers to fill out a second one if desired. I let it pass, but the dark cloud at the table does not leave.
In retrospect I didn’t handle it correctly. I should have called for the director, nobody should be subjected to profanities. One of the directors confirmed with me that “Mad Bross” would have been given a Zero Tolerance penalty just for that. After that it’s three strikes and you’re out. Even famous players have to obey the rules. My bad for missing out on an opportunity.
It wasn’t all one way traffic against team Diamond. We had some pickups and system successes too. Not enough to make the match in any way exciting, but still. Here’s one:
1- Exactly four card in an unbalanced hand, 8-12 hcp
- Natural and invitational+
- Accepting, bidding my minor would have been a sign off
On a passive lead Geoff set up the 
suit and wrapped up 11 tricks for +660. Now at the other table things were less … sophisticated. Four passes in succession and that’s 12 IMP, thank you!