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Phil

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Phil

Phil

Posted
Posted

Good morning.

 

This is my 10,000th post on the forums. Well, it's actually Phil's 10,000th post - pclayton had around 9,100 some odd posts through 2010 or 2011 before he gave up when he got tired of some of the personalities.

 

I'm not as active as I used to be here - I spend about 2/3 of my forum time over at Bridgewinners.

 

This morning, I did the following:

 

1. Mocked a necro Flannery post that was 15 years old.

2. Nitpicked Mr Ace's squeeze line

3. Analyzed an interesting hand from ahydra.

 

Time does fly and things change. Here was my intro post in 2004 or 2005:

 

Ok I'll dive in. Not sure why I've missed it either. My handle on BBO is the original sounding "Pclayton".

 

I'm Phil Clayton, 41 at this writing. Happily married to a bridge widow named Kim (answers to Kimi if you see her online kibbing me - Kclayton). We have three perfect children named ages 16, 13 and 11. The two oldest occasionally caddy at regionals and worked the Long Beach Nationals last summer. That was cool.

 

I've played since I was 13 - played in my first duplicate game in Havre, Montana at age 16 with my Mom (miss you) in 1980. Immediately caught the bug. Grade Point Average immediately plunged as high school physics textbook was replaced with old borrowed copies of the Bridge World and George Coffin's "Endplays" (tougher than physics anyway :P) . Spent the remainder of high school and most of college (University of Montana - Missoula) traveling around the great State of Montana playing in sectionals and getting schnockered with people 3x and 4x my age; surreal but fun :D :D .

 

In 1985, went to the Las Vegas Nationals and went 8-0 the first day of the Non-LM Swiss. Ended up 2nd in the event, and got all the gold points I needed for LM, which I obtained in '86. I think I'm still the youngest LM to come out of Montana.

 

In 1987, got married and the bridge, uh..stopped. Started career and raising the little ones. Currently, I am a moderately succcessful real estate developer of shopping centers in Newport Beach, CA. Always looking for new projects; if only to support my bridge habit.

 

Starting playing on-line in 1995 - first Imagination Network (remember that?), then OKB. Online meant I was home physically but not mentally. So, in '99 - gave up OKB for real life. Was one of the first on BBO with Inquiry and 2over1.

 

Have been pretty serious about the game since then. Have won about 15 regionals (mixed bag - some bracketed KO's (one Bracket I), some pair events).

 

At Long Beach Nationals, entered the 0-5000 Spingold with my Flight B Grand National team, since the combined MP total for the team was about 3,500, we were seeded #41 out of 41. Ended up 3rd losing to the eventual winners in the semis, but beating the #1 seed along the way. Got to use the screens and be in the same room as Meckwell, Jacobs etc..

 

I have two regular partnerships in real life. With Rai Osborne we play OC (Orange County / Osborne - Clayton / Obsessive-Compulsive) Precision Club with transfer responses, 10-13 NT, and a lot of gadgets. With Harvey Jaffe, I play 2/1 and 12-14 NT's with Keri responses and a limited 2♣ opener (4-5 losers +/- 19-21 HCP) and 2♦ as the GF opener. In both partnerships I play Overcall Structure, and Obvious Shift. I'm always interested in new ideas in bidding.

 

I have one unabashed goal in bridge - and that is to win a national open event; pairs or teams, I'm not picky :lol:

 

1. The kids are all grown up. Our oldest is expecting their first in September and the middle just got engaged. The youngest graduates from her Masters program next month. Kimi is still a bridge widow and just harped on me for being on the computer on a Sunday morning lol.

 

2. After shopping centers, I transitioned into land development for a few years and had a projects when the music stopped. I would not say it was a riches to rags story, but pretty close. From 2008 to 2012 I got the land use approvals for an automobile race track (look at The Thermal Club) which is up and running.

 

3. In 2012, I completely pivoted out of real estate and leveraged my PM skills into IT project management and I am now the program management office lead for Toyota. While I do not rate to have huge payday, we are doing just fine.

 

4. We moved to Dallas last year when Toyota moved. So far we like it. I have some new bridge partners here who you probably have heard of - not sure why they like to play with me :)

 

5. I think my regional count is around 70 and I got my Diamond LM earlier this year when I had a great tourney in Houston with Mr. Ace.

 

6. Still chasing that national. Best so far is a 5th and a 7th - both in the NAP's. I led the NAPs in Kansas City going into the final session but we could not close the deal. Also made R32 in Kansas City Vanderbilt. One bad quarter kept us from beating Berg. Work still gets in the way of going to too many nationals, but I am looking forward to a full schedule in Atlanta.

 

7. My main partnership is with Agumperz. Our system basically looks like what would happen if Welland/Auken had a love child with Fantunes. We call it Martian Standard. No, you cannot have the notes :P

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kenberg

kenberg

Posted
Posted

Thanks much for the post.

 

I will probably not catch up with you in masterpoints. On the other hand, Becky and I have five kids between us and this has come to 11 grandchildren with another expected in September. Catch that if you can!

 

It sounds as if you, and your family, are enjoying life. As are we. I am always glad to hear such things.

 

Best wishes,

Ken

 

Oh yeah. Don't forget to count trump. It will help with getting the national title. Good luck.

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