Bridge Blog 1171: Breaking ice

It's kind of perverse to think it, but sometimes a mistake by a new partner can break the awkwardness of establishing a relationship. It certainly was the case today, Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Christmas Party game at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club.

I'm playing for the first time with Rod Sumner and before we start, he outlines some of the conventions he likes to follow – e.g., he plays two-over-one, while I stick to standard (North) American. Then, sitting East-West, we pick up our first hands on Board 25 against a sharp pair, Sophie Chess and Sandra Felton. Sophie's North, bids first and passes. We're vulnerable, but I see that my hand satisfies both the Rule of 15 and the Rule of 20:

Spades: A-8-6-5; Hearts: J-9; Diamonds, Q-6-4; Clubs: A-J-7-6.

I open a Club. Rod holds a 20-point hand:

Spades: K; Hearts A-K-Q-5; Diamonds K-8-3; Clubs: K-Q-10-4-3.

He brings the bidding to 4 No Trump, asking for Key Cards in a push for slam. I bid 5 Hearts, showing my two Aces. He takes it to 6, but in Spades.

Sandra, sitting South, holds six Spades and is void in Clubs. If she doubles, Rod goes to 6 NT. But she doesn't. It's a train wreck. Down 4. A bottom board on our very first hand. Rod confesses that he pulled the wrong bidding card. Six NT is what he wanted. Six other East-Wests made 6 NT and three of them bid it.

No big deal, I say. (God knows I've done worse!) In my mind, though, I'm relieved. After that, I reckon that my wrongs will be similarly overlooked, at least for a little while. Eventually, with some effective defensive play, we find our footing. We do particularly well against my usual partner, Selina Volpatti, who's playing with Donna Fettes and looking stunning in sparkly black. Against them, we take 16.5 out of a possible 22 match points. 

When the final scores are announced during the Christmas Party dinner, we're third East-West with 57.20%, first in the B strat in our direction, winning 1.38 black master points. Overjoyed, we promise to partner up again. (Selina and Donna get 57.01%, third North-South.)

        Had the first board gone differently, though, Rod points out, we would be second, since we're only four match points behind the second-place pair, Mary House and Jerry Smee. (They took 12 tricks in No Trump, but stopped short of bidding the slam.) We also would have kept Sophie and Sandra from taking top honors North-South. But there was no catching the East-West leaders, Keith Heckley and Chandi Jayawardena. They bid the 6 NT slam and went on to rack up an amazing 70.08%. 

Bridge Blog 1170: The wish card

Buffalo's heaviest hitters at the Niagara Regional Tournament -- Jay Levy and Saleh Fetouh -- were absent on Saturday, Nov. 22, from the Buffalo Bridge Center's monthly party game, which opened up things for the rest of us. 

Winners still were a couple of top players, Judy Graf and John Ziemer, the only pair in the 13-pair field above 60% with 62.92%. Second with 56.67%, however, were two players in the lowest stratification -- Ruth Nawotniak and Julie Mitchell. They narrowly edged out Florence Boyd and me. Third place overall with 56.25% is nothing to complain about, though. After all, we got 1.92 master points. 

Only one of the 24 hands we played stands out in my memory, Board 5 against Nawotniak-Mitchell, and it turned out to be crucial. 

Ruth Nawotniak played it at 1 No Trump and made an overtrick, a top board, one better than the hand analysis says she should. All my fault. I gave it away by discarding too many of my five Hearts (9-7-6-4-2). She kept her 8 of Hearts until the 13th trick. Beating that with the 9 would have meant half a match point for us, just enough to nudge them out of second place. Coincidentally, AI Overview says that, in tarot, the 9 of Hearts is often called the "wish card" and signifies dreams coming true. 

North: Spades K-7-5-2; Hearts A-Q-8-3; Diamonds A-9; Clubs-Q-10-3. 

South: Spades Q-10-9-6; Hearts 10; Diamonds Q-7-6-5; Clubs 9-7-6-2. 

East: Spades J-4; Hearts K-J-5; Diamonds, J-10-8-4-3; Clubs: K-J-8.

West (me): Spades A-8-3; Hearts 9-7-6-4-2; Diamonds K-2; Clubs: A-5-4. 

Bridge Blog 1169-A: How to mend a broken heart

Does bridge have restorative powers? It did Friday. I set off for the game at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club wallowing in distress over two major shocks to my life this month -- severance from my job after 57 years and the untimely demise of my beautiful, beloved 25-year-old grand-niece by her own hand. I emerged three hours later feeling at least a little bit better, thanks to the warmth of competition with this lovely roomful of senior Canadians and a 55% game with Selina Volpatti, who also was directing. Further lifting my spirits was our 0.56 point reward. 

Bridge Blog 1169-B: Deja vu

Talk about deja vu -- Boards 6 and 8 at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club on Friday afternoon had everyone thinking so. Sure looked that way to me. I had six Hearts and no high card points on Board 6. Same on Board 8, though the cards were slightly different. Apparently there were enough complaints about Board 6 to get it dealt again for the later rounds. The hand I held is not what's shown in the ACBL's Live for Clubs recap. At any rate, on Board 8, where I took the bid at 2 Hearts, I managed to fall short by only two tricks, not vulnerable, and got a top board. Here's my holding: Spades 10-9-6-5; Hearts 8-7-5-4-3-2; Diamonds 10-5; Clubs 3. 

I wouldn't have bid at all except that Selina, with 12 hcp, doubled the opening 1 Diamond from East, who had a 19-point hand. Here are Selina's cards: Spades A-J-7-2; Hearts J-9; Diamonds Q-J-7; Clubs Q-J-4-2. I managed to force out the high trumps, exploit the Spades and get a Diamond trick, along with three ruffs. Had East-West persevered, they could have made 3 No Trump. 

Bridge Blog 1168-A: St. Catharines Regional Part III

 

After our stellar showing in the Swiss Teams match on Friday -- second place in our division, 8.69 gold points -- I had high hopes of picking up more master points at the Niagara Regional in St. Catharines. Not Saturday, though. Partner Selina Volpatti wasn't playing and I was set to sit it out, but she lined up one of the better Bridge Center of Niagara players, John MacKay, for me. 

We mesh better than I expected (I hope he wasn't too disappointed that I don't play two-over-one), but could manage only 36.75% in the morning session, almost as dismal as the 36.04% Selina and I had Thursday afternoon. Bottom of the heap, just like Thursday. We should be more aggressive, John advises as afternoon play begins. And we are. 45.95%, ninth out of 12 pairs. I take his phone number. Games at the club could be better. 

Selina and I are back together for Swiss teams on Sunday, visions of a repeat of Friday dancing in our heads. Teammates are John MacKay and Marg Dykstra, who also is one of BCON's better players. We lose our first round by a small margin, then get shut out twice in a row. We limp to the finale with wins in two of the three rounds after lunch. Not nearly good enough to tap into that treasure trove of gold points that Swiss team play provides, but at least we don't go home emptyhanded. A win in each round is worth 0.33 red points.

Before the game started Sunday, the place applauded one of our Buffalo players, Mike Ryan, who's pictured above. It was his 77th birthday. 

Bridge Blog 1168-B: St. Catharines Regional Part IV

I'm amazed to discover that my fortunes were more fortunate at the Niagara Regional Tournament than most other Buffalo players. Nothing on the scale of Jay Levy, of course, who took home 38 points, or Saleh Fetouh, who pocketed 28.51. But there I am, third among the Buffalonians with my 9.35, tied for 161st overall. Jay was 30th, Saleh was tied for 61st. 

The sharks -- the professional players -- led the pack. On top was a pair Selina and I faced on Thursday, Radu Nistor and Michael Gamble. They took away 119.06 points -- 29.31 from winning open pairs on Tuesday, 6.51 coming in eighth in Wednesday open pairs, 23.57 from missing first place by a fraction in Thursday open pairs, 29.31 from a win in Friday open pairs and 29.31 again from a Saturday win. Apparently they didn't stick around for Sunday. 

The other sharks who chomped on us Thursday -- Jacob Morgan and the mysterious R. Muggia -- wound up further down the list, tied for 23rd with 47.95 points. A few people I see often at the Bridge Center of Niagara -- John Stevens, Danny Ioannidis and Jane Jennings -- finished ahead of them. 

Bridge Blog 1167: St. Catharines Regional Part II

 

Bridge Blog Nov. 15, 2025

       What are you going to do now that you’re not working, somebody (maybe John Ziemer) asks me during the lunch break Friday at the Niagara Regional Tournament. Become a bridge bum?

       I go, oh no! In fact, because partner Selina Volpatti isn’t going to play Saturday – too tired – I’m planning to take the day off and get some laundry done. But that’s before Selina goes ahead and pairs me up for Saturday with one of the better players at the Bridge Center of Niagara – John MacKay. He’s always coming in ahead of Selina and me, that’s for sure. Looks like I’m making tracks for St. Catharines on Saturday after all.

       John and I compare convention cards and, like Selina and I did on Thursday, we start off against a pair of sharks – this time, it's Radu Nistor from New York City and Michael Gamble from British Columbia. They win the morning session with 72.38%. John and I are at the bottom of our section with 36.75%.

We certainly help launch them on their way. On our first board, we let them collect 17.5 of a possible 19 match points as the only East-Wests to bid 4 Spades and make it. Two boards later, they get 15.5 of 19 by making a 3 No Trump contract while half of the players in their direction go down at 3 NT. In between, they leave me in a 1 diamond contract and I make three overtricks – 14 out of 19 there. After one round, they’re 66.67% and they just get better.

Meanwhile, three of the four winners in our direction are Buffalo people. Jay Levy and partner are on top. Chongmin Zhang and Kathy Pollock are second and Saleh Fetouh and partner are fourth.

John and I compare conventions some more before the afternoon session starts and vow to be more aggressive. Maybe that helps. This time we’re ninth out of 12 pairs with 45.95%. I expect John to be discouraged, but he doesn't seem to be. We exchange phone numbers. Maybe this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon, Buffalonians again are on top, led by Saleh Fetouh with 61.48%. Jay Levy is third. Min and Kathy are fourth. The two sessions add 12.37 gold points to Jay’s haul. Saleh, who says in the morning that he’s now got more than 1,000 points this year, collects 7.33. Min and Kathy get 8.37. The sharks? They’re at the top of the food chain – 29.31 gold points.

One reason I’m back in St. Catharines on Saturday is because Selina and I did well on Friday in a Swiss team game and I hope the bridge gods will keep on smiling. Playing with Darlene Scott, who’s a Unit 166 regional director in Toronto, and Elizabeth Williams, who hails from Burlington, we notch a shutout in our first eight-board round and limit the opponents to just one victory point in the next round. We lose three of the next four rounds, but only by small margins, and cling to the top position until just before the end. Second place has its rewards, though. We get 8.69 gold points. Swiss again on Sunday could make us even richer.