Bridge Blog 466: Gold rush

Going through Canadian customs on the Rainbow Bridge took so long around 12:30 p.m. Thursday that my teammates in the Whirlpool Knock-Outs were prompted to make an anxious phone call. But not to worry. I was there with about 10 minutes to spare, ready to take on the Mulhall team, which teammates Mike Silverman and Helen Panza recalled as toughies from the Grand Island regional.

We played Mulhall’s teammates – Bob and Dave – and played so steadily that even our opponents spoke admiringly of our restraint. When we compared scores at the midpoint in the 24-hand match, we were 24 International Match Points ahead of them. But things have a way of turning around, which partner Selina Volpatti and I started to fret about during the final set of six boards, when I took a 5 Heart sacrifice bid to keep them out of game, then went down four doubled, and on the next hand bid 4 Spades, got a bad trump break, and went down two vulnerable.

The Mulhall team outpointed us on that set of six boards, but we skunked them on the other set of six. We finished 33 IMPs ahead. Winners in the semi-final round, we now were guaranteed at least a second-place finish – 8.45 gold points.

The finals Thursday evening put us back up against the Benny team, the people who had slam-dunked us by 35 IMPs in the first three-way session Wednesday afternoon. However, we noted, the other people in the three-way game had beaten the Benny people. They could be had.

Tucked away along the edge of the main ballroom, we once again took up the cards with Jocelyn and Catherine from London, Ont. Once again, we started off steady, but stumbled in the second set of boards when Selina doubled their 4 Spade bid and I passed with a weak hand on what would have been a 5 Club contract for us. We lost 14 IMPs on that little disaster and suddenly felt the ground shift beneath our chairs. We got 11 IMPs back on the next hand, though, beating their 3 No Trump contract by one trick on a board where our teammates bid and made the 3 NT. At the halfway point, we were ahead, but only by 7 IMPs. Anything could happen.

What happened was that everybody started getting tired, these being the 37th to 48th hands played this day. So we had seesaw results. They took 10 IMPs when Selina and I failed to bid game. We got them back when I made a 4 Spade contract where the opponents went down. They nailed us on a 3 NT contract our teammates didn’t bid. We got them back when Jocelyn and Catherine went down three on a 6 NT slam, while Helen and Mike made 4 Spades. It was going to be close.

     But not that close. On the first set of six boards, we came out 2 IMPs ahead. On the final set, we prevailed by 6 IMPs. We did it! We won! Champions of the B division, we collected 12.07 gold points (plus some unspecified prize on Friday or Saturday from the prize desk). More than enough for my purposes. Selina and I celebrated with glasses of merlot upstairs in the hospitality room off the 10th floor Rainbow Room restaurant. We were the first players to arrive.