Bridge Blog 499: Dead of winter

          Usually this is the most barren time of year outdoors and a fertile one for building up my master point totals indoors. This year it’s just the opposite. Call it a run of bad luck. Call it a losing streak. Whatever it was, I had it last week and it started me thinking that 2012 could be an exercise in futility.

          How bad was it? Well, it started on Monday and Tuesday with Marie Suprinick, well-meaning, but not a strong player. Sometimes we can break 50%, but these were not those times – 47.72% and 43.96% respectively at Bridge Club Meridian. Wednesday – 41.67% -- had me wondering if Wednesday partner Celine Murray and I have lost the magic. Thursday I absolutely bottomed out with Bob Olin with a dead last 36.11% – totally unexpected because we had a respectable game a week earlier. Nor did I find redemption with Judy Kaprove on Friday, though 46.71% looked good after the previous three days. Two-tenths of a percent better and we would have been fourth in the B strat.

          So two-thirds of the way through January, all I have to show for my time at the tables is 2.57 black points and .93 of a silver point from the sectional – 3.50 overall. Pretty pathetic.