Bridge Blog 519: Hot and cold

April started with such joy – three straight days of winning master points in the most unexpected fashion. I had no illusions of doing anything at all on Monday aside from having an initial game with Judy Zeckhauser – a rookie whom I’ve known since she was still a teacher in the Buffalo schools. No special conventions, just a basic game, one that turned out to be 55.17%, second in our direction, fourth overall, for .83 of a point.

Tuesday was a game with Marie Suprinick at which Marie actually showed up. She cancels a lot because she doesn’t feel well and often I wind up having a better game with a pickup partner than I would have with her. It wasn’t our finest day, but it wasn’t our worst, either. We came in at 48.15%, second in B, for .56 of a point.

Wednesday’s partner, Celine Murray, had told me she couldn’t play because of her hospital guild meeting, but then it was canceled, I hadn’t found a substitute partner and we were back where we started. Celine and I do well sometimes, and sometimes we don’t. This turned out to be one of our best – 63.79% -- first overall, 1.63 points (see Blog 518).

Feeling confident having earned 3 point in three days, I figured the streak would stretch to four on Thursday with Judie Bailey, an experienced player, a Life Master, just back from Florida. But we had miscommunication problems – on several hands we weren’t sure what each others’ bids meant. The upshot was that we turned a couple big hands into bottom boards and finished out of the money with a nevertheless semi-respectable 48.12%. Hey, that score earned points on Tuesday.
          No such luck on Friday. The lovely Pawan Matta and I often do well in a freewheeling way, bidding aggressively, but not this time. After three or four rounds, we were happy to see that we’d managed an average board. Our dead last finish – 30.21% -- was no surprise.

What did surprise me was a look back at the end of March, where I’d gathered in points on the final four days in a row, including Saturday’s individual game. That was a seven-game streak (not counting Sunday, when I didn’t play). Here’s hoping that the current slump doesn’t last that long.