Bridge Blog 529: Going wide

          I told our opponents in the ACBL-wide International Fund Game on Thursday that partner Alice Kolipinski and I had an uncomplicated relationship. Which was true. We didn’t do any fancy conventions, just played a solid, straightforward game.

As North-South, we were on offense more than defense and, as South, Alicia played more hands that I did. The good part was that we didn’t screw up very much. It felt like a good game and it was. We finished with 61.61%, first overall, netting 1.5 red points and 1.5 black points at the club. That more than doubled my total at the Airport Bridge Club so far this month.

Director Bill Finkelstein suggested that 61.61% probably wouldn’t mean much in the distribution of major wads of points on the district and nationwide levels. At this point on Thursday night, no nationwide or district tabulations have been completed, but now that I’ve looked into a couple club websites, I’m starting to think that we may have done something significant.

Only four clubs took part in the game in District 5 – Beechwood near Cleveland, where the only pair who beat us was Buffalonian Bev Cohen and her partner with 63%. At the Greensburg club down near Pittsburgh, nobody had 61%. As for the only other District 5 club, the one in Altoona, Pa., they don’t have a website.
          So just for the heck of it, I looked at clubs in Westchester County down near New York City. A seven-day-a-week club called the Bridge Deck in Scarsdale had one North-South pair at an amazing 70%, but nobody else was better than 61%. The Hartes Club in White Plains, however, had a really big game (35 pairs in four sections) and several big hitters. A pair named Halina Jamner and David Yates had a 74.70% game, earning 7.50 points at the club. Seven others came in between 61.9% and 69%.

Scores weren’t that high at a few Florida clubs I just looked at, though. Generally, only one pair was outpointing us in each game. Same in Toronto and Chicago and even the Honors Bridge Club in New York City, where there were 30 pairs, there was a 70%, one in the mid-60s and one which tied us exactly at 61.61%. So I suspect we may have captured some extra district points, if they’re available, but nationally? Finkelstein is probably right. We’re too low.