Bridge Blog 605: B-keeping

Wednesday partner Celine Murray and I thought we had our A game, but when the final results were posted, what we had was our B game – first in B North-South with 52.68%, second in A in our direction, fourth overall, for 1.21 points. Total for the month is now 16.70 with two days to go.

So how did we fall short? Let’s go again to round-by-round analysis. It was a seven-table game, four hands per round, top score on a board was 6. We’re North-South at Table 4.

Pair 4 (Janet Frisch & Nancy Torrell): 11.5 out of 24, or 47.92%. We’re dragged down by my two game attempts, each falling one trick short, although they pushed us into game on one of them.

Pair 3 (Mike Silverman & Carlton Stone): 17.5, or 72.92%. The overall winners, but Mike acknowledged afterward that we totally demolished them, even though they took three of the four bids. On one, however, they allowed themselves to be pushed to 5 Spades, down two, where all the others stopped at 4 Spades. On our contract, I played 3 Diamonds making two overtricks, where one overtrick was pretty much the rule.

Pair 2 (Diane Bloom & Jerry Geiger): 12.5, or 52.08%. I’m watching newbie Diane Bloom carefully here, not because she’s lovely, but because before the game started she asked to pair up for three dates in January. I’m heartened by the way she took Jerry to 6 No Trump on the first hand, bid and made, for a top board. We recover when Celine bags 3 NT after I push her there on an iffy hand and when D&J stop at 3 Spades on a hand that’s good for game. What to watch for when playing with Diane in January? That not-going-to-game problem. I have that with some other partners, too.

Pair 1 (Don Grant & Linda Wynes): 10.5, or 43.75%. Don and Linda finished out of the points, but not because of this round. My proudest piece of strategy is a dud. I quietly let Linda play at 1 Diamond when I’m holding a 23-point hand (including A-K of Diamonds) and it goes down two, but it’s just an average board. Just past the halfway mark, we’re 54.16%.

Pair 7 (Florence Notto & Dottie May): 13.5, or 56.25%. I make the mistake of opening the first non-vulnerable hand with 10 high card points and a five-card Heart suit and things get competitive. It ends with me playing 5 Hearts doubled. Down 4. Minus 800. Zero. Fortunately, we catch a couple near-tops, defending 2 Diamonds, held to just one overtrick, and playing 3 Diamonds, bid and made.

Pair 6 (Jan & Carl Hasselback): 8.5, or 35.42%. So here’s our downfall. The hands started feeling dull at this point, too. Still we might have had 50% without my big mistake – giving Carl an extra trick by leading blindly into his big Diamond holding instead of forcing him to trump.

Pair 5: (Marty & Barb Pieterse): 14, or 58.33%. Our only absolute top board of the day comes against the second-place E-W pair, Celine leaping to 5 Clubs and making it. Everybody else stops short of game.