Bridge Blog 651: Feels like a feeling

Sometimes you don’t even need to see the numbers on the traveling score slips to know if you’re having a good day or a bad day. On Tuesday at the Airport Bridge Club, Joyce Greenspan and I knew we were having a bad day right from the first hand, when we went down two vulnerable. Try as we might, we couldn’t find any traction. Or any good contracts, for that matter. I considered us lucky to avoid slipping below 40%. We wound up in a three-way tie for last with 42.5%.

With Wednesday partner Celine Murray, on the other hand, everything felt good. Our defense was awesome. We were bidding and making our contracts. Sure enough, when everything was tabulated, we were first overall with 64%, earning 1.87 points.

Celine and I were so elated we said we should play again on Thursday, Diane Bloom having canceled her date with me. But she didn’t call Wednesday night to confirm (she was having phone problems Tuesday night) and when I showed up at the club Thursday morning, she wasn’t around and I got her voice mail when I called her house.

But substitute Ruth Hnath came in and had a stellar day, right from our first hand, when she took my 2 No Trump opening bid to 6 NT on a hand where we took all 13 tricks. It wasn’t quite as awesome as Wednesday, but our 58.04% was good for third North-South and 1.25 master points. Point total for the month at the Airport Club is 11.92, plus the .25 from last Friday and the .36 from the sectional back on Feb. 1. Now I feel fully primed to take on those tough Canadians Friday at the club over in St. Catharines.