Bridge Blog 657: Mired

I am in a slump of massive proportions so far this month, a fact driven home on Monday when the lovely Pawan Matta and I glided down to a 38.32% game in a five-table Howell session at the Airport Bridge Club. With six absolute bottom boards in 27 hands and another five ties for bottom, there was no single mistake or even cluster of mistakes that we could have corrected to gain some redemption.

I’m so hungry for points that I insisted to my significant other that I absolutely had to play the Swiss team game on Sunday at the Airport Club, since even a losing effort might stand a chance of bringing home some fractional rewards.

Allied with partner Judy Kaprove and teammates Dotty May and Florence Notto, we won two rounds and lost two by the time the pizza arrived for lunch. Two more wins, I told them, and we’d be among the leaders, albeit on the bottom rung. Well, we won only once after lunch and finished sixth overall, but thanks to the miracle of stratification, we were first in the C strat. It got us 1.69 points, which boosted my haul for month from less than one point to more than two.