Plan
One didn’t work. Judie Bailey and I came to play a team game, knock-outs, at
the Burt Garrell Syracuse Regional Tournament and we get knocked out in the
first round by a team of Canadians from Kingston, Ont.
This
despite the fact that we picked up our own set of teammates from Canada, from
Ottawa, well, near Ottawa. Terry Prout, who had a buxom lady tattooed on his
left arm, and Joan Dunbar seem to hold their own. And so do we, except for those
two hands where we should have held the opponents to a draw, but instead lose 24
International Match Points. In our 24-board head-to-head contest, our margin of
defeat is 25.
One
of those hands is entirely my fault. Judie opens 1 No Trump and I’ve got a 16-point
hand with Ace-King-Queen-fifth of Clubs, four crummy Hearts, the Ace and a low
Diamond and the Queen-Jack of Spades. I bid 2 Clubs, Stayman, asking for her
major suit. She bids 2 Spades. I go right to 3 No Trump and we play it there,
making three overtricks. At the other table, the bidding is 1 NT, 4 NT, 6 NT.
On
the very next hand, we're killed by a pre-empt. West opens 3 Diamonds and I
can’t bid, despite having an opening hand that’s 4-4 in the major suits. Judie
doubles and I jump to 4 Hearts. Mistake. I should have cue-bid 4 Diamonds to
ask for her best major. She has two Hearts, two Diamonds, four Spades and five
Clubs. At the other table, there's no pre-empt and it makes 4 Spades.
After
dinner, we come back to play pairs in the evening side game, a 16-table contest
marked by frigid air conditioning, two identical boards (thanks to a foul-up by
the dealing machine) and an overflow supply of people from Ottawa.
We
start out against a couple members of the hospitality committee – Kathy Landon
and Sandy Stockton – who tell us that the 100 sandwiches they set out in the
hospitality room at 6 p.m. were gone in 20 minutes. We tie for a top on the
first board we play against them, then tie for a bottom on the second one,
when emboldened by a big hand with two Ace-King holdings, I double Sandy’s 4
Spade bid. Having a 10-Spade fit and a singleton in one of my Ace-King suits, she
makes it. Had I not doubled, we would have been 5 match points better.
Though
we have a good game, 5 match points aren’t enough to give us master
points. Our 51.41% is 10th among the 16 East-Wests. There are a lot of pairs
in the 50s. First in B is 58.85%. First overall is 59.49%. Against our
afternoon teammates, who were playing North-South, we took 19 of a possible 30
match points. They also finish out of the money at 50.26%.
On
the way out, Judie picks up a flyer headlined: “Fast Results comes to the
Syracuse Regional.” It asks: “Would you rather go have a bite to eat than
stand around waiting for your results for the pair’s (sic) game just completed?
No more! You can now retrieve all of the information via the Internet."
And
so I have at http://bridgefinesse.com/fastresults/D4.
There’s even a provision for winners to post pictures of themselves.
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