Monday, August 25, 2014

Bridge Blog 786: The fruits of familiarity


Last week Paula Kotowski said that my games with Dede Kluckhohn would get better once we got used to each other. Given that we’d had two chances to play by that point and just one more chance before my schedule locked up and she snowbirded back to Florida, the prospects looked slim.
But lo and behold, the third time on Monday was the charm. It felt enchanted from the first round, although the record shows us with 9 of a possible 20 match points against expert players Liz Clark and Judi Marshall. There were a couple excruciating errors, as well. For instance, my 5 Club overbid (doubled, down one) of her surefire penalty double of 4 Hearts (OK, this was another one of my many low-point hands with long suits). And then there was Dede's missed overtrick in a 3 No Trump contract, which annoyed her for the remainder of the game.
Nevertheless, we emerged with 55.42%, which tied us for first place overall and earned us 2.34 master points, half of them red. I don’t care about the points, Dede said, I just want to have my name in the paper.
Also a cut above the norm was my Friday game with Selina Volpatti (at the Airport Bridge Club instead of St. Catharines because I had early evening obligations that wouldn't wait for a long delay at the bridges). With Selina as declarer on 12 of the 24 hands we played, we registered 56.25%, first in the B strat, second overall, winning 1.38 points.
Should I also mention the best game I had with Celine Murray in a long time last Wednesday? Only 50.30%, but tied for first in B in our direction for 0.74 of a point. If my math is correct, my total for August so far is 15.84.

No comments:

Post a Comment