Tune-up
time for the Buffalo Regional Tournament next month with Betty Metz, with whom I’m
teamed for the Friday and Saturday sessions. Since she doesn’t play at the
Airport Bridge Club and I’m always playing there, this was our first best
chance to reacclimate ourselves to one another, having had a successful session
when we were thrown together by the partnership chairman at a tournament a while back.
No
problem when it comes to filling out the convention card. Betty says we should
play like she plays with Helen Panza, which is a pretty standard game – no
funny conventions. Nevertheless, we start off poorly in the morning game.
We
allow opponents to win auctions when we should have outbid them. We don’t bring
down the extra tricks we should be taking defensively. And then there’s the
misguided slam bid, when I mistake Betty’s jump to 2 No Trump as a strong hand
opposite my strong opener instead of a 10 or 11-pointer. Down five doubled vulnerable.
Minus 1,400. A bottom is a bottom. And we finish down near the bottom in the
15-table double-session game with 43.39%.
This
does not bode well at all for the regional next month. For the afternoon, I resolve
to be more opportunistic. That doesn’t go so well at first, but after a few
rounds things start to turn in our direction. For instance, there’s a 2 No Trump bid that
should make 4 NT and I wind up taking four overtricks. Not a top board, but
high middle.
Later
we bid a 6 NT slam and make an overtrick. And on the final board of the day we
rush to another 6 NT contract after I make an ill-advised opening bid of 1
Heart with this hand:
Spades:
J-4; Hearts: A-K-J-9-6; Diamonds: 6; Clubs: 9-8-7-6-3.
Betty
bids 2 Diamonds and I can’t leave things there, so I go to 3 Clubs. She jumps
to 4 NT and I have no choice but to play along with the Blackwood convention
and show her I have an Ace. So there we are at 6 NT. As I put down my cards for
the dummy, I apologize for leading her down the garden path.
The
hand record shows that the hand can make 6 Clubs, but only 5 NT from the South.
Betty, however, manages to bring it home by squeezing the opponents. They throw away the suit she’s holding at the end. It’s brilliant. It’s a top
board. It’s just enough to raise us to 50.51% and put us fourth in the B strat.
We win 0.54 of a silver point. Here are the other hands.
South
Spades:
A-K-5-2; Hearts: Q; Diamonds: A-J-5-3-2; Clubs: A-Q-5.
East
Spades:
9-8; Hearts: 10-4-2; Diamonds: K-10-7-4; Clubs: K-J-10-4.
West
Spades:
Q-10-7-6-3; Hearts: 8-7-5-3; Diamonds: Q-9-8; Clubs: 2.
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