Friday, October 27, 2017

Bridge Blog 989: Buffalo Regional Wrap-Up

My best regional tournament ever, thanks to persistence. I played in every single session. But instead of one big piece of cake, it was a lot of little crumbs, accumulated in the side games. Twice I was a winner, for which I took home two bottles of Prosecco.
What else will I remember most? Probably the three glaring glitches.
1. The parking fiasco on Friday, when a big convention filled up the ramp behind the Adam’s Mark Hotel and forced players to find spots for $3 (later reimbursed) under the elevated section of the Niagara Thruway.
2. Friday partner Art Matthies bailing out on me, turning around and driving back home rather than parking under the Thruway and making the long trek to the front entrance of the hotel like me and everybody else.
3. Partner Cleveland Fleming’s cell phone singing out the William Tell Overture during Saturday afternoon’s single-session Swiss team game, which cost us 3 victory points, but thankfully didn’t affect our final standing.
My 16.68 points placed me 70th among the 431 players who earned points and 21st among players from Buffalo.  
The five people at the top of the winner’s list accumulated more than 100 points each, which could be the first time anybody has hit the century mark at the Buffalo Regional.
Tied for top were Shan Huang of Toronto and Kevin Dwyer of Melbourne, Fla., with 115.31. (They were tied for second last year with 66.45.) Tied for third were Kevin Bathhurst of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., and Joan Millens of Kingston, N.Y., with 107.46. Then there was Jianfeng Luo of North York, Ont., with 102.16.
Highest-ranking Buffalo player was in ninth place – Saleh Fetouh with 52.34 points. How did he do it?  Tied for third in the top bracket of the Wednesday-Thursday knock-outs (10.39 points), finished third in the Thursday open Swiss teams (14.68 points) and come in first in the Thursday evening side game (3.41 points) and the evening side series (another 7.44 points). Then he was fourth in the Friday open pairs (8.02) and third in the big Sunday Swiss team game (10.04).

The other leading Buffalo players – Bud Seidenberg, 43.05 points; Jay Levy, 41.07; Chris Urbanek, 41.05; Davis Heussler, 31.34; Judy Padgug, 30.31; Fred Yellen, 29.32; Linda Burroughsford, 27.85; Martha and John Welte, 26.53; Bill Rushmore, 22.93; Dian Petrov, 20.75; Jay Costello, 20.39; Kamil Bishara, 20.27; Marilyn Wortzman, 19.85; Donna Steffan, 19.23; Gay Simpson, 19.19; David Hemmer, 18.06; Elaine Kurasiewicz, 17.40; Amita Arora, 17.15; Chongmin Zhang, 17.10; MOI!, 16.68; Mike Ryan, 15.73; Gene Nowatniak, 15.58; Joan Rose, 13.56; Shakeel Ahmad and Manju Ceylony, 13.13; Ruth and Michael Kozower, 12.02; Usha Khurana, 11.93; Ethan Xie, 11.59; Rajat Basu, 10.79; Ed Morgan, 10.47; Art Morth, 10.46; and Glenn Milgrim, 10.40. 

Bridge Blog 989-A: Buffalo Regional Attendance

Attendance was way down at the Buffalo Regional, Wiebe Hoogland, who’s a Unit 166 board member, remarks Friday afternoon when he comes to play East-West at our table at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines, Ont..
He says that to be successful, a regional tournament should attract 800 tables. Buffalo, he notes, only had 600-some. Perhaps it was the location. Wiebe says he doesn’t like coming to downtown Buffalo and much preferred the tournaments in the former Grand Island Holiday Inn.
I suggest that it might have been hurt because it was so close to the Niagara Falls Regional. They’re only three weeks apart. It may have cut down on Canadian attendance. Wiebe thinks so, too.
The Falls regional is held only every second year and it used to be that the Buffalo tournament sometimes took place in June to avoid it. That was before Betty Metz, who runs the Buffalo tournament, went for a permanent October date.

So let’s go to the archives and look at attendance.
Oct. 2017 – 628 tables. Sunday Swiss – 41 tables.
Oct. 2016 – 718 tables. Sunday Swiss – 43 tables.
Oct. 2015 – 699 tables. Sunday Swiss – 41 tables.
Oct. 2014 – (Hamburg Fairgrounds). 671 tables. Sunday Swiss – 45 tables.
June 2013 – (Last year at Grand Island Holiday Inn). 886 tables. Sunday Swiss – 48 tables.
Oct. 2012 – 1,092 tables. Sunday Swiss – 67 tables.
Oct. 2011 – 918 tables. Sunday Swiss – 56 tables.
Oct. 2010 – 1,021 tables. Sunday Swiss – 62 tables.
Oct. 2009 – 1,047 tables. Sunday Swiss – 62 tables.
June 2008 – 1,032 tables. Sunday Swiss – 59 tables.
Oct. 2007 – 953 tables. Sunday Swiss – 71 tables.
March 2006 – No table total. Sunday Swiss – 51 tables.

And while we’re at it, let’s look at Niagara Falls.
Nov. 2015 – 1,094 tables. Sunday Swiss – 63 tables.
Nov. 2013 – 1,177 tables. Sunday Swiss – 76 tables.
Nov. 2011 – 1,001 tables. Sunday Swiss – 70 tables.
Nov. 2008 – 1,274 tables. Sunday Swiss – 81 tables.

Nov. 2006 – 1,255 tables. Sunday Swiss – 94 tables. 

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Bridge Blog 988: Buffalo Regional Day 6

The grand Swiss team finale. 41 teams. I’m with Joe Miranda, with whom I’ve had wonderful games in tournaments past. Also with Usha Khurana and John Marvin, usually a good combination.
And we are good, at least for a while, at least after we lose our first game to the Passer team (at our table, Elaine Kurasiewicz and Barry Passer, who passed my team in the final round of the single-session Swiss team game on Saturday).
We rise up in the second round to defeat the Florence Boyd team (my frequent club partners Marilyn Sultz and June Feuerstein at our table) and then face a top-ranked pair who apparently also are 1-1 at that moment, the Heckley team from Toronto, which includes two top-flight players, Martin Hunter and Keith Heckley. At our table, it's Jonathan Steinberg, with his paid pro, Alex Hudson from Raleigh, N.C., sitting sullenly South in a black San Antonio Spurs jacket.
Miraculously, we win that round, thanks to Martin overreaching at Usha and John’s table and going down a lot doubled.
But our luck ends there. We get stomped in round four by none other than Thom Burnett and his daughter, Miri Salamone-Burnett. Had Joe and I restrained ourselves and not overbid two times and not gone down way too much doubled, we would have prevailed.
Heaven knows which high-flying team we would have encountered if we won that round and were sitting 3-1 at midpoint, but we wind up facing a tough bunch anyway, Dian Petrov and Paul Janicki. They stomp us too. And so do our opponents in the last two rounds, even a team I thought we had a chance against, Linda and Paul Zittel.

We wind up with just our two winning rounds, nothing else, very close to the bottom of the heap (fifth from the bottom: the bottom, alas, being the Florence Boyd team, which only registered a single tied round). 
For our efforts, we win 0.72 of a point. Small, but it nevertheless pads my six-day total to 16.68, surpassing my till-now topmost tournament total ever – 16.44 – at Rochester in 2015. 

Bridge Blog 987: Buffalo Regional Day 5

         Cleveland Fleming and I try extend the good fortune we had Thursday night in the Saturday morning side game – me needing to play the next side game Saturday afternoon to preserve my gold points from way back on Wednesday.
But we blow a couple hands early in this four-table Howell arrangement and we just can’t recover. We're 45.83%, sixth out of the eight pairs. Our one bright moment was a 6 No Trump contract against the winners, Cleveland ladies Gladys Martin and Edia Shai (who sounds and looks middle European, but says she was born in Israel).
          However, for all my activity in the side games, I discover just now (as I’m belatedly reviewing my ACBL Live emails on Sunday night) that I’ve been rewarded for all the side games I played.
Turns out I’m fourth among all the side game players, behind the Cleveland ladies and Buffalonian Pat Lakeman. I get 2.95 gold points that I didn’t even know were there for the taking.
I’m also assured by the directors that I will get gold for the win Art Matthies and I had Wednesday afternoon. The points for Art, who has been absent since then, remain red.
Cleveland and I sign up to play the afternoon side game, but only one other pair is ready to join us. They put us into the single-session Swiss team game instead, all four of us, and that's not a bad thing. We win our first round, tie the second and win the third. Now sitting us second overall, we get to play the final round against the first-place team, the one that slam-dunked my people in the single-session Swiss game on Friday – the Costello team: Jay Costello, Donna Steffan, Chongmin Zhang and Glenn Milgrim.
This time we play Jay and Donna. Interrupting the first board are the faint strains of the William Tell Overture. Cleveland’s cell phone. He forgot to silence it. There’s a penalty for that. Donna calls the director. The penalty, he says, will be determined when we finish.
After they whup us soundly, the penalty is decided – 3 victory points. Although it makes our defeat more emphatic, there's no impact on the final outcome. We fall back to third place overall, second in the B strat. 2.09 red points.
Meanwhile, my second-best Buffalo Regional has gotten even better. 15.96! A new high, 0.30 better than my previous best last year.
That makes me only 67th among all players at this affair. The daily bulletin (wonderfully compiled by Andrei Reinhorn, to whom a few hats should be doffed) shows the leaders – Kevin Dwyer of Melbourne, Fla., and Shan Huang of Toronto – tied for the top with 97.46 points. Best Buffalo player, Saleh Fetouh, has 42.30 points. He’s tenth.


Friday, October 20, 2017

Bridge Blog 986: Buffalo Regional Day 4

Is this Friday the 20th or Friday the 13th all over again? Why are the upper levels of the parking garage closed at the Adam’s Mark Hotel? We last-minute arrivals need them desperately. Next best option: Under the Thruway overpass for $3. Then walk around the outside of the hotel to the front.
Where’s my partner? Art Matthies always gets to the game before I do, but he’s nowhere to be found. I scan the scene anxiously during the minutes that the start of the game is delayed because of the parking. Finally, I look up his number in my datebook – his home number – and call. His wife says he got to the hotel, saw what was happening with the parking, turned around and came back home.
So the man who filled in with me on Tuesday, partnership co-chairman Jim Gullo, is pulled off caddy duty in the Swiss team game. We get such a late start that we leave two out of the four boards unplayed in the first round and have to make them up at the end of the session.
Jim and I make some terrible mistakes in the beginning – I mislead him into a slam on a hand that makes only 10 tricks, he misses rising with the winning King of Diamonds on my opening lead against an opponent’s No Trump contract and blows our chance of defeating it – but we rally to 53.47% in this six-table single-session side game. Third overall, second in the B strat, 1.85 red points.
I really need to play the afternoon side game to preserve the gold points I earned Thursday afternoon. The directors assure me that even though my Thursday partner is missing, I can collect the gold even if I play another side game with a different partner. In this case, it’s the book-selling lady, Rose Cassmer.
But only two pairs sign up for the side game. They need us and the other folks – Frank Henriques and Suzanne Nunn, from Newmarket, north of Toronto – to fill out the single-session Swiss team game as the 14th team. 
We have great success in the first round, winning by 28-2 victory points. Unfortunately, that puts us up against a really good team in the second round – Chongmin Zhang and Glenn Milgrim, who are playing with Jay Costello and Donna Steffan – and they drub us accordingly on their way to becoming overall winners. We get nailed again in the third round by two Cleveland ladies – Gladys Martin and Mina Ronen.
Now that we’re out of running for bonus points, we rebound in the fourth round. Two rounds won, two rounds lost. Award for winning each round – 0.25 of a point.
But what I don’t know until I check the emailed results from the ACBL just now is what our 54 victory points did for us. We’re ninth out of 14 teams overall, but we’re second in the B strat. Instead of just 0.50 of a point, we won 1.84.

So, with two days to go, this already ranks as my second-best-ever Buffalo Regional (see previous totals in Blog 985). Total points so far: 12.77. 

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Bridge Blog 985: Buffalo Regional Day 3

Thursday I have partnership nailed down for a change. Art Matthies is my guy, though he certainly regrets it during the morning single-session pairs side game. Five out of the six East-Wests are under 50% and we're last among them with an even 40%. Way out front are Junko Hemus and Joel Wooldridge at 77.50%. If I ever have time, I want to do a comparison of them vs. us in this game to see what they did right.  
We fare better in the afternoon side game. Way better. 63.49%. Better than Joel and Junko, who are tops North-South with 57.14%. 3.60 points, of which some will convert to gold when we play again Friday afternoon.
En route to the men's room during the dinner break, I run into Cleveland Fleming, who's dropped in to play the evening pairs game. Partnership chairman Dian Petrov is there and pairs us up immediately. I like playing with Cleveland at lot and we fare fairly well. Despite a weak-looking 51.95%, we're third North-South and pick up 1.05 red points. We agree to play pairs again on Saturday.
Total for the day is 4.65 points, which doubles my take for the tournament so far. At this midway point, I'm at 9.08.
How does this compare? Last year I got 15.66, best I've ever done at the Buffalo Regional. 
Going back even further: 
2015 – 5.38.
2014 – 9.77 (Hamburg Fairgrounds).
2013 – 4.59 (last year on Grand Island).
2012 – 12.12.
2011 – 6.97.
2010 – 7.59.
2009 – 4.15.
2008 – 12.70.
2007 – 5.44.
2006 – 1.94 (held in March!!!).
2005 – 2.73. 


Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Bridge Blog 984: Buffalo Regional Day 2

Turns out Tuesday night partner Rose Cassman, the book-selling lady in the lobby, wants to play the two-session pairs game, not another night game. So we do. And, given room for improvement from our 41% effort Tuesday night, we improve.
In the morning, we bring a 52.73% game, earning 1.18 red points. We're seventh among North-Souths in the B strat overall, third in our section.
Our best moment: Making a 4 Spades doubled contract against Dian Petrov and Kamil Bishara for an outright top board.
Our worst: Watching Fred Yellen and Bud Seidenberg make a 6 Heart slam. Five East-Wests bid it, all should have made it, but only three did (the other two also were top-of-the-line players – Vera Carpenter and Rashid Kahn, who were the overall winners, and Bill Rushmore and Art Morth).
And then there was the one that could have been a top or a bottom, but turned out somewhere in between: 4 Hearts redoubled vulnerable against Sandi England and Ken Meier, a good bet except their Hearts split 5-0. That minus 400, however, still gave us 7 out of 19 match points. Every North-South is in Hearts (we South players have eight of them), 12 get doubled and only one of them beats it.
The afternoon finds me taking most of our bids, but doing not as well – 51.15%. Biggest missed opportunity – not bidding slam on the hand that makes 7 Clubs or 7 No Trump, this one:

South (me)
Spades: 4; Hearts: A-K-J-4; Diamonds: 8-4; Clubs: A-K-Q-10-6-2.

West (Walt Olszewski)
Spades: J-9-3; Hearts: Q-10-8-7-5-2; Diamonds: K-7-6-3; Clubs: none.

North (Rose, the dealer)
Spades: A-K-Q-6; Hearts: none; Diamonds: A-Q-J-9; Clubs: 9-8-7-4-3.

East (Martin Pieterse)
Spades: 10-8-7-5-2; Hearts: 9-6-3; Diamonds: 10-5-2; Clubs: J-5.

Rose opens a Diamond, I bid 2 Clubs, she bids 2 Spades, I jump to 3 NT. Bidding closed. Guilty as charged. I feel my slam-sense tingling, Spider-man style, but decide to ignore it. We pay the price.
Five pairs bid 7 Clubs and make it. Two bid 6 NT and make an overtrick. Eight bid 6 Clubs and get an overtrick. Three of us unfortunates stop at 3 NT. And three even more unlucky pairs stop at 5 Clubs. Going to 6 Club slam would get us an extra 5 match points. Going to 6 NT would yield an extra 10. Amazingly, it would not get us any more master points.
We’d still be first in the B strat in our section, of course. (Plus, as Rose reminds me when it's over, we get a prize for being first.) We'd still be seventh in B overall. And we'd still collect 3.53 points, 1.18 red and 2.35 gold.
In the evening, in the severe air-conditioned chill in the main ballroom, they need another pair to fill out the fifth table in a five-table Howell game. None other than Mike Ryan agrees to play with me and they waive the $12 fee for each of us.

Mike is good, a true A player, but the Howell seems to work against us. Our cards suck. The only stationary North-South pair – John and Diane Bielinski – are the winners. Somehow we make a respectable 52.91% showing (my highest percentage of the day), but we're fifth overall. Only the top four get points. 

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Bridge Blog 983: Buffalo Regional Day 1

I could've been in Las Vegas on Tuesday to see Sabres battle the Golden Knights expansion team on the only ice in town that isn't cooling cocktails. That was the plan until a couple months ago. (Note after midnight, they battle back to send the game into overtime, then lose 5-4.)
Then I could've been on cat caretaking duty. Fortunately, our kitty Boris is recovering well from the amputation of his back leg and the cat oncologist says he seems to be cancer free, at least for the next few months. Thank goodness!
So I show up at the Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown Buffalo without a partner, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm paired with one of the partnership chairmen, Jim Gullo, a seasoned player who has about 1,000 more master points than I do, enough to put us in the top stratification in the open pairs game.
In the morning session, I have trouble picking up Jim's bidding and discarding cues. Plus I throw in a few boneheaded moves for good measure, like one against major master Joel Wooldridge. His 3 No Trump contract on Board 16 should have gone down, but I didn't hold back my Ace of Spades on this deal:

West (dealer/me)
Spades: A-8-2; Hearts: 10-9-8-2; Diamonds: J-8; Clubs: K-10-8-2.

North (Joel)
Spades: J; Hearts: A-K-7-4; Diamonds: A-K-7-5-2; Clubs: Q-J-4.

East (Jim)
Spades: 10-9-7-4; Hearts: Q-J; Diamonds: Q-10-9-3; Clubs: 9-7-5.

South (Junko Hemus)
Spades: K-Q-6-5-3; Hearts: 8-6-5; Diamonds: 6-4; Clubs: A-6-3.

Since Joel had been bidding Diamonds, Jim leads a Club, which my King takes. I return a Club, taken by Joel, leaving the Ace as an entry to the dummy. At some point after this, Joel leads his singleton Jack of Spades, which is where I fail to hold back on playing the Ace. 
I know I've blown it as soon as I consider what to lead next. Diamond? Whatever. The entry to the dummy is still good and the Spades bring home the 3 NT contract. Joel suggests that Junko should have put the contract in Hearts – it makes 3 Hearts for sure.
The post-game summary gives them 16.5 out of a possible 22 match points. All but three of the 23 tables play it in No Trump. A few North-Souths even take 10 tricks, but half of them make fewer than nine.  
At any rate, that's one of the reasons why Jim and I wind up with a 44.41% game. I'm more attuned to him in the afternoon and we're rewarded with 55.58% finish, fifth overall, but not enough carryover from the morning to win gold points. We get only 0.90 of a red point.
Big daytime winners are Chris Urbanek and Joan Rose, as might be expected. They collect 13.56 gold points. Surprise is the second-place pair, who also win the B and C stratifactions – relative novices Marilyn Wortzman and Amita Arora. They have a 68.27% game in the afternoon and earn 10.17 points. Bravo!

I stick around for the evening session and get paired with the woman from the Cleveland area who runs the table selling bridge books, Rose Cassman. In a 6½ table game, we're the bumping pair, hopping around as everyone takes a two-board sit-out. Our 41.37% ties us for 11th among 13 pairs. Rose is willing to pair up again Wednesday night. Well, I tell her, we've got plenty of room for improvement. 

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Bridge Blog 982: September Swan Song

Club points for the year through Sept. 30: 114.99, up 13.55 from August. 
     Just barely good enough to cling to third place in the Ace of Clubs race (club play only) among Ruby Life Masters (1,500 to 2,500 points) in ACBL Unit 116 (Buffalo only).
Here are the leaders: Mike Silverman, 151.21, Ken Meier, 129.27, me, 114.99, and Allen Beroza, 113.75.
David Millward, fifth among Unit 116 Ruby Life Masters last month, has been transferred by the ACBL to Vero Beach, Fla., allowing Fred Yellen to move up to fifth place with 88.08. Then it’s Dorothy May, 74.47, and Gene Finton, 64.74. 
     Art Morth, with 36.43, moves up to ninth. He displaces Chuck Schorr, now tenth, who adds nothing to last month’s total 31.54. Nipping at his heels is Carolyn Siracuse, with 31.14.
Among the entire spectrum of Unit 116 players in the Ace of Clubs race, last month’s runner-up has taken the lead. 
     The Top 10 looks like this: Jerry Geiger, 153.42; Mike Silverman, 151.21; Liz Clark, 133.59; Denise Slattery, 132.69; John Ziemer, moving up from seventh to fifth with 131.68; Ken Meier, 128.27; Judi Marshall, 124.19; me, 114.99, still in eighth place; Allen Beroza, 113.75; and Ron Henrikson, advancing from 12th place to 10th with 113.30. 
     Close behind are Martha and John Welte, both 111 even; Mike Ryan, dropping from 10th to 13th with 109.02; and Martin Peterese, down from 11th to 14th with 107.86. Also surpassing the century mark in Ace of Clubs points, Bud Seidenberg with 100.22 in 15th place.
Total points for the year, as of Sept. 30: 135.04, up 15.55 since August. 
     Among Ruby Life Masters in Unit 116, here's how the leaders look: Ken Meier, 237.66 (still fifth among all Unit 116 players); Mike Silverman, 160.74 (down to 14th from 12th overall); Allen Beroza, 138.60 (still 19th overall), me, 135.04 (up to 20th from 22nd overall); Fred Yellen, 132.22 (up to 22nd from 29th overall); Gene Finton, 89.44; Dorothy May, 80.01; Art Morth, 55.62; Chongmin Zhang, 38.51; and Bill Rushmore, 38.34.
Last month five of the overall Unit 116 Mini-McKenney leaders were above the 200-point mark. Now there are seven. Increasing the two-point lead they attained a month ago to a 26-point lead are Martha and John Welte, both with 290.88.
Then it’s Davis Heussler, 264.38; Mike Ryan, 243.50; Ken Meier, 237.66; John Ziemer, 217.96; Jay Levy, 215.18; Linda Burroughsford, 187.56; Jerry Geiger, 182.63; Dian Petrov, 176.14; Bert Hargeshimer, 166.99; and Christy Kellogg, 166.94.
District 5 (Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh) Ace of Clubs. Ruby Life Masters. I’m hanging in at third place in my division, and 20th overall, down two notches from 18th. We Buffalo players are the only ones with 100-plus points and we hold down the top four spots.
Mike Silverman is the leader with 151.21. He slipped from fourth to fifth among all District 5 Mini-McKenney players. Second is Ken Meier, 128.27 (14th overall, down from 12th); then me, 114.99 (20th, down from 18th); Allen Beroza, 113.75 (22nd, down from 19th); Chantal Whitney, formerly of Bratenahl, Ohio, now from Boca Raton, Fla., 96.20 (41st); Susan Konig of Bridgeville, Pa., 92.50 (48th); Fred Yellen, 88.08 (56th); and Doris Kirsch of East Springfield, Pa., 81.71 (62nd).
         District 5 Ace of Clubs overall. Here Arlene Port of Pittsburgh (174.86) retains the lead she took last month from Robert Alexander of Mentor, Ohio, (167.64).
They're followed by Asim Ulke of Monroeville, Pa., 158.24; Jerry Geiger, up from sixth place with 153.42; Mike Silverman, 151.21; Stephanie Alexander of Mentor, Ohio, 150.60; Patricia Katz of Pittsburgh, 145.65, stepping back ahead of Richard Katz of North Versailles, Pa., 142.86; Liz Clark,133.59, Barbara Belardi of Pittsburgh, 132.90; Denise Slattery, 132.69; and John Ziemer, 131.88.
District 5 Mini-McKenney. Ruby Life Masters.  Sue Lan Ma of Kirtland Hills, Ohio, continues on top by a wide margin. She’s got 662.05. First in the division and still first in the district overall.
The rest of the Top 10 plus one: Craig Biddle of Pittsburgh, still second with 413.62 (tenth overall); William Lindgren of Slippery Rock, Pa., still third with 261.42 (20th); Ken Meier, 237.66 (29th); Charles Ladiha of Vermillion, Ohio, 178.13 (56th); Mike Silverman, 160.74 (70th); Russell Sheldon of Pittsburgh, 157.34 (71st); Allen Beroza, 138.60 (82nd); Wayne Heritage of North Olmsted, Ohio, 138.44 (83rd); Jean Picone of Pittsburgh, 136.17 (89th); and me! 135.04 (up one notch to 11th among Ruby Life Masters, and up five places to 93rd overall).
         District 5 Mini-McKenney overall. Sue Lan Ma, 662.05; Phillip Becker of Beachwood, Ohio, jumping from fourth to second with 462 even; Reanette Frobouck of Pittsburgh slips to third on an off-month, only advancing about 5 points to 460.89.
Then it’s Kathleen and Don Sulgrove of Twinsburg, Ohio, 456.32 and 445.37, respectively; with Phillip Goulding of Wexford, Pa., leaping up between them with 451.44.
Then it's Bernie Greenspan of Beachwood, Ohio, down one notch to seventh with 440.32; followed by Robert and Stephanie Alexander of Mentor, Ohio, 432.62 and 416.25; and Craig Biddle of Pittsburgh, 413.62. The Unit 116 leaders, Martha and John Welte, are tied for 13th with 290.88.
Nationwide. Ace of Clubs. Ruby Life Masters. The top three hold their positions – Thomas Roberg, Raleigh, N.C., 270.66; and Robert Shearer of Diberville, Miss, 251.72; and Ben Franz, Edgewood, N.M., 250.42.
     Then it’s Dennis Harms, Corvallis, Ore., 242.89; Gary Waldron, Laguna Beach, Calif., 241.54; Sidney Perutz of Dallas, 232.98; and Barry Nish of Little Neck, N.Y., 230.62.
     Mike Silverman is 83rd, down from 73rd. Ken Meier is 178th, down from 168th. I'm 277th, up from 292nd. Allen Beroza checks in at 295th, down one from 294th. The list cuts off at 98.34.
Nationwide. Ace of Clubs overall. Bill Kulbersh of Atlanta (513.60) stays on top. Gail Wells of Dallas (479.67) remains in second ahead of Bella Ionis-Sorren of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (457.90).
     Kay Schulle of Purchase, N.Y. (430.49), stays in fourth place, followed by Irva Neyhart of Corvallis, Ore. (404.89); Sheila Gabay of Newton, Mass. (396.27); and Marion Gebhardt of Richardson, Texas (393.79). 
     No Unit 116 players here and only two from District 5 – Arlene Port is 364th, down from 326th, and Robert Alexander is 461st, down from 438th. The list cuts off at 164.05.  
Nationwide. Mini-McKenney. Ruby Life Masters. Big month for Sudhakar Divakaruni of Scottsdale, Ariz., who gathered 100+ points to reach 802.95 and slip ahead of Gillian Miniter of New York City, 790.87.
District 5's Sue Lan Ma, 662.05, continues in third, followed by Jeff Edelstein of Riverview, Fla., 531.58; and Mark Blanchard of Bay Shore, L.I., 479.87. Unit 116's Ken Meier is 122nd, down from 118th. Mike Silverman is 481st, up from 500th. The list cuts off at 158.51.
Nationwide. Mini-McKenney overall.  Ongoing leader Chris Compton of Dallas continues to be the only player who has surpassed the double-century mark, now with 2,175.49. Then it's Kevin Dwyer of Melbourne, Fla., 1,958.48; Mark Itabashi of Murrieta, Calif., 1,807.26; Shan Huang of Toronto, 1,692.86; Greg Hinze of San Antonio, Texas, 1,677.94; and Jeff Meckstroth of Clearwater Beach, Fla., 1,621.80. 
     Former Buffalonian Joel Wooldridge is up a notch, from 26th to 25th, with 1,200.66. Sue Lan Ma is 108th, up from 118th. Phillip Becker is 298th. Reanette Frobouck is 301st, down from 269th. Ten District 5 players make the list before it ends at 379.72. 

Friday, October 6, 2017

Bridge Blog 981: You cannot win

          The Steve Forbert song, echoing an old saying, goes: “You cannot win if you do not play.” That’s certainly the case while I’ve been on companion duty with my pussycat for the past two weeks while he recovers from a leg amputation.
          And it was also the case on the one day, last Saturday, Sept. 30, when I did play. Far from repeating our string of Saturday successes, Denise Slattery and I had a bad game. Although we knew it all along, we still harbored some hope right up to the last round of that three-table Howell session at the Airport Bridge Club.
          Not that we really expected to make much headway in those final five boards against Gladys and Ken Hardcastle. Regular visitors from Georgia (their son plays in the Buffalo Philharmonic), they are no slouches. Going into the round with a running score of 40%, we’d need a miracle to hit 50.
          On the other hand, we weren’t expecting to get slam-dunked so hard. Four bottom boards, taking us down to 35%. Were we that bad?
Well, on one board, yes. The Hardcastles bid and made 5 Diamonds on a hand where they should have taken only 10 tricks. Perhaps we gave one away with Denise’s opening lead of the 7 of Hearts. Here are the hands. East is dealer and declarer. East-West is vulnerable.

East (Gladys)
Spades: A-K-Q-7-6; Hearts: A-J-2; Diamonds: 8-6-5-4-2; Clubs: none.

South (Denise)
Spades: 8-3; Hearts: 10-9-7-5; Diamonds: K-J-9; Clubs: J-6-4-2.

West (Ken)
Spades: J-5; Hearts: Q-8-4; Diamonds: Q-7-3; Clubs: A-9-8-5-3.

North (me)
Spades: 10-9-4-2; Hearts: K-6-3; Diamonds: A-10; Clubs: K-Q-10-7.

Hand record says it’s East-West all the way, making 2 NT, 3 Spades, 1 Heart, 4 Diamonds or 1 Club. Don't think Denise and I did any bidding, but the Hardcastles found their way to 5 Diamonds anyway.
As for the other three bottom boards, we were losers no matter what we did. On one of them, they bid game when apparently nobody else did. On the other two, we sacrificed to keep them away from contracts they would have won, but other East-Wests apparently weren’t that competitive.

The upshot was that my point count for September stayed at 15.55 – right where it was at the beginning of the week, when I stopped playing. Thank god I made my monthly goal early.