Bridge Blog 992: Niagara Falls Regional Wednsday

A beautiful frosty morning it is, Wednesday, and I get to Niagara Falls, Ont., so early by taking the Peace Bridge that I exit the Queen Elizabeth Way early on McLeod Road and pick my way through the deserted tourist town streets to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, the former Sheraton Brock, overlooking the Falls and the Rainbow Bridge.

Lots of familiar faces in the lobby on my first day at the tournament, which got started without me Tuesday. At a table in the Grand Ballroom sits my every-Wednesday partner, June Feuerstein, whose ride has gotten her there early, too.

We settle in at East-West in a 12-table section of open pairs for what seems a pretty happy game – we're hardly fatigued at all when it ends after 27 boards shortly after 1 p.m. – but the Bridge Mate scoring gizmo tells another tale.

So does the final tally. We're not last, thanks to a couple pairs from St. Catharines, Ont., but we're a sorry tenth with a 40.10%. Only Buffalo players to win points in our section – Jim Easton and Dennis Clary – were fourth with a mere 50% even.

After lunch at the buffet in the adjoining casino, we return as North-Souths in a 13-table section, two boards a round. We vow to improve – and we do – but not nearly enough. Missing a grand slam against eventual East-West winners Max Rutherford and Dennis Glazebrook doesn't help. We're up to only 43.30%, which puts us next to last.

Winners in our section, morning and afternoon, are Ranald Davidson of Montreal and Susan Cooper of Thornhill, Ont., who follow up their 72% morning effort with 59.15%. They collect 31.06 gold points. Our good friend from St. Catharines, the broodingly handsome Amir Farsoud, and long-bearded partner Peter Kosacky are third, taking 10.49 gold points. My Canadian partner, Selina Volpatti, has attempted to hook us up with Amir for the Sunday Swiss teams event, but apparently that's off.

Highlight of sorts for the afternoon is a round with two outstanding players from California – Mark Itabashi, a pro written up in the now-defunct bridge column in the New York Times for winning the Summer North American Championships in 2013, and July Ratley, a professor at Shasta College who teaches bridge and plays a lot of tournaments.

June complements July on her figure. I'd been struck by her abundant waves of auburn hair and her sprightly youthfulness. She's clearly one of the most attractive women in the room. They're a pleasant pair as they pretty much nail us, taking a full complement of 11 tricks in a 4 Spade contract, then snatching a hand for 2 Spades, down just one, where we should have bid up further in Clubs or Diamonds. Despite our help, they finish only at 46.94%. They'd got their points in the morning.