Bridge Blog 1057: Tricks and treats

      It’s a double session at the Airport Bridge Club on Halloween – a pairs game in the morning, the ACBL-wide Instant Match Point Game in the afternoon.

      It’s also my first reunion with Wednesday partner June Feuerstein since that day a month ago when she took a fall in the hallway en route to the ladies room and broke her jaw. She just returned to the game on Monday.

      We find little traction in the morning. 44.50%. Not last, but not very good.

      Since I have to work the city desk at The Buffalo News Wednesday night and shouldn’t come in late, my plan is to leave after that morning game, but club manager Bill Finkelstein twists my arm ever so slightly and I agree to stay, but just until 3 or so.

      I’d forgotten how much I enjoy seeing how we score on each hand as it’s played, thanks to the Instant Matchpoint table on each score sheet. I enjoy it even more because, as those Instant Matchpoints accumulate, we seem to be doing pretty well.

     Then 3 o’clock comes up. We’ve played three rounds, 15 boards, and it’s time to go. Florence Boyd, who’s in Bill’s office running the dealing machine, preparing hands for future games, is going to take time out to finish this game for me.

     I get a call from June after I’m in the office. We won! We each collected a gold point. Plus some red and black points, or fractions thereof. It all adds up to a total of 2.44.

     Turns out that Bill played Round 4 with her, which probably boosted our fortunes (she notes that he didn’t yell at her for mistakes), then Flo came in to finish up. Bill notes later that opponents in Round 4 were Linda Burroughsford and her husband, Peter Patterson, who were the winners East-West.

      Our winning percentage is 57.08%, almost certainly not high enough to register nationwide. I wonder, however, how well we were doing before I left. I wrote down the Instant Matchpoints for each hand on my scorecard. Let’s see. Hmm, when I left we were at … 57.066%. Guess it was like handing over controls of the Starship Enterprise. Steady as she goes.

     This last-minute point bonanza suddenly makes October a bit more above average than I expected. Not only did I hit my 15-point monthly target, I also made up for that deficient month back in August. Those hopes of mine to get to Gold Life Master before Christmas are looking brighter.