Bridge Blog 1109-A: Niagara Falls, Ont., Regional -- Low ball

Missed the first two days, played the last four – six sessions of open pairs, morning and afternoon, with my Canadian partner Selina Volpatti, Swiss teams on Sunday.

High score in the pairs – 47.85% on Friday afternoon, which felt good in retrospect. Two of our games were under 40%. Our aggressive game did not click at all. 

Unlike the Buffalo Sectional Tournament, where the side game is populated by weaker players, these Regional pairs games, side attractions to the knock-out games, attract the sharks. Selina and I were the prey. We helped fatten the winning margin of, for one, Saleh Fetouh, the Buffalo area player who won the most points in Niagara Falls. His total of 58.39 included 31.43 from topping the open pairs on Thursday.

It took until the Swiss teams on Sunday to find salvation from what was threatening to be another complete shutout in Niagara Falls (like 2017). Our team – Selina, Ruth Wurster, Florence Boyd and myself – won our second round, but the rejoicing didn't last long. That was our only win en route to finishing last among all 73 entries. Our reward – 0.22 of a red point.