Bridge Blog 1132: Taking notes

            Instead of talking to the computer screen, I started jotting things down in October during a particularly desolate stretch of games when it seemed like Selina Volpatti and I couldn’t put together an effort anywhere near good enough to earn master points.

Things aren’t quite as dismal now that November’s here (darker days, brighter fortunes?), but I’m still jotting. In the Bridge Base Online game Wednesday, Nov. 4, where we notched 62.96% and came in first north-south, there wasn’t much to complain about – only Board #9.

 

North:  Q J 10 3 2/ K 5/ A Q 10 8/ A 6

East: K 9 6/ 7 6 4 2/ 7 4/ Q J 10 7

South: 7 5/ Q J 10 9/ K J 6/ K 9 8 3

West: A 8 4/ A 8 3/ 9 5 3 2/ 5 4 2

 

It was our only bottom board. Everybody else wound up at 3 No Trump. I opened 1 Spade, she bid 1 No Trump, I bid 2 Diamonds, figuring it would be a demand bid, but it didn’t turn out that way. I made 4 Diamonds and felt pretty good about taking 10 tricks, but I was the only one who played it there. Most everybody else bid 3 NT and made it. Four of them made an overtrick.

Our first game of the day over on OKBridge was a throwback to last month. I jotted a lot. We had a 37.70% game on 11 boards and finished 67th out of 73 pairs. Let’s look at the four stinkers that made their way into my notes.

Board 2. Partner pushes me to 5 Hearts after I double the opponents at 5 Diamonds. I have five Diamonds to the Ace-Queen. We’re going to kill them in Diamonds, but it’s down one at 5 Hearts. Yep, next to a bottom. Five Diamonds doubled goes down at least 4. On the other hand, if the defenders don't take the tricks they're entitled to, 5 Hearts makes it at 10 of the tables.

Board 5. Despite my passes, partner overcalls opponents’ jump to 4 Hearts by bidding a vulnerable 4 Spades, gets doubled and takes only five tricks. Minus 1,100. Sure, most of the time they make 4 Hearts, but we should have let them play it.

Board 7. Partner doesn’t lead a third Diamond for me to ruff after I show a singleton on her Ace-King lead. Opponents are down one at 4 Hearts. Could have been down two.

Board 10. Partner opens 1 Diamond, opponent bids 1 Heart. Do I bid 1 Spade with this hand?

Spades: K, 9, 8, 6. Hearts: J, 4. Diamonds: Q, 9, 8, 2. Clubs: J, 6, 2.

Of course, I do. Partner bids 2 Spades over their 2 Hearts and comes back again with 3 Spades over their 3 Hearts. Down two vulnerable.

Actually, Boards 7 and 10 are not bottoms. They’re better than 50% in the OKBridge scoring system, just marginally less rewarding than they could have been. Sometimes things seem more awful as they’re happening than they really are. And sometimes things are just bad all over.