Bridge Blog 1167: St. Catharines Regional Part II

 

Bridge Blog Nov. 15, 2025

       What are you going to do now that you’re not working, somebody (maybe John Ziemer) asks me during the lunch break Friday at the Niagara Regional Tournament. Become a bridge bum?

       I go, oh no! In fact, because partner Selina Volpatti isn’t going to play Saturday – too tired – I’m planning to take the day off and get some laundry done. But that’s before Selina goes ahead and pairs me up for Saturday with one of the better players at the Bridge Center of Niagara – John MacKay. He’s always coming in ahead of Selina and me, that’s for sure. Looks like I’m making tracks for St. Catharines on Saturday after all.

       John and I compare convention cards and, like Selina and I did on Thursday, we start off against a pair of sharks – this time, it's Radu Nistor from New York City and Michael Gamble from British Columbia. They win the morning session with 72.38%. John and I are at the bottom of our section with 36.75%.

We certainly help launch them on their way. On our first board, we let them collect 17.5 of a possible 19 match points as the only East-Wests to bid 4 Spades and make it. Two boards later, they get 15.5 of 19 by making a 3 No Trump contract while half of the players in their direction go down at 3 NT. In between, they leave me in a 1 diamond contract and I make three overtricks – 14 out of 19 there. After one round, they’re 66.67% and they just get better.

Meanwhile, three of the four winners in our direction are Buffalo people. Jay Levy and partner are on top. Chongmin Zhang and Kathy Pollock are second and Saleh Fetouh and partner are fourth.

John and I compare conventions some more before the afternoon session starts and vow to be more aggressive. Maybe that helps. This time we’re ninth out of 12 pairs with 45.95%. I expect John to be discouraged, but he doesn't seem to be. We exchange phone numbers. Maybe this is the start of a beautiful relationship.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon, Buffalonians again are on top, led by Saleh Fetouh with 61.48%. Jay Levy is third. Min and Kathy are fourth. The two sessions add 12.37 gold points to Jay’s haul. Saleh, who says in the morning that he’s now got more than 1,000 points this year, collects 7.33. Min and Kathy get 8.37. The sharks? They’re at the top of the food chain – 29.31 gold points.

One reason I’m back in St. Catharines on Saturday is because Selina and I did well on Friday in a Swiss team game and I hope the bridge gods will keep on smiling. Playing with Darlene Scott, who’s a Unit 166 regional director in Toronto, and Elizabeth Williams, who hails from Burlington, we notch a shutout in our first eight-board round and limit the opponents to just one victory point in the next round. We lose three of the next four rounds, but only by small margins, and cling to the top position until just before the end. Second place has its rewards, though. We get 8.69 gold points. Swiss again on Sunday could make us even richer.