Bridge Blog 1209: The Curse of the Final Round

 

For five rounds, it felt like Selina Volpatti and I were having an incredibly good game today, Friday, Oct. 16, at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Duplicate Bridge Club. How good was it? For starters, we began with two top boards and two hands that tied for top. It was so good that after a while I felt giddy and guilty about it at the same time.

Then along came the Curse of the Final Round – the hex that almost always descends upon Selina and me in the last hands of the day. It's so bad that, more often than not, it ruins our chances of earning master points.

This time our East-West opponents were Jean and John Roynon. I was wary of them. Under their modest demeanors, they're very good players. They've nailed us before and they could nail us again.

Sure enough, on our first board, John arrived at a 3 No Trump contract and made two overtricks. The Live for Clubs analysis confirms that, yes, the hand should be good for 5 NT, but only one of the other five E/W pairs did that. Others made just one overtrick and one of them actually went down one at 5 Clubs, of all things. Bottom board. Nothing we could do about it.

The next one I was faced with an iffy call. After three passes to Selina, she opened 1 Club. With 10 high card points and five Diamonds, I bid 1 Diamond. She went to 1 No Trump. Fearing weakness in the major suits, I passed. Turns out it can make 10 tricks in No Trump. Selina made 11. Only one North-South bid game in No Trump. We were tied for second-best. Maybe we broke the curse. 

I confess that I chickened out on the third board. With 14 high card points and no Aces, I opened 1 Club, having five of them. Selina answered 1 Spade. Jean, sitting East, put in 2 Hearts. With three Hearts to the J-10, I didn't dare go to 2 NT without a guaranteed stopper, so I ventured a 2 Spade bid, even though I had just the Q-J. When Selina bid 3 Spades, I passed. She made 4 Spades, just like the hand analysis says she could. And sure enough, every other N/S bid 4 Spades. But somehow they all made overtricks. One North won all 13 of them. So even if we bid game, we'd still have a bottom score.

On our final board, Jean bid 2 Clubs, showing a powerful hand. She had all the Aces and a five-card Spade suit. She wound up at 4 Spades and made the overtrick that the hand analysis says she was entitled to. Nevertheless, Selina and I were in a three-way tie for bottom board. Even though every East took 11 tricks, not every table had the same outcome. One East went to slam and failed. Two others stopped bidding short of game. Once again, jinxed. Out of a possible 20 match points, we got only five. We went into the round flying high, a fraction over 77%. When we came out of it, we were in second place with 62.28%. Sigh-h-h-h! Nevertheless, I managed to carve out a bit of consolation. This was my very best percentage all year.

Bridge Blog 1208: Feeling good, finishing bad

 

Sometimes you have a bad day and you know it. But how come sometimes things seem to be pretty much going your way and you still wind up down around the bottom of the field?

That's what I was wondering last Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines, Ont. Partner Rod Sumner and I were congratulating one another on our good play. And I wound up putting only a few question marks on my scorecard. Yet we finished 10th out of 12 North-Souths with a mere 45.43%.

So it's time for a double take on Wednesday's Live for Clubs results in the order we played the hands. I'll compare how we fared next to the hand analysis and then look at Sandy Smee and Kathy Morrison, who had a 67.79% game and finished first North-South.

Board 13. I bid 3 Hearts, make an overtrick. Plus 170. Hand analysis: South makes 5 Diamonds, 4 Hearts, 5 NT. S&K: 3 NT, two overtricks. Match points: 8.5 for us, 10 for S&K. Shoulda bid game. NT succeeds only because two finesses work.

Board 14. Rod bids 2 Spades, down two. Minus 100. Hand analysis: Makes 4 Spades. S&K: 2 Spades, two overtricks. Match points: 0 for us, 8.5 for S&K. Rod apologized.

Board 15. Opps bid 3 Hearts, make an overtrick. Minus 170. Hand analysis: E/W makes 3 Hearts, N/S makes 2 Spades. S&K: Opps bid 4 Hearts, down two. Match points: 4.5 for us and five other N/S, 10 for S&K. For the round: 13 of 30, 43.33%.

Board 10. Opps bid 3 Spades, make 2 overtricks. Minus 200. Hand analysis: E/W makes 4 Spades and 3 NT. S&K: Opps bid 3 NT, make an overtrick. Match points: 9 for us, 5.5 for S&K.

Board 11. I bid 3 NT on a gamble, down one. Minus 50. Hand analysis: Makes 2 NT and 4 Clubs. S&K: Bid 3 Clubs, make 2 overtricks. Match points: 3 for us, 9 for S&K.

Board 12. Opps bid 4 Hearts, down one. Plus 50. Hand analysis: West makes 3 Hearts. S&K: Opps bid 4 H, make it. Match points: 10 for us, 4 for S&K. For the round: 22 of 30, 73.33%. Game to here: 35 of 60, 58.33%.

Board 7. I bid 2 Hearts, make two overtricks. Plus 170. Hand analysis: Good for 4 Hearts. Only one N/S bids game. S&K: 2 No Trump, one overtrick. Match points: 8 of 10 for us, 5 for S&K.

Board 8. Disaster. I bid 4 Diamonds, make one overtrick. Plus 150. Hand analysis: Good for 4 Diamonds, but also 5 Spades. S&K: 4 Spades, one overtrick, just like eight other N/S. Match points: 0 for us, 6 for S&K. Rod opened 1 Spade. I had five Spades, but bid my six-card suit first, Diamonds, and he raised them. Had he bid his four-card suit, Clubs, I'd go back to Spades.

Board 9. Opps bid 4 Spades, down three. Plus 300. Hand analysis: E/W makes 2 Spades, N/S makes 3 Clubs or 2 NT. S&K: 2 Hearts by opps, down two. Match points: 9 for us. 5.5 for S&K. For the round: 17 of 30, 56.67%. Game so far: 52 of 90, 57.78%.

Board 4. Opps bid 6 Heart slam, make an overtrick. Minus 1460. Hand analysis: Makes 7 Hearts and 7 Diamonds, but just 5 NT. S&K: Opps bid 4 Hearts, make two overtricks. Match points: 0.50 for us, 4 for S&K. Couldn't be helped.

Board 5. Opps bid 4 Hearts, make it. Minus 420. Hand analysis: E/W make 5 Hearts, 3 NT. S&K: Same as us. Match points: 2.50 both of us.

Board 6. John Stevens and Rocky Laiqing took so long bidding and playing the slam that the director took this one away from us. Hand analysis: N/S makes 3 Hearts. S&K: Bid 4 Hearts and made it. Match points: NP for us. 7.20 for S&K. For the round: 3 of 20, 15%. Game so far: 55 of 110, exactly 50%.

Board 1. Rod bids 3 Diamonds, makes two overtricks. Plus 150. Hand analysis: Makes 4 Diamonds. S&K: Opps bid 4 Hearts, down one. Match points: 6 for us, 1 for S&K.

Board 2. I bid 4 Hearts, make an overtrick. Plus 650. Hand analysis: Makes 5 Hearts, 4 Spades, 4 NT. S&K: Bid 4 Hearts, make it. Match points: 7 for us, 2.50 for S&K.

Board 3. Opps bid 3 Clubs, make it. Minus 110. Hand analysis: E/W makes 3 Clubs, 2 NT; N/S makes 2 Spades. S&K: Bid 2 Spades, down one. Match points: 3 for us, 5.50 for S&K. For the round: 16 of 30, 53.33%; Game so far: 71 of 140, 50.71%.

Board 25. Opps bid 4 Hearts, make it. Minus 620. Hand analysis: E/W makes 3 Hearts and 3 NT. S&K: Bid 3 Spades, down one. Match points: 0.50 for us, 8 for S&K.

Board 26. I bid 2 Spades, make an overtrick. Plus 140. Hand analysis: Makes just 2 Spades. S&K: Same as us. Match points: 8.50 for both of us.

Board 27. Opps bid 2 Hearts, make it. Minus 110. Hand analysis: Makes 1 Spade, 2 Diamonds. S&K: Opps bid 2 Hearts, down two. Match points: 0 for us, 9.50 for S&K. For the round: 9 of 30, 33.33%. Game so far: 80 of 170, 47.06%.

Board 22. Opps bid 3 Diamonds, make an overtrick. Minus 130. Hand analysis: E/W makes 4 Diamonds, N/S makes 4 Clubs, 3 Spades. S&K: Sit-out. Match points: 3.50 for us.

Board 23. Opps bid 2 Hearts, make it. Minus 110. Hand analysis: E/W make 1 Heart. N/S makes 4 Diamonds, 4 Spades. S&K: Sit-out. Match points: 0 for us. Rod has A-K-Q-10-2 in Spades and 14 high card points. I have six Diamonds, A-9, and six high card points. I answered Diamonds, but although Rod had 4 Diamonds, he let them have it at 2 Hearts.

Board 24. I bid 2 Spades, make it. Plus 110. Hand analysis: N/S makes 3 Spades, 2 NT. S&K: Sit-out. Match points: 2 for us. For the round: 5.50 of 30, 18.33%. Game so far: 85.5 out of 200, 42.75%.

Board 19. Opps bid 3 Spades, down two. Plus 200. Hand analysis: E/W takes only six tricks in Spades. N/S makes 3 Clubs, 2 Diamonds, 1 Spade, 1 NT. S&K: Opps bid 3 Hearts, down two. Match points: 6 for both of us.

Board 20. Opps bid 2 Hearts, down one. Plus 100. Hand analysis: E/W makes 1 Heart. S&K: Same as us. Match points: 7 for both of us.

Board 21. Rod bids 3 NT, makes it. Plus 600. Hand analysis: N/S makes 3 NT, 4 Hearts, 5 Spades and 6 Diamonds. S&K: Bid 3 NT, make an overtrick. Match points: 5 for us and seven other N/S, 10 for S&K. For the round: 18 of 30, 60%. Final for the game: 103.5 out of 230, an even 45%. Director must have given us something for the hand not played.

I marked Boards 1, 8, 10, 23 and 24 on my scorecard. Board 1 was good, Rod made an overtrick. Board 8 was a bottom, bad bidding, missed game in best suit. Board 10 was good, opponents didn't bid game. Board 23 was another bottom. Rod should have kept bidding. Board 24 I blew the overtrick. Five N/S pairs took even one more trick.

If we fix our mistakes on the three bad boards I marked, we're 12 more match points to the good. That gets us almost up to 50%. Cut out some of our two most grievous bidding errors and we’re better yet.