Bridge Blog 739: St. Catharines Sectional, Day 1

        How big is the St. Catharines Sectional, partner Barbara Sadkin asks as she navigates her Acura SUV through the stiff wind on top of the skyway bridge over the Welland Canal. Bigger than ours, I tell her.

        Quite a bit bigger, we discover when we arrive at the miniature convention center tacked onto the rear of the tall Holiday Inn on Ontario Street. In addition to the open pairs game, there’s a 299er game, a beginners game and a women’s game, although I detect a couple old dudes sitting amongst the ladies. Will they be disqualified because of gender, I wonder.

        There are two sections in the open pairs, with 10 and 10 ½ tables, which all by itself is about the size of the bad-weather Friday afternoon session in the Buffalo Winter Sectional. And although I know virtually all the St. Catharines players, there are quite a few from Oakville, Mississauga, Kitchener-Waterloo and even Toronto, some of whom I recognize from the Niagara Falls Regional.

        My old buddy Alison Burkett from Kitchener is there, as well, and I think she's the East-West winner in our section. Although we do par against her on two hands (according to the hand records) and slightly better than par on the third, she takes us for 15.5 out of a possible 24 points.       

         What there aren’t many of are Buffalo players. Those who are there made it count, however. Winners in our section North-South are Kathy Pollock (with a guy I’ve never seen before) and Bert Hargeshimer with Christy Kellogg.

        Barbara and I make our presence worthwhile, as well, although we don’t get to play our usual aggressive game. My forays into noble sacrifices work on one occasion (5 Diamonds doubled with an eight-card Diamond suit, down 2 not vulnerable, for a top board, one trick better than the hand record indicates and foiling a 7 Heart vulnerable East-West slam) and fail miserably on another (5 Diamonds doubled, down 3 not vulnerable, outbidding East-West’s vulnerable 4 Spades, which doesn’t make it, according to the hand record).

        Nevertheless, our final tally is better than we expect – 56.71%. First in the B strat, earning 1.20 silver points. We even get a prize – a souvenir tournament ballpoint pen.

Bridge Blog 738: Midwinter scarcities

        The ACBL has posted the first month’s tallies in the 2014 master point races and what’s surprising is how few people hit double digits in club play. A review of the Ace of Clubs standings for Unit 116 (Buffalo) shows only seven of them.

        Heading the pack is Gene Finton with 14.32, followed by Jerry Geiger with 13.84, Jim Mathis with 11.95, Bud Seidenberg with 11.72, Mike Ryan with 10.86, Judy Graf with 10.73 and Finton’s wife Jo with 10.11.

        Well, actually there’s an eighth – Meg Klamp, except she’s been playing in Florida, racking up an enviable 27.08.

        So my single-digit effort for January did not consign me to complete obscurity after all. My 7.42 puts me fifth on the list of players with 1,000 to 2,500 points, a list headed by the aforementioned Mr. Finton.

        Also ahead of me are John Ziemer (9.40), Elaine Kurasiewicz (9.24) and Fred Yellen (7.62). Right behind are Cathy Majewski (6.53), Carolyn Siracuse (5.91), Claire Gareleck (5.28), Jeanne Gladysz (5.26) and Anne Watkins (5 even). Not our usual cast of suspects.

        Over on the Mini-McKenney list, which includes points from tournament play as well as club play, I’m in ninth place with 9.10 points. Leader here is David Hemmer, a big winner at the sectional tournament, with 21.80, followed by Gene Finton (20.53), Gene Harvey (13.37), Fred Yellen (13.21), John Ziemer (12.52), Elaine Kurasiewicz (12.49), Chongmin Zhang (10.30) and Cathy Majewski (9.17). Behind me in tenth place is Anne Watkins with 8.88.

        Topping the overall Unit 116 Mini-McKenney are two of the folks in the 2,500 to 5,000 point category – Brian Meyer with 49.34 and Judy Padgug with 35.61. Then there’s John Toy (7,500 to 10,000) with 34.03 and another 2,500 to 5,000 player, Dian Petrov, with 32.45. Judy Padgug and Dian Petrov presumably were picking up more points when they played in the opening round of the St. Catharines Sectional today.

        How does this all play on the District 5 (Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh) level? Let’s take a look at the 1,000 to 2,500 point category.

        In Ace of Clubs, the leaders are Joane D’Antonio of Sewickley, Pa., with 18.80, and Mary Lou Naughton of Pittsburgh with 17.15. Gene Finton is third. John Ziemer is fifth. I’m ninth. Only seven of us Unit 116 players are in the Top 25. Ordinarily, there are a dozen or more.

        As for Mini-McKenney, the top dogs are a familiar pair – Michael Creager of Brecksville, Ohio, with 50.64 (36.12 from the Cleveland Rock and Roll Regional) and Fleur Howard of Gates Mills, Ohio, with 40.77 (31.30 from the same regional). David Hemmer is eighth. Gene Finton is tied for tenth. No other Unit 116ers are on the list, which cuts off at 15.63.

        Nationwide, only one District 5 player makes the Top 100 Ace of Clubs list and she’s 90th. Tops is John Petrie of Long Beach, Calif., with 37.72. Over in the Mini-McKenney, the leader is Eric Mayefsky of San Francisco with 91.86. Michael Creager is 41st. Fleur Howard is tied for 97th.

Bridge Blog 737: Lucky

The omens weren’t good. My hair appointment ran half an hour longer than I expected. Partner Selina Volpatti hit some kind of big rock in the Thorold Tunnel under the Welland Canal, which was reduced to one lane for road work.

Though I didn’t get to cross the Peace Bridge until 11:56 a.m. and raced along at 130 kmh, reducing my usual 30 minute run from the bridge to 26 minutes, my worries were over when I got to St. Catharines and tucked into the special lunch – butter tarts to die for.

But Selina fretted throughout the game about what kind of damage she’d done to her new RAV 4, which has only 3,000 kilometers on it. I assured her that they build these things to go off-road, so unless some precious automotive fluid was leaking into the slush, the RAV was probably OK.

As for our game, we quickly went on the offensive, which is our best stance, and knocked down extra tricks on several contract, as we saw when we checked the hand record after the game. We also were tough on defense, squeezing out extra tricks there as well.

When we punched up the results on the electronic scoring device, we were third overall North-South in this 11-table game. When the scores were posted, our 59.48% was first in the B strat, as well. Our reward – 0.64 of a point. Guess we got all of our bad luck out of the way before we got there.

Add that to the 0.32 of a point I got with Dianne Bloom on Thursday and we bump the January number up a notch. Not stellar, but given the dearth of double and triple points this month, I won’t complain.

Bridge Blog 736: Accumulating

Maybe the hard luck of late 2013 is over. The scores are getting better, aside from a disastrous doubleheader a week ago, and the master points have been dribbling in.

        The disaster was the two-session Martin Luther King Day chicken barbecue game at the Airport Bridge Club. After registering a miserable 35.65% game and coming in dead last in the morning half, I assured partner Marilyn Sultz during the lunch break that we were certain to do better in the afternoon. Wrong. Nothing worked. We were deader and laster with an even more miserable 31.25%.

        Things perked up the next day with Florence Boyd, but 46.72% was not enough to earn points. Wednesday partner Celine Murray helped bring in the best game of the week – 55.68% – first overall for .80 of a point.

        Dianne Bloom had a sick friend in the hospital Thursday, so given a choice between a game with club manager Bill Finkelstein and Janet Frisch, I chose Janet and we managed 49.58%, second in the B strat for .22 of a point. Friday in a 13 ½ table game St. Catharines, Selina Volpatti and I fumbled our final two-board round but nevertheless salvaged 51.49%, fifth in A North-South, third in B for .40 of a point.

        Saturday would have been point-producing, but weather shrank the turnout at the Airport Club to a mere two tables. Bill Boardman and I tied for first with 55.56%, winning the first of three nine-board rounds and tying the other two. Fun, but too small a game for points.

        Sunday promised to make up for it with a Swiss team of Celine Murray, Judy Kaprove and Chuck Schorr. The joy of Swiss, aside from its change of pace, is the likelihood of winning at least fractional points by winning a round or two. We won two in the morning session, scoring enough victory points to come in second in B for 1.43 points. After pizza for lunch, however, we fell entirely on our faces and didn’t win anything else.

        Maybe it would have been better if Judy and I had been partners in Swiss (though Celine would probably never play with Chuck). We had a chance to find out as partners on Monday and came through with a 54.76% effort, third overall, first in B, 0.40 of a point.

Could I possibly do as well with Marietta Kalman on Tuesday? Well, it felt like a pretty solid game (Marietta and I seemed to understand each other for a change, see Blog 736-A) and, because there were runaway winners with a 76% score, we were third North-South in a nine-table game and first in B with 50.53%, good for 0.48 of a point.

What do all these January bits and pieces add up to? There’s 1.68 from the sectional tournament, 0.88 from St. Catharines and 4.95 from the Airport Bridge Club. Three days to go. Doesn’t look like a double-digit kind of month.

Bridge Blog 736-A: Opportunity knocks

How well were Marietta Kalman and I connecting Tuesday? Consider this hand. Board 10. Start of our fourth three-board round. I’m North, Marietta is South, Bill Boardman is East and Janet Frisch is West. All are vulnerable. East is dealer. I’m holding this dog:

Spades: J-10-9-8-2; Hearts: 6; Diamond: J-10-5-2; Clubs: 8-5-3.

Bill opens 1 Club. Marietta doubles. I forget whether Janet passes or bids, but she must’ve passed, because if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have bid 1 Spade. Bill bid 2 Clubs. Marietta jumps to 3 Spades. Pass. Pass. Pass. Bill leads the Ace of Clubs and Marietta puts down that big hand of hers:

Spades: Q-6-5-4; Hearts: A-Q-4; Diamonds: A-K-Q-8-4; Clubs: 10.

All East-West is that Ace of Clubs and the Ace-King of Spades. We make an overtrick. Last thing I expected with a crummy hand like mine. Here are the other hands:

East

Spades: A-7; Hearts: K-8-3; Diamonds: 7-3; Clubs: A-K-Q-J-6-4.

West

Spades: K-3; Hearts: J-10-9-8-7-2; Diamonds: 9-6; Clubs: 9-7-2.

As I was reviewing this hand after the game, one of the East-West pairs, Linda Milch and Sharon Chang, came over to reconstruct their play on it, as well. At their table, Linda opened the Club and South bid a Diamond, prompting Sharon to bid a Heart. When the auction reached 3 Diamonds, Linda doubled, hoping Sharon would bid again, but she left the double in. Down one vulnerable. Top board for them.

Ours, however, was not the best score North-South. One pair bid 3 Spades and made two overtricks. Another pushed East-West up to 5 Clubs. Down two. Both were plus 200. Ours was plus 170, third-best. East-West took the bid at the other four tables, making 3 Hearts or, in one case, 3 Clubs.

Bridge Blog 735: Also playing

The Airport Bridge Club finally posted the year-end results of its in-club master point race and it took a second glance to find my name. Eighth place. 145.07 points. Of which .02 were gold, 16.27 were red and 11.61 were silver.

I expected John Ziemer would be seven spots ahead of me in first place, but he wasn’t. Jerry Geiger instead with 269.09. John was second with 245.75, then Mike Silverman (193.54), Jim Mathis (186.16), Liz Clark (160.52), Barbara Libby (151.34) and Judi Marshall (148.69). All more astute players than me, to be sure.

As for missing points in my overall 2013 totals, all that was lacking from the Airport Club were 3.91 black points. Add that to my tally on the ACBL website and the final number would be … 182.25.

Bridge Blog 735-A: Closing the books (almost)

Now that the Airport Bridge Club has posted its master point race results, let’s calculate a provisional personal point total for 2013. One complication. Those district-wide bonus points from the Sectional Tournament at the Clubs (STaC) in December.

Of the 7.86 points I earned at the club in December, 3.95 were STaC silver. (That put me 14th – Mike Silverman led the December list with 19.17 points.) My total STaC winnings, however, were 6.37. So add the difference, 2.42, to the 7.86 and that’s 10.28. Then add the 1.68 points from the St. Catharines club for an unofficial, not-so-grand December total of 11.96.