Bridge Blog 750: Buffalo Spring Sectional Day 3

Usha Khurana gets to the sign-up table first and we’re the Number 1 team for the Swiss teams on Sunday, but we know it’s a misnomer. There’s little chance that we’re going to finish in first place.

We get whomped by the Number 2 team right out of the game, Tova and Andrei Reinhorn, with whom we have an incident that sets partner Selina Volpatti on edge. It’s all my fault.

Selina opens 2 Diamonds and I’m not sure if it’s a weak two bid or a Mini Roman. Tova asks. I say I think it’s weak and, trying to ignore the little scrunched up face that Selina makes and having a six-card Spade suit anyway, I bid 2 Spades. Selina jumps to 4 Spades. Tova calls the director.

Mike Roberts reserves judgment until the hand is finished, then says that in Mini Roman, Selina should have passed. He says we’ve played it at 2 Spades, making five, for plus 200 instead of plus 450. At our teammates’ table, it’s plus 450. Take away that setback and they beat us only 22-9 instead of 28-9. In the end, it’s two victory points. And at the very end, those two victory points don’t really matter.

We want to lose the first round, I assure my teammates. Otherwise, we’ll have to play the seriously tough teams. Sure enough, we rip through our opponents in the next three rounds, 24-6, 25-5 and 19-11, the last being against really good players, namely Bert Hargeshimer and Christy Kellogg.

We get our comeuppance in round five against the Canadian team led by Jereme Smee, one of the top point winners at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines. Their big hits against us are sending Selina down three doubled and making game on a hand where our teammates fall short. They skunk us, 27-3, in victory points.

The next round is worse. We’re up against Saleh Fetouh and David Hemmer. They nail us twice, sending Selina down one doubled in a 3 NT contract and basking our shortcomings when a 2 Spade contract winds up making three overtricks (I know we’re undervalued the moment that Saleh doesn’t challenge our 2-bid). They shut us out completely, 43-5 IMPs, 30-0 victory points.

When the final results are posted, I notice that the Smee team is second overall and the Hemmer team is third.

             We salvage our pride against Shakeel Ahmad and Manju Ceylony, squeaking to a 21-19 IMP victory, despite the 5 Spades doubled contract that Manju made for 15 IMPs. (I never should have doubled it.) Although we wind up with only 99 victory points (it would have taken 120 to get bonus points in our B stratification), our four victorious rounds give us a total of 1.04 silver points. We’re happy.

BridgeBlof 749: Buffalo Spring Sectional Day 2

Saturday partner Celine Murray didn’t stick around for the final results of the afternoon session, but when Sunday’s Swiss team game ended, I find a message on my cell phone from her. How did we do? Not good, I tell her when I finally call her from our Restaurant Week restaurant on Hertel Avenue later (Craving, a worthy successor to its ancestor, Samples on Allen Street). But also not last. 40.63%. Still, not as good as the morning session, a slightly more adequate 44.55%.

We had fun in the afternoon, unlike the morning, when it seemed like we were grinding our way through the hands. Plus Celine was more focused. The morning, however, rewarded us with what I had been told on Friday was unlikely, if not impossible, a 17-point absolute top hand. In fact, we had two of them.

One was a 2 Spades contract, doubled by a couple from Toronto who didn’t give us their names. Even the hand records acknowledged that 2 Spades was cold and Celine brought it home for a plus 470. The other was one of my little miracles, a 3 NT contract bid and made on a hand that the hand record says is good for only 2 Hearts, 2 Diamonds or 2 Clubs. Well, think again.

Board 12, West is dealer, North-South vulnerable. I’m sitting East with this hand:

Spades: A-9-3; Hearts, A-Q-9-7-3; Diamonds: K-2; Clubs: A-9-7.

My recollection of the bidding is fuzzy, but one of two things could have happened. Either Celine opened a weak 2 Diamonds or I opened a Heart or a No Trump. If she opened 2 Diamonds, I probably jumped directly to 3 NT. It’s likely that the opening lead is a Club. Here’s the dummy:

Spades: 10-8-5; Hearts: 8-5; Diamonds, A-10-9-6-5-4; Clubs: J-8.

Looking at it now, I can’t see how I possibly made 3 NT, but it might have gone like this. I put up the Jack of Clubs on the opening Club lead and win it. Then I probably start in on the Diamonds, taking the King, watching the singleton Jack fall, taking the Ace, then losing a Diamond to North. So the Diamonds are set up, but how do I get to the dummy to cash them? It makes no sense. I guess I set up the Hearts while I still have stoppers. Four Hearts, a Spade, two Diamonds and two Clubs. The other hands:

North

Spades: K-Q-4; Hearts: J-6-2; Diamonds: Q-8-7-3; Clubs: 10-5-2.

South

Spades: J-7-6-2; Hearts: K-10-4; Diamonds: J; Clubs: K-Q-6-4-3.

Bridge Blog 748: Buffalo Spring Sectional, Day 1

My cell phone rings Friday morning as I’m rolling up to the corner of Transit Road and Wehrle Drive with about 10 minutes to spare before the start of the morning session at the Main-Transit Fire Hall. It’s my partner, Barbara Sadkin. She’s at Maple and Youngs roads and she’s on her way. I’ll get there before you do, I tell her. It’s a rare thing, me arriving at a game ahead of my partner.

Turnout looks good as I steer into the parking lot. I have to park half a dozen cars further away than I usually do. Inside, it’s 28 tables, divided up between a double session game and a single session game, with a scattering of Rochester and St. Catharines people thrown in among the Buffalonians.

Neither Barbara nor I are morning people and we show it right away, giving Paul and Linda Zittel a top board by taking a bid that goes down three doubled. Paul thanks me later for giving them such a good start, then notes that they wound up around 45%. Coincidentally, so did we – 44.23%, courtesy of a couple more bottom boards from bad sacrifice bids.

Having been East-West in the morning, we became North-South in the afternoon, which is much more to our liking. The cards are more amenable to our freewheeling bidding style as well, although we twice fail to make slams we bid. This time we finish at 54.47%, fifth in the A strat for the session, second in B for 1.09 silver points.

In the morning, Barbara lamented that we hadn’t gotten any 17-game point top boards, to which someone else said that those are very rare because there are usually two or more pairs tied with top scores. Best we got in the morning was 16, for setting opponent Jim Gullo’s 1 No Trump contract down three, plus a pair of 15s, also on defense.

Our afternoon game is lifted by a final hand in which we set the opponents down five, which is good for a 16.5 out of 17. To that we add a pair of 16s, on offense this time.

In one, where I’m 5-5 in Hearts and Clubs, I make a 3 Club contract after I resist the urge to go for 3 NT, which would have gone down. In the other, I’m a third-seat 1 NT opener with 14 high card points and a five-card Heart suit. Barbara responds 2 NT and the bidding is over.

Soon as I see the dummy, I think 3 Hearts, but the hand record says that only 1 Heart is makeable. In fact, East-West is supposed to make 4 Spades. Or 2 NT. So 2 NT bid and made in our direction is good for a near perfect gain. Here’s that hand. I’m sitting South, North is dealer, both sides are vulnerable.

South

Spades: K-7; Hearts: A-Q-10-6-2; Diamonds: 9-5-2; Clubs: K-Q-6.

North

Spades: 9-6; Hearts: K-J-4; Diamonds: Q-J-10-8-6; Clubs: J-4-2.

East

Spades: Q-10-8-5-2; Hearts: 9-5-3; Diamonds: K-7-4; Clubs: 10-6.

West

Spades: A-J-6-3; Hearts: 8-7; Diamonds: A-3; Clubs: A-9-7-5-3.

I’m not quite sure which mistakes they make on this one, but West may have led a low Club. I proceed to win that trick, cash all the Hearts and go looking to establish some long Diamonds. I don't believe I get one, but after the opponents take the Ace of Spades, the King gives me a seventh trick and, if I’m not mistaken, my Queen of Clubs is the eighth. A minor miracle, eh?

Bridge Blog 747: Spring is sprung

Or is it? After our lovely 68-degree preview on April Fools’ Day, we’re back below normal temperature-wise and the forecast for Saturday during the Buffalo Spring Sectional Tournament is for mixed rain and snow.

The outlook for the tournament itself is mixed as well, especially after my bizarre session with Wednesday partner Celine Murray today. Her memory’s getting worse. She asked repeatedly which date we were playing and what time it started. I also invited her to fill in my open date on Thursday, figuring we could practice a little. We’ll see.

Bridge Blog 747-A: Attitude adjustment

I’ve got to dial in some more Zen acceptance, because I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting edgy and impatient recently. Impatient with the slow arrival of Spring. Edgy over the way my editors at the Buffalo News have decided to send me out almost every night to cover events.

I feel it at the bridge table too. It’s like a knot of frustration. It tightened for a while when Bob Kaprove and I weren’t connecting in our bids at the beginning of our 47.69% game Monday. It reappeared Tuesday as Joyce Greenspan and I struggled to an almost as good 46.73%, which left us tied for bottom.

And it swelled to occasionally gigantic proportions Wednesday as Celine Murray didn’t lead the suits I bid in defense, when she blew a slam we bid by losing track of trump and when she hit my 2 No Trump opener with a 4 No Trump response when she should have transferred me toward her six-card Spade suit.

Correct that stuff and we’d have finished around 55% and collected a fraction of a point. Despite it, we finished just out of the money with a 49.58%. Oh well, better days are ahead. I’ve just got to remember to keep my gratitude and sense of humor ahead of my expectations.

Bridge Blog 747-B: Point hounds

It was last Saturday when Judi Marshall pulled out her datebook, showed me how she keeps running totals of all the master points she earns and lamented that she wasn’t going to reach 10 for the month of March. I’d just checked the updated master point race list on the bulletin board at the Airport Bridge Club and conceded that I wasn’t going to reach 10 either.

We sure miss those double- and triple-point games. At that moment, I had 7.19 and Judi had 7.92. Ahead of us were John Ziemer with 8.23, Jim Mathis with 9.06 and the only double-digit winner, Jerry Geiger, with 10.41.

If I’m not mistaken, Judi won on Saturday. Marietta Kalman and I were second overall and first in the B strat with 52.78% for 0.49 of a point. Judi won another 0.66 of a point on Sunday, despite her initial reluctance to play Swiss teams without knowing who the other half of the team would be. And then she came out on top again Monday. Maybe she made it after all.

If I’m calculating correctly from the numbers in my datebook, my totals for March include the 7.68 from the Airport Club and my winnings with Selina Volpatti in St. Catharines – 0.70 at the St. Patty’s Day party on March 15; 0.36 at the March 21 game and another 0.40 for our 53.67% game March 28 (see Blog 747-C). That would be 1.46. For the month, a little over 9.

Bridge Blog 747-C: Fast break

My favorite hand of the past couple weeks was the first one Selina Volpatti and I played in St. Catharines on March 28. We’re North-South. It’s Board 9, East-West vulnerable. East is Barbara Staples, wearing another spectacular set of earrings. West is Charles Leguerrier. I’m dealer. Here’s my hand:

Spades: A-6; Hearts: 10-9-7-5-4-3-2; Diamonds: None; Clubs: A-K-9-6.

Given the high card points, the long suit, the void and the favorable vulnerability, I had no qualms about opening 1 Heart. But here my memory of the hand starts fading. I think Barbara bid 2 Diamonds. If she didn’t, she probably should have. Selina passes. Charles either supported the Diamonds or bid 2 Spades.

Before long, they’re bidding 4 Diamonds and, given that favorable vulnerability, I go 4 Hearts. Barbara doubles. Hey, I was expecting it. She leads a Diamond and Selina lays down this hand:

Spades Q-8-5-4; Hearts: 6; Diamonds: 10-7-5; Clubs: J-6-4-3-2.

According to the hand record, the best I could do is take 9 tricks. In Clubs, it makes 11 tricks played from the North, 12 played from the South. But the Ace and King of Hearts crashed down on the same trick. When the trump was gone, I set up the Clubs and tossed my losing Spade. Making 4 Hearts doubled.

Here are the other two hands:

East

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

West

Spades: K-J-9-2; Hearts: A-J; Diamonds: K-Q-9-8-4; Clubs: 8-7.

According to the hand record, East-West can make 1 No Trump, 2 Spades or 4 Diamonds, which means their holdings aren’t as good as they might seem.

It was a top board, tied by two other North-Souths who also made 4 Hearts doubled. At all the other tables, the bids were taken by East-West, who played it in Diamonds (8 times), Spades (once, down two at 4 Spades) and No Trump. Best of the lot was the pair who bid 3 NT and made two overtricks (the other 3 NT was a trick short). Second best was a 5 Diamond contract bid and made. Three of them made 4 Diamonds, four of them went down.