Bridge Blog 854: No waiting

Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein expressed disdain for the ACBL-wide Instant Matchpoint Game on Friday, or at least for the way the scores were rated. To that extent, they did indeed seem a bit peculiar, but I still got a kick out of seeing immediate results.

It helped, of course, that partner Selina Volpatti and I were doing well (and could see our successes right then and there on the oversized Instant Matchpoint score sheets). In the final round, however, we also were able to watch how we were falling behind the other pair with whom we were tied atop the North-Souths. They won the gold point. We came in second with 55% and took home 1.83 master points, half of them red ones.

I had told Selina our chances of earning points would be better in Buffalo at the Airport Club (a 5-table game) than they would have been in the bigger game in St. Catharines, Ont. Let’s take a look at their website and see. Aha! They had 18½ tables, but the results are not listed in Instant Matchpoints. Perhaps they didn’t do it, after all. No, they didn't. They played different hands. A 55% there would have finished fourth North-South and given us just 0.95 of a point.

Well, how about the other game in town – the one at the Bridge Center of Buffalo? They played the ACBL cards. Our 55% there would have been not quite so good – only third North-South, yielding 1.34 points. 

Bridge Blog 853: Lightning Strikes Twice

         Seven No Trump. It’s a bid I pull out of the box as a joke. It’s so over the top. It never happens. Except it did – twice – on Thursday in a 5½-table game at the Airport Bridge Club.

The first grand slam, in fact, was 7 NT with two overtricks, if there had been a way to take them. There was no secret to the play, which was a lay-down from the opening lead. It was all in the bidding.

Sitting East, vulnerable, I was declarer and opened 1 Club. My partner, Barbara Libby, responded 1 Spade. I went to 2 NT, she came back with 4 Clubs Gerber, asking for Aces. My bid was 4 NT, showing three of them. She thought for a minute, then went straight to 7 NT. South’s opening lead was a Diamond. Here are the hands:

East

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

West

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

South

Spades: 6-5; Hearts: J-10-5-3; Diamonds: J-9-5-4-3; Clubs: 7.

North

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

See what I mean? Six Spade winners. Same with Clubs. Plus one Diamond and two Hearts.

It was a top board for us. At the other four tables, East-West swept up 13 tricks, but didn’t bid it. Second best was 6 Spades, then 6 Clubs, 3 NT and, at the bottom, 5 Clubs.

A couple rounds later the good cards were on the other side of the table. Barbara and I were the North-South defenders as Wilson McClaren and Judi Marshall marched to 7 NT, not vulnerable. Here are the hands:

East (Wilson)

North: A-9-7; Hearts: A-K-Q-J-5; Diamonds: None; Clubs: A-Q-J-8-4.

West (Judi)

Spades: None; Hearts: 8-6-2; Diamonds: A-K-Q-9-7-5-2; Clubs: K-9-7.

North (me)

Spades: Q-J-10-6-3; Hearts: 10-9; Diamonds: J-10-8-6-4; Clubs: 6.

South (Barbara)

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

Wilson was the declarer. Barbara led a \Spade. It was another lay-down, except they had only 14 tricks – five Hearts, five Clubs, three Diamonds (they won’t run) and the Ace of Spades.

Every East-West took 13 tricks and Wilson and Judi tied for a top. Another pair also bid it. The other three tables bid small slams – two 6 NT, one 6 Hearts. 

Bridge Blog 852: September Song

Let’s start by thanking the Airport Bridge Club for reporting points to the ACBL on time this month on behalf of all of us who play there and care about where we stand in the master point races. Didn’t happen last month. Glad to see it this month.

With all my points present and accounted for, I’m further grateful to return to the top 10 in the Ace of Clubs race in Unit 116, which encompasses Buffalo. I sit in seventh place with 72.83 points earned in club play, a nice advance from my previous position in the double digits.

Top dog in the 1,000 to 2,500 point division once again is John Ziemer with 147.02 points, followed closely by Mike Silverman with 142.24. Next comes Ken Meier, 135.17; then Fred Yellen, 131.02; Martin Pieterse, 110.01; Allen Beroza, 86.65; then me. Rounding out the top 10 are Bill Finkelstein, 71.08; Dorothy May, 69.52; and Walt Olszewski, 69.21.

Leading club point winner in the entire unit is Jerry Geiger (5,000 to 7,500) with 201.08. Mighty impressive. Meg Klamp (7,500 to 10,000) is second with 157.21. Then, after John Ziemer and Mike Silverman, there’s Bill Boardman (500 to 1,000) with 135.40. Among all unit players, I’m 20th.

Moving over to the Mini-McKenney, which includes all points earned everywhere, I’m eighth with 94.31. John Ziemer also heads this list with 194.90, but just barely. Second-place Fred Yellen has 194.29. After that, it’s David Hemmer, 164.39; Ken Meier, 159.88; Mike Silverman, 156.52; and Martin Pieterse, 152.32. Then there’s a big step down to Allen Beroza with 94.63; then me; then Barbara Pieterse, 90.61; and Dorothy May, 78.86.

Leaders on the Mini-McKenney list for the whole unit are the experienced players, topped by Saleh Fetouh with 359.71. Then it’s Jerry Geiger, 251.05; Dan Gerstman, 239.25; Meg Klamp, 229.74; Davis Heussler, 200.70; Bud Seidenberg, 195.73; and John Ziemer and Fred Yellen. On this list, I’m way down in 31st place.

Now for a look at District 5, which includes Buffalo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Ace of Clubs, 1,000 to 2,500, continues to be dominated by us Western New Yorkers. We have the first four places and six of the top 10. I’m 16th, 84th among all players in the district.

Not so for the Mini-McKenney, where the Ohio players rule. Sue Lan Ma of Kirtland Hills is first with 470.81, outdistancing Fleur Howard of Gates Mills, 431.40; Peter Merker of Mentor, 279.69; and Charles Ladiha of Vermilion, 223.64. John Ziemer is fifth and three more Buffalo players show up in the top 10.  On this list, I’m 48th, 187th for the entire district. 

Bridge Blog 851: Are we there yet?

        I knew that the 1,900 master point milestone was getting closer, but I wasn’t sure if I’d know when it happened. There’s no master point odometer. And progress has been hard to follow.

        First of all, the Airport Bridge Club didn’t report its point winners to the ACBL on time at the beginning of September, so the 16.91 points I earned during August weren’t included in the month-end totals. So the number stood at July’s level – 1,869.93. But in actuality, it was 1,886.84.

        And then, to complicate matters, I’ve collected points at five different venues this month. In addition to the Airport Club, there’s been Lockport Duplicate, the Bridge Center of Buffalo, Bridge Centre of Niagara and the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament.

        So let’s total them as best we can. As of Sept. 23, the last date for which totals are posted at the Airport Club, I had 8.24 points there. But then there were the other places. In Lockport, I earned 1.86. At the BCB, it was 1.10. And the sectional yielded 1.80. Add those all up and what have you got? 1,899.84.

        I could have crossed the threshold last Friday after I crossed the Peace Bridge to play in St. Catharines, Ont., with Selina Volpatti, but our 52.05% left us in tenth place North-South. With four other pairs between 52% and 53%, we missed earning points by a fraction.

Or so it appeared when the results first were posted. A check with the club’s website Monday night revealed that the point gods somehow found a way to smile on us. Now we were sitting fourth in the B strat. 0.29 of a point! Belated and misbegotten, but just enough to put me over the top. 

Bridge Blog 850: Buffalo Fall Sectional Roundup

         My 1.80 points seem pretty paltry next to the winners in the Fall Sectional. Top player Jay Levy had 26.45, grabbing 13.41 with his first-place finish with Bud Seidenberg (second with 24 even) in Friday’s two-session pairs. He picked up another 9.02 by coming in second in Saturday’s two-session pairs and 4.02 for third place among the Swiss teams on Sunday.

        The other leading local players filled out the next few places – Saleh Fetouh had 16.25, followed by Judy Padgug with 15.54, Fred Yellen with 15.11, Jay Costello with 13.04 and Chris Urbanek with 13.01.

        In all, 149 players earned a total of 547.51 points. I was in 90th place. The tournament attracted 139 tables, compared with 145 in the spring, 156 back in January and 164 last September.

Bridge Blog 849: Buffalo Fall Sectional, Day 3

        My enthusiasm over our Swiss team remained intact for the first round of the final day of tournament play on Sunday. Facing off against familiar opponents (and sometimes partners) Judy Kaprove and Nadine Stein, Florence Boyd and I rattled off a string of successful part scores and down-one defensive efforts. Teammates Jeff Bender and Rich Cramer-Benjamin did much the same against Judy and Nadine’s compadres, Michael and Ruthie Kozower. We won by 14 International Match Points. The day was worthwhile already.

        Round two, however, found us shut out by cute little Linda Burroughsford and a guy named Barry from Ithaca with whom she’d just been paired. The 21-0 IMP margin would have been reduced by 12 if I had rebid a six-card Spade suit on one hand instead of steering it toward a 3 No Trump contract. It made 4 Spades.

        As the day progressed, there was one bad hand like that in each round that sank us. And it was Rich who ruefully accepted the blame. While we were holding the fort against John Ziemer and Vic Bergsten, who failed to bid a slam, Rich and Jeff bid it, but lost it on an ill-advised finesse. A 15 IMP victory turned into an 8 IMP setback and cost us that round. In round four, I won a 4 Hearts doubled vulnerable contract for plus 12 IMPs against Al and Barbara, a Rochester couple, which should have won the match, but Al overcame it by winning a 3 No Trump bid that Rich and Jeff bobbled. They beat us, 14-12.

        Tied for next to last overall after lunch, we took on a pair of loveable 299ers, Mary Ball and Joyce Frayer, and decimated them, 30-4. But our hard luck returned in the final two rounds. Gaurang Sheth and Ten-Pao Lee made a 6 Heart slam with an overtrick, while their teammates, Shakeel Ahmad and Manju Ceylony, confounded Rich and Jeff with a ridiculously weak 2 Spade opener, after which our guys cautiously stopped at game.

        Up against Fred Yellen and Jim Gullo, good players down on their luck, the final round found us foundering some more, this time taking IMP losses of 11 and 8 on successive hands. In the end, we accumulated 88 victory points, which put us fourth or fifth from the bottom in the 16-team field, near as I could tell. Our two victories gave us 0.52 of a silver point apiece. To win bonus points, we would have needed at least 105 VPs – two more wins.

        Random notes: Small turnout for Swiss teams, which was apparent as I pulled up to the Main-Transit Fire Hall from the abundance of good spaces still left in the parking lot. Jewish holidays? The Bills game? Canadians staying home? Hard to say. At the spring tournament in April, there were 23 tables. Last fall there were 25.   

        Director Brian Meyer got a well-deserved round of applause at the lunch break. He’d been pleasant and efficient all weekend, as we saw during a call to our table by the Rochester couple when we passed out the first hand of the round. Should we reshuffle? Sure, he said, noting that, after all, this wasn’t a pairs game or a high-stakes tournament. And he’d moved the games right along. He hustled the Swiss teams to a conclusion by 4:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than they usually end.

        Not allowing enough time in the morning to pick up something for lunch from the Lexington Co-op, my stomach and I decided to see what fates and the hospitality table would bring. If things were really desperate, there was always the pizza, $6 for two slices ($5 for those who paid in advance). Or I could run to Jimmy John’s out on Transit Road for a fast, fast, fast sandwich. Not to worry. Saturday’s bagel shortage turned into bagel abundance on Sunday. There also was hummus, veggies and a ton of cookies and other baked goods. For good measure, Florence gave me, Jeff and Rich each a fresh-baked loaf of banana bread. Not exactly a balanced, heart-healthy diet, but at least hunger wasn’t an issue. 

Bridge Blog 848: Buffalo Fall Sectional, Day 2

Partner Judie Bailey was talking at lunch about what a terrible slump she’s in. She isn’t playing regularly and, when she does play, she and her partners don’t connect like they used to. Same thing happened to us in the morning session, when we barely escaped finishing next to last with a seriously undistinguished 42.51% game.

The afternoon session found us in better form, perhaps due to getting reacquainted in the morning (we hadn’t played since our win in the knockouts back in May in the Rochester Regional). The match points told the tale.

In the morning, we had only one hand that even came close to being a top board – Judie playing and making a 2 Spade contract (good for only 1 Spade, according to the hand record), which earned us 10.88 match points out of a possible 12. On the other hand, in the afternoon, after a stumble at the start (I foolishly doubled a 5 Spade contract that succeeded), we went on to rack up several near-top boards and one absolute top (doubling a 5 Club contract that went down four).

The upshot? A 49.68% game, not exactly brag-worthy, but sufficient for fifth in the B strat and 0.34 of a silver point. Tournament total climbs to 1.28. Meanwhile, Sunday Swiss team partner Flo Boyd had a better day than we did – finishing ahead of us at 51%. I’m pumped. We could do something good in the morning.