Bridge Blog 1186: Circumstances beyond my control

 

That's what's been keeping me from the tables since mid-February. My partner Monica had her right knee replaced on the 17th and I've been on caregiver duty ever since. She's recovering nicely, but here at the two-week mark there are quite a few tasks she can't yet accomplish by herself. 

So afternoons at the bridge clubs in Canada are out of the question for a while still. When new partner Rod Sumner called recently to see if I was available for a Wednesday at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines, I estimated that I wouldn't be free to come back until at least St. Patrick's Day. But, I cautioned, it may take a little longer. 

Bridge Blog 1185: The champ

Nobody in Buffalo racks up more master points these days than Saleh Fetouh. The retired radiologist collected 1,021.31 last year, almost four times as many as the player in second place, Davis Heussler, who had 258.82. 

The good doctor was off and running toward another millennium in January with 143.01. How did he do it? Not from playing club games. He only won 3.29 that way. And it wasn't online either. He added just 2.71 there. 

His success, as we knew all along, came from the regional tournament circuit. He started off the month at the Myrtle Beach New Year's Regional in South Carolina, where he and partner Vic Queros of Phoenix brought home 47.33 points. He bagged another 16.12 the following weekend at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Regional with various partners, but did far better two weeks later at the Houston Lone Star Regional. Teamed again with Vic Queros, the two of them got 38.06 points. 

The rest of the points must have come the final week in January in South Carolina, where he played in the Hilton Head Low Country Classic Regional. There his partner was Jiang Gu of Mountain Lakes, N.J., and he came home with a total of 56.69 points. He tacked on another 48.49 in mid-February at the Indianapolis Crossroads of America Regional, playing this time with Suman Agarwal of Columbus, Ohio. 

Bridge Blog 1184: Dateless

Not all is lost, I consoled myself after plans fell through for playing the Friday and Saturday sessions at the Niagara Winter Section Tournament (see Blog 1181). There's always Swiss teams on Sunday.

Wrong-g-g-g!

Partner Selina Volpatti texts me Saturday night to report that our Swiss teammates came down sick at the tournament on Saturday.

So even though an old Ricky Nelson song is running through my head this morning, I have to look at the bright side.

I'm avoiding some godawful virus right before my significant other goes in for knee replacement surgery on Tuesday.

And, as a bonus, I got to sleep in till 11 a.m. instead of rising at the crack of dawn. Now I'm all coffee-ed up and ready for a leisurely day off, maybe even see if I can beat the Bridge Baron at his game. 

Musical interlude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgjrrJTjnbg

Bridge Blog 1183: Star-crossed

 

Uh-oh, I just saw something that may alter my attitude toward this game in the horoscope column in The Buffalo News for Friday, Feb. 13, ("Royal Stars" by Georgia Nicols, a Vancouver-based Buddhist who used to be a movie and theater critic). Here's what she says:

"Today Neptune moves to the top of your chart to stay for the next decade. This means you might begin to question what you're doing in your life."

Actually, I've been asking that question since my 57-year career with The News ended back in November. So far, one of the answers is to play more bridge.

Bridge Blog 1182: Cover story

 

OMG, there's a Buffalo guy on the cover of the latest issue of the Bridge Bulletin – Joel Wooldridge, smiling and looking good with his salt and pepper beard. What put him there? He's the 2025 Player of the Year, second time he's had the honor. He took home 705.87 Platinum Points. When he won the first time in 2011, he had 666.67.

Joel got 405 of those platinum points by finishing first in three top-end tournaments. A second in the North American pairs brought in 75 more. The rest he collected at nine other tournaments.

Joel comes from bridge royalty here in Buffalo. His father and mother, Powhatan and Jill, were top players locally before they moved away in 2016. His father, whose mother’s brother was world chess champion Jose Capablanca, was an associate professor of nursing and a research methodologist at the University at Buffalo. Joel himself left town sometime in the 2000s and now lives in New York City. The Bridge Bulletin article includes three examples of his bidding prowess, but no mention of his hometown.

Bridge Blog 1181: The incredible shrinking weekend

 

It looked like a great weekend at the Niagara Winter Sectional Tournament in St. Catharines, Ont. But, uh-oh, have to skip the Friday evening session. It's opening night for the new play at the Irish Classical Theatre Company and we've got tickets.

No big loss, really. There's still the afternoon pairs game with Rod Sumner. Plus two pairs games on Saturday with frequent partner Selina Volpatti and the Swiss team matches with Selina on Sunday.

Then along comes a text from a long-lost friend. She's coming to town Friday night, leaving Sunday noon. Can we get together? Sure, Saturday night for dinner. Bye-bye, Saturday afternoon game. It wouldn’t end till 6. Can we just play the morning game Saturday, I ask Selina. Let's just do Sunday, she says.

Well, there's still Friday afternoon, too. See you at the tournament, I say to Rod at the BCON game on Wednesday. Oh no, he says, I forgot. He can't play. Funny how these big weekends just melt away.

Bridge Blog 1180: To pass, or not to pass ...

 

That was the question that dogged us after folding up the cards on Board 12 Wednesday afternoon at the Bridge Centre of Niagara in St. Catharines,Ont.

We're vulnerable. West is the dealer. Newly minted Diamond Life Master Danny Ioannidis passes. Partner Rod Sumner is North and passes with this hand in the second seat:

Spades: K-8-5-4.

Hearts: K-J-8-6-2.

Diamonds: K-9.

Clubs: Q-8.

Jane Jennings, East, passes too and it comes to me.

Spades: A-Q-2. 

Hearts: Q-7-4-3. 

Diamonds: 7-4-3.

Clubs: K-10-4.

As a gambling man, I'd love to risk a bid, but ... 

1. We're vulnerable. 

2. I have just 11 high card points and no five-card suit. 

3. And this bunch of cards doesn't pass the Rule of 15 or the Rule of 20.

Rod's hand does, but ...

1. He has no aces.

2. As far as he's concerned, his two doubletons are worthless. 

Seven of the eight other Norths didn't see it that way, though. They bid their Hearts. If Rod did that, I’d go 3 Hearts, inviting to game. Nobody dared to go to 4 Hearts, but they all took 10 tricks. 

The penalty for our timidity – a tie for a bottom board with the other North-South that passed it out.

How bad was the damage? At least four match points. Did that make a difference? Sure did. Instead of tying for third in the B strat with 51.16% and 0.36 of a master point, we could have leapfrogged over three other pairs into second overall North-South with an extra 0.59 of a master point.