Bridge Blog 1094: June Fades Away (completely)

Ohmigod! It’s the end of July and I’ve almost missed the June review of the master point totals. Being sidelined by pneumonia for the last two weeks of the month didn’t help, but let’s get a look at the ACBL standings before they disappear.

At the year’s halfway point, my Ace of Clubs total was 65.70, up a measly 1.02 points from May. As for the Mini-McKenney total, all points earned everywhere, I had 72.89, an increase of 6.33, thanks to STaC Week. So how does that stack up against everyone else?  

Ace of Clubs (club play only). Unit 116 (Buffalo only). Ruby Life Masters (1,500 to 2,500 points).

Don’t know how, but I’m still in fourth place, just barely. Meanwhile, Martin Pieterse has taken first place by a nose (or perhaps a nose hair), outpacing David Millward. Here’s the list:

Martin Pieterse, 101.78 (#3 overall among all players in Unit 116); David Millward, 101.49 (#4 overall); Linda Burroughsford, 87.18 (#7); moi, 65.70 (#20, down from #11); Davis Heussler, 62.70 (#21); Fred Yellen, 58.63 (#23); Ken Meier, 57.75 (#25); Gene Finton, 57.59 (#26); John Sinclair, 53.18 (#31); and Dorothy May, 50.82 (#36).

Ace of Clubs. Unit 116. All players.

Alan Greer! 208.15! Up 32.20 points for the month. After that it’s Nancy Wolstoncroft, 119.81; Martin Pieterse, 101.78; David Millward, 101.49; John Welte, 98.86; Gay Simpson, 90.52; Linda Burroughsford, 87.18; Martha Welte, 86.35; John Ziemer, 82.02; and Mike Silverman, 78.70.

Mini-McKenney (all points earned everywhere). Unit 116. Ruby Life Masters.

Linda Burroughsford and Davis Heussler are still the only ones who have passed the double-century mark. Linda leads with 250.53 and is first in the entire unit. Davis, who has 229.62, is third overall. The rest of the top 10: Ken Meier, 123.51 (#13 overall); Martin Pieterse, 114.54 (#15); David Millward, 114.28 (#16); Fred Yellen, 82.87 (#24); John Sinclair, 73.92 (#34); moi, 72.89 (#35, down from #28); Gene Finton, 66.48 (#38) and Dorothy May, 58.53 (#45).

Mini-McKenney. Unit 116. All players.

Same players in the Top 10, but one big move. At the end of May, Alan Greer sat fifth with 175.95 points. In June, thanks to a big STaC Week, he catapults to second with 234.62. Still on top is Linda Burroughsford with 250.53, while Davis Heussler slips to third with 229.62.

Then it’s John Welte, 221.18; Martha Welte, 208.67; Mike Ryan, 203.34; John Ziemer, 176.69; April leader Glenn Milgrim, 176.06; Chris Urbanek, 148.70; and Saleh Fetouh, 145.11.  

Ace of Clubs. District 5 (Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh). Ruby Life Masters. Buffalo players hold the top three spots, five of the top eight and nine of the Top 15.

Top three are Martin Pieterse, 101.78 (#5 among all players in the district); David Millward, 101.49 (#6); and Linda Burroughford, 87.18 (#13).

Judith Shapiro of Akron, Ohio, sixth a month ago, moves ahead of me into fourth place with 71.02 (#32 overall). I’m fifth with 65.70 (#46, down from #22).   

Then it’s W. Tordella (full name William) of Bemus Point, 65.05 (#47); Kenneth Eichler of Murrysville, Pa., 63.80 (#48); Davis Heussler, 62.70 (#50); Marvin Shapiro of Akron, 60.54 (#57); and James Wheeler of Edinburg, Pa., 59.87 (#59).

After Barbara Schidlowski of Kent, Ohio, 58.79 (#63), it’s four Buffalonians, Fred Yellen, 58.63 (#64); Ken Meier, 57.75 (#68); Gene Finton, 57.59 (#69); and John Sinclair, 53.18 (#84).

Ace of Clubs. District 5. All players.

Buffalonians hold six of the Top 10 places, led by Alan Greer with 208.15. He’s followed by perennial Pittsburgh champ Reanette Frobouck, 140.81; Nancy Wolstoncroft, 119.81; Allen Selling of Erie, Pa., 103.79; Martin Pieterse, 101.78; David Millward, 101.49; John Welte, 98.86; Gay Simpson, 90.52; Constance Hoechstetter of Moon Township, Pa., 89.71; and Stephanie and Robert Alexander of Mentor, Ohio, 88.01 and 87.43, respectively.

Mini-McKenney. District 5. Ruby Life Masters.

Linda Burroughsford and Davis Heussler continue one-two – Linda with 250.53; Davis with 229.62. But they didn’t move up among all District 5 players. Linda stood pat at #14. Davis slipped to #16 from #15.

The others on the leaderboard trail far behind: Doug Snyder of Shaker Heights, Ohio, 137.40 (#42); Judith Shapiro of Akron, Ohio, 126.94 (#55); Ken Meier, 123.51 (#60); Monica Early of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 122.15 (#62); James Fox of Canonsburg, Pa., 121.22 (#63); Martin Pieterse, 114.54 (#72); David Millward, 114.28 (#73); and Marvin Shapiro of Akron, 113.13 (#74).

Mini-McKenney. District 5. All players.

Perennial leader Sue Lan Ma of Kirtland Hills, Ohio, and finally overtook another Ohioan, Bernie Greenspan of Beachwood, who added only 20 points. Here’s the Top 10:

Sue Lan Ma, 463.62; Bernie Greenspan, 433.82;  Kathleen Sulgrove of Twinsburg, Ohio, 336.93; Phillip Becker of Beachwood, Ohio, 331.37; Philip Goulding of Wexford, Pa., 327.84; Don Sulgrove of Twinsburg, 325.35; Craig Biddle of Pittsburgh, 313.87; and Stephanie and Robert Alexander of Mentor, Ohio, 313.14 and 312.56, respectively.
(and now, on Aug. 1, the rest ...) 

Ace of Clubs. Nationwide. Top 500 Ruby Life Masters.

Russ Pearly of The Villages, Fla., is still on top, now with 234.58 points, but there’s been a shuffle among the runners-up behind him. Jim Loffree of Naples, Fla., leader in May, second in June, is now fourth following an 11.12-point month. He has 179.90.

Moving up are Mason Barge of Atlanta with 194.86 and Jay Lucas of Little Rock, Ark., with 182.75. Sidney Pertuz of Dallas, a newcomer a month ago, remains fifth with 165.72.

More shuffling in the bottom half of the Top 10. Mark Haberman of Boca Raton, Fla., sixth a month ago, is now #10.

Meanwhile, Christopher Smith of Vera Beach, Fla., is now sixth with 156.59, heading a cluster that includes Bruce Ladin of Harwood Heights, Ill., 155.53; Eileen Boal of Albany, Ore., 152.16; and Christine Converse of Highland Beach, Fla., 150.34. Mark Haberman has 150.12.

Unit 116 leader Martin Pieterse, #78 a month ago, is in a tie at #69 with Victor Riva of Chapel Hill, N.C., with 101.78. David Millward is #72 with 101.49, down from #45 a month ago. Linda Burroughford is #146 with 87.18 and, miraculously, my 65.70 is still enough to keep me on the list, albeit just barely at #477, down from #282 at the end of June. The list stops at 65.02.

Ace of Clubs. Nationwide. Top 500 players.

What a month for Bill Kulbersh of Atlanta! 76.68 club points. That moves him up from second to first place among all club players in the country with 310.53.

Even more amazing is the rebound of April leader Neil Silverman of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He had an 82.38 point month in the clubs and moves up from third to second with 306.78.

They end the two-month reign of Barbara Sartorius of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. After two straight 60-point months, she registered only 14.50 in June and now sits third with 276.44.

After that, it’s En Xie of St. Louis with 264.32; Francine Feldman of Boca Raton, Fla., with 247.75; David Hudson of The Villages, Fla., 246.24; Shiv Arora of Boca Raton, 239.48; Bella Ionis-Sorren of Fort Lauderdale, 238.19; Jack Borenstein of Dallas, 237.44; and Ruby leader Russ Pearly, 234.58, dropping from sixth to tenth.

, had her second straight 60-point month – 62.47, to be exact – to reach 260.94.

Unit 116 and District 5 leader Alan Greer is #19, up from #21. Nancy Wolstoncroft is #385, down from #378. And that’s it for Buffalonians. The list cuts off at 111.60.

Mini-McKenney. Nationwide. Top 500 Ruby Life Masters.

A month ago, four players had reached the triple-century mark. Now it’s the whole Top 10.

Continuing in the lead is Thomas Rush of Houston with 388.72. New to the Top 10 is second-lace Harrison Luba of Lynnfield, Mass., with 357.83. Dolores Aquino of Houston remains third with 355.06.

Then it’s Jay Lucas of Little Rock, Ark., 351.01; Russ Pearly of The Villages, Fla., 350.94; Christopher Smith of Vero Beach, Fla., 339.26; Amy Casanova of Portland, Ore., dropping from second to seventh with 337.39; Bill Cook of Louisville, Ky., 310.60; Murali Nair of Phoenix, 306.68; and Arjun Dhir of John’s Creek, Ga., 303.20. 

Unit 116’s Linda Burroughsford slips from #20 a month ago to #21 with her 250.53. Davis Heussler drops from #24 to #33 with 229.62. Ken Meier is here at #305 with 123.51, up from #360. David Millward is down again, dropping from #273 to #402 with 114.28 after a five-point month. The list stops at 105 even.

Mini-McKenney. Nationwide. Top 500 players.

The pack caught up with the legendary Jeff Meckstroth of Clearwater Beach, Fla. He turned in a mere 84.35-point month and fell to third place.

On top is Kevin Dwyer of Melbourne, Fla. Joe Grue of New York City slips into second place after a 219.38-point month. He now has 1,203.66. Then it’s Meckstroth with 1.174.57; Shan Huang of Melbourne, Fla., 1,174.35; John Hurd of New York City, 1,058.19; Mark Itabashi of Murrieta, Calif., 1,031.37; Geoff Hampson of Las Vegas, 1,013.05; Curtis Cheek, also of Las Vegas, 971.93; Jacob Morgan of Madison, Wis., 952.98; and Alex Hudson of Raleigh, N.C., 931.25.

 District 5 leader Sue Lan Ma is #82. Bernie Greenspan is #104. Unit 116 leader Linda Burroughsford, who joined the list at #452 in June, falls back to #492 with her 250.53. The list cuts off at 248.54.

P.S.: Buffalo native Joel Wooldridge, who now plays out of Astoria, Queens, had a 108.64-point month, moving up from #18 to #17 with 838.30.

Bridge Blog 1093: Learning Curve

Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein characterizes himself as the best bridge teacher in Buffalo, but he hasn’t demonstrated it since an illness put him out of commission for a couple months back in 2011.

I’m an alumnus of his earlier classes and for many a moon I’d often hear his voice in my head as I was tempted to make a dumb play (not often enough, my partners might say). At any rate, after eight years, my flagging wisdom was much in need of a booster shot, so when he announced he was going to hold classes on four Wednesday mornings (10 a.m. through Aug. 14), I knew I needed to be there.

The format took me back to those Saturday morning classes 10 years ago – we bid the hands to a contract under his watchful eye, the erroneous players being corrected so that everyone reached the same contract, and then came the pause while he gave thumbs up or thumbs down to the opening leads. He also gave a slight hint as play began.

For this first hand on Wednesday, July 17, a 4 Spade contract, he suggested simply that it was a test of the defenders. The defenders all failed. Nobody beat the contract.

North:

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

East:

Spades: 5; Hearts: A-K-J-10-9-7; Diamonds: 9-8-4-2; Clubs: 10-9.

South:

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

The bidding:

North    East              South    West

1D         2H         2S          Pass

3S          Pass              4S          All Pass

The lead from West was the 2 of Hearts, though that had to be corrected at a couple tables. At our table, declarer (South) played a low Heart from the dummy and East came up with the Ace, then led the King and a low Heart so that West could ruff it. But those were the only three tricks they got. South took six Spades, the Ace of Diamonds and three Clubs.

The key to defeating the contract, Bill pointed out, was the play of the first few cards. East holds all the high Hearts except for the ones in the dummy, so the first trick could be won with the Jack or even the 7, depending what was played. 

With that, East can win three Heart tricks and West doesn't have to ruff. Yet. Now West, realizing there are two discards ahead, needed to throw away not Clubs, but the Queen and King of Diamonds. An alert East then would lead a Diamond on the fourth trick, allowing West to win it with the 2 of Spades. Down one.

I told Bill later that I thought this hand was full of detail for the beginners among us in the class, but in retrospect, it’s a beauty. Everyone at my table said they never would have considered discarding the Diamonds and thought the strategy was brilliant. A great start for the lessons and it apparently did me a bit of good. Paired up with an extremely good player, Tom Fraas, we put together a 61.11% game, first overall, 3.56 points. I’ll be back for another lesson next Wednesday.  

Bridge Blog 1092: Never say never

There are flat hands, where every result is the same, but I’ve never seen a flat hand where every table has passed it out. Somebody always comes up with a bid. In fact, in a hand to threatens to become a pass-out, I’ve found it’s often advantageous to bid if you can, especially if you’re not vulnerable.

That “never” came to an end, however, on Board 20 last Monday, July 22, at the Airport Bridge Club.

We got to Board 20 late in the game, next to last round, against good players. Sandi England was East, Joanne LaFay was West. Everybody vulnerable.

West was the dealer and she passed. Holding 10 high card points with a five-card Heart suit, so did I. Sandi also passed. Judie thought for a moment, then put down the green bidding card. I opened the traveler to record the score (or lack thereof, in this case) and, lo and behold, everybody passed it out. Here’s the hand:

West (Joanne/dealer)

Spades, K-7-6-5-2; Hearts, A-9-6; Diamonds, 7-4; Clubs, A-7-2.

North (moi)

Spades, 10-9-8-4; Hearts, K-Q-J-4-2; Diamonds, A-8; Clubs, 10-8.

East (Sandi)

Spades, Q-3; Hearts, 10-8-3; Diamonds, Q-J-5-2; Clubs, K-Q-9-4.

South (Judie)

Spades, A-J; Hearts, 7-5; Diamonds, K-10-9-8-3; Clubs, J-6-5-3.

Had I been the third player to bid, I would have opened 1 Heart. But not from the second seat. I suspect Joanne would have gone to 1 Spade if she was bidding third.

In either case, it’s pretty certain that each of us would overcall if the other one opened. And that would lead us down to path to catastrophe, vulnerable.

According to the hand record, North-South can bid and make a contract here. In every suit but clubs, it turns out. But just at the 1 level. North-South only takes seven tricks. And for some strange reason, nobody makes a contract of 1 Club.

Bridge Blog 1091: No waiting

Although I never do well in the ACBL Instant Matchpoint Game, I get a kick out of the immediacy of the scoring. There they are, right in front of you on the score sheet, a list of possible outcomes and how many match points they are worth.

As I saw on Monday, July 8, at the Airport Bridge Club, some players can’t be bothered with figuring it out, but I revel in it, especially when a hand turns out well. I like the thrill of knowing where you stand as the game moves along.

In our first round, the instant scoring showed that Usha Khurana and I did quite well on two out of three hands and the sense of encouragement was palpable. It wasn’t long, however, before that other sense – deflation – set in. Particularly deflating was what seemed like a hard-fought bid-and-make game contract that everybody made and turned out to be worth only 36 out of 100 MPS.

Then there was the hand where we ran into an anomaly – a score that wasn’t even listed among the MPS possibilities. Here it is – Board 3, South is dealer, East-West is vulnerable.

South (Usha)

Spades: Q-7-4-2; Hearts: 7; Diamonds: A-6-5-4; Clubs: A-J-7-4.

West (Linda Zittel)

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

North (me)

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

East (Jan Hasselback)

Spades: A-J-5-3; Hearts: A-6-5-4-2; Diamonds: 10-9; Clubs: 9-6.

The commentary booklet has South opening 1 Diamond, West going 2 Clubs, North doubling, East overcalling 2 Hearts, South bidding 2 Spades, West raising to 3 Hearts and South winning the auction at 3 Spades.

At our table, however, North was declarer (Did I answer that 2 Club bid by overcalling with a four-card major? Might have.) The contract settled not at 3 Spades, which is makeable, but at 4 Spades after East-West pressed to 4 Hearts. The first lead from East, not West – the 9 of Clubs – may have made a difference. But probably not.

As I recall, I set up a cross-ruff in Clubs and Hearts and, despite the bad trump break, somehow held Jan and Linda to just three tricks – Ace of Spades, Ace of Hearts and one trump. Our Plus 420, a top board at the club, turned out to be a mystery number. The list of possible scores included 470, worth 73 MPS, and 300, worth 72 MPS, but no 420.

Bridge Blog 1090: I Needed That!

With pneumonia knocking me out for the entire second half of June, I had no idea what would await me when I finally returned to the Airport Bridge Club on Monday, July 1. Especially since I had not lined up a partner.

Also partnerless was Brian Block, father of my sleep doctor and a retired doc himself. Just the man to help with my recuperation, I joked. And, no kidding, he was. We finished first overall in a seven-table game with 57.79%, earning 3.19 points, half of them red since this was another NAP qualifier.

I was particularly grateful since my quest for points in June had been cut so short. (Final tally for the month at the Airport Bridge Club – a mere 5.65 points).

Imagine my joy then to get a text message Monday night from my one-time regular partner Denise Slattery, now living south of Rochester. She would be in town Tuesday. Was I available? Indeed, I was.

Denise once again provided a wonderful sandwich for lunch and we had a freewheeling fine time in the 7½-table game. But we did not have a good score. One of my worst this year. 36.76%. The only consolation – we weren’t dead last. Another unfortunate pair was behind us by a fraction of a percent.