Bridge Blog 1152: Magic number

Minus 1,100. It's one of my magic numbers in bridge. Getting that score involves going down, way-y-y down, doubled. Four tricks short if you're vulnerable, missing by five if you're not. It's almost always a bottom board. The only time it's good is when you're keeping the opponents from making a dead-certain slam. I've done that a few times and can testify that it feels  perversely satisfying, kind of like being the bloody hacked-up Spartacus character at the climax of a gladiator movie. And you can always find consolation in the thought that it could be worse. Minus 1,400 or even minus 1,700. 

I've bestowed the gift of a minus 1,100 so often over the years that it's become a running source of mirth between me and John Ziemer, a very good player who cut his teeth in the game at Linde Chemical with that gang of guys who used to play every day at lunch. 

A couple weeks ago, I wrote another chapter in the minus 1,100 annals at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Duplicate Club when I entered that score in the electronic BridgeMate and attributed it to our opponents instead to me and Selina Volpatti. I saw it that night when I was looking over the resume of scores online, thought, uh-oh, and wondered if anyone else would notice. 

They sure did. Selina nailed me about it as we were sitting down for the first round of the St. Catharines Winter Sectional on Friday afternoon. Her phone rang more than once, she said, and she wound up having to go in and repair the damage. 

Me? After the apologies and the embarrassment, I had to laugh. The magic number had hexed me again. And what happened on our very first hand in the tournament? Down four doubled vulnerable. Can't get away from it.