What’s the difference between earning master points and finishing dead last? Near as I can figure from reviewing the 24 boards in Friday’s game at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Bridge Club, it took just five of those 24 boards to seal our fate at the bottom. With 51.5 match points in a seven-table game, we came in at 42.92%. Had those five boards turned out differently, by my estimate, we could have collected an extra 15 match points or so and wound up in second place North-South.
Board 4. Selina doesn’t like to rebid her six-card suits,
which cooked us here. She’s got Diamonds. I have six Hearts, five Spades. High cards in both those suits are Jacks. At 3 No Trump, she’s down four. At 3
Diamonds, it’s down one, which would have given us 2.5 more match points.
Board 9. Bad sacrifice on my part, pushing Selina to 4
Spades, which opponent Susan Hawes doubles because she’s holding five of them (her
partner is void). If they play at 4 Hearts, they’re down one. Plus 4 match
points for us if I pass.
Board 14. Selina opens 1 Diamond, I bid 2 Clubs with
six of them, she bids 2 Spades. I’m holding A-J-9-2 in Spades. Why don’t I raise
to 3 Spades? She would go to 4. It makes 5 Spades and would give us an extra
1.5 match points.
Board 20. Another bottom at 5 Hearts doubled vulnerable, down three. Blame me for the bad minus 800 sacrifice. Down two, minus 500, would have been a top. Down three also would have been a top if any of the other East-Wests had bid their 6 Diamond or 6 Spade slams. So it could've been 5 match points for us instead of zero if the stars aligned.
Board 24. I open 1 Diamond. Selina responds 1 Heart. Holding 4 Spades and a relatively balanced 13-point hand, I go 1 No Trump. Selina has 10 high card points and A-Q-4 in Spades and can’t resist raising to 3 No Trump. The math is not in our favor. Her cards come down and I see 3 Spade tricks, 2 Club tricks, a Diamond and a Heart. There's no way to expand on that. Down two. We’re 2.5 match points better at 1 No Trump.
