Bridge Blog 612: Out of the woods?

I finally broke out of my 40% funk Thursday. Paired with substitute Paula Salamone in the morning STaC (Sectional Tournament at the Clubs) game at the Airport Bridge, we played modestly with few mistakes, although we missed a slam early on. Our final tally? 52.38%. Had we been North-South, we would have gotten B strat points, but we needed 54% to do that in our direction. At least it was better than 50%.

I was supposed to play all day with Barbara Sadkin, but she begged off from the morning session on Wednesday. When she arrived at 1 p.m., I was upbeat, figuring that the 40% curse could be beaten again. And it was. We emerged with 57.14%, just a fraction behind North-South winners Jim Mathis and Judi Marshall. Had I not come in a trick short by screwing up a couple hands, we would have been on top. Our reward? 1.05 silver points. Will our sub-60% performance get us a district-wide bonus? Maybe. A percentage like that would have won nearly 3.5 points Wednesday morning and a little better than 2 points Tuesday afternoon, but nothing at all Wednesday afternoon.

Bridge Blog 611: Satisfied

“There’s a special satisfaction,” Donald Fagen of Steely Dan sings in his latest solo album, “when a job turns out so right …” And there was a special satisfaction in the following hand in the middle of the Thursday afternoon STaC (Sectional Tournament at the Clubs) game at the Airport Bridge Club, because it turned out just the way I thought it would.

Spades: A-K-Q-9-8-2; Hearts: None.

Diamonds: A; Clubs: J-10-9-8-4-2.

It’s Board 10, both sides vulnerable. East (Bob Linn) is dealer and he passes. Sitting South, I open 1 Spade, but I’m thinking 4 Spades. Unless the opening lead is a Club, I’ll take the first trick, bang out the top three Spades to draw all the trump (assuming it breaks well) and start hammering the Clubs from the top down until everybody runs out.

I’m reassured when West (Bill Boardman) overcalls 2 Hearts. My partner, Barbara Sadkin, passes. Bob goes to either 3 or 4 Hearts. I bid 4 Spades and everybody passes. Bill’s opening lead, as expected, is a Heart. The Ace.

“I hope you weren’t expecting anything from me,” Barbara says as she lays down a truly wretched dummy. “All I need,” I tell her, “is your two little Spades.”

Spades: 6-5; Hearts: 10-7-5-4.

Diamonds: J-10-5-4-2; Clubs: 6-5.

And it goes just the way I envisioned it. Trump the Ace of Hearts. The outstanding Spades split 3-2. And then I just lead Clubs. The split there is 5-0, but I still have one trump and three long Clubs left when Bob Linn runs out of Club honors. I only lose three Club tricks.

East

Spades: 10-3; Hearts: 8-6-2.

Diamonds: 9-8-6; Clubs: A-K-Q-7-3.

West

Spades: J-7-4; Hearts: A-K-Q-J-9-3.

Diamonds: K-Q-7-3. Clubs: None.

We got a tie for top board. Just one of the other six North-Souths bid and made 4 Spades. The only other North-South to win the auction got it at 4 Clubs doubled, played by South, down one.

At the other tables, East-West got to play it at 4 Hearts three times, two of them making the bid, one of them going down one. The other East-West was at 5 Hearts doubled, down two.

Bridge Blog 610: Looking ahead to last month

One day away from the new postings for the master point races on the ACBL website and I fear that the slump that’s engulfed me since mid-November will cost me position.

My pending points, November’s totals, amount to 16.95. For the year so far, that would raise my overall Mini-McKenney score to 218.95, with 184.45 Ace of Clubs points.

Chances are I’m still fifth in the Unit 116 Mini-McKenney and won’t catch fourth-place Mike Ryan at all this year. He had 233.18 as of the end of October. In the Unit 116 Ace of Clubs, I had visions of overtaking first-place Carlton Stone and I may have done it, since I was trailing him by less than a point. As goes the Unit, so goes District 5. Big question is whether I stay ahead of John Ziemer. He was only 8.47 points behind me and he’s been winning a lot.

Bridge Blog 609: Still on the skids

        After the brilliant performance with Dotty May on Sunday at the Unit 116 annual meeting and game (where corrections revised our score to 63.01%), my slump has gone back into effect for STaC (Sectional Tournament at the Clubs) Week.

        Despite high hopes for a silver-point romp with Selina Volpatti on Monday, we were victims of our trick-costing mistakes and overbidding. In the morning session, where we took 13 of the 20 auctions, we managed a meager 44.38%. The afternoon showed just as much aggressive bidding – we took 16 of the 24 contracts – but not enough improvement. Our 48.92% was one place short of earning points.

        I had similar ambitions for my two sessions Tuesday with Beverly Dale, who I haven’t played with since she suffered broken ribs a couple months back. The morning session found us a little out of synch, registering a feeble 38.81% game which put us next to last North-South. Like Monday, the afternoon was better, but still insufficient – 46.82%, eighth out of 11 North-Souths.

        Wednesday partner Celine Murray said it would be OK if we only played one session when she called Tuesday night, but I insisted on two. Sometimes we’ve done well in the STaC, hitting that magic 60% level and earning District 5 bonus points.

These, alas, were not those times. The morning game, where we ground out defense in 14 out of 21 miserable holdings, yielded us only a 46.25% game. Miraculously, it was good for second in the B strat and 0.74 of a silver point. No miracles in the afternoon, though. Though we got many more biddable situations, our fortunes declined to 42.36%, third from the bottom among seven North-Souths.

Bridge Blog 608: It comes but once a year

          The universe tried to keep me from going to the annual Unit 116 holiday lunch, meeting and game on Sunday at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Union Road in Cheektowaga, but I was adamant. Go to the art-studio open house along Elmwood with my significant other? No. Cancel so I could attend a memorial service at 4 p.m.? No, no, no. And no regrets, either.

          Not long after I arrive, board member Sue Neubecker hands me a holiday gift bag and after I tell her the News won’t allow me to accept gifts, I unwrap it. It’s a package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, making up for the cream cheese I purchased from the deli next door when supplies ran out too soon at the last sectional tournament there. Perfect. Thank you, Sue.

          And then during the meeting, when they’re recognizing new life masters, they call my name. My life master hat trick last November (basic, bronze and silver all at once) must not have been reported in time for last year’s honors, so here we are. My trophy? A little “I Love Bridge” patch.

          Finally, the game. Dotty May and I haven’t had great games together recently, but this time we clicked, starting with a 71.11% round against Carol Bedell and Marietta Kalman. We finished first in the B strat in our section, second in B in overall and fourth among all players with 62.58%. Best game I’ve had since my winning streak ended in the middle of November. The points were worthwhile, too. 2.60.

          The food also was worthwhile. Beef on weck, potato and pasta salads, a green salad and a ton of desserts and cookies. I dug repeatedly into Carolyn Siracuse’s excellent cheesecake. In fact, I got the last piece.

Bridge Blog 607: Out with a whimper

          The last day of November did nothing to improve my figures for the month. It goes down in history as 16.70. Marilyn Sultz and I came in either last or next-to-last with a 42.5%. Where did we go wrong? Let’s take a quick look at this 6 ½ table game and see. Top on a board is 5.

          Round 1 (Nancy Acara & Beverly Dale): 6.5 out of 15, or 43.33%. Took a bottom board on a bad 2 Heart bid that went down two.

          Round 2 (Jerry Geiger & Barbara Libby): 6.5, or 43.33% again. Another bottom board here, but there might have been two of them if they bid their sure game on the first hand.

          Round 3 (Bill Boardman & Pawan Matta): 6.5, or 43.33%. Still another bottom board, this time because I bid with too much weakness.

          Round 4 (Judi Marshall & Jim Mathis): 2, or 13.33%. Toughest pair in the room, but overbidding on our part didn’t help, especially the 3 NT down four.

          Round 5 (Ginny Panaro & Doug Dean): 5, or 33.33%. Fifth bottom board in five rounds is a 4 Heart bid on a hand where everyone else stops short of game and makes 3 Hearts.

          Round 6 (Celine Murray & Paul Libby): 9, or 60%. At last, a top board when I make an overtrick at 3 NT, an ill-advised contract that should have gone down two.

          Round 7 (Chuck Schorr & Judy Kaprove): 6.5, or 43.33%.

          Round 8: Our third-best round. We have a sit-out.

          Round 9 (Judy Zeckhauser & June Feuerstein): 9, or 60%. We stop bidding and play defense on all three hands.

Bridge Blog 606: Out of clock

Looks like the calendar has run out on my 20-point ambitions for November. One day left. Still 3.5 points short, since Florence Boyd and I were unsuccessful Thursday in the triple-point game at the Amherst Bridge Club. We seemed to play well, though we spent two-thirds of the session on defense, but I think we missed reaching the lower ranks of the winners because of a certain mindless error on my part.

We’re North-South at Table 1 in a 9 ½ table game. Three hands per round. Top score on a board is 8.

Pair 1 (Marilyn Sultz – my Friday partner -- & Ruth Wurster): 8, or 33.33%. We probably get 50% if I make an early Club lead in the first hand and hold them to just 2 Spades. My 1 Spade contract, bid and made, is a high middle board, but we should have let them play for a part score instead of bidding 4 Hearts, doubled, down two.

Pair 9 (Art Schumaker & Barb Multerer): 14, or 58.33%. I make a tough 3 NT bid, tie for a top board.

Pair 8 (Judi Marshall & Ed Drozen): 8, or 33.33% again. Good: Keeping Judi from making an overtrick on a 3 NT contract. Bad: Letting her play a makeable 3 Spades on a hand where we can make 4 Clubs. At the one-third mark, we’re an anemic 41.67%.

Pair 7 (Florence Notto & Janet Frisch): 7, or 29.17%. They just plain nail us. Florence leads a Spade against my initial 3 NT contract, taking out our only stopper and I have to rake in my winners immediately. A different lead and we make three overtricks. Janet finds a fruitful 2 Heart contract where every other East-West bids NT and hands us a bottom board. And then she cruises to a middle board with an overtrick at 2 Spades.

Pair 6 (Bruce Burr & Ross Markello): 7.5, or 31.25%. We register the first of the day’s two pass-outs when Florence passes on a hand where she could have opened 1 Club. It doesn’t make Clubs, but it’s good for 2 NT. Then Bruce and Ross proceed to make three overtricks on a 3 NT contract and send me down two on a 3 NT hand where Ross, on my right, opens a weak 2 Diamonds that’s not so weak and I overcall 2 NT with a 1 NT opener. Ross gets in when I eventually go to knock out the Ace of Clubs and runs five carefully-preserved Diamonds.

Pair 5 (Paul & Barbara Libby): 4, or 16.67%. Here’s that big mistake – reaching for an Ace of Hearts that would have defeated Barb’s 2 Spade contract and putting down a Jack of Hearts instead, which allowed her to make it. But we miss our chances on the other two hands, as well. Paul goes 2 Spades and comes two tricks short, but we can make 2 NT. And then a well-considered hold-up play by Barb keeps me from making 4 Spades. At the two-thirds mark, we’re truly pathetic – 33.68%.

Pair 4 (Nancy Kessler & Carlton Stone): 17, or 70.83%. We start getting cards. Flo plays her first contract, 3 NT making five. I make an overtrick at 4 Spades. Nancy and Carlton make 3 NT, but only bid 2.

Pair 3 (Jan Hasselback & Linda Wynes): 14.82, or 61.75%. That’s despite my daily minus 800, down four doubled on a 6 Club sacrifice bid. I make an improbable 4 Spade contract with a 7-point hand for out topmost board of the day and Flo caps it with a bold 5 Clubs, bid and made.

Pair 2 (Helen Panza & Mike Silverman): 15.5, or 64.58%. Flo makes an overtrick at 1 NT for a tie for top and we finish the day with another pass-out, this time for a near top. We’re 65.72% on those last three rounds. Overall, we bounce back to 44.36%. Too bad our good play didn’t kick in sooner.