Bridge Blog 835: Rochester Regional Tournament, Part I

           I was especially pumped for the Rochester regional tournament when I heard about it last summer. Just an hour down the Thruway. I’m there. In a major way. Every day. Then along came my bladder cancer. Surgery was set for May 4. Arrivederci, Rochester.

          But then along came my heart problems. Four stents installed at the end of April. A month on blood thinners while they heal in. Bladder surgery is postponed until June. Suddenly, Rochester is a reality again, except I have no plans, no partners.

          So thank heaven for Judie Bailey, my partner in the Syracuse regionals. She was available Friday and Saturday to play the knock-outs, the head-to-head team games. Friday morning I hit the Thruway for the RIT Inn & Conference Center, which I’ve often spotted from the highway but never experienced up close.

          It turns out to be a 1970s-modern place – dark brick, dim hallways that feel tight, big bright public rooms, a lot like buildings from that era on the college campuses here. One bad design feature, the main entrance off the west parking lot. Smokers congregate there just outside the automatic doors and the wind fills the long main corridor with the smell of cigarettes.

          At any rate, the tournament organizers had the essential elements well marked. There was a big banner over the Partnership table, which is where I met Judie. She also was looking for our teammates, acquired for us by the Partnership people – a guy from Ithaca named Courtnay Footman, who became our captain, and a guy from Syracuse named Gary Amundson. It turns out that they’re fairly regular partners, perhaps more so than me and Judie, since we almost never play together in Buffalo.

          There were 13 teams in our knock-out section, so to whittle it down to eight for the second round, the directors set up two head-to-head matches and three three-way round-robin games. Our team was in one of the round-robins, a great advantage since two of the three teams advance to the next stage.

          Our Round One opponents were Roy and Patricia from Binghamton and Jim and John from Ottawa. We beat the both narrowly in the first set of six hands, 11-6 and 22-15 International Match Points, respectively. Not enough to rest easy for the second set of hands, though. There Roy Noonan and Patricia Jardin made a pair of 3 No Trump contracts on which our teammates failed and that lifted them to a 19-10 win. As for Jim and John, we shut them down, 25-0. We survived to pay another $13 and play Round Two.

          This time we were head-to-head against a Rochester team – Dolores Toohey, who was volunteering at one of the tournament info tables, and Suzanne Powell. They were good company. Nevertheless, the long day began taking its toll on us – the other team more than us, as it turned out. Courtnay and Gary bid and made slam on a hand where Dolores and Suzanne only made game. Then Dolores and Suzanne bid a 7 Spade slam and lost a trump trick (Judie had four Spades to the Jack), while our guys stopped at 6 Spades. We won by a lot, 74-16. On to the semifinals on Saturday. Even if we lose, we earn something like six gold points. 

Bridge Blog 834: No May flowers

      I was supposed to have surgery for bladder cancer on May 4, so I wrote off the entire month. So now that the surgery’s been postponed to June, have I taken advantage of all those extra-point games at the Airport Bridge Club? Nooooooo. I’ve been mired in what seems like an endless succession of 30% and 40% games. In nine games this month so far, I’ve scratched only once and earned just 0.97 of a point. Either it's lingering chemo brain or I need better partners. Maybe both.

Bridge Blog 833: April fade

April wasn’t much of a month for me. Too many bad games. Too many interruptions for medical appointments. I added only 8.03 points to my Ace of Clubs total, for club play only, bringing it to 26.04 for the year through April 30. As for Mini-McKenney, which counts all points earned everywhere, the total is 29.28, up 9.90 from a month ago.

As a result, I’ve fallen off the Top 10 Ace of Clubs list in my division (1,000 to 2,500 points) for the first time in Unit 116 (Buffalo only) since I arrived there in 2011. I’m in 12th position. Top is Fred Yellen with 56.14, followed by John Ziemer, 53.25; David Millward (who’s been in Florida), 51.17; Martin Pieterse, 50.48; Ken Meier, 45.79; Mike Silverman, 40.81; Walt Olszewski, 40.66; Barbara Pieterse, 32.79; Bill Finkelstein, 29.34; Gene Finton, 26.55; and Elaine Kurasiewicz, 26.36. Nipping at my heels is Allen Beroza with 25.96.

I’m even further down on the Unit 116 Mini-McKenney list – 13th. Top dog here is David Hemmer with 99.47, followed by Martin Pieterse, 76.44; Fred Yellen, 76.06; David Millward, 69.76; John Ziemer, 63.67; Barbara Pieterse, 58.75; Ken Meier, 54.58; Walt Olszewski, 48.38; Mike Silverman, 42.79; Elaine Kurasiewicz, 33.54; Allen Beroza, 31.98; and Bill Finkelstein, 29.34.

In the District 5 (Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh) Ace of Clubs race, Buffalo players hold the top five positions in the 1,000 to 2,500 point division and seven of the first eight. I’m 39 th.

District 5 Mini-McKenney, as usual, is led by Ohio players in the 1,000 to 2,500 precinct. Top is Sue Lan Ma of Kirtland Hills with 215.37, followed by Fleur Howard of Gates Mills with 196.74 and Peter Merker of Mentor with 136.67. David Hemmer is fifth. Martin Pieterse is eighth. Fred Yellen is ninth. I’m 83rd.

In the top 500 Mini-McKenney nationwide, David Hemmer is 328th. Top is Aaron Jones of Orange, Calif., with 469.35, way ahead of second-place Edmund Wu of San Francisco, with 345.95. The list stops at 86.55. As for the national Ace of Clubs, Fred Yellen is tied for 233rd. Tops are two Florida players – Sanford Robbins of Miami Lakes with 139.01 and Edward Rauch of Fort Lauderdale with 128.79. The list cuts off at 47.37. 

Bridge Blog 832: Buffalo Spring Sectional Redux

          The Buffalo Spring Sectional felt smaller than the Winter edition in January and it was. Table count was 145 vs. 156. A total of 147 players earned 545.43 points vs. 162 players earning 552.12. Master point leader once again is Bud Seidenberg, but this time he has 20.83 points instead of the 32.32 he captured three months ago.

          Bud once again was on the winning Swiss team on Sunday, which gave him 9.08 points. He also was first in the two-session pairs game on Friday, good for 9.97 points. Other point leaders include Bud’s Friday partner Jay Levy, 18; and two of his Swiss teammates, Chris Urbanek, 16.71; and Saleh Fetouh, 16.52. After them come Davis Heussler, 13.32; Jim Gullo, 12.91; and Donna Steffan, 12.56.

          You have to look way down the list to discover your humble correspondent in 96th place with 1.87 points, just behind Ron Henrikson (1.95) and barely ahead of John Ziemer and Jim Tao (tied with 1.86). John spent most of the week at the big regional tournament in Gatlinburg, Tenn. 

Bridge Blog 831: Buffalo Spring Sectional, Day 3

Swiss teams, 23 of them, I believe. My team – Selina Volpatti, Usha Khurana and Joe Miranda – gets off to a fast start, winning two of the first three rounds and providing Selina with the quarter of a silver point she needs for what? She’s not quite sure. Hope it’s Life Master.

But then we hit the wall, losing four straight rounds and playing our final set of hands in the round robin group. We lose against one of our round robin opponents, but win by a bigger margin against the other. I’m not sure if that counts as winning a fraction of a round or a full round. The final master point tally will tell. Each winning round is worth 0.26 of a point. We’ll have either 0.65 or 0.78.

Once again director Brian Meyer hustles the players through their paces. The Swiss team sessions usually don’t finish until after 5 p.m. (which is why I took tonight off from work), but this one is done shortly after 4:30 p.m. Could have gone to the office after all. Came home and did some much-needed yard work instead.

Bridge Blog 830, Buffalo Spring Sectional, Day 2

Saturday at the sectional has the feel of a game at the St. Catharines bridge club – two boards a round with 17 tables morning and afternoon for the two-session game (five more on the side for the single session in the p.m.). We play 26 hands against 13 pairs and don’t face the other four. It’s a quick game, made even quicker by director Brian Meyer, who allots 15 minutes for each round, but then calls a new round with two minutes left on the clock.

The morning is a succession of missed opportunities for me and partner Judie Bailey. We fail to bid two slams and, worse yet, get slapped down twice when I double the opponents. The end result is even more dismal that my Friday games with Celine Murray – 38.62%. Even so, we’re 14th out of 17 North-Souths. Not last. Not even next to last.

The afternoon is brighter. Sitting East-West, we don’t miss slams. The opponents do. We also bring in three top boards – Judie making 4 No Trump on a hand that’s supposed to be good for only 2 NT; the opponents bidding 3 Diamonds and making 5 Diamonds when they should have bid and made 6; and the final board of the day – 5 Clubs doubled and made by me on a distributional hand that should indeed make 5 Clubs.

Our score is much improved – 52.72%, second in the B stratification among the East-Wests. For this we get silver points, 1.09 of them.

As for the accommodations, hospitality is a repeat of Friday --  sweet rolls, doughnut holes and fruit and nut breads in the morning, wraps and cut-up fruits and veggies in the afternoon. No criticism there. Room temperature, on the other hand, gets lots of complaints. No heat because it’s sunny and in the 60s outside, so it’s cool Friday inside the Main-Transit Fire Hall social room and maybe a little cooler Saturday. Lots of people say they’re chilled. Judie puts on her jacket in the middle of the morning game and keeps wearing it for the rest of the day. 

Bridge Blog 829: Buffalo Spring Sectional Tournament, Day 1

You haven’t been writing in your bridge blog, someone says to me prior to the start of play Friday in the Buffalo Spring Sectional. Well, I tell them, there’s nothing much worth writing about. I’ve scarcely racked up any master points lately, maybe three or so for the month so far. At times like this, the most eloquent comment is no comment at all.

Besides, what can you really say about a seemingly endless slog through games in 35% to 50% range, except to murmur a prayer for deliverance through a miracle of stratification. There are no such miracles on opening day of the sectional.

Not that I’m expecting lightning to strike with Celine Murray as my partner. She’s been my accomplice in a lot of those 35% to 50% games and we have a couple more of them Friday – 44.34% in the morning, next to last North-South in our section, and 45.32% in the afternoon. Our very first hand of the day is an omen of bad things to come.

We start out on Board 28 against two of the top players in the room – Bill Rushmore and Dian Petrov, proprietor of Bridge Club Meridian. We’re vulnerable. They’re not. West (Dian) is dealer. He passes. So do I with this hand:

Spades: K-7-4; Hearts: A-8-5; Diamonds: Q-8-3; Clubs: J-9-5-3.

Bill Rushmore also passes and Celine opens 1 Club in the fourth seat. Dian passes again. I look at my 10 high card points, my flat distribution, my lack of a four-card major suit, and bid 1 No Trump. And that’s where we play it. Celine has this hand:

Spades: J-8-3-2; Hearts: Q-4; Diamonds: A-9-7; Clubs: A-7-6-4.

Should she have bid at all, I wonder as I cover the opening Heart lead with dummy’s Queen. I take Dian’s King with my Ace and that turns out to be one of only four tricks that I wind up winning. Minus 300. Almost certainly a bottom board. (In the end, it gives us 3½ out of a possible 17 game points.)

According to the hand record, it’s an East-West hand all the way, routinely making 3 Hearts or 2 No Trump. Here are the other two hands:

East

Spades: A-10; Hearts: 9-7-6-3-2; Diamonds: J-10-5-2; Clubs: K-10.

West

Spades: Q-9-6-5; Hearts: K-J-10; Diamonds: A-9-7; Clubs: Q-8-2.

Attendance is light compared to the winter sectional – 19½ tables in the morning, about the same in the afternoon. Some of the players are down at the big regional tournament in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Director this time is local – Brian Meyer, looking slimmed down and almost saintly with his white shirt, moustache, beard and ponytail. He seems to field a larger number of director calls than usual. Don’t know if he’s responsible for printing out the hand records for the games, but for some reason they’re in short supply. I go hunting belatedly for one for the afternoon session and there’s none to be found.

Brian Meyer hands an entry form to Dotty May