Bridge Blog 583: Over the top

Judy Kaprove greets me just inside the door at the Airport Bridge Club with the news. We’re partners Sunday in this last-day-of-the-month Swiss team game. Terrific! Judy and I haven’t played together in a long time, but we always have fun together. The rest of the team? Mike Kisiel and Paul Ganley, good players and a well-established pair. I’m feeling better about my 30-30 goal already.

That feeling doesn’t last. Our first opponents – Janet Frisch and her social bridge friend Barb Hill, who I haven’t encountered in ages – take us directly to the cleaners, shutting us down by a 27-8 IMP margin. We recoup against Chuck Schorr and Sushil Amlami, 20-13, and sit in third place at the lunch break. Then, after pizza, we lose, 25-18, to Liz Clark and John Ziemer (their team goes undefeated) and save our bacon with a 33-21 win over Carolyn Siracuse and Bob Olin, thanks to a pair of bid-and-won games in the final two hands.

The Clark-Ziemer team finishes way in front and the rest of us are bunched so closely that we don’t know if we’ll finish better or worse than third until the final score is posted. The team that could have come in second has a horrible final round, however, and so we’re second by a two victory-point margin, first in the B strat. Needing only about half a point, I got 1.83.

Add the 3.78 from the sectional and it’s roughly 35 points for the month. How does this stack up against other Septembers? Let’s go to the history books.

Last September (Blog 450) was “modest” – 11.33 club points, 1.11 in the Fall Sectional. Totals for the year were 111.25 Ace of Clubs, 121.65 overall. Going back further, September almost always has been modest. First time it surpassed 10 points was 2009 (16.53). The best (20.71) was in 2010.

Biggest months overall? March 2010 (43.76) and August 2009 (42.38), the heyday of triple point games at the Airport Bridge Club. So not only was this a superior September, but it’s also my winningest month in more than two years.

Bridge Blog 582: This side of 30

In the back of my mind, I figured if I hit 30 points for the month on Friday, I could skip my rainy-day plan, i.e., playing in the Swiss team event on Sunday at the Airport Bridge Club. Especially since my team evaporated (see Blog 581). Having 28.91 points meant that a win wasn’t necessary Friday with partner Marilyn Sultz, just a good finish.

After our starting round against Mike Mesirov and Barbara Libby, our finish was severely in doubt and it was entirely my fault. The first hand was wildly unbalanced, but having a stopper in the suit they bid, I went to 3 No Trump instead of sticking to our 11-card suit Clubs. Mike had six Spades. Down two. Then I bid 3 Spades to thwart what looked like a certain game contract by the opponents and went down five for an absolute bottom board. They couldn’t make more than 3 Hearts. On the third board, we let them take the bid at 4 Diamonds, down three, but better scores could have been had if we ignored the sting of the first two hands and pressed on to a makeable 4 Hearts. Out of a possible 21 game points, we had 1.5. That’s less than 10%.

It turned out to be a day of more bottom boards and a lot of offsetting tops. On eight out of 24 hands, we had at least 6 game points out of 7. (Our best – a successful 3 Diamond contract where everyone else let the opponents play and make 2 Spades, and a wicked defensive whammy that put an opponent down four at 3 No Trump, while others went down two.) On eight other hands, including those first three, we had 1 game point or less. It all evened out – final score of 51.19%, second in the B strat North-South, fourth in B overall. Our reward – 0.66 of a point. September total? 29.57. Weather forecast for Sunday: Rain.

Bridge Blog 581: Swan song

The days are dwindling down to a precious few and, amazingly, the point-a-day dream is still alive. On Wednesday, Celine Murray and I manage a 52% game and collect almost  another full point.

Then on Thursday, there’s a double session with me sleep-deprived from a late night at work and feeling a bit scratchy in the wake of a flu shot on Wednesday and partner Alicia Kolipinski only wanting to play the morning session and feeling bridged out in general.

It doesn’t help that Paul and Barbara Libby bid and make a 6 Spade slam against us on the very first board, starting us off with a big fat zero. We crawl from that wreckage through a series of wildly distributional hands, winning the auction on 17 out of 25 of them. On two occasions we send opponents down two for minus 200 on 1 Spade contracts. We finish with 53.71%, fifth overall, third in the B strat, for 0.83 of a point. Alicia leaves happy.

The afternoon finds me with Sharon Chang in a four-table Howell game. We haven’t had a game together in months and things are a little tentative at first. Plus after all those exciting morning hands, these are flat and not very inspiring. We’re declarers on only seven of the 21 boards, but become  bulldogs on defense. We emerge second overall, first in B, with 57.14% and 1.21 master points. Total for 27 days of September – 28.91.

          I’m spending Saturday away from the tables, but was counting on the Swiss team game Sunday as my 30 for 30 guarantee. It was going to be a reunion of our winning Swiss team from three Sundays ago – Carlton Stone, Eleanor Whelan, Celine and me. Then, on Wednesday, the team vaporized in a flash. Carlton tells me that Eleanor can’t do it and he’s decided he won’t either. Then Celine, overhearing this, drops out. Suddenly all guarantees are off.

Bridge Blog 580: Bonus days

How about a point a day in club points this month in addition to those 3.78 silver points that came my way over the weekend in the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament? Could be done, especially after Monday’s game at the Airport Bridge Club, where Wednesday partner Celine Murray and I came in first in our direction, second overall and first overall in the B strat with a 59.57% game. It not only earned us 1.59 more black points, but it also lifted me into first place in the club’s monthly series race for Monday, which meant another 0.78 of a point. After 24 days, 23.96 Ace of Clubs points.

After the seven-table morning session Tuesday, it’s still 23.96 club points. With Celine again, I’m closer to brain dead than brilliant. I miss the implications of her Diamond lead after we’ve been bidding Hearts on the opening hand. (Yes, a singleton, and declarer Paula Kotowski allows me to win with my King, not taking the trick with the Ace in the dummy like she could have.) I cash the Ace-King in my five-card Heart suit and lead a third one, figuring Celine would ruff it (she's played 3-2). Wrong. I should have given her the Diamond ruff. So the contract succeeds, when it could have been down one.  Not the worst outcome, it’s a middle board, but it could’ve been above average.

Then on the next hand, I revoke and catch it before the next trick gets played, causing a director call and a stir at the table, but not a penalty. We keep misfiring all morning, with the exception of the down five doubled vulnerable score we hung on one unfortunate opposing pair. That didn’t keep us from coming in behind them – last overall with 39.21%.

In the afternoon five-table Howell game, we seem to be stuck in the same rut. I give Jacqueline and Sharon Chang a ruff and sluff, allowing them to make an extra trick. Celine goes down three on a hand we should have left to the opponents. But both of these turn out to be middle boards. We’re surprised to see ourselves among the leaders when the preliminary scores go up. Final tally is 52.78%, third overall, another 0.98 point. Total now is 24.94. But wait! Make that 25-plus. My Tuesday afternoon wins this month will be giving me another club series bonus.

Bridge Blog 579: Fall Sectional Day 3

To be a big winner at the Buffalo sectional tournaments, you’ve got to win the Sunday Swiss team game. The foremost foursome was rewarded with 7.50 silver points and the tournament’s three top point-getters were members of that team – Jay Levy (17.93), Bud Seidenberg (15.92) and Saleh Fetouh (14.99).

Our team – Faith Perry and Pawan Matta, Florence Boyd and me – didn’t play those guys, but we played the third-place winners – Brian Meyer, Susan Cooper, Dan Gerstman and his Toronto buddy – in the second round and lost by 15 International Match Points. We were surprised to playing them at all in the second round, since they were clearly one of the best teams, but perhaps they started out against the Levy team. It could have been closer – we should have set Meyer in a 3 NT contract, but discarded carelessly on his long suit, and Flo should have picked up an extra trick in one of her contracts. That would have made us nearly even.

We didn’t expect to beat Brian Meyer & Co., but we clearly thought we’d nail the Southern Tier ladies we faced in the next round. However, I failed to unblock a winning Diamond in the dummy, going down two doubled instead of one, and commotion near Faith and Pawan’s table broke their concentration and their makeable North-South slam failed, while at our table our opponents made it.  We lost by only two IMPs.

We had similar hopes for the next round, but I blew a chance to set 3 Hearts doubled vulnerable and it made all the difference. It cost us 14 IMPs and we lost by 15. After lunch, we took on the only other winless team and it was our worst defeat yet, 22 IMPs. Our only success came in the sixth round, against Barbara Sadkin and Sandy Scheff. If we didn’t come in last, it was only because they slipped in behind us. Final result – just 0.26 of a silver point. And although I was determined to be nonchalant about our fate today, it was still distressing to let those two middle rounds slip away. At any rate, my goal of 3 points for the tournament was exceeded. The final tally – 3.78 points, 43rd overall, one notch behind Meg Klamp (3.83), one ahead of Arthur “Chip” Kean (3.73).

P.S.: Morning hospitality was bagels from Panera’s, the bakery café chain, accompanied by only three containers of cream cheese, which ran out quickly, plus one of butter and one of fake butter. Bagels and butter? Not a popular choice. Between round two and round three, I took it upon myself to run next door to the deli attached to Dick’s Christmas store and bring back a couple more packages of cream cheese. Dian Petrov suggested that the supply of bagels was too much for the cream cheese. Au contraire. The new cream cheese disappeared quickly, just like the first batch, leaving the butter behind.

Bridge Blog 578: Fall Sectional Day 2

Now I know what it felt like to be the pitcher who gave up Hank Aaron’s 715^th home run. I put the player with the most master points in Buffalo – Dan Gerstman – into first place overall in the morning session at the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament on Saturday on the very last hand.

Gerstman is declarer after Judie Bailey and I, bidding Spades, push him up to 4 Hearts on a very distributional hand. But then, after taking our first three tricks with the Ace-King of my six-card Diamond suit and the Ace of Clubs, clearing the dummy’s doubleton Diamonds and singleton Club, I lead the Queen of Diamonds. Wrong. Gerstman discards one of his two Spades and ruffs my Queen in the dummy, where the Ace of Spades resides. Had I led another Club, the dummy would still ruff, but Gerstman couldn’t shed a Spade and I’d win a trick in the suit with my King.

It’s worth at least 7 game points for him, perhaps 10. Either way, it’s just enough to lift him past the other leading pair. I kick myself mentally for it all through lunch. Those extra 7 to 10 game points make no difference to us, however. Our percentage would improve slightly from 54.54%, but we’d still be 10^th overall, sixth in the B strat, and we’d still win 0.47 of a silver point.

The morning turnout of 27 ½ tables shrinks to 20 for the afternoon and Judie and I can’t tell if we’re doing better or worse. This time we play Gerstman and his Toronto partner three hands instead of two with similarly dismal results – 14 out of a possible 51 game points, vs. 14 out of 50 – missing a game bid on one hand, allowing them an extra trick on the second and playing 3 No Trump, making nine tricks, instead of 4 Hearts, making 11, on the third.

Nobody else beat us that badly, however, as a look at our scoring summary shows. We’re better than 50% against all the other pairs except one. Beginning against neophytes Jeff Thier and Lynn Witmer, we get 36 game points out of 51. Next comes a Canadian couple who see us bid and make two straight 6 NT slams, 33 out of 51. After that, we get 34 out of 51, 30.5 out of 51, and 31.5 out of 51. We’re humming along at better than 60% until we stumble against Strat C players Judy Zeckhauser and Marilyn Shuman, where Judie rejects my 2 Spade bid (which makes 3, even though she has a singleton) and wins the auction at 3 Clubs, down three vulnerable. Against them, we’re only 24.5. And then comes Gerstman.

We rebound in the final rounds, however, and outdo our morning effort – 56.86%, fourth in A in our direction, third in B, fifth in B overall, winning 1.15 silver points. Total for the tournament – 3.52. Mission accomplished. So for the Swiss team game Sunday, no pressure, no frenzy, just fun.      

Bridge Blog 577: Fall Sectional Day One

Players in the Buffalo Fall Sectional Tournament are saying Friday how nice the main banquet room is at the Father Justin Knights of Columbus Hall on Union Road in Cheektowaga.  And indeed it is, despite the gloomy painting of Father Justin Figas giving us all a hard look from the back wall. (Father Justin, former pastor of Corpus Christi Church on Buffalo’s Polish East Side, in 1931 started the nation’s oldest continuous religious radio program in the Polish language – “The Father Justin Rosary Hour.”) But, truth be told, it comes in second to the Main-Transit Fire Hall on several counts.

1.    Although it’s more easily reached from the Thruway than the fire hall, it’s a longer drive for most of the bridge players, who mostly live north of the city. It’s also harder to find, since it’s tucked behind a big Christmas store. A couple Canadian players say they didn’t see it, turned right instead of left onto Union Road and wound up in … what’s that town called? West Seneca, I tell them.

2.    The fire hall doesn’t book competing events. The Knights of Columbus, on the other hand, host a Friday night fish fry. Before the afternoon session can start, players are asked to move their cars from in front of the building over to the left side to make way for the dinner crowd.

3.    According to partner Judie Bailey, the kitchen facilities are better at the fire hall.

Turnout seems a little light on opening day of the tournament – 25 ½ tables in the morning session, 18 ½ for the afternoon, both divided into two sections. There’s talk about how some of the players aren’t there because they’re traveling – one group of three couples is over in China together for a couple weeks. There are three or four Canadian pairs and another pair from Olean who say they’re staying in town overnight.

Judie and I get off to a bad start against Joe Rooney and Ken Meier, with me going down four doubled vulnerable on what should have been a proper 4 Spade sacrifice bid (they bid 4 Hearts and they can make it, while us North-Souths are supposed to take at least 8 tricks in Spades).

Later, when Judie opens and I’m holding a 19-point hand, I jump straight to the 4 No Trump Blackwood bid, asking for Aces, ignore John Marvin’s double of Judie’s 5 Diamond (one Ace) response, and plow forward to 6 Hearts. Marvin leads Ace-King of Diamonds and we’re down. Judie loses two more tricks later. Be considerate of your partner, she tells me. It’s a problem I keep having all morning. We’re pretty sure we’re having a bad game and indeed we do – 40.74%, 10th out of 12 North-Souths in our section. For consolation, we note that two good veteran players, Luke Danielson and Bob Andersen, finished 11th. I do a little quick scoresheet reckoning by figuring out how much better our five worst hands would be if we did them right and determined that we were beyond redeption – we could have improved 20 to 25 game points, but not enough to overtake the ninth place pair.

I try to have consideration for my partner in the afternoon session. The upshot is that we win fewer bidding auctions. In the morning, we were declarers on 18 of the 27 hands. In the afternoon, we’re declarers on 12 of 27. But there are fewer regrets. We only have two bottom boards, the first coming in the first round when I push to slam in Spades on a hand that the hand record says can’t make slam (although a couple of the North-Souths succeed). Offsetting them are three absolute tops – two on little part-score hands, another by setting Unit president Betty Metz’s attempt at 2 No Trump.

The scores go up and we’re among the leaders – sixth overall among 18 North-Souths, third in the B strat, fourth and second respectively in our direction, nosing out third-place Sue Neubecker, the tournament chairwoman, and Elaine Kurasiewicz. We’re 58.22%, earning 1.90 silver points. Maybe I should bump up my point goal for the tournament.