by Single Session Swiss

I found more red than gold in the mountains. 

It was the day after Thanksgiving (but only by three hours) when I arose to begin packing for our week at the NABC in Denver. That done, I nuked a Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit with egg and cheese and made sure that our cat Giacomo knew where his food and water were. My wife Sue’s sister Karen was nice enough both to drive us to and from the airport and to look in on Giacomo every few days.

I had neglected to check in online at Southwest until Thursday evening, which put us in the back of the plane. At the Hartford airport we said hello to the Baushers, the Derrahs, Frank Merblum, and Simon Kantar. The Derrahs were flying Delta. The others were on our non-stop flight, which took about four hours.

When we arrived at the airport we engaged a cab for $55. The mountains were visible to the right, but the most startling sight was the sign for unleaded gas for $1.77. 

The first stop was here to register and pick up the SWAG. This year's was a very nice portfolio. 

The Sheraton Hotel was so huge that it overflowed across the street to the building that once had hosted the May D&F department store. In the 1990’s the May Company folded this chain into the operations in Houston for Foley’s, an action that generated a lot of business for my software company.

Quite a few people from District 25 were milling around the lobby when we arrived. Most prominent among them was Mark Aquino, the newly elected District Director, who was working the crowd in the check-in line.

The Daily Bulletin asserted that Bridge Bucks would be on sale at 6:00 on Friday, but Peter Marcus and Marilyn Wells did not set up shop until Saturday at noon.

Because my partner, Ann Hudson, was not arriving until Saturday, I had no plans to play on Friday. Since Sue had arranged to play in both the afternoon and evening sessions, I spent part of the afternoon trying to find out where everything was located, a major challenge at an NABC event. I decided to play in the evening side game, and I filled out a card at the Partnership Desk. I then repaired to our room and watched football. Supper was a very pricey sandwich and coke at the concession stand. Thereafter I stuck to sandwiches, chips, and cokes from the 7-11 across the street.

When I returned to the Partnership Desk at 6:30, a lady named Kathy Rolfe was holding my card. We soon realized that we had actually played against one another in the NABC in Atlanta. She was from Kansas City and knew my cousin’s wife very well. I could hardly believe that she had driven to Denver through the ice storms and planned to drive back on Monday. The trip is over six hundred miles each way! Our performance in the Side Game was mediocre, but we both seemed to have a good time.

The easiest way to get from one building to the other was via the walkway.

The outside view.

The most nerve-wracking part of the entire week was connecting with Ann on Saturday. I had arranged through the ACBL website for us to play that day with two ladies whom I did not know, Ti Davis and Won Yang, in the 0-10,000 Swiss, which started at 1:00. Since I knew Ann was staying at the Sheraton, I positioned myself in the lobby near the registration desk. She appeared about noon. We met our teammates at about 12:30. They recognized me by my red and blue Barça hat.

Leah Moulton and Mrs. SSS did so well in the Gold Rush Pairs that they promoted themselves to the Open Pairs.

I anticipated that we would probably be a little out of our depth in this event. After all our team’s total points were less than half of the limit for one player. Nevertheless, we won our first match (of eight) by an astonishing twenty-seven IMPs. At that point reality reared its ugly head, and we dropped six matches in a row.

Ann and I were pretty certain that we had prevailed in the last match. However, we later learned that on one hand the opponent in my chair had opened 2NT with a singleton heart. His partner had five hearts, and they managed to make 3NT. I had opened a much safer 1♦, which was passed out.

So, unbeknownst to us, we needed a swing in the last hand to win. Ann bid a very aggressive 6NT slam, which I had to play. Fortunately, the gentleman from Vancouver on my left elected to lead the ♦J. I had Ax on the board and Q10xx in my hand. I ducked, and RHO played the king. I absolutely needed to win three tricks from this sketchy diamond holding. If he had selected any other card for his lead, I doubt that I could have made it. So, we won the last match.

On Sunday, as on every other morning in Denver, we walked to the Delectable Egg for breakfast. Sue was playing in the morning and afternoon. Ann and I decided to play with her husband, Randy Johnson, and Paul Hacks from Boston in the A/X/Y Swiss. We probably were once again the lowest-seeded team, but we managed to win three of our first four rounds. For me the most memorable moment was playing against a pair of Italian stars, Leonardo Cima and Valerio Giubilo, in the second round. They suffered through two or three severe bidding misunderstandings, and we actually defeated them by an astounding twenty-two IMPs. I will never forget the look on Giubilo’s face when he found himself declaring a four-spade contract with only five trumps. I held Q109xx, and I was sitting behind him.

The Grand Ballroom was filled on Tuesday and Wednesday with competitors in the two Blue Ribbon games.

After supper, however, the wheels came off. By a strange coincidence the critical hand in the penultimate match involved a lead by the very same fellow from Vancouver who gave me the no-trump contract on Saturday. In this case I was playing 2NT; the contract was 3NT at the other table. Randy led a heart from his five-card holding; the Vancouverite led a spade from four. The dummy and I had the two top spades and the three top hearts. I needed to lose two clubs to set up my eighth and ninth tricks. So, the spade lead caused me to go down one, but the heart lead allowed my counterpart to score his game. It seems like I should be able to draw some wise conclusion from this, but I cannot think of what it might be.

At least two D25 players, Joe Brouillard and Linda Ahrens, went to the football game on Sunday evening in their Pats’ battle gear. While we were playing the last round of the Swiss the Broncos defeated the Patriots in the snow. The celebratory noises from the bar were clearly audible on the floor beneath it.

Ann and I played in the pairs on Monday. We really clicked in the morning session; we bid three slams and made two. The afternoon was a different story. I played five of the first seven hands, and I went down on all five. However, we got good scores on the last two hands when one of our opponents was distracted by her ice cream bar and made two silly bids. So, we ended up placing in C.

My wife Sue enjoyed the best day of her life at the tables. She and a lady from Seattle finished twelfth overall in the Gold Rush Pairs. She earned 2.63 gold points, which increased her total by 8,866.67 percent.

We celebrated with the Derrahs, Stewart Rubenstein, and Chris Parker at the Ship Tavern. The short walk on the icy sidewalks was treacherous, but the food and the conversation were exceptional. I distinctly remember promising to mention Chris’s rat, Herman II, but I have forgotten what his great accomplishment was. Yes, I downed two Scotches that evening.

The highlight of the tournament for me came on Tuesday. My goal was to make it to the second day of the 0-5,000 Mini Blue-Ribbon Pairs. We played pretty well in the afternoon, but we needed to do better in the evening session. The hands used for that session were no less than diabolical. Consider hand #10, which is showed at right. I (West) was very happy with our aggressive 3NT contract. The spade lead gave me two spade tricks. I also had five evident diamond tricks and good prospects in both clubs and hearts.

However, the 5-0 diamond split scotched my plan completely. If I took four diamond tricks I would be stuck in the dummy forever! I ended up down three.

Consider also hand #16, shown at left. After two passes, I (West) opened 4♦, a Namyats bid that showed a strong hand with an eight-card spade suit. The big advantage of this bid is that it is forcing. Needless to say, we did not have a convention to show a strong nine-bagger. Ann bid 4♥, and the opponents eventually bid 6♦, which we doubled and set two tricks for a par score. I was very upset that we had missed our cold 6♠ contract until North announced that he would have led his singleton club to South’s Ace.

Both of these results were bad, and playing in this environment left both of us emotionally and mentally drained at the end of the session. However, we also lucked out on a few hands. Our 54 percent game was enough to qualify us for the second day. I was ecstatic.

Unfortunately, our afternoon game on Wednesday was horrendous. We finished above average in the evening, but we were miles away from qualifying for the final day.

The hotel abutted the "16th Street Mall," which was actually a street reserved to free buses that ran every two minutes. Dozens of restaurants could easily be reached.

We played fairly well in the A/B/C pairs on Thursday, but we did not make much noise. Our section was moved to the Windows room, away from the main events. It did not seem like we were actually playing in anything important.

On Friday I played in the Side Game with Sue. We were bumping along until the last table. She misinterpreted my jump raise in competition as strong and went -800. I kept my temper but completely lost my mind on the last two hands. Don’t even ask what I did or what our score was.

Despite the terrible finish I came away with a good feeling from the tournament. I accomplished my major objective, made some new friends, and got to wish two Italian professionals “In boca al lupo.” We seemed to be competitive with players with far more experience than we had.

Club games are fine, but I prefer to try to expand my horizons. I think that I would like a shot at the Red Ribbon Pairs in Reno. Unfortunately, I just checked the schedule, and the event is not listed.