Sue and I had spent the holidays in the Caribbean on Larry Cohen’s Holiday Bridge Cruise. We returned to New England in time for us to attend the last two days of the Individual Regional in Newton, but we spent most of Saturday regaining our land legs and doing laundry. Sue also opted not to play on Sunday, but I had arranged to play with Ginny Iannini in the open pairs.

The weather forecast for Saturday evening was pretty dicey, but the one for Sunday sounded pretty good, at least for January. The dreaded wintry mix was expected to start late on Saturday afternoon, but it was supposed to change over to rain at some point during the night. The projected temperature for Sunday was a balmy fifty degrees. I am not a timid driver, but it was still a little disconcerting to see this message in my Inbox on Saturday evening:

Snowing here. FYI

Ginny

On Sunday morning I left about fifteen minutes earlier than I ordinarily would have. As soon as my car pulled out of the garage, sleet pelted it. The untreated roads in Enfield were indeed rather slippery, but when I reached the highway everything seemed fine. It was raining, and the roads were just wet. The drive into Newton was completely uneventful. Almost everyone ignored the electronic signs that said that the conditions were slippery and that the speed limit was 40 mph. I drove the regular speed limit, and plenty of cars zoomed past me.

I stopped to get a large coffee and a breakfast sandwich at McDonald’s, and, even so, I arrived at the Marriott in Newton at about 9:20. I walked down to the playing area, located a copy of the Daily Bulletin, and seated myself where I could see both the hotel’s elevators and the front door. I scanned the list of winners from the day before so that I could take photos. Soon Ginny and Sarah Widhu emerged from the elevator.

Sarah surprised me with the news that she had already managed to take photos of nearly all the winners from Friday and Saturday. What a marvel she is! All of those photos are now posted in the Winners Board section of the website. In contrast, I brought my camera on Sunday, but I was only capable of hunting down one pair of winners, Jane Adams and Lisa Procter, who prevailed in the morning session of the open pairs.

When Ginny and I reached the playing area I hid my camera beneath some chairs. This is my excuse for not failing to snap any photos of the hot and heavy bridge action.

The only memorable hand that Ginny and I played in the morning was against David and Marguerite Levin, whom I had met on the cruise. David bid 1NT out of turn, and I summoned Tim Hill, the director. He explained Ginny’s options to her, and she decided to accept the bid. A couple of minutes later David was claiming the twelfth trick in a 6NT contract. I opined afterwards that it was almost never better to accept the bid because unless the bid is accepted, the bidder’s partner is banned from the bidding. I have twice seen someone guess to bid a makeable 3NT in this situation. In this case, however, I doubt that David would have been able to intuit that Marguerite’s hand was every bit as good as his powerhouse. I have never seen anyone open 6NT with 17 points.

We experienced a few small problems, but Ginny and I seemed to communicate fairly well. We scored only 51.37 percent, but that was better than eight of the other ten East-West teams in Section I. By contrast, all but one of the North-South teams finished above 50 percent. No East-West teams placed in the overalls, but four North-South teams did.

The line at the lunch counter upstairs was long, but a hotel employee beckoned some of us to come down to the 299er area where the service was much swifter. When we had obtained our sandwiches, Ginny surprised me with the question, “How do you feel about siting on the floor?” When I affirmed that I was quite comfortable on the floor, she directed us towards some windows upstairs, near which, in fact, some comfortable chairs were available. Unfortunately I had left my Diet Coke downstairs so I had to traverse the stairway a second time. Ginny and I ignored our first round performance and instead discussed Life, the Universe, and Everything.

In the afternoon session we started with Bob Bertoni and Peter Manzon, the same pair that we had faced at the first table in the morning. Bob is recovering from surgery on one of his legs. He told us that at one point his consumption of pain pills rivaled Rush Limbaugh’s. He is better now, but it still bothers him. Bob is the guy who set up the current version of the NEBridge website and many others. He also is the guy that my agent had to harangue for months to finalize my current contract as webmaster.

We were doing pretty well in the afternoon session until the very last hand against Tim Pettus and Tom Greehan, one that will stick in my craw for a long time.

 

I was sitting East, which put me on lead. I deduced from the bidding that Ginny was holding at least five hearts. Rather than risk giving away a trick in a black suit, I chose the ♥8. Ginny inserted the Jack, and Tim played the Ace. Before reading Winning Notrump Leads by David Bird and Taf Anthias, I would never have considered this lead, which allowed Tim to score ten tricks, a total matched at only two other tables. One thing that I had gleaned from the book was that it sometimes is better to try to hit your partner’s suit than to try to set up your own.

I recently retrieved that volume from my bookshelf to find out how accurate my memory was. I discovered on p. 128 this nugget in the authors’ analysis of a similar hand, “… reminding us that you have to know what you’re doing when you lead a singleton at notrump.” On that hand I obviously did not. I learned a valuable lesson: a big problem with leading a singleton in your partner’s suit is that you can only do it once.

Unfortunately my opinion at the time was that Ginny had made bad discards as Tim reeled off his diamond tricks, and I expressed it somewhat bluntly. I then ran off to take photos (actually, as it turned out, photo) and forgot even to say goodbye to Ginny. Fortunately I have found a partner who, at least for the nonce, seems to put up with my occasionally boorish behavior.

The drive back was as uneventful as the morning trip despite the fact that the “40 mph” signs were still in evidence. I was shocked to see a blanket of snow on our yard in Enfield. I had encountered nothing but water and a little slush until I crossed back into the Land of Steady Habits.

The tournament in Newton was fun, but the effort to promote the individual events continues to be difficult. It was obvious on Sunday that far more people were playing in the open pairs for red points than in the individual for gold. I do not know what can be done to reverse this or even whether it is worth trying.