Off to meet MACRAE

[Bob78164]

I'm driving to Phoenix to play their regional. I'll arrive Monday and I'll hope that the Partnership Desk can give me a decent partner for the day. On Tuesday MACRAE and I will play the Open Pairs. I'm pretty sure this will be the first time we meet in person. The rest of the week I'll be playing with one of my regular partners, and we'll be teaming with a strong pair from Orange County so I have hope that we'll have some good results to report. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Might as well use this thread as my bridge report thread. Played the Charity Pairs this afternoon with a pick-up partner. We finished 3rd in our section for 1.75 red points. Didn't have a partner for the evening.

Tomorrow, the Open Pairs with MACRAE. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Met MACRAE today as scheduled. He was fun. We had a 43% game in the morning session, some of which we did to ourselves, some of which was done to us. We came back with 61% in the afternoon session, which had us 6th overall in Stratum B, good for 3.71 gold points and a tournament total to date of 5.46 points.

Tomorrow, the real tournament starts for me. My regular partner arrives and we'll be playing teams with a strong Orange County pair. First up, a two-session Swiss. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Got caught from behind in the last match of the Swiss when a team trailing us scored a blitz, so we finished third for 15.34 gold points, giving me a total to date for the tournament of 20.80 points. Tomorrow, the first day of what I hope will be a two-day knockout teams event. --Bob

[Bob78164]

We played the first day of our two-day knockout. In both sessions we were in a three-team round robin with two of the three teams proceeding to the next round. We won both halves of each round robin so we've made it through to the semifinals and are assured of winning at least 10 gold points.

The event pays a little more than 27 points to the winners and about 19 points to the losing finalist. The bracket really has only one other accomplished team, which is in the other semifinal, so I am cautiously optimistic that we will meet in the finals. If we fall short in the semifinals, there's a "loser Swiss" waiting for us in the afternoon. --Bob

[Bob78164]

It was much closer than I'd have liked, but our teammates came back with a big set to get us through to the finals. As expected, we'll play the other accomplished team in the bracket this afternoon. --Bob

[Bob78164]

We came back from a moderate deficit of 12 IMPs at the half to win the final, and with it, the event! That adds 27.48 gold points to my tally for the tournament, giving me a cumulative total of 48.28 so far. Tomorrow we'll try our luck in a Compact Knockout, with another "loser Swiss" awaiting us if we don't get through the first two rounds. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Survived the first two rounds of the Compact Knockouts to reach the semifinals. If we don't reach the final, we'll play a consolation match for third. --Bob

[Bob78164]

Got edged in the semifinals and again in the consolation match to finish fourth, good for 5.69 gold points and a total to date of 53.97. The tournament concludes today with the traditional last-day Swiss. Back home tomorrow. --Bob

[Bob78164]

We won the Swiss. With one round to go, we'd already clinched a tie for the event, meaning all we had to do to win the event outright was not get blitzed. We managed that, so I added 25.97 gold points to my total to finish the tournament with 79.94 points. That's the best regional I've ever had and my second-best tournament ever, second only to the Las Vegas Nationals theee years ago. --Bob

[T_Bone0806]

I know zippo about bridge, but congratulations!

[Bob78164]

I know zippo about bridge, but congratulations!

Thanks! Needless to say, our teammates were thrilled and are looking forward to our next opportunity. Winning is fun! --Bob