Bridge report

[Bob78164]

I’m in Atlanta for the Fall North American Bridge Championships. I decided to splurge this year and hire a professional as my partner. Today was the first day of the Nail Life Master Pairs. We had a pair of above-average sessions to qualify quite comfortably in 32nd position among 104 qualifiers for the second day. Along the way, we picked up 3.00 platinum points.

Tomorrow will be the finals of the event. My goal for the tournament is to collect the forty-some platinum points I need to earn lifetime eligibility for the Platinum Pairs event. My reach goal is to win a national event, which would make me eligible for Grand Life Master status (ACBL’s highest rank) when I run my lifetime total above 10,000 master points.

The adventure has begun! Let’s see what happens. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Two sessions, both barely above average, left us one tiny little matchpoint out of the overall awards. Neither session was good enough for a session award, so I remain stuck on 3.00 platinum points for the tournament. Today’s event is the first day of the Open Board-a-Match teams event. —Bob

[Bob78164]

We had ourselves a day today. With 13 as average for each session, we scored 16 points in the morning (good for 2nd through 5th in the section and 5.08 platinum points), followed by 16.5 points in the afternoon (good for 1st in the section and another 8.46 platinum points). We’re entering the finals in second place, half a point behind the leaders.

Total for the day is 13.54 platinum points, making my tournament total 16.54 platinum points. Tomorrow is the final of the Board-a-Match teams event. Let’s hope we can bring it home. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Two lousy sessions left us well out of the overalls, with no additional master points. Today’s event is the first day of the Blue Ribbon Pairs. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Our morning session was a bit below average. Our afternoon session was a bit above average, good for 0.93 platinum points. Unfortunately, the combined total was just short of what we needed to qualify for the semifinals, so we’re out of the event. Tomorrow we’ll play a regional pairs game.

Cumulative total for the tournament is now 17.47 points. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Wednesday’s game featured a pair of mediocre sessions. Each was good enough to earn a small masterpoint award, but the two together weren’t good enough to get us into the overalls. I held off reporting on the game because there was a discrepancy in the printouts. It’s now been rectified, so I can state with confidence that I picked up 2.22 red points, bringing my tournament total to 19.69 points.

Today went a little better. We were again right around average in the morning session. However, the gifts started flowing in during the afternoon session. Add a fair amount of magic worked by partner and we finally had a respectable game that was good enough, barely, to catapult us into the overalls for the event. That added another 4.01 gold points to my ledger, for a new tournament total of 23.70.

The three-day North American Swiss Teams event starts tomorrow. It’s my last opportunity to win platinum points at this tournament, and to reach my goal of lifetime eligibility for the Platinum Pairs we’ll have to survive until the third day of the event and finish no worse than 29th. In an exciting development, Claude Vogel and George Jacobs asked to join our team. (Teams can have between 4 and 6 players.) They are a regular partnership. Between them they have won an even dozen North American championships. I considered the request an enormous compliment. We accepted with alacrity. —Bob

[Bob78164]

We were in a comfortable position going into the last match of the qualifying session. All we needed to do was avoid being blown out. So of course, helped along by a slam that needed (and got) a miracle lie of the cards, we got blown out in our last match. Fortunately, we collected just enough Victory Points to edge in front of the cut line, so we will be in the semifinals tomorrow.

There are 40 teams in the semifinals and exactly half of us will make the finals. That means that if we climb into the top half of tomorrow’s field, I’ll achieve my goal for the tournament. Otherwise, I won’t.

We won two of the five matches that I played and drew a third, so I picked up another 1.33 platinum points. My total for the tournament is now 25.03 points. —Bob

[Bob78164]

A win or a tie in our last match would have gotten us into the finals. Instead, though, we lost by 10 IMPs, leaving us on the outside looking in. We won two of the four matches I played, so I add another 1.06 platinum points for the tournament. I have no further opportunities to win platinum at this tournament, so I’ve fallen short of my goal.

My tournament total is now 26.09 points. The last day of the tournament will see me playing either Fast Pairs or a regional Swiss reams event, depending on whether partner can find reasonable teammates. —Bob

[Bob78164]

We had a below-average session to start the final event. It was salvaged from being an absolutely miserable first session by a very good last round. Our second session, however, was quite solid, and proved to be just good enough to earn us the last overall spot. I picked up 3.00 gold points for the event, giving me a final tournament total of 29.09 points.

Heading home tomorrow. —Bob

[Bob78164]

We had a below-average session to start the final event. It was salvaged from being an absolutely miserable first session by a very good last round. Our second session, however, was quite solid, and proved to be just good enough to earn us the last overall spot. I picked up 3.00 gold points for the event, giving me a final tournament total of 29.09 points.

Heading home tomorrow. —Bob

A score correction knocked us out of the overalls in the last event. Also some kind of error in the program used to calculate and display these things meant that our section top for the final session was only worth 2.63 gold points, so my final tournament total was 28.72 points. --Bob

[jarnon]

We had a below-average session to start the final event. It was salvaged from being an absolutely miserable first session by a very good last round. Our second session, however, was quite solid, and proved to be just good enough to earn us the last overall spot. I picked up 3.00 gold points for the event, giving me a final tournament total of 29.09 points.

Heading home tomorrow. —Bob

A score correction knocked us out of the overalls in the last event. Also some kind of error in the program used to calculate and display these things meant that our section top for the final session was only worth 2.67 gold points, so my final tournament total was 28.76 points. --Bob

Demand a hand recount. Stop the steal!