Bridge Week is finally over. The Tarheel Regional Bridge Tournament was held from May 25-31 at the North Raleigh Hilton. 22 sessions of bridge were held, plus 3 midnight knockout events. I played 19 of those sessions (but no midnights). Lance also played 19 sessions and also two of the midnight events. He’s crazier than i am.
This tournament is one of my favorite things. Not only do i get to play bridge for a week (by the way, that’s 456 hands of bridge), but i get to hang out night and day with all the bridge player friends i have. It’s just FUN. Everyone has stories about bridge hands, and there’s opportunities to go out to dinner, or have a beer at the evening hospitality. All the other bridge tournaments i go to are fun, too, but this one is mine. It’s in my backyard, and i know the people running it, and there’s always someone i know nearby who wants to chat.
Aside from the first session, i played the entire tournament with Lance. And even in that first session, Lance was on my Swiss team. He is a great partner, and an excellent player. It was a treat to get to play with him so much, particularly because we just don’t play that much together anymore. He prefers day games while the only time i can play is in the evening.
We did well – we finished 3rd in almost every event we entered. Sure, i would have liked to win something, but finishing 3rd gets your name in the daily bulletin and racks up a ton of masterpoints. This was our dance card:
- Tues at 1 pm – Swiss teams (1 session) – 3rd place
- Tues at 7 pm, Wed at 9 am & 1 pm – Bracket II knockout – 3rd place. We got knocked out in the semi-final round against the young pro team. Since we didn’t qualify for the finals, we did not play bridge Wednesday evening.
- Thurs at 9 am – Bracket I Compact knockout – didn’t place. This is the only event we didn’t place in. It would have continued Fri at 9 am, but we slept in instead.
- Thurs at 1 pm & 7 pm – Bracket I Knockout – didn’t place. We advanced to the second round, but my team sent me to draw our opponents, and i drew Meckstroth, Rodwell and the Poles. Oops.
- Fri at 1 pm & 7 pm – 2-session Open Pairs – finished 3rd. And i didn’t even play well in the first session. If only i had…
- Sat at 9 am and Sun at 9 am – Bracket I Compact Knockout – finished 3rd. I’m still not sure how we lost the semi-final round.
- Sat at 1 pm & 7 pm and Sun at 1 pm – Bracket I Knockout – finished 3rd. I was starting to get sick on Saturday, so i was happy to take Sunday evening off and nurse my cold.
- Mon at 10 am & 2 pm – A/X Swiss Teams – finished 3rd in X and 6th overall.
By the end of the tournament, i was ready for it to be over. Yes, i love bridge, but i love my normal routine, too. And my dog, who we had to board because it was just too hectic to go to the house twice a day to take care of him. (Boy was he glad to see us when we picked him up!) I seem to always get sick at these tournaments, too, undoubtedly because of all the people and other people’s germs on the cards, combined with the fact that i bite my nails so it all goes into my mouth.
We’re tired, but happy. We will get to do a mini version of this in two more weeks, when we head to Greenville, SC for the Grand National Teams competition, and try to win a free trip to the national tournament in New Orleans this summer. We’ll go regardless, but would like to represent our district in Flight A if we can.
A few things learned this week:
- Reverse Flannery is a cool convention. 1m-2H shows 5-9 points and 5 spades and 4 hearts. Very useful, and we even remembered it the two times it came up.
- Bidding is more fun at matchpoints. But defense is more fun at teams.
- Ex-husbands will sometimes spend a few minutes talking with you about the legality of bridge conventions when you play similar systems.
- People will ask the darndest questions when you’re sitting behind the partnership desk. “Where is the bathroom?” Try turning around; it’s two feet behind you. “Have you seen my cell phone?” Um, no? And you shouldn’t have it in the playing room anyway. “Where is the ice machine?” It’s a hotel, try looking in one of the hallways with rooms.
- Don’t open light in 3rd seat, even white on red, holding only 9xxxx AQ xxx Jxx. You might think they will be afraid of missing a vully game, but they might just come after you instead and get 1100.
- A free hotel room sure is nice, but is probably not worth the price: manning the partnership desk an hour before every session (me) and staying up half the night creating the daily bulletin (lance). Especially when you only live 5 minutes away.
- The tournament chair wants me to replace him, serving as a co-chair with him in 2 years and taking over after that. Honestly, i will probably be good at it.
June 1st, 2010 10:15 pm
You would mos def be good at tourny chair, unless you continue to bite your nails. and aren’t you missing “something”? I know I am.
June 1st, 2010 10:51 pm
Well, the only “something” that happened this week was bridge, bridge, bridge.