Bridge report

[Bob78164]

I’ve been playing in New Orleans since Wednesday. The results so far have not been at all good. After getting knocked out of the North American Pairs with a couple of below-average sessions, I managed to pick up 1.24 red points for winning a few matches in a bracket Swiss event. Those have been my only points of the tournament so far.

Tomorrow’s event will be the IMP Pairs. It’s a form of scoring that I loathe but it’s the last national event my partner and I can play until Thursday. Here’s hoping our results improve. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Partner and I played the Lebhar IMP Pairs today. For the first time ever, I’ve advanced to the second (and final) day of the event. We picked up 1.20 platinum points for our showing in the morning session, bring my tournament total to a still-paltry 2.44 points. But tomorrow is another opportunity to earn more platinum points. —Bob

[Beebs52]

Luck!

[Bob78164]

Finished the National IMP Pairs today. Partner and I had a couple of okay sessions, which proved good enough for 54th overall in the event, adding another 5.58 platinum points to my record. It could have been much better. Partner has had better days.

My cumulative total for the tournament is now up to 8.02 points. There are no national events for the next two days that partner and I can play in, so we’ll play regionally rated pair games for the next two days. Here’s hoping for better results. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Today’s regional pair game went okay, but nothing special. We finished third in our section in the morning but barely above average in the afternoon, so we didn’t reach the overalls. The morning session was good for 1.75 red points, bringing my tournament total to 9.77 points.

Another regional pair game tomorrow, and then it’s back to national events. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Partner and I finally had an unambiguously good session today, cracking 60% in the afternoon. Our morning session, though, continued our string of mediocrities so the total was only good for 24th overall. That meant 3.65 gold points and another 0.70 red points, giving me 4.35 points on the day and a tournament total of 14.12 points.

Tomorrow we play the first day of the nationally rated Silidor Open Pairs, where I’m hoping to inch closer to the 200 lifetime platinum points that will make me forever eligible to play the Platinum Pairs. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Well, I’m not sure what I was playing during the morning session but it bore only a passing resemblance to bridge. My poor play left us in the hole with a game a little south of 46%, with a little more than half the field making the cut for tomorrow’s finals. Fortunately we had a substantially better second session to squeak in a little above the cut line and pick up another 0.98 platinum points, bringing my tournament total to 15.10 points.

So tomorrow is another chance to reach the overalls of a national event and creep ever closer to the 200-platinum-point milestone. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Well, we didn’t crack the overalls but both our sessions were slightly above average. The second session was good enough to add another 1.19 platinum points to my coffers. My tournament total now stands at 16.29 points.

Tomorrow we play the national Open Swiss Teams event, which will be the final national event of the tournament, and my last chance to add to my platinum collection. —Bob

[Bob78164]

Today we scored 4 wins and a tie out of 8 matches. However, one of the losses was enormous, and margin of victory matters in this form of scoring. We ended up slightly below average and looking up (just a bit) at the cut line, so the 2.39 platinum points we picked up in match awards will be my last platinum points of the tournament. My tournament total is now 17.39 points.

One of our teammates hasn’t decided whether he wants to play a regionally rated side game, so it’s not clear whether my final event of the tournament will be a Swiss teams event or a Fast Pairs. Either way, it’s been a vacation I very badly needed, even if the bridge results haven’t been what I’d hoped for. —Bob