The Reno NABC last month was in some ways great but in many
ways a disappointment. The town and general atmosphere was kind of trashy. I
played with 3 partners over 6 days, which is more variety than I like. I had
never played with two of them before, and never played with Emory at an NABC. I
was honestly happy playing with Emory, Mike, and Jessica, but the results
weren’t as hot as they should have been.
The first two days with Jessica were pretty solid bridge
except for two major flyers each session where one or both of us just totally
screwed up a board. That led to four straight 53% games and a low overall place
in the mixed pairs. Respectable, but we both thought we had a pretty good shot
at winning. However, this event was unwinnable thanks to Jenni and Greg’s
ridiculousness. Next year.
The next two days with Emory the expectations were a good
bit lower, largely because the Silodor is noticeably stronger competition than
the mixed. However, we didn’t make day two. The theme here was me not getting
my diamond ruffs and other defensive blunders. We rebounded with a couple of
pretty good sessions in the “consolation” regional pairs.
The final two days were maybe the most disappointing as Mike
McNamara and I didn’t Q for day two of the Swiss. The theme with him was
declarer play problems that we didn’t get right. I had several tough problems
and got kind of screwed by the opponents on a few of them as it’s hard to get
tough problems right when the opponents don’t have what they should have for
their bids. As with Emory, we rebounded with a nice finish in the consolation
regional Swiss.
I expect it won’t be the last time playing with these new
partners.
