Rosenblum Adventures

So, I don't think anyone on our 6 person junior team playing for free and for fun thought we had any significant chance of qualifying for the knockout stage of the Rosenblum. I think I was the most optimistic, but that kind of changed after day 1 of the group stage when we were last in our group of 9 with 26 victory points on a 45 average. Today was a much better day - we probably wouldn't have thought it would be since we were playing the #1 and 2 seeds in our group of 9 and had a bye for the third match. As it turns out, we are still last in our group, but we are now at 81 VPs on a 90 average after a small win over the #2 seed and a big 28 imps win over the top seed, the Zambonini team from Poland. That 16 board match was the slowest bridge I have ever been involved in. With no breaks, we played the first 14 boards in 131 minutes, then the directors started hovering and the last 2 finished in another 10 minutes. Needless to say, it wasn't Sean and I that were slow - we were slower than our usual 5 min/board pace but nowhere near the 9.4 min/board pace the table was at.

That was perhaps one of the most fun sets of bridge I have played, but it started poorly. They made 4HX on board 2, which I think can be defeated but I'm still not sure. I'll have to look at a hand record later. Lose 11 to 170 at the other table. Board 3 our teammates failed to get to a good grand slam for another lose 11. On board 4, we had a system failure that caused us to sell out to 2C making instead of competing to 2S, which also makes. From there it was 56-2 in favor of us. I'll look at the hands more closely later, but I think this world class Polish pair kind of self-destructed, having some difficulty handling our canape system.

One auction that I am kind of amused by is when I opened 2C showing 11-16 either with 6+ clubs or 4 clubs and a 5 card major. LHO bid 4D and my rho held Qxxx, QJxxxxx, x, x, and elected to pass. They went down, losing 3 diamonds and the ace of clubs, when 5S is cold, but should 4D be leaping michaels there? Sean's screen-mate (the 4D bidder) thought it was 90% leaping michaels and my screenmate gave no explanation. I guess I am on the side that thinks it is leaping michaels, but looking at rho's hand, it sure seems like he may just have a reasonably big hand with long diamonds, and clearly this hand is worth virtually nothing in a diamond contract.

Anyway, with 3 matches left, against the #3, 5, and 8 seeds in our bracket, including the French under 26-team, we are only 26 VPs behind first and should have a decent chance to maybe Q to the round of 64, but this bracket is really bunched up as in most brackets the spread between first and last is between 60 and 70 VPs.

Last Minute Planning for Philly

I had been toying with the idea of going to Philadelphia for awhile. At first I didn't think I would have adequate vacation time after the 10 day trip to the summer nabc in New Orleans but I guess I always wanted to go for a few days. And Philly is actually one of the cities where I think I might actually want to do touristy things. So, when attempts to get someone to play the mixed pairs with me the first 3 days of the tournament, I kind of gave up until early this week I started thinking that it's kind of silly for me to not go. A bridge event this big doesn't come so close - a mere 2 hour plane ride away - very often.

So, I entertained the idea of playing in the junior individual the last 3 days of the tournament but I kind of realized that my main motivation for wanting to play in that is to prove to other American juniors, most of whom I don't even like, that I'm every bit good enough to be on one of the USA teams again. But what can I say? When they had the trials for this, I didn't even want to play. I take pride in not caring much about getting major recognition for bridge, for keeping bridge as a fun social activity rather than the meaning of my existence so I'm glad I won't be going to play in that random event. I used to think individual games were great - almost non-existent in the bridge world today but it sure forces people to know what standard bridge is, to follow the same bidding and carding system and therefore might be the best indicator of who the best pure player is, without the little nuances that you learn from having an established partnership. But now, I really don't think an individual game would be much fun, except maybe at a club Christmas party or something like that. But playing with a partner I like at the table and away from the table is fun.

Anyway, I then made some attempt to get a partner for the imp pairs the 2nd week of the tournament but those thoughts didn't last long when I realized there's no junior discount for that and any partner I played with wouldn't be a junior. Then last Thursday night, Sean decided he wanted to go and could get away from school, and we actually got a decent-looking junior team, and teams of all juniors play free in the Open Teams (Rosenblum Cup), so here I am getting set to play tomorrow with Sean, Daniel Lavee and Samantha Nystrom from Canada, and Kaura Ginnan and Max Henbest from Australia.