Back Into the Fray

For the first time in a long time I played in a regional and one that was away from home at that.  I headed off for two and a half days in Montreal to play with Sylvia.  Let me start by giving my impressions of the tournament, fresh eyes and all that.

First it was big.  It seemed to fill a lot of big ballrooms.  A few of us started to wonder were tournaments bigger twenty years ago.  I don’t think so.  Montreal runs three sessions a day (no midnight games that I saw though) at 9:30AM 3PM and 7:30PM.  As a result you can play in more than one event a day.  There is also events that run across the 7:30 sessions for people who are working.  Lots of different events mean lots of choice but it does also mean smaller fields.  Free coffee was great along with a bit of fruit in the morning.  Maybe it is asking too much but it would be nice if there was a bit of entertainment and some more food – even food you could buy.  One inexpensive suggestion would be to have one central place where the top places in each event are posted.  With no newsletter, nothing online and score sheets posted in many rooms I have no idea who was playing or who was winning.  Prizes for section tops (or winning an event) would by nice too.  Okay I will stop complaining (I mean suggesting).  In the end I play bridge for the camaraderie (there was lots of that) and the joy of playing.

The Women’s Swiss I played in had 23 teams which seemed small for a regional Swiss but then again I don’t even remember ever playing in a Women’s Swiss before.   Sylvia and I played with Sharyn Reus and Helen Keri who I met at the game.  Helen is pictured below surrounded by guys.

Drew Cannell, Helen Keri-Cannell, Bob McPhee, Jay Whipple at a previous tournament (courtesy Jonathan Steinberg)

Sylvia and I also had a huge matchpoint session the next day in the first set of the pairs, so maybe I am learning to play matchpoints after all.

The evening didn’t go so well.  It all started out on the first board when our opponent dropped Sylvia’s stiff king offside and played the entire hand as if he knew where all the cards were seemingly without thought.  Sylvia asked him at the end (in a nice way) if he had seen her hand.  We were both pretty sure he had.  Thanks for the games everyone and especially Sylvia.  I wish I could remember some hands to tell you but I will say that I made a lot of tricks risking my contract (gulp) in the matchpoint games.