Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Were they fixed?

On travel, in a new city, I decided to catch a bridge game at the local  club.  I emailed the owner of the club ahead of time asking if he could find me a partner.  "Come and you will play," he told me.

Translation: a partner is guaranteed, but not the skill level of the partner. When you email a bridge club in a new city, tell them you are visiting on business and ask them to find you a partner, you will get one of three responses:  (1) The director/owner will lean on one of their better players to show up, or will play with you themselves  (2) They will tell you to show up and match you up with whoever is available (3) You will get a reply 3 days after the date of your visit apologizing for not seeing your email on time.  The Manhattan Bridge Club, the Galway Bridge Club (and the Norman one) are in the first category. This club, apparently, was the second category. Not great, but not terrible either.

Pickup partners are always a crapshoot. The one I got was pleasant and likeable, but he didn't hold any bones about playing the game well.  Indeed, the only reason he was at the bridge spot was because his girlfriend was taking a class and he was going to have to wait for her anyway.  He underled his aces, didn't lead the suits I bid, ruffed my winners, miscounted trumps, bid 2C over my 1D opening with a 2-card club suit, cashed his stoppers in the opponents' suit in NT contracts, gave up a spade trick holding AKx in hand and Q singleton in dummy ... you get the idea.  I mentally shrugged my shoulders and just smiled. After all, he was doing me a favor by playing.

The nicest hand of the evening was one where the bidding went:
Pard
Me
1
1
2
3
3NT
6NT
The cards that we held are not all that interesting. Everyone was in 6NT on the hand (I had 20 points and 6 semi-solid spades) and everyone got the same lead.  The reason the hand was nice was I don't think partner had ever played a small slam before. So, imagine his surprise when he played out the hand laboriously and found that he had taken all 13 tricks (the lead was a free finesse).  By that time, his girlfriend's class had finished and she was kibbitzing. He looked back at her with manifest pride -- it felt really, really good and nearly made up for everything else.

Still, some clubs just have a mean vibe running through them and the XYZ club has it in spades. Obviously, my partner was known to not be a strong player, and so, the opponents wanted to get 3 good boards off us.  We got smirks, eye rolls and snorts.

The worst behavior exhibited by an opponent was after I bid 4H on this board and made the contract. East remarked "boy, if that is not a fix, I don't know what is"  Really, you can wait until we leave the table before bitching about being "fixed".

And moreover, is this really a fix?  Judge for yourself whether or not I have the necessary inferences to bid 4H and play it to make this. Where is the fix?  I was South (hand rotated):
.
Board: 16
Vul: N-S
Dlr: North
N
Pard
x
A10xx
AJ109xx
Ax
.
W
West
Jxxx
xx
KQxx xxx
Lead: K
E
Fixed?
Axx
KJx
Kxxx
Jxx
.
S
Me
KQ10xx
Q9xx
Qxx
x
.
The bidding went:
W
West
N
North
E
East
S
Me
1
Pass
1
31
3
4
4
All Pass
(1) weak

After East's pass and West's preempt, I know partner has a huge hand. I was willing to play in 5-2 spades or 4-3 hearts (it's matchpoints after all), and if doubled, I could remove to 5D.  Instead, dummy came down with the best of all worlds: 4 hearts.

I got the lead of the king of clubs.  So, West was marked with the queen also and probably not much else.  Consequently, I took the Ace of clubs, ruffed a club, led a heart to the ace and a small heart from dummy. East went up with the King and played the Jack of hearts. I won with the queen and took the losing diamond finesse to East. He could take his Ace of spades and I had the rest.

That was when we were told that we had "fixed" them. Very annoying and not the way that weaker players (my partner) or visitors (me) ought to be welcomed. It is just a game after all.  Ugly.

P.S. We ended up with a 52% game for 0.31 masterpoints. I will take scratching as a moral victory.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting blog. I echo your thoughts on getting pickup partners at clubs. I do like to play bridge when I'm traveling and really appreciate the club managers who fall into the first category. They assume, with some foundation I think, that if someone is traveling on their own and they want to play bridge, they are probably a decent player. At the very least a serious student of the game.

    The last time I did this, I showed up after calling ahead and was matched up with a player. Then the manager asked me how many points I had (I'm close to being a gold life master but didn't think this would have much of a reaction). Whoa! We'd better put you with so-and-so, the club "pro". I appreciated that, even though the pro, by his own admission, didn't play up to his usual standard. But we had a very enjoyable game.

    I looked up the hand you "fixed" them with and note that you used a little journalistic license. I think your bidding was not only normal but close to being automatic, so I have no idea why they would say they were fixed. In any case, I never mention being fixed in the presence of the fixers. Apart from being rude, it would be totally pointless.

    Meanwhile, that club does its best to accommodate both experienced and newer players to the game and does a good job. But there are aspects that could be improved and finding good partners for visitors may well be one of them. I was very likely free that evening and would have been happy to come and play with you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Robin. I like your blog as well (have been reading it for a while ...). I meant to anonymize the post, but I see now that there is a reference to people that people who know the club will recognize ... I've fixed it now to make it less obvious.

      I'm impressed that you looked up the hand! It is not accurate; I was reconstructing the hand as I remembered it after I played it.

      Delete