VERO BEACH, Fla - While on a weekend visit to Central Florida, my partner Christine Matus and I wanted to check out what is supposed to be one of the top five, eight or nine bridge clubs in the country, the Vero Beach Bridge Club. We were initially told that on Sunday, the day we had available to … [Read more...]
Aggressive interference kept opponents out of game
June 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
KING OF PRUSSIA, PA - I couldn't play as much as I had wanted at the annual Valley Forge Regional duplicate bridge tournament this year (2013) because of previously scheduled travel and a family visit, but I was on a team that did earn a couple of red MasterPoints for winning one match and getting … [Read more...]
An unusual Grand Slam: Down 6 doubled, but a great bid
March 29, 2013 By 4 Comments
Grand Slam bids are pretty rare in bridge. Bidding a Grand Slam with only 1 high-card point in your hand is even rarer -- and few if any bridge players would even dream of doing such a thing. But yours truly, otherwise known as the "bridge burglar," did exactly that on Thursday night in a Swiss … [Read more...]
Optimists don’t fare well in Reston
March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
RESTON, Va - I should have known better than to try and squeeze in a late-night bridge game after the annual visit to my tax accountant, which is always a pretty exhausting exercise. But since I still use the same accountant who has served me well since the days I lived in the DC area in the ‘80s … [Read more...]
Stealing bids, parking spaces at the Black-Eyed Susan
March 24, 2013 By 3 Comments
PIKESVILLE, MD - The Black-Eyed Susan Spring Sectional duplicate bridge tournament this past weekend (March 22-24, 2013) in the Baltimore, Maryland, suburb of Pikesville turned out to be dangerous place for bridge burglars like me – but not necessarily at the bridge table. First of all, it was … [Read more...]
Mining gold in coal country
March 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
WILKES-BARRE, PA - In between work assignments at the end of one week in northern Pennsylvania and in Washington, DC, at the beginning of the next, I decided to drop in for the final days of the Wilkes-Barre, PA, Winter Regional duplicate bridge tournament (March 8-10, 2013) that annually attracts … [Read more...]
Lost in San Diego, but stolen bid saved the day
March 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
SAN DIEGO - Local bridge clubs want to keep the rent low to keep card fees low and they’re often located in out-of-the-way places, making them hard to find for strangers. So my partner Christine Matus and I got horribly lost this weekend (3/1/2013 to 3/3/2013) trying to find San Diego’s Adventures … [Read more...]
Could have made slam, but didn’t even make 3 diamonds
March 4, 2013 By 1 Comment
WEST CHESTER, PA - Although we had a decent 54% game, my partner Christine Matus and I had our string of victories (or ties for tops) broken this week at the Monday night (2-15-2013) game at Hershey’s Mill, a nice game with a lot of nice people that we want to continue to support – it’s a $5 game … [Read more...]
Stealing a win at the Blue Hen Sectional
February 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment
WILMINGTON, DE - My partner Christine Matus and I seem to do best in bridge tournaments when we go some place where nobody knows us and we can fly under the radar. That wasn’t possible this past Saturday (2-23) at the Bridge Studio of Delaware’s Blue Hen Sectional when we both got mini-McKinney … [Read more...]
Fun bridge, but tough sledding in Ohio
February 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment
CANTON, Ohio - To go all the way into snowy Ohio in the middle of the winter for three bridge games in two days may seem like a long way to go for a small harvest of just .41 MasterPoints, but that’s exactly what my partner Christine Matus and I did this past weekend. Well, it wasn’t quite that … [Read more...]