My wake up call.
Maurice and I put in a wake up call for 8.30 am before we went to bed last night. We slept well so when the phone rang this morning I assumed it was our wake up call. But no, it was Leo, our team-mate “Where are you, it is 10 am game time and you are in the first round!”
We rush down to the playing room, not knowing which table or opponents we were supposed to play against, I sat down in the only open seat and pick up my hand.
Board 10. Dealer West. Both Vul. ♠ 9854 ♥ A98 ♦ AJ62 ♣ A2
The auction.
1NT-14-16. 2♦ – Transfer to hearts. 2♠ – nobody steals from me.
The lead was the ♦ 10.
Maurice put down a perfect dummy with ♠ J762 ♥ Q102 ♦ 754 ♣ 763
The deal.
-1100 later, I got my wake up call. Note to self-The water is not so warm in Toronto.
The very next board.
Board 11. Dealer South. None Vul.
I picked up : ♠ Q3 ♥ QJ6 ♦ AKQ65 ♣ Q75
The auction.
I didn’t come all the way here to pass, so I bid 3NT.
LHO led the ♣ 3.
Dummy came down with ♠ AJ762 ♥ 7543 ♦ J10 ♣ 42
I played low, RHO cashed two top clubs, I followed twice while LHO discarded a high diamond on the second club, switched to the nine of hearts. I played the Queen, LHO won, then went into the tank, trying the sominex coup.
What seems like hours later the ♦ 2 came back. I won the jack and run five diamond winners. LHO was caught in the major suits squeeze.
Made 9 tricks for +400. Won 10 imps, they played in 3♦ in the other room.
A little unlucky that we lost the match on that wake up call!
So far Nader Hanna is doing a great job with hospitality. Breakfast in the morning, chicken wings and pizza in the evening with a free bar.
Photos of the players are posted my blog site.
Hi Mike:
Cute tale out of school (or tournament)!
I recently heard something reminiscent of yours but in recounting it to me was asked not to mention any names. They did, in time, become among the best U. S. players. Playing for the first time, they agreed to get their feet wet at a local duplicate club. One was twenty minutes late. The concerned player went to the pay phone (there were no cell phones in those days) to check on his missing partner who picked up the phone and apologized, saying, “I will be right down.” Would you believe he actually lived in the same building where the club was renting space? Lame excuse!
Mike,
Check if the opponents didn’t pay the hotel staff to forget about the wake-up call. 😉
Wish you better luck in the coming matches.
Good one Judy.
Will check it out 🙂 Thanks Zoran.