I am currently on my 5th bridge episode. The earlier episodes were brought to an end by moving to a different city or country. I have played bridge in England, France, Germany, Belgium and now New Zealand.
\n
I have been playing in Auckland since early 2011. Until around Easter 2016, I was just a now and then club player with a range of partners and the occasional success. More recently, I have found myself in a position to play in a number of tournaments as well as in club events and my success in tournaments means that I find it easier to get partners to play in more tournaments.
\n
My tournament results are improving and I am bringing home a steady supply of bottles of wine and small cash prizes. My biggest win up to the end of 2017 was in November when I was carried to first place in an 8B open pairs tournament by Stanley Abrahams - a regular contributor on Bridgewinners. That success led to a news report on the New Zealand Bridge website which described me as a rising star - I will try not to let that go to my head but I will be happy if it helps me in my partnership quest.
\n
Since then, I have won the 2018 edition of the Cambridge sixes and qualified for the 2018 interprovincial championships where I represented Auckland/Northland at seniors level. With my partner Peter Hensman and illustrious team mates Barry Palmer and Nigel Stuckey, we went on to win the seniors event. I have also picked up cash prizes for decent finishes at 5A pairs events and managed a couple of top five places in side events at the NZ national bridge congress. I rounded off my 2018 year with a third place at the Huntley Christmas pairs which included a prize of a rather nice cured ham for Christmas eating.
\n
January 2018\n
Read more »
The last two months of the year were good for beer cards.
I won trick one in a NT contract with the beer card and then won a more normal 13th trick beer card and then came this:
♠K987643 ♥AKJ96 ♦7 ♣-
Partner opened 1♣ and then supported my ♠ while opps competed in ♦. I bid 6♠ when pard could do nothing over my ♦ cue bid.
The lead was a ♥ away from the Q and that gave me the contract.
I then just cashed my 12 major card winners. I considered claiming and giving up a diamond at the end but it was the beer card.
Opps could, and should have signalled length in the minors but they didn't and my beer card was the 13th trick and my overtrick. Dummy had started with the ♦K6 and by trick 13 all that was left in dummy was the Q♣.
Can there be a better beer card than one that starts out singleton?
