Once more with feeling

The big bridge finish to our Las Vegas trip was our "favorite" NABC+ event - the national fast pairs. By favorite, we lose faster than usual by more than usual (yes, we did use the same joke last year). It's also the only NABC+ event we had played in before Vegas (and still the only one Lovey has played in).

Fast pairs, for the uninitiated, is bridge at the (honestly rather moderate) pace of 11 minutes per two boards, as compared to the usual 15 or 16 minutes. It's a different game, to be sure, but unless you're up against a lot of tough decisions at once the time limit doesn't come up as often as you think. It also is just a lot more fun, for us.

Lovey and I got off to an...inauspicious start by noticing that our first set (with four boards to go) had come to a 36.x%. There were a lot of wild hands (7/26 contracts were at the 5 level or higher at our table), and most of them didn't seem to work out for us. However the most fun one did work out well:

Partner (Jon) opens 1S, righty overcalls 2C and you're holding:

AQxx AQxxxxx void xx

Go! Lovey's choice, not a common one from what we can tell, was 5D - exclusion blackwood. Jon showed two keycards outside diamonds, so Lovey bid 6H, which in our methods (should have) asked for the king of hearts to bid 7S. Jon forgot that agreement, bid 6S, which was luckily doubled by the non-overcaller. Jon's hand:

KJ9xx KTxx xx Ax

A light 1S opener to be sure, but 7 is cold on a non-heart lead. The doubler had a void in hearts (of course), and at our table, lefty declined to lead one holding,

Tx Jx AQx KJTxxx

probably because we had never mentioned our 11 card heart fit and he hadn't doubled 6H. As it turns out, 7H is cold, but +1310 got us 20.5/25 matchpoints.

The last four boards of the set were very good to us (bid and made an unmakeable 4H, they stayed out of an easy game), and we actually came out with a 43% in the first qualifying session. We certainly didn't expect to qualify but that kept us at least somewhat in the running.

In the second qualifying session, less crazy stuff happened but this played to our advantage. We took our gifts and cut down on wild mistakes, and to our surprise, we had an almost 56% and had qualified for the second day.

When we looked at the bulletin on Friday morning, we noticed that we had qualified dead last and had a 0 carryover. We were in the good company our friends in the mixed BAM, who had also just qualified under an arcane tie-break criteria: Argenta, Eric/Bob, Belinda and Pines. With nothing to lose, we were excited to have a good time playing against some great players.

Our first session didn't go great - 37%, with just 8/26 boards above average. No bottoms, but plenty of bad results. Our best scores came when we bid and made a lucky slam, and when Lovey made a great save on this auction (not vul against vul):

Opp-Jon-Opp-AFL
1S-3H-4H-5H
6S-P-P-7H
x-All pass

Lovey's hand:
Qx J8x JT9876x x

Jon's hand:
Jx KQTxxx Qx JTx

6S and even 7S were cold and while 7Hx could be set 7, it was only set six because the defense didn't lead trump quite enough and Jon was allowed to ruff a couple clubs. Sometimes down 6 is good bridge. 62.5/77 matchpoints for a -1400!

Going into the last session, we were still complete-total-dead last with carryover. We wanted to go out and have a fun last set and we were rewarded with colorful hands and even a decent score.

We came out strong on our first two boards. On the first board (7) Jon held:

void x AKQJxxx AQ8xx

Righty opened 1H and Jon gambled on 5NT, to put them to a guess. Partner bid 6C, and lefty pulled out to 6H, which Jon doubled and opps went for 800. 6C is down on best defense but may also have made, depending on the lead. The field wasn't doing better than game so this was an absolute top (77/77). On the second board, we competed to good 4D contract, making exactly (4 minor is always right!), for a 60.5/77.

The session had been going well when, for the second year in a row, we sort-of-fixed (or at least, did unreasonably well against) junior-pro-dude Gavin Wolpert. On our first board against him, vul against not, Lovey opened 1S, Gavin doubled, and Jon bid 3S with:

KQxxx x xxxx xxx

4S is probably a better bid, but when Lovey passed, Gavin bid 4H. Lovey bid 4S over 4H, and Gavin's partner doubled for penalty. My heart stiff across from Lovey's diamond void meant that 4S was actually making +1 on any normal play. Gavin commented mid-hand: "Um, partner, 20 of our points just turned into one trick." 72/77.

Obviously it wasn't all roses, and we got schooled or misdefended on a few hands. For the most part, we made our standard matchpoint mistakes: bad decisions at the 3 level, bad leads, and not enough aversion to overtricks on defense. However, the session came out to a 51%, and we felt very proud to have posted anything above average in the last day of an open national pairs event. Even one as random as the fast pairs.

Since the fast pairs, we've been spending some quality time on the strip with Davenport, non-bridge friends: Mike Davis and Will Derry, as well as Dan Recht. As we write, we are currently waiting for our delayed flight back from Vegas. Getting out during the eastern thunderstorms has been a bit of a train wreck. On the plus side, the extra time allowed us to win some more money at craps and blackjack, which went straight to a $10 rollercoaster and an expensive dinner at the Wynn.

What can we say, Vegas was pretty sweet. But we think Boston will be pretty fun too.