Not a Pleasant Surprise: Julianne's Story Part II

 Dee and I slept in and met our partners from Kalamazoo at 1 for our second go round in the knockout competition.

There were so few teams in the knockouts night that there ended up being only three sessions to determine winners.  Hence no play, no money for the coffers for night.

So someone/s decided there was a better way to run the knockouts.  They put everyone in one field.  Needless to say, we knew no handicap was going to make a difference.  The lowest team had an average point count of 390; the 5 highest teams (all with 6 players) averaged over 11,000+ points, with one team over 13,000.

We knew after the first 6 boards we were playing with one of the 11,000+ teams.  Our opponents were pleasant so it wasn't as bad as it might have been.  Yes, we were knocked out in that first round.

We talked to the director (such a nice guy) about the ridiculousness of one bracket.  He apologized and admitted he was sorry and that he realized most of us were just fodder (my word).

After that experience we did what any sensible pair would do.  We went to the bar and had some wine and got over it.

We returned to play in an abbreviated Swiss game last night.  We ended up tying the overall winners in one match and winning the other 3, coming in second in B.  One of the great aspects of bridge is that even if u do terrible in an event, there is always another opportunity to do better just a few hours later.

We had a great time with Karen Allen and Don Power from Kalamazoo.  They were the best pair to play with.  They r better players than Dee and me, but they came back to the table every time and brushed off the bad bids/play and encouraged us to move on to the next match with a positive attitude.

We had a great time.  Leaving today but heading over to Somerset Mall for some retail therapy.

Julianne