A Day at the Reisinger
Prologue
The 1998 Fall North American Bridge Council Nationals were held in Orlando, Florida. Orlando is a three hour drive from my home, so I wanted to attend. From the schedule, it was clear that another National would not be held in the state of Florida for at least three years; if even that early. I had played a little during the first weekend, advancing to the third round of a knockout event. I was playing with a partner that I had just met, as my only regular partner, Marty Lavine, now lived in Chicago. Mirtha (from Geneva) was a lovely lady, but it was clear that we viewed the game differently. We both did our best, but neither played as well as we would have with a partner who played our style.
Marty would be coming into Orlando for the
second week of Nationals. Of course, that week was Thanksgiving
week, so I would be leaving Orlando the day before he arrived.
Marty had been my bridge mentor, and he and I had developed a
fairly specialized system we play with each other, so it would
be a shame if we weren't able to play together. Marty's plane
tickets had him returning the next Saturday, so the most we could
play together would be one day if I were to retrun the Friday.
I was able to persuade my wife to be understanding if I went
back to Orlando the day after Thanksgiving, promising to return
on Saturday. This was no mean feat, given the amount of time
our two young daughters require in addition to her work.
Marty and I spoke on Tuesday as to which event we would enter on Friday. Available events were Open Pairs (a one day event), the North American Swiss Championships (a three day event) and the Reisinger. Marty recommended the Reisinger. I was certain that he was joking. The Reisinger is one of the three North American Majors and the top event of the Fall Nationals. Entry is limited to 48 teams. A three day event in total, the field is cut to 20 teams after the first day for the Semi-Finals, and then cut again after the second day to a field of ten for the Finals.
Marty's logic was that we could
play in the Open Pairs, perhaps do well, and leave with some
masterpoints. We might qualify for the second day of the Swiss
team event, but would have to leave. If that happened, we would
be left wondering how we might have done if we had stayed. But,
we could enter the Reisinger, meet the top players in the world
and have them beat on us for a day. Since there was no chance
that a team of amateurs would qualify for the Semi-Finals, we
wouldn't feel guilty when we both left Saturday morning. If,
by some quirk of fate, we managed to win a board or two against
someone famous, that would give us something to talk about for
years.
Our
team for the Reisinger would be our Captain, Stan Christie (Gold
Life Master - 2,500+ masterpoints), Marty (Silver Life Master-1,250+
masterpoints), Randy
Corn (Gold Life Master as well), and myself (Club Master
- between 25 and 50 masterpoints). As you may have noticed, there
was a weak link in the team, and it was named "me."
Actually, I may not be as bad of a player as my masterpoint total
would seem to suggest, as I have only been playing duplicate
for about year and most of the time I play on the Internet. Still,
many of our opponents win more masterpoints a year than most
of us had total. One player in the field, Paul Soloway, had recently
passed the 50,000 masterpoint milestone. I don't think the ACBL
has even created a name for that.
My family had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal on Thursday. Call it indigestion or nervousness, but I could not sleep that night. I managed to catch a few hours between from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m, woke early on Friday, and hit the road. My three hour drive turned into four as I hit gridlock around Disney World. Evidently the Friday after Thanksgiving is a popular time to visit the Mouse. My plan of a good night's sleep and a relaxing drive was obviously not faring well.
Slightly before the event began, I met Stan.
I would have met Randy, except he wasn't there. As a result,
Stan had to find a new partner for the afternoon. He found Henk Uijterwaal
from Amsterdam (RIPE-NCC on rec.games.bridge), and the two hastily
hammered out a convention card in about ten minutes. Evidently,
Randy was planning to join us for the evening session.
The Reisinger is unique among the three bridge majors due to its scoring format; Board-a-Match. The same hand is played by two teams against each other. The two results are compared, and a team either gains a win (one point), a tie (one-half) or a loss (zero). It doesn't matter whether the loss was by a 20 point overtrick or a couple thousand for the vulnerable grand they found and you didn't. As Horton would say, a zero is a zero, no matter how small.