Poppin' The Tournament Cherry

A couple hours ago my fiend Britt and I returned from her first venture into competition bridge. While we finished dead last, we were playing in an open game, which means that there was no upper limit on the skill and experience of our opponents. We managed to get 35.08% of the maximum match points, and given that the only way to get 100% is to beat every partnership playing the same hands, it was quite the performance. She made some beginner errors, but that is not to say that my bidding and play were perfect—far from it. With some more practice, she'll be doing even better.

The fin for me, however, was in showing her the room before we started. Even at a small tournament, a room filled with card tables can be daunting for a first-time player. Britt stopped cold and broke into a sweat. I rather wish I had had my camera there to capture the moment. Now, though, she will be prepared for such events, and she is unlikely to find herself swimming with the sharks again anytime soon. It's up from this point, which is the real benefit of being dead last.