A Decent Game

When we sat down at the club sectional game today, Pro Greg said, "I noticed you guys had a decent game yesterday".  This is opposed to our usual indecent game where I strip naked and dance on the table if I don't screw up a 3 NT play.  At least, I think that is what he meant.  Maybe not.  For the first time outside a novice game, husband/partner and I had managed to score a 60% the day before.  Director Tom was close to a dead faint when he saw the score.  Maybe it was the concussion from falling off his director chair earlier.  Maybe not.

As you may recall, we took last week off from bridge play.  We felt that we needed to reset our heads not to mention our expectations after our dismal 25% game in the NAOPs.  In the first sectional game on Thursday afternoon, we scored about 40%.  We were actually okay with that and stayed positive, feeling that we had not played badly.  In the Thursday evening game, we netted a little over a coveted silver point with a 50% game.  The next day our percentage went to 60.  We expected a 70 today but, as you might guess, that didn't happen.  We were knocked out of the knockouts by a considerable margin but took first in the afternoon C strat. 

Teacher Diane was delighted for us.  We have had one supervised play session with her and she is now taking credit for our most unexpected success while reminding us that bridge is a game of ups and downs.  She and Director Tom can do a duet on that song.   I do believe them based on our recent history alone.

The question is, what happened between 25% a week ago and these past three days?  I think I need to study probability theory to explain it.  There seems to be a possibility that anything can happen. The probability may be that some things might not but, then again, they might.  The possibility is that our game will continue on a straight upward line.  The probability is that we will continue to do the sine wave dance.  After the drop to the bottom of the chart, we somehow made it up the other side to make a nice V.  Perhaps the law of averages is working.  I should have paid more attention in math class.

Bottom line, I love this game; win or lose.  I think the few days I took off  from playing gave me time to get myself under control and regain some perspective.  If we play badly and lose, there is always another game.  It happens to even the best players, although much less often.  Maybe I will get to that point someday; maybe not; but, in the meantime, I will have great fun playing this magnificent game with my good friends in the San Antonio bridge community.