Setting the Goal

• Introduction
  

  This blog may be read by bridge players, and by friends and acquaintances of mine who know little or nothing about bridge.

  For the bridge players, please understand that I expound on some items (e.g. what a Masterpoint is) for the benefit of the non-bridge-playing readers.

  For the non-bridge-playing readers, if you don't understand some of what I write, ask about it in the comments and I'll either edit the post or reply in the comments. Thanks!

• Background
  

  I learned to play Contract Bridge many years ago -- and was quite an active player around my dorm and the campus when I was an undergraduate. Since that time, I played hardly any for decades.

  Each January, I would travel to the Boston area to spend time with friends and relatives, and to play in the Individual Regional Tournament. Usually, that was the extent of my bridge activity for the year.

• Playing More Often
  

  In the spring of 2004, I resumed playing on a more active basis by becoming a "Guaranteed Partner" for my local Unit Game. I would show up at the game, and if someone needed a partner after all the pairings were set, I would fill in. If I wasn't needed, I would just go home. Either way, I received a free play -- to use that game, or later.

  Besides playing at the Unit Game, I served as Guaranteed Partner for the Unit's Sectional (local) tournaments, and for the larger Regional tournament held that year. In about eighteen months, just playing as a Guaranteed Partner (plus my annual trip to Boston), I picked up almost 33 Master Points.

  Playing as a Guaranteed Partner at the October 2005 Sectional, I was on the winning team in the B/C Swiss Teams on the final day. This produced an award of 7.59 Silver Master Points, and whetted my appetite for more.

  Yes, it was only a second-tier win in a local tournament, but I began to have visions of first-tier wins in Regional and National tournaments. After all, why not? If I could do this well with a pick-up partner, how well could I do in a regular partnership, with a much better set of bidding understandings, and much practice and refining of that bidding?

  My more frequent playing over the previous eighteen months had certainly improved my playing skill. Maybe I was now ready for more serious competition.

• Prelude to Pursuit
  

  I met one player at that October 2005 Sectional who wanted to build a partnership and compete at a higher level. The first goal was to compete in a Regional Tournament at a coastal resort town at the beginning of December. Playing in just five sessions in October and November, we tried to build the partnership. We won twice (section tops), placed once (at the October Sectional, our first time partnering with each other), and had two "pointless" (poor) results.

• Regional Competition
  

  So we took the show on the road, to the coastal resort town Regional. We played in three knockout team events, and were knocked out in the first round in all three. We had bidding misunderstandings, and I made several errors in both bidding and play. I'm sure my partner and our teammates were disappointed.

  We also partnered each other in three late-night knockout team events, finishing second in one and third-fourth tie in another. Our other event was a Swiss Teams, where our teammates were two ladies from New Mexico (also our teammates in the two late-night knockouts where we placed). In the Swiss, our team won five of seven matches.

• Getting Serious
  

  After my return home, I thought about bridge. I was now on the threshold of the Regional Master title -- less than five Master Points from it. What would the future hold?

  I researched Regional tournaments within a day's drive, and plotted my 2006 vacation time with care. My challenge -- to earn the Life Master title by December 31, 2006.

• What This Is
  

  This blog will be my record of this adventure.