In addition to the fun game at the Twin City Bridge Center, along with the pot luck to honor Larry Oakey's 10,000 masterpoints and Platinum status, we had more. People talked about just how special Larry has been - both to our Minnesota bridge world and as an amazing player.
Sharon Anderson, our District 14's ACBL Board of Director, gave a fine intro.
Then, Ron DeHarpporte gave exemplary examples of just how impressive Larry's 10K masterpoint achievement really is.
Ronald contrasted a baseball player's "batting average" to the accumulation of masterpoints:
A baseball player can be judged by the number of home runs he hits over is lifetime and/or his lifetime batting average.
Home runs are simply added to the previous years total each year and lifetime grand total is used to evaluate his career. But batting average is calculated by dividing the total number of hits into the players total number of “at bats”.
So a player who got 2000 hits in 10,000 opportunities would have an average of .200. And a player who got only 1500 hits in 6000 at bats would have a batting average of .250. Which is the better hitter? It is the .250 hitter even though he got 500 fewer hits in his career that the guy who got 2000 hits.
In bridge we count only masterpoint totals like home runs. If we evaluated a bridge player’s “batting average," his masterpoints divided by the number of points he had an opportunity to win, it would obviously favor those who won one more while playing less. Oakey has a higher batting average than anyone else around here. He has 10,000 points but played far less than others thus had fewer opportunities to accumulate more.
I am not a follower of baseball. I think that Ron's super point, however, is that Larry has been "up to bat" far fewer times than many others in the years he has played bridge. When Larry does have the bat in his hands, though - he belts the ball out of the bridge ball park.
And, I have more knowledge than most. Your webmaster was blessed with having this super person and stellar player as a bridge partner for some years. I know there were times where I almost did Larry in with my unthinking plays. On the other hand, if I were to count the times Larry didn't shine, I would come up woefully short.
When defending, I remember hands where, looking at dummy and my hand, I'd think "the only way to beat this now is if Larry has an unsupported queen and leads it." Moments later - there it would be on the table.
And then I shared another Larry brilliancy with a different ending.
Playing in a knockout team event at the Gopher Regional, my LHO opened 3 spades. Larry bid 5 hearts! I was all ready to cue bid 5 spades, when - RHO, Irving Steinfeldt, beat me to the punch.
Alas, too many years have now passed for me to remember my exact hand. But - it was excellent. I had good hearts, the spade ace, other values on the side...... I sat there, going back and forth, weighing what I ought to bid. Finally, I went for the gusto: 7 hearts!
My LHO pondered this for a bit.... Then he passed. Irving, in pass out seat, flickered for a moment, then he, too passed.
Finally, as has always been his wont, Larry piped up with some table chatter. "Well, at least I know we're not off the ace of hearts."
"Ace of hearts?" I sure didn't have it! Was this yet another of Larry's amusing comments he would issue to moderately torture me?
Alas, it was not. Irving had the heart ace, but wisely judged not to double and potentially give his partner a chance to "save."
And - speaking of "saving" - I could have taken virtually any other action and we would have won our match. 6 hearts, double, pass .... all would have resulted in a win for us.
At the other table, the player holding Larry's hand bid only 4 hearts, and the partnership played there. Larry committed yet another brilliancy with his 5 heart call ... and at the end of the day, I learned my lesson that when the auction is jammed, you then take a "middle of the road" action and don't gild the lily with your partner's original excellent decision.
This hand was an example of simply one of so very many wise decisions Larry has produced over the years - in addition to all of his other countless hours of volunteerism, directing, aiding, teaching and so forth and so on.
Congratulations again, to our TGLO Larry. A gem in our bridge world, a friend to so many - and now, our newest Platinum Life Master!
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