Ep 74: Event Review with Sophia Baldysz

[00:00:00] Hi, my name is John McAllister. Welcome to The Setting Trick Podcast where I speak

[00:00:07] with some of the world's greatest bridge players. If you're looking for a way to engage

[00:00:11] with Bridge away from the table then the setting trick is here for you. Today we're

[00:00:16] debuting a new format called Event Review where my partner and I get together and discuss

[00:00:25] some of the most amusing, some of the best and worst plays from a recent event that

[00:00:32] we've played. It's going to be shorter than my typical long form interview and also

[00:00:40] hopefully just kind of fun. Today I'm speaking with my partner for the District 6 Grand

[00:00:46] National Teams qualifying, Sophia Baudish. If you have any suggestions for recurring

[00:00:53] questions on this segment, please let me know and please let me know what you think.

[00:01:04] I'm here with my partner Sophia Baudish at the CodeBates Podcast Studio where Sophia

[00:01:14] has been incredibly patient as I try to get everything set up and we are going to do a

[00:01:25] new segment for the Setting Trick Podcast. It is called Event Review and this is an

[00:01:34] abridged, this is not a long, although I'm talking a lot for it not being long and so Sophia

[00:01:42] and I, can I call you Sophie? Okay so Sophia and I played together in our District 6 Grand

[00:01:51] National Teams. Yes. And this story kind of started in September of 2022 when I played

[00:02:03] against you and your mother at the World Championships in Vrotzlov, Poland and at the time

[00:02:12] you were living in Poland. And then in May of last year, 2023 I went to the local bridge

[00:02:21] club and lo and behold you and your mom showed up. Well we had it on our agenda to just show

[00:02:29] up at a local tournament in Charlottesville. We were visiting family in the Midwest and my

[00:02:36] mom thought it would be a good idea to come out to Charlottesville because I knew that I was

[00:02:41] going to be moving to Charlottesville in July and my mom thought it would be a good idea

[00:02:46] to drive over for 12 hours to check out Charlottesville and to kind of find my pockets in Charlottesville

[00:02:58] and of course we checked out the local bridge club. And that's where we met and... Do you remember

[00:03:05] what I said? I do. What are you doing here? I mean it was a pretty unique situation to have

[00:03:15] like these two seemingly Polish women at the Jefferson Bridge Association in Charlottesville.

[00:03:23] Well yeah that's true and it's like and you know it's in the middle of the states like what would

[00:03:29] we be doing there? We had a similar situation. We met a Polish player because you met him maybe

[00:03:39] I don't know if he's very well known in the states but my mom and my brother went to a local

[00:03:44] club in Indiana and they walk in and he's there. So yeah so you know I introduced myself I took

[00:03:59] you guys out to dinner that night we hit it off and it came you know since you're moving to

[00:04:07] Charlottesville I was like let's play in some of the local stuff and you weren't eligible. I don't

[00:04:15] think you had a qualifying... You didn't have a qualifying because you were in Morocco in August

[00:04:21] and so I don't think you had a qualifying to play in the North American pairs. Yeah.

[00:04:26] So but we got you qualified for the GNT. Yes. And that was a little bit.

[00:04:32] But the thing was as we were sort of having a hard time finding teammates.

[00:04:41] And I don't remember I think November. I don't remember who we reached out to who but

[00:04:49] we ended up playing on a six-man team with Mark Dal in Bill Newman and Fred King and Bob

[00:05:00] and I don't remember the last Bob Bell. Yes. Yeah. So yeah and we played the first weekend

[00:05:11] with only two pairs because Mark and Will Mark was out of the country as far as I remember.

[00:05:19] And we played with Fred and Bob and we qualified second and advanced to the next weekend,

[00:05:27] the following weekend which was in February. And we played team Marshall and the semi-finals

[00:05:34] and then we played Robinson in the final. Well you're just cutting right to everything.

[00:05:43] So one of the features of the event review format here is like funniest sort of instance

[00:05:53] from the event. And so I'll share one and then you can share one. Okay. And so mine was in the qualifying

[00:06:05] there were supposed to be originally 11 teams but one team had to drop out because a player was sick.

[00:06:11] And that player is a fellow named Rick Bingham and Rick's team last year as sort of an underdog

[00:06:21] came in second in the qualifying. And one of the rules that they have is that the first-place team

[00:06:30] doesn't like there's four teams qualify for the semi-finals and the first-place team gets to choose

[00:06:37] the third or fourth team but they don't have to play the second-place team unless they want to.

[00:06:44] And so what we learned at the qualifying weekend was that the previous year,

[00:06:51] Robinson qualified first and I think Rick's team qualified second. And they

[00:06:58] Rick's team wanted to play the Robinson team who's like perennially won this event

[00:07:04] at our district level and you know has World Champions, multiple World Champions on the team.

[00:07:10] And so they wanted to play the Robinson team in the semi-finals for the experience.

[00:07:19] And what happened is they beat them.

[00:07:26] Well, they got the experience.

[00:07:29] So then the team that we joined Bob and Fred and Bill and Mark actually beat the Bingham team

[00:07:37] in the finals so they represented our district last year. But as you said, Mark was in Africa

[00:07:45] so they couldn't play in the qualifying and you had suggested that I reach out to Mark because

[00:07:51] you knew him from a sectional that he was a strong player in the area. You did. You did.

[00:07:57] Yes. And so I did and originally they were looking for helping us find other people but then

[00:08:04] they needed a pair and we had sort of, you know, we're like okay great. We're in for the experience.

[00:08:12] Yes. And okay. So now you get to share with was your favorite, you're most amusing anecdote.

[00:08:22] Why most amusing anecdote?

[00:08:27] Remember walking into the playing area. And this is like

[00:08:30] I think even before we started and people are like figuring out their convention cards

[00:08:36] and like, you know, getting tea and coffee and whatnot. And I overhear this couple at one of the

[00:08:41] tables and the woman is like don't forget Drowry just like the convention. Don't forget that we

[00:08:49] play that. Okay. Where did the experience go? Yeah. It kind of like the whole GNT experience

[00:08:58] kind of reminds me of the league that I used to play in Poland. I mean, there's less bridge

[00:09:04] because in Poland we like to kill ourselves and play 72 boards a day. But like the format and

[00:09:12] the fact that you have to qualify for a weekend is similar to what I was used to in Poland but there

[00:09:19] is more teams in Poland. Yeah. So. And for context last year I played in the GNT

[00:09:26] and we just played in the round robins completely different team and we finished dead last.

[00:09:32] So this year we qualified second we did get blitzed by the Robinson team in the qualifying

[00:09:40] and they flipped a coin for who they didn't know which third place or fourth place team they wanted

[00:09:48] to play. Yeah. So they flipped a coin and frankly I was glad that we got to play the martial team

[00:09:53] as opposed to the other team. Yeah. And you in particular wanted to play one pair on the

[00:10:04] maybe we won't include this in the episode or not but I don't think I should share my

[00:10:11] tactics to my potential opponents at the GNT finals in Toronto. I won't say anything now.

[00:10:19] Okay. But yes there was a specific pair that I wanted to play and it mattered more to me in the

[00:10:24] final rather than in the semi-final because I mean I didn't really know the people that we play

[00:10:32] I mean I played against them in the round robin but I didn't know like anything else about them

[00:10:37] other than the seven boards that I played against them in the round robin. Yeah. So.

[00:10:43] And Sophie is a confident woman at the bridge table I will say she has won two European

[00:10:52] women's championships. She wins a medal basically every year as she told me in the car on the

[00:10:59] car on the way here so you were all business in the final. Oh yes. And there was a point. So Mark

[00:11:09] and Bill had to play all the boards in the final because they hadn't played in the qualifying.

[00:11:14] Yeah. And so we played the first and second half of the final and there was a point in the

[00:11:21] first quarter when we missed us we went down in the slam and I was just a little bit a little

[00:11:28] frazzled from a couple of bad results and you were like you had the look of determination

[00:11:36] on your face which I really hadn't seen you know at the local sectionals you'd never really

[00:11:43] gotten that locked in. I don't think you know you weren't really fully in your Tigris mode.

[00:11:51] Well yeah fair um well I mean it's a kind of it's a different it's a different setting comparing

[00:12:00] a sectional ones. Yeah G&T finals that's true but yeah I try not to get focused on even if I

[00:12:09] get a bad result it's you know you play till the end and I've seen a fair number of matches

[00:12:15] that would turn around even within the last set so yeah stay focused the whole time and don't

[00:12:24] lose imps and yeah. So the finals and semi-finals were played in Northern Virginia which was about

[00:12:32] a two-hour drive from Charlottesville and so we played the first and second quarter we play like

[00:12:41] full-day matches and I was amazed in Texas apparently they only do one day of G&T qualifying

[00:12:46] like the whole Shebang is one day. Oh okay. And so we're getting pretty close to Charlottesville

[00:12:52] like we're in Charlottesville and Sophie is a little you know starting to doubt starting to

[00:13:00] you know like it's kind of time when we think it's probably over and what we you know

[00:13:07] what were we thinking. Well I was kind of surprised that our teammates hadn't reached out and like the

[00:13:14] time wise they should have been done like about half an hour already and it's like oh no they've lost

[00:13:22] so we when we left a bit of context when we left we had like a six-and-plead but I mean

[00:13:29] we had we were down by six after the first set and then we were up by six after the second set

[00:13:34] so it was a pretty close match from what I could tell um and then we get a phone call

[00:13:42] and by it was Bill and like by the tone of his voice I could tell that we were we had one

[00:13:48] like you can kind of sense it um yeah I'm just like oh yeah we won.

[00:13:56] Yeah but uh no I mean we were originally joking in the car and uh you mentioned that

[00:14:03] they wouldn't say anything and call us in three days time so yeah by the way we won.

[00:14:08] So yeah where's that.

[00:14:12] Um the other thing that was amusing uh was they had five people on the team there were six

[00:14:19] people originally in the qualifying and then Peter Boyd who's been Steve Robinson's partner

[00:14:23] forever um fortunately has uh that gets dialysis so he he wasn't going to be able to go to the

[00:14:29] Toronto and uh so Steve was like playing I think he was like going over the convention card with

[00:14:37] with Bill Cole and uh Steve said we play like a new suit is forcing after we've

[00:14:43] pre-empted and I was thinking you know like when your opponents are having that discussion

[00:14:51] before they play like that can't be bad. Yeah.

[00:14:56] There well I mean it could it can be bad it can be in notness it I mean it can't it doesn't

[00:15:02] necessarily have to be bad because um I once switched partnerships during a championship and it

[00:15:08] turned out for the best like I mean it was a junior event so a lot of some competitive

[00:15:14] junior event but um yeah 2018 we were we needed a bit of shuffling on the team and I changed my partner

[00:15:23] in the round robin and then I went back to my original partner in the NACO stage so.

[00:15:27] And you all won? We won the silver medal. Yeah.

[00:15:31] Uh were there any hands that were particularly memorable for you from the uh from the either

[00:15:38] either of the qualifying or the semi finals and finals? I remember the slam hand that we went

[00:15:46] we went down in the final. Yeah, uh slams were not made at our table we went down in a slam and

[00:15:56] the following segment are opponents bit of slam off to aces. And I remember thinking because

[00:16:06] the opponents had an auction and they ended up in six clubs and you were thinking on lead

[00:16:13] and you led the ace of hearts and Demi came down with six clubs,

[00:16:18] King Doubleton of Hearts, Four Spades and Aestive Diamond and I'm looking at Queen Fifth of Hearts

[00:16:24] and like oh no this was the hand that you had to under the ace of hearts to set it.

[00:16:27] And the guy would not guess it because he's got Jack Dobbin, his hand, like Jack Ten or something

[00:16:32] and so I follow Sue and then you cash the ace of hearts.

[00:16:37] Okay that's not that bad. Yeah definitely definitely.

[00:16:43] Sands were not made at our table. Um I don't remember if I can I don't remember any significant

[00:16:50] boards from the um qualifying rounds you know better games and we had a lot of high card points

[00:17:00] did not stay in two diamonds. Got the game. Um there was a grand slam where I played it

[00:17:10] and I had like a lot of options of how to make my 13th trick and uh

[00:17:17] um this is probably the most memorable aspect from the qualifying for me was that uh

[00:17:23] I ended up caching my tricks in the wrong order and it ended up just having to take a

[00:17:28] hard for that switch which was odd. And so I made it but it was kind of

[00:17:34] it was a little bit of a embarrassing because I had so many ways and I just

[00:17:41] I did not I was not able to foresee the eventual ending that uh

[00:17:46] I thought I thought I could and uh probably the most memorable for me was was just uh

[00:17:52] we drove home from this was in Maryland and we drove home that Sunday and uh they just

[00:17:58] bid six diamonds at the other table so we want to swing on this board uh but uh you were talking

[00:18:04] through the hand uh and like all the different ways to play it and all that as well as a couple

[00:18:10] couple other ones and it was just apparent to me like just how I was I was really

[00:18:16] like impressed with how you could do that and uh it made me want to uh challenge myself more

[00:18:26] and so I did I started doing the uh virtual bridge championships uh books from Martin's

[00:18:35] which is something I think you mentioned during that. I highly recommend it. Yeah the my mom

[00:18:40] actually kind of suggested that book to me and I started reading it but she did it when she

[00:18:45] tried out for the women's in 2010 this was before she was playing with me uh she tried out for

[00:18:52] the women's team in Poland and uh the format was was that you had to go to like I think two or

[00:18:58] three weekends and played everyone played together. The open the women's the senior and well we did

[00:19:04] there was no mixed category back then uh and um she had just um done a problem that day

[00:19:12] that was like a jettison play and she was playing against these two guys from the open team and

[00:19:18] she one of them made a lead and she looked at the dummy and it took her like 15 seconds to do it

[00:19:24] and the guy the guy was like going around telling everyone and it took her only 15 seconds to do it

[00:19:31] yeah so I highly recommend it. Yeah and actually if anyone is interested, Martin's is actually doing

[00:19:40] a uh like a webinar um on declare play you have to speak Polish but I mean

[00:19:47] who does speak Polish yeah then uh yeah now he's doing a lot of interesting problems. I had a heat

[00:19:54] maybe he's going to publish them in some format. I haven't really looked into it but I've been doing

[00:19:59] I've been doing these webinars with him every week and oh they declare play webinars yeah

[00:20:05] uh huh uh huh so watch out those of you who are also qualifying in the open GNT's

[00:20:13] we're coming. Yes fully equipped and uh drory and uh

[00:20:22] and one last thing your parents uh oh yeah this is actually well okay I didn't

[00:20:28] I didn't even know that the GNT's existed because you told me about this I don't remember

[00:20:34] September or something and I told my parents that I'm gonna be playing in this GNT and

[00:20:41] my dad's like you're playing in the GNT. I was like yeah and he's like um where's the like

[00:20:47] the final going to be and I'm like Toronto and he's like really? We qualify for final well

[00:20:53] okay they played in final B but they qualified for Toronto in the 80s I don't remember which year exactly

[00:20:58] um but yeah so I'm kind of following in my parents footsteps which is which is nice. How did they

[00:21:03] do in final B? I don't remember they they didn't win but um yeah but they I think they they may have

[00:21:12] qualified I don't I don't I don't know I'm sure my dad knows he'll probably remember a hand from the

[00:21:21] yep all right anything else? I don't think I can I don't remember any other funny amusing stories

[00:21:28] well I know well I do yes so when we were playing in the semi-final and like when I came originally

[00:21:36] to shore let's feel like none of the people here knew me other than you um and I got I would get

[00:21:43] a lot of welcome how long have you been playing bridge and are you one of the UVA bridge kids and like

[00:21:47] what not um and uh when we were playing the semi-final uh Steve Robinson was going around

[00:21:57] the playing area and saying like oh she plays for Poland and then he walks up to Mani says you play

[00:22:05] for the Polish junior girls right? I was like well I did yes I haven't been on the junior team for

[00:22:11] four years but I'll take that as a compliment so yeah that was kind of and that was like it was different

[00:22:17] for me because I was so used to people not knowing who I was in like the local area and then I come

[00:22:22] to the final of a GNT and Steve is going around the room and telling everyone I play for the Polish team

[00:22:28] so yeah all right uh he was one of two kibbetsers that we

[00:22:38] told to leave the day I'm so sorry it was that by no means personal

[00:22:42] yeah it was just kind of kibbetsers generally don't bother me but I think it was maybe I don't know

[00:22:50] the acoustics in the area or it was pretty it was very cold in the room that I remember so

[00:22:57] all right well we are going to Toronto and um yeah be on the lookout if you're gonna be our opponents

[00:23:05] yeah we look forward to that all right thank you thank you for having me as far as my bridge

[00:23:11] accomplishments winning the our district open qualifying for the Grand National Teams ranks right

[00:23:20] up there it's been really cool to be congratulated by so many players in the district thanks to Eric

[00:23:28] Gettelman for getting me to play in the open GNT for the first time a couple years ago

[00:23:36] thanks to Gibbs, Dan, Annie, Isard and Carolyn Kelly who I got to the district finals of the

[00:23:44] Grand National Teams flight C with a long time ago where we got crushed and of course thanks

[00:23:51] to my teammates and my partner Sophie for helping us get this one done