Ep 74: Event Review with Sophia Baldysz

Today, we're debuting a new format called Event Review, where my partner and I get together and discuss some of the most amusing incidents and some of the best and worst plays from a recent event. It's going to be shorter than my typical long-form interview and also, hopefully, just kind of fun.

I'm speaking with my partner for the District 6 Grand National Teams Qualifying sessions, Sophia Baldysz, a champion player from Poland with many medals in world events, and also my teammate from the 2023 NABC+ Mixed Swiss.

If you have any suggestions for recurring questions on this segment, please let me know and please let me know what you think.

[2:03] What John said to Sophia upon encountering her at the local bridge club.

[4:38] Features of the Event Review process – sharing amusing anecdotes.

[9:30] Sophia’s confidence and determination at the bridge table.

[11:54] Heading home while their teammates play the last couple of rounds; waiting anxiously for results.

[14:28] Slam hands. Not making (either way) at their table.

[16:45] John describes being impressed with Sophia’s analysis of the hands and is inspired to challenge himself further by reading Virtual Bridge Championships by Martins, a book Sophia highly recommends.

[19:24] Coincidence: Sophia’s parents played in GNT Flight B in Toronto in the 80s.

[21:27] Barring kibitzers – no offense!

Transcript

John McAllister: Hi, my name's John McAllister. Welcome to the Setting Trick Podcast, where I speak with some of the world's greatest bridge players. If you're looking for a way to engage with bridge away from the table, then The Setting Trick is here for you. Today, we're debuting a new format called Event Review, where my partner and I get together and discuss some of the most amusing, some of the best and worst plays, from a recent event that we've played. It's going to be shorter than my typical long form interview and also, hopefully, just kind of fun. Today, I'm speaking with my partner for the District Six Grand National Teams Qualifying Sophia Baldysz. If you have any suggestions for recurring questions on this segment, please let me know and please let me know what you think.

I'm here with my partner, Sophia Baldysz at the Code Base Podcast Studio, where Sophia has been incredibly patient, as I try to get everything set up. We are going to do a new segment for the Setting Trick Podcast. It is called Event Review, and this is an abridged, this is not a long, although I'm talking a lot for not being long. So, Sophia and I, can I call you Sophie?

Sophia Baldysz: You can.

John McAllister: Okay. So, Sophie and I played together in our District 6 Grand National teams, and this story started in September of 2022, when I played against you and your mother at the World Championships in Wroclaw, Poland. At the time, you were living in Poland. And then, in May of last year, 2023, I went to the local Bridge club, and lo and behold, you and your mom showed up.

Sophia Baldysz: Well, we had it on our agenda to just show up at a local tournament in Charlottesville. We were visiting a family in the Midwest, and my mom thought it would be a good idea to come out to Charlottesville, because I knew that I was going to be moving to Charlottesville in July, and my mom thought it would be a good idea to drive over for 12 hours to check out Charlottesville, and to find my pockets in Charlottesville. And, of course, we checked out the local Bridge club and that's where we met.

John McAllister: Do you remember what I said?

Sophia Baldysz: I do. What are you doing here?

John McAllister: I mean, it was a pretty unique situation to have these two seemingly Polish women at the Jefferson Bridge Association in Charlottesville.

Sophia Baldysz: Well, yeah, that's true, and it's in the middle of the state. It's like, what would we be doing there? We had a similar situation, we met a Polish player, [inaudible 00:03:39] maybe, I don't know if he's very well known in the States, but my mom and my brother went to a local club in Indiana and they walk in and he's there. I was like, "What are you doing here?"

John McAllister: So, I introduced myself, I took you guys out to dinner that night, we hit it off, and it came... Since you're moving to Charlottesville, I was like, "Let's play in some of the local stuff," and you weren't eligible, I don't think you had a qualifying. You didn't have a qualifying because you were in Morocco in August, and so I don't think you had a qualifying to play in the North American pairs, but we got you qualified for the GNT. And, that was a little bit, but the thing was is, we were sort of having a hard time finding teammates.

Sophia Baldysz: Mm-hmm. I don't remember, I think November, I don't remember who reached out to who, but we ended up playing on a six-man team with Mark Dahl and Bill Newman and Fred King and Bob, and I don't remember the last name.

John McAllister: Bell.

Sophia Baldysz: Bob Bell, yes. We played the first weekend with only two pairs because Mark and... Well, Mark was out of the country, as far as I remember, and we played with Fred and Bob and we qualified second and advanced to the next weekend, the following weekend, which was in February. We played Team Marshall in the semifinals, and then we played Robinson in the final.

John McAllister: Well, you're just cutting right to everything.

Sophia Baldysz: Yup.

John McAllister: So, one of the features of the event review format here, is funniest sort of instances from the event. And so, I'll share one, and then you can share one.

Sophia Baldysz: Okay.

John McAllister: And so, mine was in the qualifying, there were supposed to be originally 11 teams, but one team had to drop out because a player was sick, and that player is a fellow named Rick Bingham. Rick's team last year, as sort of an underdog, came in second in the qualifying.

Sophia Baldysz: Wow.

John McAllister: And, one of the rules that they have, is that the first place team doesn't... The four teams qualify for the semifinals and the first place team gets to choose the third or fourth team, but they don't have to play the second place team, unless they want to. And so, what we learned at the qualifying weekend was that the previous year, Robinson qualified first, and I think Rick's team qualified second, and Rick's team wanted to play the Robinson team, who's perennially won this event, at our district level, and has world champions, multiple world champions on the team. And so, they wanted to play the Robinson team in the semifinals for the experience. What happened is, they beat them.

Sophia Baldysz: Well, they got the experience.

John McAllister: So, then the team that we joined, Bob and Fred and Bill and Mark, actually beat the Bingham team in the finals, so they represented our district last year. But, as you said, Mark was in Africa, so they couldn't play in the qualifying. You had suggested that I reach out to Mark, because you knew him from a sectional, that he was a strong player in the area. You did, you did.

Sophia Baldysz: I...

John McAllister: Yes. And so, I did, and originally, they were looking for... Helping us find other people, but then they needed a pair and we were like, "Okay, great."

Sophia Baldysz: We're in for the experience.

John McAllister: Yes. Okay. So, now you get to share. What was your favorite, your most amusing anecdote from that?

Sophia Baldysz: My most amusing anecdote. I remember walking into the playing area, and this is, I think even before we started, and people are figuring out their convention cards and getting tea and coffee, and whatnot, and I overhear this couple at one of the tables, and the woman is like, "Don't forget Drari, just like the convention. Don't forget that we play that." Okay. More for the experience. The whole GNT experience reminds me of the league that I used to play in Poland. There's less bridge, because in Poland we like to kill ourselves and play 72 boards a day. But, the format and the fact that you have to qualify for a weekend, is similar to what I was used to in Poland, but there's more teams in Poland.

John McAllister: And, for context, last year I played in the GNT and we just played in the round-robin, a completely different team, and we finished dead last. So, this year we qualified second, we did get blitzed by the Robinson team in the qualifying, and they flipped a coin for who... They didn't know which third place or fourth place team they wanted to play, so they flipped a coin, and frankly, I was glad that we got to play the Marshall team, as opposed to the other team. You, in particular, wanted to play one pair on the... Maybe we won't include this in the episode or not, but-

Sophia Baldysz: I don't think I should share my tactics to my potential opponents at the GNT finals in Toronto, I won't say anything though.

John McAllister: Okay.

Sophia Baldysz: But yes, there was a specific pair that I wanted to play, and it mattered more to me in the final, rather than in the semi-final, because I didn't really know the people that we played. I played against them in the round-robin, but I didn't know anything else about them, other than the seven boards that I played against them in the round-robin.

John McAllister: Sophie is a confident woman at the bridge table, I will say. She has won two European women's championships, she wins a medal basically every year, as she told me, in the car on the way here. So, you were all business in the final.

Sophia Baldysz: Oh, yes.

John McAllister: And, there was a point, so Mark and Bill had to play all the boards in the final, because they hadn't played in the qualifying. And so, we played the first and second half of the final, and there was a point in the first quarter, when we went down in a slam and I was just a little frazzled from a couple of bad results. You had the look of determination on your face, which I really hadn't seen. At the local sectionals, you'd never really gotten that locked in, I don't think, you weren't really fully in your tigress mode.

Sophia Baldysz: Well, yeah. Fair. Well, it's a different setting, comparing a sectional and GNT finals. That's true. But, I try not to get focused on, even if I get a bad result, you play till the end, and I've seen a fair number of matches that would turn around, even within the last set. So, just stay focused the whole time and don't lose IMPs.

John McAllister: So, the finals and semi-finals were played in Northern Virginia, which was about a two-hour drive from Charlottesville. And so, we played the first and second quarter, we play full day matches, and I was amazed. In Texas, apparently, they only do one day of GNT qualifying. The whole shebang is one day.

Sophia Baldysz: Oh, okay.

John McAllister: And so, we're getting pretty close to Charlottesville. We're in Charlottesville, and Sophie is a little... Starting to doubt, starting to... It's kind of time when we think it's probably over. What were you thinking?

Sophia Baldysz: Well, I was kind of surprised that our teammates hadn't reached out and time wise, they should have been done about a half an hour already, and it's like, "Oh no, they've lost." So, when we left, a bit of context, when we left, we had a 6 IMP lead, but we were down by 6 after the first set, and then we were up by 6 after the second set, so it was a pretty close match, from what I could tell. And then, we get a phone call, and it was Bill, and by the tone of his voice, I could tell that we had won. You can kind of sense it. He was like, "Oh yeah, we won." But no, we were originally joking in the car, and you mentioned that they wouldn't say anything and call us in three days to tell us, and say, "Oh yeah, by the way, we won." So, there's that.

John McAllister: The other thing that was amusing was, they had five people on the team. There were six people originally, in the qualifying, and then Peter Boyd, who's been Steve Robinson's partner forever, unfortunately gets dialysis, so he wasn't going to be able to go to Toronto. And so, Steve was playing, I think he was going over the convention card with Bill Cole and Steve said, "We play like a new suit is forcing after we preempt." I was thinking, when your opponents are having that discussion before you play, that can't be bad.

Sophia Baldysz: Yeah, fair. Well, it can be bad. It doesn't necessarily have to be bad, because I once switched partnerships during a championship, and it turned out for the best. It was a junior event, so a lot of stuff can happen at a junior event. But, 2018 we needed a bit of shuffling on the team and I changed my partner in the round-robin, and then I went back to my original partner in the knockout stage.

John McAllister: And y'all won?

Sophia Baldysz: We won the silver medal, yeah.

John McAllister: Were there any hands that were particularly memorable for you, from either of the qualifying or the semi-finals and finals?

Sophia Baldysz: I remember the slam hand that we went down in the final. Yeah, slams were not made at our table. We went down in a slam, and then the following segment, our opponents bit a slam off two aces, and I remember thinking, because the opponents had an auction and they ended up in six clubs and you were thinking on lead and you led the ace of hearts and dummy came down with six clubs, king doubleton of hearts, four spades and a stiff diamond, and I'm looking at queen fifth of hearts and I'm like, "Oh no," this was the hand that you had to under lead the ace of hearts to set it. The guy would not guess it because he's got Jack dub in his hand or Jack-10 or something.

And so, I follow suit, and then you cash the ace of diamonds, so I was like, "Oh, okay. That's not that bad." Yeah, definitely, definitely. Slams were not made at our table. I don't remember any significant boards from the qualifying rounds, bid our games, and we had a lot of high-card points. We did not stay in two diamonds. I got to game.

John McAllister: There was a grand slam where I played it, and I had a lot of options of how to make my 13th trick, and this is probably the most memorable aspect from the qualifying, for me, was that I ended up cashing my tricks in the wrong order and it ended up just having to take the heart finesse, which was on. And so, I made it, but it was a little bit of embarrassing, because I had so many ways and I was not able to foresee the eventual ending that I thought I could.

Probably, the most memorable for me was just, we drove home from, this was in Maryland and we drove home that Sunday, and they just bid six diamonds at the other table. So, we won to swing on this board, but you were talking through the hand and all the different ways to play it and that, as well as a couple other ones, and it was just apparent to me just how I was really impressed with how you could do that. It made me want to challenge myself more. And so, I started doing the Virtual Bridge Championships books from Martins, which is something I think you mentioned during that.

Sophia Baldysz: I highly recommend it. My mom actually kind of suggested that book to me and I started reading it, but she did it when she tried out for the women's, in 2010. This was before she was playing with me. She tried out for the women's team in Poland, and the format was, was that you had to go to I think two or three weekends and play. Everyone played together, the open, the women's, the senior, and well, there was no mixed category back then, and she had just done a problem that day, that was like a jettison play, and she was playing against these two guys from the open team and one of them made a lead and she looked at the dummy and it took her 15 seconds to do it, and the guy was going around telling everyone, and it took her only 15 seconds to do it.

So, I highly recommend it. Actually, if anyone is interested, Martins is actually doing a webinar on declarer play. You have to speak Polish, but-

John McAllister: Who doesn't?

Sophia Baldysz: If you speak do Polish... Yeah, no, he's doing a lot of interesting problems. Maybe he's going to publish them in some format. I haven't really looked into it, but I've been doing these webinars with him every week.

John McAllister: Oh, oh, the declare play webinars.

Sophia Baldysz: Yeah.

John McAllister: So, watch out. Those of you who are also qualifying in the open GNTs. We're coming.

Sophia Baldysz: Yes. Fully equipped in Drury.

John McAllister: One last thing, your parents.

Sophia Baldysz: Oh yeah, this is actually... Well, okay. I didn't even know that the GNTs existed, because you told me about this, I don't remember, in September or something. I told my parents that I'm going to be playing in this GNT and my dad's like, "You're playing in the GNT?" I was like, "Yeah," and he's like, "Where's the final going to be?" And I'm like, "Toronto," and he's like, "Really?" We qualified for the final... Well, okay, they played in Final B, but they qualified for Toronto in the eighties. I don't remember which year exactly, so I'm kind of following in my parents' footsteps, which is nice.

John McAllister: How did they do in the Final B?

Sophia Baldysz: I don't remember. They didn't win, but I think they may have qualified. I don't know. I'm sure my dad knows. He'll probably remember a hand from the... Yeah. Yeah.

John McAllister: All right. Anything else?

Sophia Baldysz: I don't remember any other funny, amusing stories. Well, I know, well, I do. Yes. So. When we were playing in the semifinal, and when I came originally to Charlottesville, none of the people here knew me, other than you, and I would get a lot of welcome, how long have you been playing Bridge, and are you one of the UVA Bridge kids, and whatnot, and when we were playing the summer final, Steve Robinson was going around the playing area and saying like, "Oh, she plays for Poland." And then, he walks up to me and he says, "You played for the Polish Junior Girls, right?" I was like, "Well, I did, yes." I haven't been on the junior team for four years, but I'll take that as a compliment. It was different for me, because I was so used to people not knowing who I was in the local area. And then, I come to the final of the GNT and Steve is going around the room and telling everyone I played for the Polish team.

John McAllister: All right. He was one of two kibitzers that we both barred.

Sophia Baldysz: We told to leave the table. I'm so sorry. It was by no means personal. Yeah, it was just kind of... Kibitzers generally don't bother me, but I think it was maybe, I don't know, the acoustics in the area. It was very cold in the room, I remember.

John McAllister: All right, well we are going to Toronto.

Sophia Baldysz: Yeah, be on the lookout if you're going to be our opponents.

John McAllister: Yeah, we look forward to that. All right, thank you.

Sophia Baldysz: Thank you for having me.

John McAllister: As far as my bridge accomplishments, winning our district open qualifying for the Grand National Teams ranks right up there. It's been really cool to be congratulated by so many players in the district. Thanks to Eric Gettleman for getting me to play in the open GNT for the first time, a couple years ago, thanks to Gibb Stanton, Annie Izard, and Carolyn Kelly, who I got to the district finals of the Grand National Teams Flight C with, a long time ago, where we got crushed, and of course, thanks to my teammates and my partner Sophie, for helping us get this one done.