The Detroit NABC was a nice event, but it left me with some conflicting feelings. The early NABC+ events I entered were with partners I'd never played with before. I had some success with each -- making the finals in both the Open Pairs (Jenni Carmichael) and Mixed Pairs (Ali Howard). In both events we never really got going in the final sessions and finished out of the overalls (being a bit closer in the mixed pairs). Both showings were reasonable for first time partnerships, but it left me with the feeling that I could do much better. I left these events feeling that I can compete for these national championship and honestly expecting to challenge for the overalls in the coming years.

Later in Detroit, I was also a bit disappointed with our finish in the Red Ribbon Pairs. My partner (Bob Soni) and I were well placed going into the final session. We were 5th overall and had three solid sessions between 57-59%. In the final session nothing went right. Our opponents started out doing everything right and even doing some crazy stuff that gave us some zeros. Uncharacteristically, I got impatient and didn't ride out the wave of unfortunate results. I tried to make some good things happen and I didn't take advantage of some mistakes the opponents made. My partner played well and my effort to win had just ended up hurting us. In the end, if we had just played well in the final session we would have been 3rd or so, overall. Our opponents just didn't give us enough help.

This was my last run in the Red Ribbon Pairs. I wasn't able to find a win in the event, but I am proud of some solid results -- 2nd, 10th, 11th, 12th!