Choosing badly

Anna and I played in the SBU Tuesday pairs last night. We didn't do too well, with a score of about 25% after six boards rising to around 50% near the end then falling to 48% when I doubled 4♠ on the last and it made with an overtrick.

I wouldn't say I made any mistakes, but certainly judged lots wrongly. Here's one where on other day we both would have bid:

I have a 10 point 5431 hand as South. Opening 1♣ is fairly safe as I have a 1♠ rebid. However, on this occasion I passed. West opened a weak NT, and now Anna is close to a 2♠ overcall. She chose to pass, and we defeated 1NT by one trick when 4♠ is on our way. +50 was worth just 9.6%. as nearly everyone else North-South is playing in Spades. Although both Anna and I could have bid, really the credit goes to West for a winning 1NT opening (most tables opened 1♦ after which North has an easy 1♠ overcall).

Although opening light would have worked well here, it has it's risks, as partner can no longer assume you have a sound opening bid.

Here Anna opened 1♦, East overcalled 2♣ and I doubled for the majors. When Anna could only rebid 2♦ I passed. I have only 10 points, no fitting Diamond honours, and most of the time whenn we open 1♦ and rebid 2♦ it will be on a shapely 11 or 12 count. Here of course Anna had a full 15 points, a Club stop, and the Diamonds split 3-3, so 3NT can't fail.

In the play of 2♦ East lead ♣A and another (hoping to give partner a ruff), and when Anna managed to get a third Spade trick, that was 2♦+3. Still, most tables were in 3NT so our +150 was still only worth 19.2%. I would say this event has quite a high standard, and that correlates with quite a lot of pairs playing a strong NT, which made it easy for North-South to bid game here. If the Diamonds don't split 3NT is down though so so I'm calling this one unlucky for us.

Here's a good one (before our final catastrophe).

I open 1♦ and after West overcalls 1NT am poised to rebid 2♦ (I've learned it's important not to be put off by their NT bids and plough on). But they have some sort of transfers mishap (you can see the lack of alerts), and finish in 3♠. I lead the ♦A and it's crunch time. We play reverse attitude, so after a very long pause I can work out that Anna must have the singleton ♦5 (with ♦75 she would have discouraged with the ♦7). I could take my winning ♦K, or give her a ruff. I decide to give her a ruff, which here is the winning choice. Even better I lead a low Diamond and Anna returns a Club, developing our winner in that suit.

On this occsaion, if I lead a high Diamond it gives declarer a useful ♦Q discard. On another day that discard might be no use, and the winning defence would be for me to cash two Diamonds and play a third for Anna to ruff high (with a hypothetical ♠J).

Conceding 3♠= on a careful defence gets us 73%, as most tables are conceding 10 tricks.

Our final board is this disaster:

I open 1♣ and North overcalls 4♠. I double this, and await Anna's move. She plays me for a very specific hand that can beat 4♠ but we can't make a game (perhaps all four Aces), and passes. This does not go well, as North has a very solid overcall and South two useful Aces. On seeing dummy I thought Anna must have some decent Spades to have passed the double, but when declarer's ♠9 holds I realise we're in trouble. Conceding 4♠x+1 is worth 3.9%, just losing to the pair who bid and made 6♠.