Feeling sharp

Anna and I played the SBU Tuesday pairs again this week. Unusually, we both felt fairly sharp. In 24 boards we had just four bad results

• Board 2 - I decided to balance and pushed the opponents into a making game
• Board 4 - Opponents bid to a making 7NT
• Board 14 - Poor defence from Anna lets 3NT make, poor defence from me gives the overtrick
• Board 18 - An aggressive 4♥ goes four off

The first of these is pictured below:

Even though I didn't like the vulnerablity I still thought it was right to protect with a double. East had paused for a long time before passing 2♥. I thought that meant he would be sure to push to 3♥; I didn't anticipate West bidding on then East bidding game. With Hearts 3-2 and the Diamond Ace onside 10 tricks can't be prevented. Conceding 4♥ was worth exactly 0%, as on 26 tables we were the only ones to concede game (the other two times it was bid it went down, once on a sneaky low Diamond lead).

If I pass out 2♥ and we concede 2♥+2 we still only get 25%, so in a sense I was right to try and disturb the opponents from their comfortable fit. The good North-South scores were when East took only nine tricks in Hearts, or opened a strong NT and played there.

My next featured hand was a good one, as the opponents went down in 6♠:

I thought I might have a trump trick, so lead the ♣A. This turned out to be crucial, as if I don't do it declarer can make easily by playing the top two trumps then Hearts, discarding both Clubs in hand and accepting the loss of one trump. Once I've taken the ♣A she needs to get trumps right. With nine trumps she played the ♠A then lead to dummy. I made sure to play my ♠6 instantly and she duly played the ♠A. 6♠-1 was worth 84%.

Overall we finished on 56.08% for 9th out of 52 pairs.